Chapter XVIII: Ego Check
(methinks I'm the one who needs an ego check)
"Please, just let me go!" cried Mary as Cid pushed her along down the hall.
"Just shut up, will ya?!!" he pleaded. "At this rate I can't get anything done. Come on."
"If you tell me why you want to get back at Harry, I'll shut up," said Mary forcefully. It was too bad that Cid had accidentally kinda sort of disabled Benjamin and Sebastian... they'd be fine, though. Eventually someone would find them...
"Fine, just shut up!" shouted Cid. He calmed down a bit. Mary was getting on his nerves. Maybe he should just give up... And humiliate himself in front of his peers (peers? what peers? where?)?!!! NEVER!!! "I was kinda sorta on a mission to get rid of this girl."
"You're a horrible man."
"Thanks, I know," laughed Cid. "But when I got my chance your idiot brother interfered, so now I'm stuck kidnapping YOU to get revenge."
"And why do you need revenge just because he saved a girl?" asked Mary. She smiled. So maybe Harry had found some girlfriend other than that Leena girl.
"'Cause I was supposed to get a whole lot of money for that, but NO... and now I'm freaking broke!!!" Cid glared at her. What the heck was she trying to do, anyways?!!!
Mary cocked her head. "Oh, you poor thing..." she said, clueless as ever. "I understand. If you need money, why don't you just take some of ours?!!"
Cid fell over. "You've gotta be kidding me... What the heck am I doing?!!!!! I give up!"
"Please, feel free! I have too much of it, anyways!"
"Dang, you're crazy! Get away from me already!"
"But why?!! You're just a sweet, misunderstood..." Mary rambled on as Cid tried to find his way out of the Champ team hangar, which was way too big in the first place. Darn, he thought. He could be happily fighting the Ultimate X, maybe, but no... he had decided to kidnap Mary Champ herself, and now...
This definitely wasn't going very well. He needed to set his priorities straight. Destroy stuff first, try to kidnap extremely annoying and rich- but still pretty hot- girls later, when you were more experienced in the art of avoiding things like this. "HEY!!!" he shouted, trying to stop her from holding his hand.
This was pure torture. When would it end?!!!
***
"Oh, Robert?" asked Kokoro as they approached the Ultrasaurus in their Zoids.
"Yeah?" he asked, hoping she wouldn't ask him something like "Why are you acting so strange?" or "Did you figure out what I am?"
"Where did you say the Gravity Cannon is?" she said cheerily, eyes closed. The Gul Tiger and Spino Snapper stopped so that the two could get out. Robert opened his cockpit.
"It's not much of a mystery," he said. "I mean, it's still on the Ultrasaurus. Where else would it be?"
"Oh..." said Kokoro. She laughed. "I thought we were looking for it?"
"Kind of..." mumbled Robert. He grinned. "See... it's underneath all that sand and rock, which will make it harder to get to."
"Uh?"
"So the real task will be finding some more shells to use."
"Uh?!!"
"When he was on the Ultrasaurus, Dr. D. wonderfully made another shell to fire at the Deathsaurer, which didn't work. I have a feeling that he made some more, but where would they be?" asked Robert.
"Sheesh... I didn't think of that," said Kokoro. "Maybe there's some information in the Ultrasaurus's database?"
"Yeah, maybe," shrugged Robert.
"Oh! I forgot... Mr. Sephiroth probably needs some help."
"Yeah..." mumbled Robert. He climbed out of the cockpit and went over to the Gul Tiger to make sure Kokoro got out safely. Mr. Sephiroth, huh?
***
"So, what now?" asked Sayo as the two stood outside of the hospital.
"I already quit my job..." said Taro. "It was getting a little complicated."
"Complicated? As in...?"
"Well..." mumbled Taro. "I could tell that something was going to happen, and soon..."
"Me too," said his sister quietly. "The Backdraft sucks... when did it come into their heads that they should experiment on little kids...?"
"I dunno," answered Taro, shrugging. "It was pretty cowardly of them, if you ask me. Picking on little kids or defenseless people is just the same..."
"The Zoid Battle Commission hasn't done very much about it, don't you think?"
"Yeah, you're right, Taro..." said Sayo. She sighed sadly. "If only someone would get rid of the Backdraft... permanently."
"Sayo?"
"Yeah?"
"I didn't say that."
"Then who- Yoko! There you are..." Sayo smiled at his reappearance. He had helped her keep hoping that Taro was still out there, and they had been right. He was very alive.
"It seems that you two have found each other," said Yoko, smiling. His black eyes glinted mischievously.
"I know you didn't get a chance to tell me where Taro was, but we found each other just the same, thanks to you..." said Sayo. "If you hadn't shown up, I would've stopped looking a long time ago."
"Sayo?" asked Taro nervously. "Who is this man?"
"Oh..." said Sayo. "Taro, this is Yoko Minobe. Yoko, this is my twin brother, Taro. I'm very thankful for all of your efforts..."
Yoko nodded. "It was my pleasure, let me assure you..."
"I have this strange feeling..." Taro said to himself. "Minobe-san, are you a Zoidian?"
"Please, Taro," said Yoko cheerily, "Just Yoko. There's no need to be formal. And no, I'm not a Zoidian; I'm just as human as you are."
That wouldn't be very human... thought Taro. Considering that he knows what the Backdraft did to us, does he mean that literally? As in, he's human, but not completely...?
Sayo blushed. "Yoko, I still can't thank you enough."
"Sayo, please..." mumbled Taro. "The man said that no thanks was necessary." Of course, this was nothing like what he was thinking. That was more along the lines of "Who does this idiot think he is?!!!!" or "If he tries to hit on my sis he's dead meat!!!!" or "Heck, is she falling for this guy? I sure hope not..." It was probably closest to the last thought, since Taro knew that sure, he was a weakling. He'd been like that all his life, and he was proud of it.
But when it came to speaking his mind, Taro was sure that eventually this Yoko guy would get it from him. Even if he knocked Taro out afterwards, but hey... it'd be worth it.
***
*"Yoko?" asked Kitai suspiciously, watching her playmate. "What're you doing?"
"Nothing..." he mumbled, sitting in the cockpit of a Zoid that looked much like a winged unicorn.
"If Neos finds you messing around with that Zoid, he'll probably kill you... Well, I guess Lori wouldn't let him do that, but he'd at least TRY to kill you. Or get back at you somehow."
Yoko laughed. "My sis wouldn't let him hurt me, no matter how much of a brat I'm being..."
"That's 'cause she's really nice and wouldn't want to see anyone get hurt, not even her worst enemy," muttered Kitai. "You Japanese can be so weird sometimes." She kicked a rock. "Why are we stuck on this dang planet, anyways?!! With all these Zoid things around, you'd think there'd be enough part s to repair the colonization ship and..."
"I thought you loved it here?" asked Yoko.
"I..." she began. "Yeah, I guess I do. It's just so strange here... I can't get used to it. But it's really nice, 'cause I actually have a family... that cares about me... only, the Zoidians. I feel so strange around them, so uncomfortable, even though I know that I'm somehow... meant to be here, you know?"
"As far as I'm concerned, we're not MEANT to be here," muttered Yoko. "If Lori's and my parents hadn't disappeared on their dang exploration mission we might be at home, as a family, instead of her spending so much time getting to know Neos and Evelyn and learning about her dang Shield Liger, whatever she calls it."
"Yoko?" asked Kitai curiously, braiding her white hair absent-mindedly. "Do you... hate the Zoids and Zoidians?"
"What else is there to hate?" asked Yoko angrily.
"Well, you could hate ME..."
"Why? You're the only person I can confide in here."
"Yeah, but you hate the inhabitants of Zi, and well... I think that somehow I'm related to them."
"What, you're the link between Earth and Zi, and that's why you never got to know your parents? So you could live this new lifestyle without missing everything else?"
"That's not totally what I meant, Yoko..."
As they continued to talk, a black organoid watched with disgust. What the heck was that idiot DOING in the cockpit of the Orudios?!! The fool! Didn't he know that it was dangerous to mess with practically wild Zoids?!!!!!!!!!!!! It practically grinned. Hey, why not just teach the idiot a lesson?
"You DO like Evelyn, don't you?" asked Kitai. She giggled. "You're so shy around her."
"Hey!" cried Yoko. He glared, though red-faced. "That's personal, shut up about it."
Kitai laughed some more before complying. The color drained from her face (the little color that was already there, at least. "Yoko?"
"Yeah?" he asked.
"Trust me, you might want to get out of the cockpit..."*
The Dibison stopped next to the Hover Cargo, Liger stopping just behind it. A comlink popped up in front of Leena. "Leena?" asked Spring. "Where were you guys?!!"
"Sorry we took so long..." mumbled Bit. He grinned. "We ran into a little trouble." Suddenly he remembered: the Deathstinger?!! Jenny- err, Sayo- had said something about it... "Are you alright?" he asked.
"We're great, but..." Spring closed her eyes. "Now's not the best time to check things out."
"Whaddaya mean?"
"Something happened," she mumbled. "Dang..." Spring pressed a few keys and Bit could see another comlink appear next to her.
He noticed that the voice belonged to Brad, whom he had completely forgotten about. "Hi, kid," said Brad. "It's Spring, right?"
She nodded quietly, trying hard not to actually look at the comlink. "Yeah..." she mumbled.
"If you're wondering about our friend Jamie, he'll be fine, but he's still unconscious."
Spring smiled a little in relief. She closed the comlink and realized that Bit and Leena were still watching. "Oh..." she mumbled. "The Deathstinger got away, even against all of us... and those other Zoidians."
"Are you saying that they got away too, or that-"
"No, Elen, they were helping," said Spring crossly.
"Hey, what did I do?" asked Bit, raising an eyebrow. "Anyways... we better get over there and help out, right?"
"If you're sure..."
The Liger Zero X was about to take a running leap across the gorge when he remembered that the Dibison couldn't jump very well. "Hey, what're you gonna do?" he asked.
Leena shrugged. "I guess you could leave Dad, who seems to have fallen asleep, with me, and I'll try to figure out everything else from Spring."
"Right." Bit turned around and looked at Dr. Toros. Yes, he had fallen asleep, which wasn't very helpful. He sighed. Technical geniuses were so typical. Liger lowered his head and opened the cockpit, waking Dr. Toros up.
"Huh? Wha?" he asked drearily. "Oh, yes..."
"Doc, we're at the Hover Cargo, so you're gonna stay here with Leena and Spring," Bit told him.
Dr. Toros was too tired to argue. He crawled out of the cockpit and dropped down to the ground, lazily following Leena to his transport Zoid. Soon they were back in it, and Dr. Toros was absentmindedly playing with his models while explaining the Deathstinger's obvious battle plan.
Spring wasn't going to bother to listen. Instead, she was fingering the wonderful old floppy disk that you've-heard-so-much-about. "Dr. Toros... don't you realize that your daughter's life is in danger?" she asked quietly.
He didn't seem to have heard, but after a moment he lowered his toys and dropped them. "What do you mean...?"
She immediately regretted saying anything. "Leena... she's one of the Chosen. The Chosen who're supposed to save Zi."
"Unless they destroy it first," finished Dr. Toros. "However, I wouldn't say that she's in danger." He grinned.
"Huh?" asked Spring, sitting up and turning to look at him. "But Kaiser Kage will do anything to kill all of the Chosen."
"HA!" laughed Dr. Toros. "I'm not worried about my Leena. See... I know that Bit will protect her, because they love each other."
"Oh..."
***
Ayumi Kroger was about to slap Eira when someone pushed her away. "HEY!!!!" she shouted, rubbing her arm. "Just who do you think you are?!!"
"I THINK I'm Bit Cloud," he said, annoyed. Apparently she hadn't noticed the Liger Zero X jump over and rest near their Zoids. "What are you doing, picking on a kid (with no taste in color, he added to himself)?!!"
Eira muttered something vile under her breath.
"WHAT WAS THAT?!!!" yelled Bit and Ayumi.
The pink-haired girl stood up. "I said, you two are both complete idiots. I don't think you'd want to know the full version."
"Is this the kind of thanks I get...?" muttered Bit.
"Ha, I deserved that slap," laughed Eira. "And I'd think you'd be very happy to let her..."
"Wait a sec..." mumbled Bit. "Hey... You're that Eira girl! You're alive?"
"Where else would I be?" asked Eira. "Don't you know who any of us are?!!!"
"Well, I know YOU... but the others...?" he answered, indicating Ayumi as well as the other Zoids standing nearby.
"You're more clueless than I thought!" she shouted. "Even more clueless than Harry Champ himself!!!"
"Hey, don't make fun of Harry!" A white light landed nearby, and Kylie and Leena appeared. Leena squinted. She didn't really like all this organoid stuff. It gave her the creeps. "He's a great guy, at least sometimes," continued Kylie.
"Fine," muttered Eira. "More clueless than MARY Champ. Better?"
"Much."
"Right;" Eira turned back to Bit. "See that green Liger Zero X over there?"
Bit looked behind himself and, unfortunately, saw it. "Hey..." he muttered. "That thing attacked Doc."
"You wouldn't happen to know its pilot, would you?" asked Leena deviously, instantly getting over her "jet lag."
Ayumi quietly crept away, humming to herself. "Green LZX? What green LZX?" she recited under her breath. "I've never seen a green LZX in all my life..."
Bit and Leena watched, sweat-dropping. Eira hit herself in the forehead. "Idiot," she muttered. Leena's eyes lit up in anger. "HEY YOU, GET BACK HERE!!!!!!!!" she shouted, breaking into a run. Ayumi gave up and began to run towards her Zoid. "DANGDANGDANGDANGDANG!!!!" she shouted vulgarly. Leena was already plotting what she was going to do to Ayumi when she would finally catch her.
"Listen, Bit," said Eira finally, the amusement gone. "As you probably already heard, yeah, the Deathstinger's back."
"Yeah, I've heard that a few times..." muttered Bit. What an understatement, he thought.
"Brad called the ZBC, but they're not here yet," continued Eira. "But it did what it was planning on all along, and now... something's... happened."
"How descriptive of you," muttered Bit. This wasn't helping. "Listen, is there anything we can do?"
"You're asking me?" asked Eira in surprise. How... interesting! "Well... I guess you could help Brad bring your Wild Eagle friend back to your transport. And.. I hate to ask this, but... is there enough room in that thing for Orudios and Hitoshi's Zoid? I don't think they'll be up and working again without a lot of maintenance."
"Sure..." said Bit, watching Leena still tirelessly trying to reach Ayumi. "Hey Kylie, why don't you go ask Doc- Kylie?" he asked. "She was right over... there..." Bit's face was blank as he stared at Kylie.
She was
Well, she wasn't really doing ANYTHING. Which was why Bit was worried. "Err, Kylie?" he asked.
Kylie looked to the sand for help. "Bit.. Onii-san..."
"Yeah...?" he began. Please, please, PLEASE don't tell me that you're in love or something! he thought to himself.
"I..." started Kylie. She stopped.
*"Yoko!!!" shouted Kitai as her friend turned around to stare in disbelief at the organoid behind him. It growled evilly and fused with the Orudios, closing the cockpit.
"What?!!" he cried. "HEY!!!"*
"...don't know how to tell you this," finished Kylie. She laughed a little. "I mean... I don't think that... we're really..."
"Don't say that," said Bit. Please, Kylie. I spent five years looking for you only to lose you again. And now that you're back for the second time, please don't tell me that you're leaving again!!!
"...brother and sister..." muttered Kylie. "Please, you have to understand me."
What the heck are they talking about? Eira though.
"Kylie..." muttered Bit. He sounded as though in pain (ahhhhh...... poor guy...). "That locket is all the proof I need!"
"No, you don't get it!" shouted Kylie suddenly. "You don't understand!!! The locket has nothing to do with this, it doesn't mean anything!!!!"
"It means that we're a family..."
"(EXPLETIVE)(you can only guess what she originally said), Bit, just shut the heck up."
"Err... Kylie?" said Bit. "You just swore. Very vulgarly, not like the not- so-horrible-sounding stuff we usually say, like 'dang' or 'darn.'"
"I noticed," answered Kylie angrily. "I know what I just said and I hope you don't have a problem with it."
*Kitai swore, very badly and very loudly. Then she swore again because she swore. Then she gave up trying NOT to swear, even though she knew it wasn't a very desirable thing to do.*
Hey, sibling rivalry, thought Eira. Makes me glad that I'm an only child.
*Now Yoko was swearing. Actually, yelling for help, but the sentences were so cluttered with swear words that you couldn't really tell the difference. Where was Lori, that soft idiot, when you needed her?!! Probably off on a picnic somewhere!*
***
At this point Loriena smirks to herself and lurks off to play videogames, leaving it up to you to wonder why there wasn't really anything important in this chapter and why she hasn't resolved her problem with Akira, or what she thinks about looking forward state writing tests, or why she got a snow day on both Monday and Wednesday but NOT on Tuesday, or why she has to read "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" instead of wonderful old "Treasure Island" like most of those other lucky, lucky, stupid classmates of hers, or why she's been neglecting her homework as of late but gets away with it anyways even though she's smart enough to actually do it. Or maybe even why she didn't re-read this chapter and will probably suffer because of it!!! MWAHAHA- err...
Maybe it's because I've been listening to too much J-pop (weehee!!! Ayumi Hamasaki!!!!), repeating myself more than usual, and wasting my time on the computer to read the 8-bit Theater at nuklearpower.com or copying the lyrics to many of the songs on our computer at animelyrics.com?
Note: He he... I *might* eventually reread this and, he he, change some things, for the sake of my paranoia of being criticized, though so many people are much nicer than that : )
Ah well... I'm going to *try* to remind myself that HEY!!! THIS STORY BETTER NOT GET ANY MORE CONFUSING, YOU DOLT!!!! Or something else. Hopefully something else. That'd take some work.
Or maybe it could be because she realizes that today she was supposed to go and read Chapter 2 of Jekyll and Hyde, even though there was a snow day, and knows that she really didn't understand anything at all from the first chapter, except that Mr. Hyde has this unusual habit of trampling over poor innocent little girls and not even noticing?
Or because she's confused this story with the mass of other ones that should be written down on paper? (and is trying to keep the pre-conceived ending the same because she's written like 30 or so pages of the sequel to the sequel to the sequel (if you start at the very beginning)?)?
Or because she thinks that this cloning thing on the news lately is trash and not true (but will be proved wrong?)?
Or because...
Please ignore the useless, endless rants that plague this story, which would be much shorter than the over-a-hundred-pages that it's grown to be without them.
Hating Yoko (EVIL BRAT!!!)... trying to suppress the hate... can't... getting an uncontrollable urge to take over the world...
...and FanFiction.net....
...and the rest of the internet...
...and Zi.............
(methinks I'm the one who needs an ego check)
"Please, just let me go!" cried Mary as Cid pushed her along down the hall.
"Just shut up, will ya?!!" he pleaded. "At this rate I can't get anything done. Come on."
"If you tell me why you want to get back at Harry, I'll shut up," said Mary forcefully. It was too bad that Cid had accidentally kinda sort of disabled Benjamin and Sebastian... they'd be fine, though. Eventually someone would find them...
"Fine, just shut up!" shouted Cid. He calmed down a bit. Mary was getting on his nerves. Maybe he should just give up... And humiliate himself in front of his peers (peers? what peers? where?)?!!! NEVER!!! "I was kinda sorta on a mission to get rid of this girl."
"You're a horrible man."
"Thanks, I know," laughed Cid. "But when I got my chance your idiot brother interfered, so now I'm stuck kidnapping YOU to get revenge."
"And why do you need revenge just because he saved a girl?" asked Mary. She smiled. So maybe Harry had found some girlfriend other than that Leena girl.
"'Cause I was supposed to get a whole lot of money for that, but NO... and now I'm freaking broke!!!" Cid glared at her. What the heck was she trying to do, anyways?!!!
Mary cocked her head. "Oh, you poor thing..." she said, clueless as ever. "I understand. If you need money, why don't you just take some of ours?!!"
Cid fell over. "You've gotta be kidding me... What the heck am I doing?!!!!! I give up!"
"Please, feel free! I have too much of it, anyways!"
"Dang, you're crazy! Get away from me already!"
"But why?!! You're just a sweet, misunderstood..." Mary rambled on as Cid tried to find his way out of the Champ team hangar, which was way too big in the first place. Darn, he thought. He could be happily fighting the Ultimate X, maybe, but no... he had decided to kidnap Mary Champ herself, and now...
This definitely wasn't going very well. He needed to set his priorities straight. Destroy stuff first, try to kidnap extremely annoying and rich- but still pretty hot- girls later, when you were more experienced in the art of avoiding things like this. "HEY!!!" he shouted, trying to stop her from holding his hand.
This was pure torture. When would it end?!!!
***
"Oh, Robert?" asked Kokoro as they approached the Ultrasaurus in their Zoids.
"Yeah?" he asked, hoping she wouldn't ask him something like "Why are you acting so strange?" or "Did you figure out what I am?"
"Where did you say the Gravity Cannon is?" she said cheerily, eyes closed. The Gul Tiger and Spino Snapper stopped so that the two could get out. Robert opened his cockpit.
"It's not much of a mystery," he said. "I mean, it's still on the Ultrasaurus. Where else would it be?"
"Oh..." said Kokoro. She laughed. "I thought we were looking for it?"
"Kind of..." mumbled Robert. He grinned. "See... it's underneath all that sand and rock, which will make it harder to get to."
"Uh?"
"So the real task will be finding some more shells to use."
"Uh?!!"
"When he was on the Ultrasaurus, Dr. D. wonderfully made another shell to fire at the Deathsaurer, which didn't work. I have a feeling that he made some more, but where would they be?" asked Robert.
"Sheesh... I didn't think of that," said Kokoro. "Maybe there's some information in the Ultrasaurus's database?"
"Yeah, maybe," shrugged Robert.
"Oh! I forgot... Mr. Sephiroth probably needs some help."
"Yeah..." mumbled Robert. He climbed out of the cockpit and went over to the Gul Tiger to make sure Kokoro got out safely. Mr. Sephiroth, huh?
***
"So, what now?" asked Sayo as the two stood outside of the hospital.
"I already quit my job..." said Taro. "It was getting a little complicated."
"Complicated? As in...?"
"Well..." mumbled Taro. "I could tell that something was going to happen, and soon..."
"Me too," said his sister quietly. "The Backdraft sucks... when did it come into their heads that they should experiment on little kids...?"
"I dunno," answered Taro, shrugging. "It was pretty cowardly of them, if you ask me. Picking on little kids or defenseless people is just the same..."
"The Zoid Battle Commission hasn't done very much about it, don't you think?"
"Yeah, you're right, Taro..." said Sayo. She sighed sadly. "If only someone would get rid of the Backdraft... permanently."
"Sayo?"
"Yeah?"
"I didn't say that."
"Then who- Yoko! There you are..." Sayo smiled at his reappearance. He had helped her keep hoping that Taro was still out there, and they had been right. He was very alive.
"It seems that you two have found each other," said Yoko, smiling. His black eyes glinted mischievously.
"I know you didn't get a chance to tell me where Taro was, but we found each other just the same, thanks to you..." said Sayo. "If you hadn't shown up, I would've stopped looking a long time ago."
"Sayo?" asked Taro nervously. "Who is this man?"
"Oh..." said Sayo. "Taro, this is Yoko Minobe. Yoko, this is my twin brother, Taro. I'm very thankful for all of your efforts..."
Yoko nodded. "It was my pleasure, let me assure you..."
"I have this strange feeling..." Taro said to himself. "Minobe-san, are you a Zoidian?"
"Please, Taro," said Yoko cheerily, "Just Yoko. There's no need to be formal. And no, I'm not a Zoidian; I'm just as human as you are."
That wouldn't be very human... thought Taro. Considering that he knows what the Backdraft did to us, does he mean that literally? As in, he's human, but not completely...?
Sayo blushed. "Yoko, I still can't thank you enough."
"Sayo, please..." mumbled Taro. "The man said that no thanks was necessary." Of course, this was nothing like what he was thinking. That was more along the lines of "Who does this idiot think he is?!!!!" or "If he tries to hit on my sis he's dead meat!!!!" or "Heck, is she falling for this guy? I sure hope not..." It was probably closest to the last thought, since Taro knew that sure, he was a weakling. He'd been like that all his life, and he was proud of it.
But when it came to speaking his mind, Taro was sure that eventually this Yoko guy would get it from him. Even if he knocked Taro out afterwards, but hey... it'd be worth it.
***
*"Yoko?" asked Kitai suspiciously, watching her playmate. "What're you doing?"
"Nothing..." he mumbled, sitting in the cockpit of a Zoid that looked much like a winged unicorn.
"If Neos finds you messing around with that Zoid, he'll probably kill you... Well, I guess Lori wouldn't let him do that, but he'd at least TRY to kill you. Or get back at you somehow."
Yoko laughed. "My sis wouldn't let him hurt me, no matter how much of a brat I'm being..."
"That's 'cause she's really nice and wouldn't want to see anyone get hurt, not even her worst enemy," muttered Kitai. "You Japanese can be so weird sometimes." She kicked a rock. "Why are we stuck on this dang planet, anyways?!! With all these Zoid things around, you'd think there'd be enough part s to repair the colonization ship and..."
"I thought you loved it here?" asked Yoko.
"I..." she began. "Yeah, I guess I do. It's just so strange here... I can't get used to it. But it's really nice, 'cause I actually have a family... that cares about me... only, the Zoidians. I feel so strange around them, so uncomfortable, even though I know that I'm somehow... meant to be here, you know?"
"As far as I'm concerned, we're not MEANT to be here," muttered Yoko. "If Lori's and my parents hadn't disappeared on their dang exploration mission we might be at home, as a family, instead of her spending so much time getting to know Neos and Evelyn and learning about her dang Shield Liger, whatever she calls it."
"Yoko?" asked Kitai curiously, braiding her white hair absent-mindedly. "Do you... hate the Zoids and Zoidians?"
"What else is there to hate?" asked Yoko angrily.
"Well, you could hate ME..."
"Why? You're the only person I can confide in here."
"Yeah, but you hate the inhabitants of Zi, and well... I think that somehow I'm related to them."
"What, you're the link between Earth and Zi, and that's why you never got to know your parents? So you could live this new lifestyle without missing everything else?"
"That's not totally what I meant, Yoko..."
As they continued to talk, a black organoid watched with disgust. What the heck was that idiot DOING in the cockpit of the Orudios?!! The fool! Didn't he know that it was dangerous to mess with practically wild Zoids?!!!!!!!!!!!! It practically grinned. Hey, why not just teach the idiot a lesson?
"You DO like Evelyn, don't you?" asked Kitai. She giggled. "You're so shy around her."
"Hey!" cried Yoko. He glared, though red-faced. "That's personal, shut up about it."
Kitai laughed some more before complying. The color drained from her face (the little color that was already there, at least. "Yoko?"
"Yeah?" he asked.
"Trust me, you might want to get out of the cockpit..."*
The Dibison stopped next to the Hover Cargo, Liger stopping just behind it. A comlink popped up in front of Leena. "Leena?" asked Spring. "Where were you guys?!!"
"Sorry we took so long..." mumbled Bit. He grinned. "We ran into a little trouble." Suddenly he remembered: the Deathstinger?!! Jenny- err, Sayo- had said something about it... "Are you alright?" he asked.
"We're great, but..." Spring closed her eyes. "Now's not the best time to check things out."
"Whaddaya mean?"
"Something happened," she mumbled. "Dang..." Spring pressed a few keys and Bit could see another comlink appear next to her.
He noticed that the voice belonged to Brad, whom he had completely forgotten about. "Hi, kid," said Brad. "It's Spring, right?"
She nodded quietly, trying hard not to actually look at the comlink. "Yeah..." she mumbled.
"If you're wondering about our friend Jamie, he'll be fine, but he's still unconscious."
Spring smiled a little in relief. She closed the comlink and realized that Bit and Leena were still watching. "Oh..." she mumbled. "The Deathstinger got away, even against all of us... and those other Zoidians."
"Are you saying that they got away too, or that-"
"No, Elen, they were helping," said Spring crossly.
"Hey, what did I do?" asked Bit, raising an eyebrow. "Anyways... we better get over there and help out, right?"
"If you're sure..."
The Liger Zero X was about to take a running leap across the gorge when he remembered that the Dibison couldn't jump very well. "Hey, what're you gonna do?" he asked.
Leena shrugged. "I guess you could leave Dad, who seems to have fallen asleep, with me, and I'll try to figure out everything else from Spring."
"Right." Bit turned around and looked at Dr. Toros. Yes, he had fallen asleep, which wasn't very helpful. He sighed. Technical geniuses were so typical. Liger lowered his head and opened the cockpit, waking Dr. Toros up.
"Huh? Wha?" he asked drearily. "Oh, yes..."
"Doc, we're at the Hover Cargo, so you're gonna stay here with Leena and Spring," Bit told him.
Dr. Toros was too tired to argue. He crawled out of the cockpit and dropped down to the ground, lazily following Leena to his transport Zoid. Soon they were back in it, and Dr. Toros was absentmindedly playing with his models while explaining the Deathstinger's obvious battle plan.
Spring wasn't going to bother to listen. Instead, she was fingering the wonderful old floppy disk that you've-heard-so-much-about. "Dr. Toros... don't you realize that your daughter's life is in danger?" she asked quietly.
He didn't seem to have heard, but after a moment he lowered his toys and dropped them. "What do you mean...?"
She immediately regretted saying anything. "Leena... she's one of the Chosen. The Chosen who're supposed to save Zi."
"Unless they destroy it first," finished Dr. Toros. "However, I wouldn't say that she's in danger." He grinned.
"Huh?" asked Spring, sitting up and turning to look at him. "But Kaiser Kage will do anything to kill all of the Chosen."
"HA!" laughed Dr. Toros. "I'm not worried about my Leena. See... I know that Bit will protect her, because they love each other."
"Oh..."
***
Ayumi Kroger was about to slap Eira when someone pushed her away. "HEY!!!!" she shouted, rubbing her arm. "Just who do you think you are?!!"
"I THINK I'm Bit Cloud," he said, annoyed. Apparently she hadn't noticed the Liger Zero X jump over and rest near their Zoids. "What are you doing, picking on a kid (with no taste in color, he added to himself)?!!"
Eira muttered something vile under her breath.
"WHAT WAS THAT?!!!" yelled Bit and Ayumi.
The pink-haired girl stood up. "I said, you two are both complete idiots. I don't think you'd want to know the full version."
"Is this the kind of thanks I get...?" muttered Bit.
"Ha, I deserved that slap," laughed Eira. "And I'd think you'd be very happy to let her..."
"Wait a sec..." mumbled Bit. "Hey... You're that Eira girl! You're alive?"
"Where else would I be?" asked Eira. "Don't you know who any of us are?!!!"
"Well, I know YOU... but the others...?" he answered, indicating Ayumi as well as the other Zoids standing nearby.
"You're more clueless than I thought!" she shouted. "Even more clueless than Harry Champ himself!!!"
"Hey, don't make fun of Harry!" A white light landed nearby, and Kylie and Leena appeared. Leena squinted. She didn't really like all this organoid stuff. It gave her the creeps. "He's a great guy, at least sometimes," continued Kylie.
"Fine," muttered Eira. "More clueless than MARY Champ. Better?"
"Much."
"Right;" Eira turned back to Bit. "See that green Liger Zero X over there?"
Bit looked behind himself and, unfortunately, saw it. "Hey..." he muttered. "That thing attacked Doc."
"You wouldn't happen to know its pilot, would you?" asked Leena deviously, instantly getting over her "jet lag."
Ayumi quietly crept away, humming to herself. "Green LZX? What green LZX?" she recited under her breath. "I've never seen a green LZX in all my life..."
Bit and Leena watched, sweat-dropping. Eira hit herself in the forehead. "Idiot," she muttered. Leena's eyes lit up in anger. "HEY YOU, GET BACK HERE!!!!!!!!" she shouted, breaking into a run. Ayumi gave up and began to run towards her Zoid. "DANGDANGDANGDANGDANG!!!!" she shouted vulgarly. Leena was already plotting what she was going to do to Ayumi when she would finally catch her.
"Listen, Bit," said Eira finally, the amusement gone. "As you probably already heard, yeah, the Deathstinger's back."
"Yeah, I've heard that a few times..." muttered Bit. What an understatement, he thought.
"Brad called the ZBC, but they're not here yet," continued Eira. "But it did what it was planning on all along, and now... something's... happened."
"How descriptive of you," muttered Bit. This wasn't helping. "Listen, is there anything we can do?"
"You're asking me?" asked Eira in surprise. How... interesting! "Well... I guess you could help Brad bring your Wild Eagle friend back to your transport. And.. I hate to ask this, but... is there enough room in that thing for Orudios and Hitoshi's Zoid? I don't think they'll be up and working again without a lot of maintenance."
"Sure..." said Bit, watching Leena still tirelessly trying to reach Ayumi. "Hey Kylie, why don't you go ask Doc- Kylie?" he asked. "She was right over... there..." Bit's face was blank as he stared at Kylie.
She was
Well, she wasn't really doing ANYTHING. Which was why Bit was worried. "Err, Kylie?" he asked.
Kylie looked to the sand for help. "Bit.. Onii-san..."
"Yeah...?" he began. Please, please, PLEASE don't tell me that you're in love or something! he thought to himself.
"I..." started Kylie. She stopped.
*"Yoko!!!" shouted Kitai as her friend turned around to stare in disbelief at the organoid behind him. It growled evilly and fused with the Orudios, closing the cockpit.
"What?!!" he cried. "HEY!!!"*
"...don't know how to tell you this," finished Kylie. She laughed a little. "I mean... I don't think that... we're really..."
"Don't say that," said Bit. Please, Kylie. I spent five years looking for you only to lose you again. And now that you're back for the second time, please don't tell me that you're leaving again!!!
"...brother and sister..." muttered Kylie. "Please, you have to understand me."
What the heck are they talking about? Eira though.
"Kylie..." muttered Bit. He sounded as though in pain (ahhhhh...... poor guy...). "That locket is all the proof I need!"
"No, you don't get it!" shouted Kylie suddenly. "You don't understand!!! The locket has nothing to do with this, it doesn't mean anything!!!!"
"It means that we're a family..."
"(EXPLETIVE)(you can only guess what she originally said), Bit, just shut the heck up."
"Err... Kylie?" said Bit. "You just swore. Very vulgarly, not like the not- so-horrible-sounding stuff we usually say, like 'dang' or 'darn.'"
"I noticed," answered Kylie angrily. "I know what I just said and I hope you don't have a problem with it."
*Kitai swore, very badly and very loudly. Then she swore again because she swore. Then she gave up trying NOT to swear, even though she knew it wasn't a very desirable thing to do.*
Hey, sibling rivalry, thought Eira. Makes me glad that I'm an only child.
*Now Yoko was swearing. Actually, yelling for help, but the sentences were so cluttered with swear words that you couldn't really tell the difference. Where was Lori, that soft idiot, when you needed her?!! Probably off on a picnic somewhere!*
***
At this point Loriena smirks to herself and lurks off to play videogames, leaving it up to you to wonder why there wasn't really anything important in this chapter and why she hasn't resolved her problem with Akira, or what she thinks about looking forward state writing tests, or why she got a snow day on both Monday and Wednesday but NOT on Tuesday, or why she has to read "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" instead of wonderful old "Treasure Island" like most of those other lucky, lucky, stupid classmates of hers, or why she's been neglecting her homework as of late but gets away with it anyways even though she's smart enough to actually do it. Or maybe even why she didn't re-read this chapter and will probably suffer because of it!!! MWAHAHA- err...
Maybe it's because I've been listening to too much J-pop (weehee!!! Ayumi Hamasaki!!!!), repeating myself more than usual, and wasting my time on the computer to read the 8-bit Theater at nuklearpower.com or copying the lyrics to many of the songs on our computer at animelyrics.com?
Note: He he... I *might* eventually reread this and, he he, change some things, for the sake of my paranoia of being criticized, though so many people are much nicer than that : )
Ah well... I'm going to *try* to remind myself that HEY!!! THIS STORY BETTER NOT GET ANY MORE CONFUSING, YOU DOLT!!!! Or something else. Hopefully something else. That'd take some work.
Or maybe it could be because she realizes that today she was supposed to go and read Chapter 2 of Jekyll and Hyde, even though there was a snow day, and knows that she really didn't understand anything at all from the first chapter, except that Mr. Hyde has this unusual habit of trampling over poor innocent little girls and not even noticing?
Or because she's confused this story with the mass of other ones that should be written down on paper? (and is trying to keep the pre-conceived ending the same because she's written like 30 or so pages of the sequel to the sequel to the sequel (if you start at the very beginning)?)?
Or because she thinks that this cloning thing on the news lately is trash and not true (but will be proved wrong?)?
Or because...
Please ignore the useless, endless rants that plague this story, which would be much shorter than the over-a-hundred-pages that it's grown to be without them.
Hating Yoko (EVIL BRAT!!!)... trying to suppress the hate... can't... getting an uncontrollable urge to take over the world...
...and FanFiction.net....
...and the rest of the internet...
...and Zi.............
