Battle for Dranuer
Dust rose in the wind, as the sand shifted beneath the feet of the five Zoids. The two Blade Ligers were standing at the head of the group, while the Reaper-Zero, Helcat, and Shinryu stood in the back.
"So, any idea what Zoids we're up against?" Strider asked anxiously.
K.O. shook his head. "No, not a clue."
Drake bit his lip impatiently. "I'm going up. I'll radio in if I see anything."
With that, the Shinryu took off into the slowly darkening sky. There was another moment of silence. Ariel gripped the controls of Gash, her Helcat, and looked around uneasily. Angel sat back in her Zoid, her arms crossed, and her eyes scanning the desert. The emotion on K.O.'s face was unreadable as he sat ready in his Zoid. Strider was tense, but ready. His hands were wrapped around the controls, as if a Lightning Saix would jump out and attack him at any given moment.
"So, you have decided to show up," a mocking voice laughed.
All five pilots readied their Zoids, but said nothing.
"Quiet group aren't we? Well, you won't be quiet for long. Area scanned, battlefield set up. Ready? Fight!"
Out of nowhere, a black Gunsniper shot out. It struck the Reaper-Zero, knocking it over.
"What the-?" Angel started to say.
But by then, two more Zoids shot out from some unseen hiding place. A black Genosaurer with blue omitting eyes swiped its tail around at Gash. But the swift Helcat jumped just in time. It landed on its feet and disappeared. Whilst the Genosaurer combated with its unseen foe, the Reaper-Zero was brutally attacking the amazingly fast Gunsniper.
"Stupid, stupid Gunsniper..." Angel mumbled.
A barrage of missiles came from the Gunsniper, and slammed into the Reaper- Zero. Angel's Zoid staggered backwards, stunned for a couple seconds. That couple seconds was just enough time for the Gunsniper to come ramming into the Reaper. But the Reaper landed neatly on its feet, and launched itself at the Gunsniper with its powerful back legs. The Zoid rammed into the opposing Zoid, and both went tumbling to the ground.
The Helcat and Genosaurer were having troubles as well. The Genosaurer was rapidly shooting its laser Gatling rifle in all directions, roaring with all of its might and fury. The Helcat swiftly avoided the shots, but was having trouble getting near enough to attack the berserk Genosaurer. The Helcat growled in annoyance as it dodged another Gatling blast, disallowing it to get any closer to the Genosaurer. The Genosaurer finally swept its tail again, this time catching Gash in the gut. The clocking system failed, and the Helcat reappeared and fell to the ground.
"Ariel!" Strider yelled, and pushed his controls toward the Helcat.
But there was a black blur, and the Blade Liger fell to the ground. It quickly jumped to its feet, and faced its assailant. The black Konig Wolf let out an eerie howl, and charged the Liger. Strider met the charge with a charge of his own. The two Zoids clashed, and went all out, biting scratching, roaring. The Wolf and the Liger were in a totally deadlock, unable to get free, only able to attack.
K.O. turned away from the battles raging around him. There were still two Zoids he needed to worry about, and he was sure the others were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves.
"Pick up anything Drake?" K.O. asked.
There was a moment of static, then, "No. Nothing."
But K.O. pulled on his controls, and the green Blade Liger leapt out of the way, just as a Triple Super Charged Particle Beam swept by. K.O. tightly gripped his controls, and turned. Something was approaching. There was a sharp yell from the sky, and K.O. knew that Drake had found his opponent as well. But he didn't care about that at the moment. All he needed to care about was the enemy before him. The Berserk Fuhrer Storm Unit, a.k.a. the Storm Fuhrer, came lumbering into view. It raised its head in a triumphant roar. K.O. didn't wait for the Zoid to lower its head. He didn't care about respect and all the crap. He just wanted a good, fast battle. The Liger lowered its blades and sped forward. Its blade struck, but didn't go through. The blade had struck blade, and now it was a battle of strength, to see which Zoid could push the other back. The Zoids pushed on the blades, trying to push the opponent backwards, unsuccessfully. After a few minutes of no movement, there was a cracking noise. The two blades then snapped, and both Zoids stumbled forward. The Storm Fuhrer quickly turned and charged its other blade and brought it down on the Liger. The Liger dodged swiftly, and leapt. The Fuhrer turned around and turned its shield on, blocking the attack. Both Zoids stared each other down as they circled, each daring the other to make the first move. Both Zoids finally charged, and collided with the other.
In the sky, Drake was leisurely flying around, not sensing any danger. But the battle began, and he saw the strange Zoids attacking. He wanted to help, but he felt his Zoid saying that they had their own opponent to wait for. And sure enough, the Zoid came. A huge impact knocked the Shinryu Unit back.
"A Sonic Boom?" Drake wondered.
But he had no time to finish his thought. The blazing Raynos came back for round 2. Its wing cutters opened up, and it sped passed the Shinryu, Drake, only inches away from being sliced in half.
"Raynoses don't have wing cutters!" Drake thought aloud.
But he didn't wait for the Raynos to come back. He charged after it, cannons blaring. The Raynos easily avoided the assault, and flew up into the sky. It turned around and came plummeting toward Shin and Drake. Drake turned the controls and blasted up to meet the Raynos.
"You wanna play chicken? Come on! I can take you!"
But Drake suddenly jerked the controls, and let the Raynos fly by. Drake plummeted after the Raynos, now on its tail. He fired two missiles toward the Raynos. Just as he anticipated, the Raynos easily dodged the missiles, and increased its altitude.
"Gotcha!" Drake yelled in triumph. "Strike, Inferno...CLAW!!"
The claw slashed down on the Raynos, nicking its wing. The Raynos spun out of control, and plunged downwards. Smoke billowed from the wingtips as the Raynos came closer and closer to the ground. Finally, at the last moment, the Raynos was able to pull up, and skidded across the desert floor.
"Hah!" Drakes shouted, and flew his Zoid in tight loops.
"Drake, good job and all, BUT I COULD USE SOME HELP!"
Drake's head snapped around, and he saw the black Genosaurer, charging its Charged Particle Cannon and aiming toward Gash and Ariel.
"No problemo."
The Shinryu came down, and rammed into the Genosaurer. The beam flew wide, and streaked across the desert, scarring it but nothing else.
"Relax, a bit, yeesh," Drake said, looking at the tensed Helcat.
Ariel relaxed about three hairs. She spun and ran to help Angel with the Gunsniper, which was currently trying to blast the Reaper-Zero off its back with missiles. As the Gunsniper raised its head to roar defiantly, Gash came in and slashed at the Sniper's throat, cutting many vital wires. The Gunsniper fell to the ground, with the Reaper-Zero on top of it.
"Thanks," Angel managed to gasp out.
Strider was still in a deadlock with the black Konig Wolf. Its claws were in his face, and he couldn't see anything. He kicked with his back leg, and felt it smash into the opposing Zoid. Sure enough, the Konig Wolf stumbled backwards, off the Blade Liger. Strider attacked, and opened his blades. He jumped sideways, and slashed the right side of the Konig Wolf. The Wolf howled in pain, and staggered sideways, giving Strider another clear slash. Soon the Wolf was down, covered in gashes from the Blade Liger's blades. Strider wiped his forehead with the back of his arm.
"Whew," he sighed.
The Storm Fuhrer got up, as did the green Blade Liger. K.O.'s eyes were blazing, and there seemed to be a slight smirk on his face. The two Zoids charged again, and slashed at each other with their remaining blade. K.O. spun his Zoid around and pounced. The Fuhrer spun and caught the Liger on the side of the head with its tail. The Liger fell to the ground.
"Come on Liger! Get up! We can't afford to lose this one!"
The Blade Liger slowly stood, only to get knocked down once again by the Fuhrer. The Fuhrer approached the Liger slowly. It stood a few meters away, and opened its mouth. A ball of energy began to form. The smile on K.O.'s face grew. The Liger suddenly jumped up and slashed the Fuhrer's neck with its blade. The Fuhrer, stuck charging its beam, could do nothing to defend itself. It fell backwards, letting the Charged Particle Beam fly up into the air. The Fuhrer tried to bring its head down toward the Liger, but a paw on the throat was disallowing it. The beam finally died, and K.O. was ready to finish the Fuhrer off. But just as he lifted the Liger's paw to strike down, he stopped.
"K.O.! You can't!" Angel's cry rang through his head.
K.O. froze, not knowing what to do.
"K.O.!!" Angel said, more harshly this time. "Put, the paw, DOWN."
With some reluctance, K.O. lowered the paw of the Liger, and stepped away from the Fuhrer. The other four, no less worn out, Zoids approached the green Blade Liger and their captain.
"We can't destroy these Zoids or pilots," Angel said flatly.
"Why?" K.O. growled.
"Because they're not themselves. They're under some weird spell. I think one has broken out of it though," Strider said, and turned toward the Konig Wolf.
It wearily stood to its feet, and looked around wildly.
"W-where am I?"
-----------------------------------------
Three shapes say around a fire, sipping coffee, as the night grew darker. They huddled closer to their small source of heat and light, but remained mostly silent. Finally, Jake stood up.
"I think we should all get some rest now. It's no use staying up all night worrying about one attack," he said.
"This coming from the guy who did absolutely nothing during the fight," Jason glowered.
Jake looked as if he were going to say something else, but stopped, and sat down silently.
"I think he's right though, Jason," Shane said from the spot on the log.
The two men looked at her. She had her eyes closed and was calmly sipping her coffee.
"Not that we'll get much sleep with the coffee, but we might as well try."
Jason scoffed, but didn't argue. He stood up and stretched.
"We'd better have someone on watch though. I'll take second shift if you don't mind. I think the do-nothing-boy over here should take first watch."
"I'll be glad to," Jake said, and stood up nonchalantly.
"It's settled then," Shane stood up. "We only have two tents anyway."
The three said goodnight, and went to their designated areas. Jake sat down on the log, and watched the slowly dying flames. He remembered fires blazing as buildings were destroyed. He remembered Zoids being used to destroy cities and people. He remembered the Deathsaurer.
"The one bad thing about being and android," Jake thought bitterly. "You remember things forever."
He shuddered and tried to throw the thought away. But it lingered even as he went into the tent to wake Jason for the next shift.
Dust rose in the wind, as the sand shifted beneath the feet of the five Zoids. The two Blade Ligers were standing at the head of the group, while the Reaper-Zero, Helcat, and Shinryu stood in the back.
"So, any idea what Zoids we're up against?" Strider asked anxiously.
K.O. shook his head. "No, not a clue."
Drake bit his lip impatiently. "I'm going up. I'll radio in if I see anything."
With that, the Shinryu took off into the slowly darkening sky. There was another moment of silence. Ariel gripped the controls of Gash, her Helcat, and looked around uneasily. Angel sat back in her Zoid, her arms crossed, and her eyes scanning the desert. The emotion on K.O.'s face was unreadable as he sat ready in his Zoid. Strider was tense, but ready. His hands were wrapped around the controls, as if a Lightning Saix would jump out and attack him at any given moment.
"So, you have decided to show up," a mocking voice laughed.
All five pilots readied their Zoids, but said nothing.
"Quiet group aren't we? Well, you won't be quiet for long. Area scanned, battlefield set up. Ready? Fight!"
Out of nowhere, a black Gunsniper shot out. It struck the Reaper-Zero, knocking it over.
"What the-?" Angel started to say.
But by then, two more Zoids shot out from some unseen hiding place. A black Genosaurer with blue omitting eyes swiped its tail around at Gash. But the swift Helcat jumped just in time. It landed on its feet and disappeared. Whilst the Genosaurer combated with its unseen foe, the Reaper-Zero was brutally attacking the amazingly fast Gunsniper.
"Stupid, stupid Gunsniper..." Angel mumbled.
A barrage of missiles came from the Gunsniper, and slammed into the Reaper- Zero. Angel's Zoid staggered backwards, stunned for a couple seconds. That couple seconds was just enough time for the Gunsniper to come ramming into the Reaper. But the Reaper landed neatly on its feet, and launched itself at the Gunsniper with its powerful back legs. The Zoid rammed into the opposing Zoid, and both went tumbling to the ground.
The Helcat and Genosaurer were having troubles as well. The Genosaurer was rapidly shooting its laser Gatling rifle in all directions, roaring with all of its might and fury. The Helcat swiftly avoided the shots, but was having trouble getting near enough to attack the berserk Genosaurer. The Helcat growled in annoyance as it dodged another Gatling blast, disallowing it to get any closer to the Genosaurer. The Genosaurer finally swept its tail again, this time catching Gash in the gut. The clocking system failed, and the Helcat reappeared and fell to the ground.
"Ariel!" Strider yelled, and pushed his controls toward the Helcat.
But there was a black blur, and the Blade Liger fell to the ground. It quickly jumped to its feet, and faced its assailant. The black Konig Wolf let out an eerie howl, and charged the Liger. Strider met the charge with a charge of his own. The two Zoids clashed, and went all out, biting scratching, roaring. The Wolf and the Liger were in a totally deadlock, unable to get free, only able to attack.
K.O. turned away from the battles raging around him. There were still two Zoids he needed to worry about, and he was sure the others were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves.
"Pick up anything Drake?" K.O. asked.
There was a moment of static, then, "No. Nothing."
But K.O. pulled on his controls, and the green Blade Liger leapt out of the way, just as a Triple Super Charged Particle Beam swept by. K.O. tightly gripped his controls, and turned. Something was approaching. There was a sharp yell from the sky, and K.O. knew that Drake had found his opponent as well. But he didn't care about that at the moment. All he needed to care about was the enemy before him. The Berserk Fuhrer Storm Unit, a.k.a. the Storm Fuhrer, came lumbering into view. It raised its head in a triumphant roar. K.O. didn't wait for the Zoid to lower its head. He didn't care about respect and all the crap. He just wanted a good, fast battle. The Liger lowered its blades and sped forward. Its blade struck, but didn't go through. The blade had struck blade, and now it was a battle of strength, to see which Zoid could push the other back. The Zoids pushed on the blades, trying to push the opponent backwards, unsuccessfully. After a few minutes of no movement, there was a cracking noise. The two blades then snapped, and both Zoids stumbled forward. The Storm Fuhrer quickly turned and charged its other blade and brought it down on the Liger. The Liger dodged swiftly, and leapt. The Fuhrer turned around and turned its shield on, blocking the attack. Both Zoids stared each other down as they circled, each daring the other to make the first move. Both Zoids finally charged, and collided with the other.
In the sky, Drake was leisurely flying around, not sensing any danger. But the battle began, and he saw the strange Zoids attacking. He wanted to help, but he felt his Zoid saying that they had their own opponent to wait for. And sure enough, the Zoid came. A huge impact knocked the Shinryu Unit back.
"A Sonic Boom?" Drake wondered.
But he had no time to finish his thought. The blazing Raynos came back for round 2. Its wing cutters opened up, and it sped passed the Shinryu, Drake, only inches away from being sliced in half.
"Raynoses don't have wing cutters!" Drake thought aloud.
But he didn't wait for the Raynos to come back. He charged after it, cannons blaring. The Raynos easily avoided the assault, and flew up into the sky. It turned around and came plummeting toward Shin and Drake. Drake turned the controls and blasted up to meet the Raynos.
"You wanna play chicken? Come on! I can take you!"
But Drake suddenly jerked the controls, and let the Raynos fly by. Drake plummeted after the Raynos, now on its tail. He fired two missiles toward the Raynos. Just as he anticipated, the Raynos easily dodged the missiles, and increased its altitude.
"Gotcha!" Drake yelled in triumph. "Strike, Inferno...CLAW!!"
The claw slashed down on the Raynos, nicking its wing. The Raynos spun out of control, and plunged downwards. Smoke billowed from the wingtips as the Raynos came closer and closer to the ground. Finally, at the last moment, the Raynos was able to pull up, and skidded across the desert floor.
"Hah!" Drakes shouted, and flew his Zoid in tight loops.
"Drake, good job and all, BUT I COULD USE SOME HELP!"
Drake's head snapped around, and he saw the black Genosaurer, charging its Charged Particle Cannon and aiming toward Gash and Ariel.
"No problemo."
The Shinryu came down, and rammed into the Genosaurer. The beam flew wide, and streaked across the desert, scarring it but nothing else.
"Relax, a bit, yeesh," Drake said, looking at the tensed Helcat.
Ariel relaxed about three hairs. She spun and ran to help Angel with the Gunsniper, which was currently trying to blast the Reaper-Zero off its back with missiles. As the Gunsniper raised its head to roar defiantly, Gash came in and slashed at the Sniper's throat, cutting many vital wires. The Gunsniper fell to the ground, with the Reaper-Zero on top of it.
"Thanks," Angel managed to gasp out.
Strider was still in a deadlock with the black Konig Wolf. Its claws were in his face, and he couldn't see anything. He kicked with his back leg, and felt it smash into the opposing Zoid. Sure enough, the Konig Wolf stumbled backwards, off the Blade Liger. Strider attacked, and opened his blades. He jumped sideways, and slashed the right side of the Konig Wolf. The Wolf howled in pain, and staggered sideways, giving Strider another clear slash. Soon the Wolf was down, covered in gashes from the Blade Liger's blades. Strider wiped his forehead with the back of his arm.
"Whew," he sighed.
The Storm Fuhrer got up, as did the green Blade Liger. K.O.'s eyes were blazing, and there seemed to be a slight smirk on his face. The two Zoids charged again, and slashed at each other with their remaining blade. K.O. spun his Zoid around and pounced. The Fuhrer spun and caught the Liger on the side of the head with its tail. The Liger fell to the ground.
"Come on Liger! Get up! We can't afford to lose this one!"
The Blade Liger slowly stood, only to get knocked down once again by the Fuhrer. The Fuhrer approached the Liger slowly. It stood a few meters away, and opened its mouth. A ball of energy began to form. The smile on K.O.'s face grew. The Liger suddenly jumped up and slashed the Fuhrer's neck with its blade. The Fuhrer, stuck charging its beam, could do nothing to defend itself. It fell backwards, letting the Charged Particle Beam fly up into the air. The Fuhrer tried to bring its head down toward the Liger, but a paw on the throat was disallowing it. The beam finally died, and K.O. was ready to finish the Fuhrer off. But just as he lifted the Liger's paw to strike down, he stopped.
"K.O.! You can't!" Angel's cry rang through his head.
K.O. froze, not knowing what to do.
"K.O.!!" Angel said, more harshly this time. "Put, the paw, DOWN."
With some reluctance, K.O. lowered the paw of the Liger, and stepped away from the Fuhrer. The other four, no less worn out, Zoids approached the green Blade Liger and their captain.
"We can't destroy these Zoids or pilots," Angel said flatly.
"Why?" K.O. growled.
"Because they're not themselves. They're under some weird spell. I think one has broken out of it though," Strider said, and turned toward the Konig Wolf.
It wearily stood to its feet, and looked around wildly.
"W-where am I?"
-----------------------------------------
Three shapes say around a fire, sipping coffee, as the night grew darker. They huddled closer to their small source of heat and light, but remained mostly silent. Finally, Jake stood up.
"I think we should all get some rest now. It's no use staying up all night worrying about one attack," he said.
"This coming from the guy who did absolutely nothing during the fight," Jason glowered.
Jake looked as if he were going to say something else, but stopped, and sat down silently.
"I think he's right though, Jason," Shane said from the spot on the log.
The two men looked at her. She had her eyes closed and was calmly sipping her coffee.
"Not that we'll get much sleep with the coffee, but we might as well try."
Jason scoffed, but didn't argue. He stood up and stretched.
"We'd better have someone on watch though. I'll take second shift if you don't mind. I think the do-nothing-boy over here should take first watch."
"I'll be glad to," Jake said, and stood up nonchalantly.
"It's settled then," Shane stood up. "We only have two tents anyway."
The three said goodnight, and went to their designated areas. Jake sat down on the log, and watched the slowly dying flames. He remembered fires blazing as buildings were destroyed. He remembered Zoids being used to destroy cities and people. He remembered the Deathsaurer.
"The one bad thing about being and android," Jake thought bitterly. "You remember things forever."
He shuddered and tried to throw the thought away. But it lingered even as he went into the tent to wake Jason for the next shift.
