Amy's First Kiss

Chapter Four: Ready… Fight!

By: Sci-Fi-Raptor

Disclaimer: I Don't own Zoids

I want to heal
I want to feel
What I thought was never real
I want to let go of the pain I've held so long
[Erase all the pain 'til it's gone]
It's gone]
I want to heal
I want to feel
Like I'm close to something real
I want to find something I've wanted all along
Somewhere I Belong

-Linkin Park (Somewhere I Belong)

There was nothing I could do for her. She was very depressed, and she had nowhere to go. So I decided to let her stay with me until I could find a place that would take her in. She wasn't talking and there was no way for me to find out where any of her relatives lived.

On a lighter note, I have my memory back, at least what I need to go on with this mission. Older memories are a bit fuzzy, but at least they're still there. But I know sooner or later, Amy will get out of her depression and start asking questions.

"CHOAM, where were we on our mission briefing?" I asked it. Amy was in the room. She had been there ever since she boarded my ship, and just lay on the couch quietly. No doubt crying inside herself. She was facing me, but I could tell she wasn't seeing any of this.

"I was about to show you what disguise the Xi'an operative is currently using" it said, and showed it on the screen. Then it continued to say the rest of the mission status. "Operation has lasted 195 hours, and the mission will end in 1305 hours" it said more information, but I stopped listening.

"Wait a minute… I think I've seen him" I said. Yes, I did see him. He's the guy from the Geno Saurer. This got Amy's attention. She got up, and took a closer look, and her face grew dark.

"That's the bastard! He's the one that destroyed my town!" she said angrily, and started crying again. I took Amy into my arms, and tried to sooth her.

"Clam down. Everything will be all right. We'll get him" She pushed my away, and ceased crying. She gave me a dark look and had an angry face again, even though her face was moist with tears.

"How can you? He has the backing of all the Desert Marauders and a lot of stolen blood money to boot"

"I can, because that's my mission" I said. That was something I would regret saying for some time.

"Your mission? You got your memory back?"

"Yeah, while I was fighting those Zoids today"

"Tell me what you are then, you owe me that much" she said. She lost her bad mood, and seemed happy again; she had the life in her eyes again.

"My mission… ya, I was sent here to aaaa… capture or destroy that guy"

"So you're like a secret agent or something?"

"Ya… I was supposed to watch him, but he attacked me before I could foil his plans, and then you found me. It seems I was too late, so I have to contain him as much as I can until my backup arrives" I told her. It was mostly true. I was supposed to watch and contain him, and he did attack me right before I got knocked out.

"I can help you then, you just have to let me! That guy killed my family and I have the right to get my revenge" she demanded. I felt bad for her, but I didn't want to see her get hurt.

"No. It's too dangerous"

"What? You have to!" she bickered.

"No I don't, and I won't. I should just drop you off at the next town and let you find your own family if you're gonna act like that"

"Argggg" she fumed in rage. But then she drastically calmed down and had a suspicious look on her face. She walked up to me in a weird way, and started touching me. "If you let me come with you, I'll make it worth your while…"

"What do you mean by that?" I said, uncomfortable with her so near me. She started walking to one of the sleeping quarters, and gestured for me to follow. I followed her, not expecting the trap I was about to fall for. She came up behind me and threw me on the bed…

At first I didn't remember a thing about last night, and I woke up with something warm near me. I was a bit cold, so I snuggled up to it. It was warm and soft, but it still felt good. What could possibly be warm and squishy next to me in my bed the night after Amy seduced me into letting her tag along… I thought, remembering bits and pieces of the night before. I opened my eyes, and saw something I didn't expect… a soft plastic cylinder with something inside of it. Now, how the hell did she get that? She had somehow found my "Hug-me-at-night", which consisted of a thin polymer lining holding in a polymer-based fluid (like goop), with a heater inside. She's clever.

I got up and did my business, and went to the kitchen area. I found her sleeping on the table, in the same clothes she was in yesterday. She must have been really angry with them for destroying her town… I mean she even seduced me to get a piece of them.

"Good morning sleepy-head" I said to her ear quietly.

"But I don't wanna go to school today" she instinctively replied. At least she woke up normal.

I started brewing some coffee, and the aroma probably woke her up. She sat up, and looked like a mess; as if she hadn't slept in a long while. It may have actually been the case; she probably snuck out early in the night and contemplated her situation, and probably fell asleep not too long ago. She got up, yawned and stretched a bit, and went to the bathroom. She came out a few minutes later, and looked a bit more awake.

"So, when are we going after him?" she said.

"You that eager to get womped?" She nodded her head. "Fine be like that. But I'm gonna track him down first, and then try to figure out what's the best way to get him with the least attention"

"But that'll take too long! We should just find him and blow him up"

"You may want to do that, but I don't" I said to her. "CHOAM, where is the Xi'an pilot, and what is he up to"

"Analysis of local news stations suggests that he has entered what is know as a Zoid tournament. The winner is to receive 10,000,000 of this region's currency, and an interview in a TV show."

"What could he do with that?"

"He could build a replacement Home World beacon with the money, or try to carry out his mission by trying to pull off something in the show" I contemplated CHOAM's analysis, and made a conclusion.

"I don't think he'll be able to pull off anything at the show, but I'm sure he'll try to build a beacon. All right, our new mission is to stop him from winning the tournament, and try to get rid of him in the process. But in the meanwhile, you try to make a beacon to call in the fleet, just in case he does somehow builds a beacon and calls in a Home World before NASAADSR realizes something is wrong with us."

"Affirmative"

"Now to handle you…"

"What were you just taking about? What do beacons and Home Worlds have to do with him?"

"Don't worry about it. But let me tell you some things you have to follow while you're in this ship. 1, you have to stay in all A rooms. All A rooms are blue, and have A facing towards them on all doors. 2, you have to get us into that tournament. 3, you have to listen to me if I tell you something. Anything else, you should be able to do, but you have to respect my authority if I tell you not to do something"

"And why can't I move around the ship? The only blue rooms I have seen are this room, the room with the sky dome, and the sleeping quarters. I'll die of boredom!" she said annoyed.

"Well, you wanted it, so you got it" I replied.

"I wasn't this mean to you when I was taking care of you" she said to me as if I was the worst person in the world. That hurt me. I slowly went up to her, and held her face into my hands, forcing her to look into my eyes.

"I'm only doing it for your safety" I said. "If anything happened to you…" I tried to continue, but I couldn't talk anymore. Her face lightened up, and she looked like she understood.

"All right… but I get to be in a Zoid when we fight in the tournament!"

"Now look here…"

"Laaa laaa la la laa laaa" she hummed to herself and covered her ears. Man, why do I think she's gonna end up killing the both of us? I tried a bit more to talk some sense into her, but she was too stubborn, so I had to succumb to her demands, but only because she threatened not to register us into the tournament.

She got us registered into the tournament quickly, and even managed to get me in without any problems. She used the destruction of her town as a gray area, since I was registered to go to school there, but I didn't have an address. But she also demanded to name our team.

"The what!"

"You heard me"

"But people are gonna thing we're pushovers with a name like that"

"If they think we suck, they'll be arrogant, and we can use that as an advantage."

"Still…"

"Its been set in stone, and you can't change it."

"I wanna new team…"

"What's so horrible about the name Teletubbies?"

"It sounds so… stupid. It makes me think of us lowly, and I'm on the team!"

"God, its just a name. What's your deal?"

"How would you like it if I called you Jon?"

"That's a guy's name! What's the connection?"

"That's the connection. You're giving us a girly name"

"What wrong with a girly name?"

"I'M NOT A GIRL!"

"I am"

"But you're not the leader!"

"According to the ZBC I am…"

"What?! You were supposed to make me leader!"

"Whoops…"

"Argh…"

"Hahaa…"

Back in CHOAM:

"So, what kind of Zoid do you want?" I asked her

I've always been a flyer" she said

"Zabat it is"

"What?! As team leader, I should have an intimidating Zoid, like a Storm Sworder"

"As team leader, you should reflect our name"

"Are you still bickering about that? It's just a name."

"Its just a Zoid…" there was truth in it. No matter what flying Zoid she thought she had, it was still going to be a Harrier with a hologram disguising it.

"There's no talking to you…"

"Laaa laa la la laa laaa"

"Copy cat!"

The next day:

I woke up nice and early, and reloaded all the HEV's with fuel, ammunition, and life support (like oxygen). Then I let them charge. I went to CHOAM, and monitored its progress on the beacon. After a few hours, I heard Amy wake up, so I went up to the levels she was allowed on.

"Good morning."

"Morning…" she said drowsily.

"And I bet you couldn't sleep yesterday because you were so anxious about our fight today."

"Yeah"

"Alright Amy, our first battle is in three hours. We are going to fight a two-on-two battle against a team called the Saber team. They have a Saber Tiger, and a Great Saber."

"And what are we gonna have?"

"We'll have your Zabat, and my Iron Kong"

"Really? Well, can I practice on my Zabat?"

"Sure, just don't let it get to your head, because it's still my Zoid, you just get to use it"

"Whateverr"

"Yeah… But let me warn you, it's a custom Zoid, so it has capabilities and controls that a normal Zabat doesn't have."

"That can't be good…"

"It can or can't. It's much more powerful than a regular Zabat, but the controls are much more advanced."

"Sure… lemme see it"

"Okay, just let me prep it" I took her out side where the bay was, left her there, and went inside. I gave the Harrier's computer what information it would need to make it look like a Zabat, and gave my Kodiak what information it would need to look like an Iron Kong. When I was done, I turned on the holograms, and put the other HEV's in dark places, so she couldn't see them. Then I opened the bay door.

"Took you long enou…" she started to say, but then stopped "Whoa. How big is that bay? And what are those other Zoids in there?"

"Don't worry about them" I told her, and brought the "Zoids" outside. I helped her into the Harrier's cockpit, and showed her how to use it. She caught on fast, and when I was sure she knew how to use it, I let her fly it. She had a rough start, but she quickly learned how to balance it and got it in the air quickly. Then she did some crazy stuff… probably the things that she wasn't allowed to do in the flight simulation class. But I was still better than her…

"Remember, you don't have to target anything, the computer will do it for you, and even shoot if you want. All you have to do is fly the thing" I told her. It wasn't completely accurate though; the computer was capable of flying the plane even if under attack. "Now for your first training mission" I told her. "Take out these energy shots" I fired a few PPC emissions into the air, and let her try and intercept them.

"Are you crazy?" she whined. "Those things are too fast for me!"

"Well, that's what you'll have to deal with in real combat, so I advise you to do as you're told"

"You're nuts…" was all she said, but tried to gun them down. At first she tried doing it manually but realized she would never do it, so she got the computer to do it. The computer took it out with deadly accuracy. "Cool"

"Next, take out this volley of missiles that will be trying to take you out" I locked a group of LMR's at her, and fired. I was hoping that she would learn from her last lesson, and let the computer do the work; she did. She dodged the missiles while the computer took them out.

"That's great! I guess all you really have to do now is get a feel for it while we wait for the other team"

"Sure. This is definitely one of the coolest Zabats I have ever flown!"

"It's the only Zabat you've flown."

"So? Its still cool" I let her fly for a while, and then told her to land, so she could be refueled and reloaded twenty minutes before the battle. Ten minutes before the battle, I saw a red Whale King land a few miles away. Then the Judge landed, and did his thing.

"…Battle field set up. Teletubbies team versus the Saber team. Ready… fight!"

The second the judge said fight, the Saber Tiger fired its twin 30mm Cannons at me, and the Great Saber fired its mortars at me. I had the slick idea of turning my cloak on so they thought they took me out, and I did. They waited for the smoke to clear, and found me gone, so I think they assumed I was out of the match. Then they went after Amy. The Great Saber started running, and activated its flight pack, and chased after Amy. The Saber Tiger stayed on the ground, and tried to shoot Amy down with its various guns. Since the Great Saber was flying too close to Amy, it didn't want to endanger itself by using its guns, so it tried to use its claws instead. So it charged after her, and tried to tear her apart, while the Saber Tiger was reloading its weapons. Amy remembered her training from a few hours before, so she let the computer target the Great Saber while she tried to doge both of their fire. Unfortunately for her, the Saber Fang was too far away for the computer to accurately shoot, and the Great Saber was too close and too maneuverable to shoot at. She was basically wasting her energy and ammo.

"Dammit Crass! You suck!" was what I heard her say over the intercom. I figured Amy had had enough, so I took this as my cue to step in. I targeted the Great Saber with my LRM's, and fired a long stream of them at it. Then I targeted the Saber Tiger, and let loose a relentless volley of PPC emissions and Guass rifle rounds. The Great Saber didn't expect the strike, and got hit hard on its rear, and came crashing down when one of the LRM's crashed into its flight pack and destroyed it. The Saber Tiger noticed me firing the LRM's, so it was ready for me when I fired my PPC's and Gauss rifle at it.

"What the hell, I thought we got rid of you!" he said, while he tried to dodge all the shots. He moved left and right, while trying to get closer to me. I countered by shooting my PPC's right in front of its path, so it would have to stop or get hurt by the PPC emission's explosion.

"So…" I said, and continued firing at it. At this point Amy realized that they weren't shooting at her, and shot at the Saber Tiger from the back with her own PPC's.

"No fair!" said the Saber Tiger pilot.

"How do you think I felt!" rebutted Amy. That small second of communication was just the distraction I needed, so I fired my LB-X Autocannon at it. The rounds spread apart, and shattered the armor of a whole section of its body. I took advantage of this by firing a Gauss Rifle round at the new hole, and destroyed its internal circuitry.

"Battle over. The winner is… the Teletubbies team…" said the judge, registered the win to the ZBC, and went back to the judge satellite.

"How did we lose to a team called the Teletubbies…" said the Great Saber's pilot.

"Why did we have to be called the Teletubbies…" I said.

"I still don't get it…" said the Saber Tiger's pilot.

"Look at it this way, WE KICKED YOUR AZZ!" said Amy.

Back in CHOAM's cabin:

"Man you're vicious…" I told Amy. I found out how much damage was done to the enemy Zoids, and I seems that I hadn't taken out the Saber Tiger. Even though I had ripped a hole into the Tiger, and annihilated its insides, it was knocked out way before I had fired my LB-X Autocannon. After I had made the Saber Tiger stop in it tracks, Amy fired at least 15 PPC emissions at the Zoid, and force of all the emissions crushed that side of the Zoid, as if an Ultrasaurus had stepped on it.

"I just had some emotions bottled up inside"

"At least you're on my side…" I said.

"Aren't you glad you let me in?"

"I dunno…" I said teasingly. She replied with a disappointed look. But the truth is, I was glad she was there; it gets pretty lonely when you're all by yourself with only an AI to talk to. "Well, it'll be about a week until we have our next match, so we might as well try to collect as much information as possible on the Xi'an pilot."

"Alright, I'll go check out what team he's part of, and what Zoids he's using."

"Ok, and I'll go see how CHOAM is handling its part"

"What about the Zoids?" she asked.

"What about them?" I replied.

"When are you gonna get them fixed?"

"What? Oh. Don't worry about it. CHOAM can automatically fix them."

"Really? Cool…" she said, and went to her quarters, where she would use a computer to find out the information through the nET. I stood there alone, and then started acting normally.

"CHOAM, how long has our mission lasted?"

"It has lasted about 244 hours. 1256 hours until end of mission"

"How far have you gone with the beacon?"

"It is 12% complete"

"Once it's complete, how long will it take Lunar Base 001 to receive the transmission?"

"I cannot give an exact estimate, but it should take one to two weeks for them to receive the signal."

"Well, its better than waiting the two months… when do you think the Xi'an pilot will call a Home World?"

"If he wins the tournament, he will immediately have the resources to call in a Home World. But if he does not, he will either have to gather his resources, or steal money and buy the parts."

"How long would it take for him to build it by stealing money or gathering resources?"

"It should take him at least a month by gathering resources, but I cannot estimate how long it would take him by stealing money. Most likely, he will do a combination of both, gathering easy to get resources, and buying harder to get resources."

"Great…" I said. I had no idea how long I had until this world may get blown up, and maybe me with it. "Can you send a spy drone to the Xi'an's base, just to keep an eye on him?"

"I can send all four if you wish"

"No, only send two. We night need the other ones"

"Okay CHOAM, get me into the nET" I said to CHOAM.

"Accessing…" It connected.

"That's good. Now look up any team called the Desert Marauders."

"Searching…" It found a huge list with teams called Desert Marauders.

"Damn. Lets see… search for a team called the Desert Marauders, but also look for a guy named Joe Black."

"Searching…" It found one hit, a newly formed team called the Desert Marauders. Its leader was Joe Black, and they had not been eliminated from the tournament yet. "This is good. Print it."

"Printing…" A thin, but not flimsy piece of paper-like material came out with all the information on it. Amy took it, and went to Crass.

Over the next two weeks, Crass and Amy plowed through the preliminaries. On the third week, they went to the finals, and guess who ended up fighting each other for the tournament? The Desert Marauders, the Teletubbies team, the Hell Fighter Squadron, and the Blitz team. The winner of the tournament would be the last person standing at the end of the four-way battle royal, and he or she would win it for his or her team.

In CHOAM's cabin:

"Tomorrow is our last chance to stop Joe before he can get his money." I told Amy a few hours before the fight. "It's too bad we didn't get to fight him earlier on to make sure he'd lose"

"Yeah. But I guess now losing is not an option, and all we can do now is prepare"

"All right." I said. "I had CHOAM compile a list of each team's Zoids, the Zoid's and their pilots strengths, weaknesses, and habits." I gave her a printout of what CHOAM found, and quickly summarized it.

"So, We're still gonna use the Zabat and Iron Kong, the Desert Marauders are going to use a pair of Wardicks, the Hell Fighter Squadron will use a pair of Storm Sworders, and the Blitz team will use the Liger and Shadow Fox."

"Correct"

"You know, the Blitz team rings a bell…"

"One of the pilots that almost got us killed that day of that Zoid battle was a member of the Blitz team. He was also the pilot of the Liger."

"Oh yeah…" she said, and I regretted reminding her. She still never really got over losing her whole town (who could blame her) and when I reminded her of that day, she became this new cold Amy that had consumed the sweet innocent Amy I had used to know. But I think if this new Amy didn't exist, she probably would have killed herself by now. She was seriously depressed, but when I gave her the chance to get the Xi'an pilot back, she became somewhat normal again, but at a price. Like I said before, this new cold Amy consumed her. All the really thought about now was getting revenge on the Xi'an pilot. Once in a while, she'd forget about it, but the smallest reminder (like the one I just gave her) would make her revert to the cold Amy.

She went to where we had left our "Zoids", and started practicing. After our first battle, I put the Zoids in an auxiliary storage area, so Amy could freely had access to "her" "Zabat", and would never accidentally see my other HEV's.

"What is the beacon's status?" I said to CHOAM. CHOAM had built it, and sent a signal out to Lunar Base 001, but we didn't get a reply yet. And even if we did, it would take a week for them to send something back, or they would have to send someone over to extract us. But we specifically said that a Xi'an pilot had landed here, so most likely they would send the fleet here…

"No reply has been received yet, but I estimate that Lunar Base 001 would have received it an hour ago."

"Oh…" I said disappointed. If they had received the signal an hour ago, they would have sent a ship for us immediately. But they didn't, so most likely they were just replying to it.

10 minutes before battle:

We flew my Herculean X2 to a desert some distance away from us. We landed, got our Zoids prepped, and got outside quickly, no chatting what so ever. That's another thing about Amy that upsets me. Before she lost her town, she was always so talkative, and was cool to hang with. Now, she was intensely into doing whatever she could do make sure she'd get her revenge on the Xi'an pilot, and we rarely spoke. Whenever we did speak, it was about the Xi'an pilot, and it was as if I was talking to a stranger, and using politeness instead of saying what I really meant. I was getting lonely, even with CHOAM there with me. Life really sucks without Victor…

"Crass…"

"Yes Amy?"

"We haven't really talked in a while, have we?"

"We just talked about our battle plans"

"Yeah, but that was just for business. We haven't talked like friends do in a while"

"Yeah…" Silence.

"Crass?"

"Yeah?"

"I know I've changed a lot since we first met, but I just want you to know that you've been a really good friend to me, and I wont ever forget what you've done for me…"

"…Thanks." I finally said. I think she was about to say something else, but the Judge had arrived. It was a standard Judge capsule, but the Judge was a bit different. Instead of being white, the Judge was silver with gold lining; it also sounded feminine. Then all of a sudden, a few more Judge capsules landed nearby, but they were the regulars. I found out later that the silver/gold Judge was the main Judge, but because of the Battle Royal's complexity, the other Judges were jointly judging it with her. Even though the Judges had arrived, we couldn't see the other teams. It was because the battlefield was so huge, and since we were the farthest away from each other as possible (set up so we would be on the vertices of a square inscribed in a circle), we couldn't see each other. That's why everyone chose their fastest Zoids, if you wanted to be able to cover all that territory, just to fight someone, you had to be fast. And since everyone would be using fast Zoids, they would use a lot of fuel, so they had to let us refuel in the middle of the fighting.

"This is the 78th annual Masters' Tournament." The Silver Judge said. "The rules of this battle is simple; this is a four-way Battle Royal, and the last person, or persons if they are from the same teams, standing will win this tournament for his or her team. Once you have a command system freeze you are out, and it is unlawful to attack a Zoid that is out of the battle forty five seconds after it has been knocked out. You are also allowed to rearm in the middle of battle, but you do not have immunity, and are liable to be fired at. Any questions?" When no one responded it started the battle. "Ready… fight!"

Prepare to be stunned by the next chapter "Kiss of Death"