Chapter 2-Mad Skillz
"Hey, Leena!" Bit exclaimed across the cafeteria to his dear friend.
Leena only looked up, and waved for him to come over to the table.
"Hey, Bit, where's your lunch?" Jamie asked, noticing Bit possessed no food.
"You had better not be planning to steal any of my food, Bit." Leena growled in a threatening tone, shielding her food from him.
"Actually, I was wondering if you guys could come to the gym with me and Nikita." Bit said, not paying any attention to Leena's threat.
"Why the gym?" Jamie asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
"Well, Nikita told me that the school put in a couple of zoid simulators down in the gym, and anyone whose willing to miss their lunch can go, and test their skills out. Do you guys wanna come with?" He asked, pointing behind him.
"Well, sure." Leena said, smiling. "I guess I could do without lunch for ONE day.besides, I'm really outta shape, and I need to get myself back up to par."
She eagerly got up from her spot, and scarfed down the last bit of food on her tray. Both of them started on their way to the gym.
"Hey Jamie, you coming?" Bit called over his shoulder.
"Uh, sure!" Jamie said, grabbing his tray, throwing it away in the nearby trashcan. He quickly dashed after them.
"Hey Bit, where's Nikita?" Leena asked, looking around the cafeteria to try and spot Bit's friend.
"He should be downstairs waiting for us." He said, sticking his hands in his pockets, and proceeding down the stairs that led to the gym.
Indeed, Nikita was waiting for them. He stood outside the entrance of the gym with a wide smile on his face, his brown eyes twinkling with delight.
"Hey, Bit. You guys ready to be blown away?" He said, rubbing his hands together in delight.
"Yeah, right!" Bit chuckled.
"Prepare to be destroyed." Leena said, her mouth curling into a psychotic grin.
"Heh, you're on." Nikita said, opening the door for them.
Before walking in himself, he put his hand in his pocket, and pulled out a small set of headphones, connected to his CD Walkman in his pocket.
Good thing I brought this with me.
As they walked in, Bit gave a small whistle in approval. Both the simulators (There were only two) were grouped in the center of the gym. Bit had noticed that these particular simulators were the exact same ones used by the ZBC (Zoid Battle Commission) to train their zoid pilots in the military and para-military forces.
"Wow, looks like the Commission must really want some fresh blood in the ranks." Leena said in awe as they all moved toward the closest machine.
"Hey, hold on there!" A voice said, freezing them in their tracks.
Bit turned around to see whom it was. It was their gym teacher, Mr. Pantaloni, with a clipboard in his hands.
"I can't let you all on at once. First, I need your names, and then I'll pair you up into matches."
"Can't you just let us line up at separate machines and fight whoever happens to be our opponent?" Bit pleaded.
Mr. Pantaloni shook his head. "Nope. Can't do that. Now, just give me your names."
"Bit Cloud." He said, grinding his teeth.
"Leena Toros."
"Jamie Masagi."
"Nikita Armstrong."
"Hey, don't forget me!" A voice shouted from behind them.
"Oh no.not now." Leena groaned, gripping her forehead in pain.
Harry Champ eagerly ran up to them, mainly eyeing Leena.
"Harry, what rock did you crawl out from under?" Bit asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Ha, ha, ha. Very funny, Bit." Harry growled, glaring daggers at him with his eyes.
"Actually, it was pretty funny." Nikita said, nodding in confirmation. "Yep. It sure was-"
"Enough! The future King refuses to listen any more of this banter!" Harry shouted.
"Ooooo! He said 'banter!' Harry finally can speak proper English!" Leena said, rolling her eyes sarcastically.
"Mr. Pantaloni, put down 'Harry Champ' as one of the participants." He ordered.
Mr. Pantaloni wrote the name down, and thought for a minute.
"Okay, the battles will go as follows: First, it'll be Nikita versus Harry, second, it'll be Jamie versus Bit, and Leena will fight the winner of whichever fight she chooses." He said after much thought.
"Oh!!! I wanted to destroy Harry!" Leena cursed, snapping her fingers in disappointment.
"Calm down my sweet, you may get your chance to fight your true love head- on." Harry said, smirking at Nikita with confidence. "Get ready to lose, trash collector."
Nikita's eyebrow twitched in anger at that comment. "T-trash collector?" He stammered, his newfound rage apparently showing itself.
"Yeah, I'll send ya back to the junk yards cryin' for your mommy!" Harry shouted triumphantly.
"J-junk yards?" he repeated, his fury now fully known to the entire group. "Well, why don't you and I settle the score right now?! Then we'll see who's the damn 'junk dealer' you rich prissy-headed spoiled brat!!!" He bellowed, balling his fist in anger, and shaking it violently.
Harry smirked in joy, and jumped into the simulator.
"Hey, Nikita! Good luck, and keep a clear head!!" Bit yelled after him as he jumped into simulator's cockpit.
"Unidentified warrior, state your name and age." A computerized voice said. Nikita recognized the voice as the judge robot for the zoid battles he had seen on the television.
"Nikita Armstrong, age 18." He answered coldly.
"Please select your zoid." The mechanized voice commanded. A menu popped up in front of his vision, and he quietly cycled through them, taking in their strengths and weaknesses.
Wow! They've even got Hell Cats with stealth shields! What else to they have here? Whoa! They've got data on the Liger Zero, the Raynos, the Gun Sniper and the Shadow Fox! He thought in glee. Then one particular zoid caught his attention.
.Hmm.this zoid looks like a combination of the Shadow Fox and the Lightning Seix! But, I've never heard of THIS model before. He looked at the statistics with interest, and saw its name. The "Black Jackal", huh? Well, lets take a look at its armaments, shall we?
He quietly cycled through its weapons list. Let's see here.its got the pair of standard 50mm Lightning Seix long-range rifles, a pair of shoulder- mounted high-powered 105mm AP cannons, a smoke discharger, a pair of high- frequency AP blades, a couple of side-mounted Weasel unit missile launchers, and.
He noticed something else. What the hell are "Chaff dischargers?" Also, another puzzling thing.I see the LIST of armaments, but where the hell are they on the zoid? The only weapons I see are the standard 50mm Lightning Seix rifles! He saw another detail that startled him. "Only a prototype?!" Why the hell is it even available?!
"Well, have you made your decision yet, trash collector?" Harry snickered in glee.
Well, that settles it! Nikita thought evilly. Sure, I may not no how to bring out the fullest potential, or use the weapons systems correctly, or even know if it'll work, but who the hell cares? It's only a stupid simulation anyway. Besides, I need to show this rich bastard whose boss!
He quietly sighed, collecting his thoughts, calming his fury, and putting the headphones over his ears. He hit the play button, and went to his one of his favorite songs, "Come Out and Play"
"Alright, lets do it!" He bellowed, selecting the zoid.
"Black Jackal prototype selected." The computerized voice said. His vision was shifted into that of a zoid cockpit, which he realized was the cockpit of the zoid he was in!
He saw Harry up ahead in the simulated desert territory. He had chosen the Shadow Fox as his weapon of choice.
"Oh, so you're too lazy to even use your OWN zoid now? You've got to steal other people's, huh?" Nikita asked in mock amazement.
"Hey, shut up, junk dealer! I'm Harry Champ, a man destined to be king! You have no right to talk to me like that!" Harry bellowed in fury.
Just when Nikita was going to throw back another insult, the judge capsule slammed down to earth from the sky. It rose out from the ground, and the hatch opened, revealing the judge.
"Warning, warning! The area within a twelve-mile radius is a designated zoid battlefield! Only registered competitors and personnel may enter! Warning! All others must leave the area immediately!" The judge swiveled around, surveying the scene. "Harry Champ and the Shadow Fox versus Nikita Armstrong and the Black Jackal prototype model A-1. Battle mode: Zero, one, zero nine! Ready.FIGHT!!"
"Prepare to lose, junk collector!!" Harry bellowed as he charged the Shadow Fox toward Nikita's zoid. Somehow, Harry had shouted loud enough that Nikita had actually heard him over the music.
"I don't think so!" He bellowed as he charged toward Harry.
As he charged toward him, he felt a couple of triggers in the grooves of the controls, that were very finely shaped and rounded, made to fit hand grooves.
Hmm.weapon controls.
"Alright! Eat this!!" He bellowed, squeezing one of them. He heard something deploy out of the shoulders of his zoid, and a targeting crosshairs appeared. He locked on to the Shadow Fox, waited for that satisfying beep to tell him his target was locked, and depressed the triggers again, this time with more force.
Two large blue laser beams lanced out from his zoid's shoulders and slammed into the Shadow Fox with tremendous force, knocking the zoid over, melting off both legs on the right side of the zoid, and freezing the computer system.
"Battle over! Battle over! The winner is.Nikita Armstrong and the Black Jackal prototype!"
"Noooooo!!!!! How could the future King lose to this amateur?!!" Harry cried in anguish.
"Hahahahahaha! I am the greatest!!!" Nikita whooped loudly, shutting off his CD Walkman. The simulator shut down, and the two competitors stepped out.
Nikita looked refreshed and victorious, with a wide ear-to-ear grin on his face. There was not even a hint of the rage that had been there barely five minutes before.
Harry looked like a former shell of himself, no longer confident and pompous like he usually was. His face was sullen and shared the defeated look in his eyes.
"So, who's the junk collector now, amateur?" Nikita said, stretching out the pronunciation of "amateur."
Harry just groaned a response, and slinked out of the gym like a depressed snake.
Bit, Leena, and even Jamie, on the other hand, were all surprised and even stunned.
"H-he put Harry away in barely ten seconds!" Bit said in awe.
"B-b-b-but.how?" Leena sputtered, desperately trying to comprehend the situation. "He only fired two shots! I didn't those cannons a second before he fired them!!"
"I dunno how he did it.but he did it." He said, placing a hand on his hip and smiling joyfully. He may have more skill than he originally thought.he'll be a great zoid warrior yet!
"Hey guys! How'd I do?" The young man whooped in delight. "'Cause I'm feelin' really good right now!"
"Nikita, that was great! I've never seen someone adapt to a zoid's weapon systems so quickly! It's almost like you were destined to pilot that zoid!" Bit said.
Yeah, it was a great match.for a fluke. Jamie thought skeptically.
"Thanks! But, I don't think I'll get to pilot it anytime soon." He said dutifully. "The computer said that it was a prototype zoid."
"Aww, don't worry about that! I'm sure you'll find it sooner or later!" Bit said enthusiastically.
"Okay, the next battle is Bit and Jamie!" Mr. Pantaloni shouted.
Bit and Jamie both nodded toward each other, and entered the simulators.
"Nikita, can I ask you a question?" Leena asked suddenly.
"Huh? What is it?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at the violet-eyed girl.
"I was wondering, how exactly did you do that?" She asked, smiling in expectancy.
"Huh?"
"How'd you nail Harry in barely ten seconds?"
"Well, I just hit the triggers on my weapons controls, and shot the bastard!" He said, relating the ease of it.
"But, ya see, that's what's bugging me.I didn't see those two long-range rifles fire when you shot at him. Also, those blasts didn't look like they came from those two 50mm long-range rifles. They looked like they came from." Leena put a finger on her mouth, and thought for a minute. "From a pair of synchronized 105mm Armor-Piercing Cannons?" She asked, smiling.
"H-h-how'd you know?" He stammered, trying to comprehend the situation.
"Well, I recognized the rounds fired when the cannons launched them, and I saw the cannons themselves when they were deployed for that brief couple of seconds.it takes a good eye to catch that." She said, smiling. "After all, in order to modify my Gun Sniper to the level it's at now, don't ya think I would've looked at a few other weapons first?"
"Good point."
"Battle over! Battle over! The winner is, Bit Cloud and the Liger Zero Panzer!"
"Bit, that wasn't fair! You can't call that a good win if you used the Panzer! That thing's got too much armor! It was hardly fair!" Jamie whined as they stepped out of the simulators.
"Aww, c'mon Jamie! It was just a simulation! Besides, you didn't turn into the Wild Eagle anyway. You weren't up to your maximum skill I guess."
"I guess so." Jamie said, crossing his arms.
"Okay now, Leena, choose who you want to face." Mr. Pantaloni said, checking off a mark on his clipboard.
Leena thought for a moment, the smirked mischievously, looking at Bit, then at Nikita, and back at Bit, and then back at Nikita. "I'll face Nikita."
"Hey, Leena!" Bit exclaimed across the cafeteria to his dear friend.
Leena only looked up, and waved for him to come over to the table.
"Hey, Bit, where's your lunch?" Jamie asked, noticing Bit possessed no food.
"You had better not be planning to steal any of my food, Bit." Leena growled in a threatening tone, shielding her food from him.
"Actually, I was wondering if you guys could come to the gym with me and Nikita." Bit said, not paying any attention to Leena's threat.
"Why the gym?" Jamie asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
"Well, Nikita told me that the school put in a couple of zoid simulators down in the gym, and anyone whose willing to miss their lunch can go, and test their skills out. Do you guys wanna come with?" He asked, pointing behind him.
"Well, sure." Leena said, smiling. "I guess I could do without lunch for ONE day.besides, I'm really outta shape, and I need to get myself back up to par."
She eagerly got up from her spot, and scarfed down the last bit of food on her tray. Both of them started on their way to the gym.
"Hey Jamie, you coming?" Bit called over his shoulder.
"Uh, sure!" Jamie said, grabbing his tray, throwing it away in the nearby trashcan. He quickly dashed after them.
"Hey Bit, where's Nikita?" Leena asked, looking around the cafeteria to try and spot Bit's friend.
"He should be downstairs waiting for us." He said, sticking his hands in his pockets, and proceeding down the stairs that led to the gym.
Indeed, Nikita was waiting for them. He stood outside the entrance of the gym with a wide smile on his face, his brown eyes twinkling with delight.
"Hey, Bit. You guys ready to be blown away?" He said, rubbing his hands together in delight.
"Yeah, right!" Bit chuckled.
"Prepare to be destroyed." Leena said, her mouth curling into a psychotic grin.
"Heh, you're on." Nikita said, opening the door for them.
Before walking in himself, he put his hand in his pocket, and pulled out a small set of headphones, connected to his CD Walkman in his pocket.
Good thing I brought this with me.
As they walked in, Bit gave a small whistle in approval. Both the simulators (There were only two) were grouped in the center of the gym. Bit had noticed that these particular simulators were the exact same ones used by the ZBC (Zoid Battle Commission) to train their zoid pilots in the military and para-military forces.
"Wow, looks like the Commission must really want some fresh blood in the ranks." Leena said in awe as they all moved toward the closest machine.
"Hey, hold on there!" A voice said, freezing them in their tracks.
Bit turned around to see whom it was. It was their gym teacher, Mr. Pantaloni, with a clipboard in his hands.
"I can't let you all on at once. First, I need your names, and then I'll pair you up into matches."
"Can't you just let us line up at separate machines and fight whoever happens to be our opponent?" Bit pleaded.
Mr. Pantaloni shook his head. "Nope. Can't do that. Now, just give me your names."
"Bit Cloud." He said, grinding his teeth.
"Leena Toros."
"Jamie Masagi."
"Nikita Armstrong."
"Hey, don't forget me!" A voice shouted from behind them.
"Oh no.not now." Leena groaned, gripping her forehead in pain.
Harry Champ eagerly ran up to them, mainly eyeing Leena.
"Harry, what rock did you crawl out from under?" Bit asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Ha, ha, ha. Very funny, Bit." Harry growled, glaring daggers at him with his eyes.
"Actually, it was pretty funny." Nikita said, nodding in confirmation. "Yep. It sure was-"
"Enough! The future King refuses to listen any more of this banter!" Harry shouted.
"Ooooo! He said 'banter!' Harry finally can speak proper English!" Leena said, rolling her eyes sarcastically.
"Mr. Pantaloni, put down 'Harry Champ' as one of the participants." He ordered.
Mr. Pantaloni wrote the name down, and thought for a minute.
"Okay, the battles will go as follows: First, it'll be Nikita versus Harry, second, it'll be Jamie versus Bit, and Leena will fight the winner of whichever fight she chooses." He said after much thought.
"Oh!!! I wanted to destroy Harry!" Leena cursed, snapping her fingers in disappointment.
"Calm down my sweet, you may get your chance to fight your true love head- on." Harry said, smirking at Nikita with confidence. "Get ready to lose, trash collector."
Nikita's eyebrow twitched in anger at that comment. "T-trash collector?" He stammered, his newfound rage apparently showing itself.
"Yeah, I'll send ya back to the junk yards cryin' for your mommy!" Harry shouted triumphantly.
"J-junk yards?" he repeated, his fury now fully known to the entire group. "Well, why don't you and I settle the score right now?! Then we'll see who's the damn 'junk dealer' you rich prissy-headed spoiled brat!!!" He bellowed, balling his fist in anger, and shaking it violently.
Harry smirked in joy, and jumped into the simulator.
"Hey, Nikita! Good luck, and keep a clear head!!" Bit yelled after him as he jumped into simulator's cockpit.
"Unidentified warrior, state your name and age." A computerized voice said. Nikita recognized the voice as the judge robot for the zoid battles he had seen on the television.
"Nikita Armstrong, age 18." He answered coldly.
"Please select your zoid." The mechanized voice commanded. A menu popped up in front of his vision, and he quietly cycled through them, taking in their strengths and weaknesses.
Wow! They've even got Hell Cats with stealth shields! What else to they have here? Whoa! They've got data on the Liger Zero, the Raynos, the Gun Sniper and the Shadow Fox! He thought in glee. Then one particular zoid caught his attention.
.Hmm.this zoid looks like a combination of the Shadow Fox and the Lightning Seix! But, I've never heard of THIS model before. He looked at the statistics with interest, and saw its name. The "Black Jackal", huh? Well, lets take a look at its armaments, shall we?
He quietly cycled through its weapons list. Let's see here.its got the pair of standard 50mm Lightning Seix long-range rifles, a pair of shoulder- mounted high-powered 105mm AP cannons, a smoke discharger, a pair of high- frequency AP blades, a couple of side-mounted Weasel unit missile launchers, and.
He noticed something else. What the hell are "Chaff dischargers?" Also, another puzzling thing.I see the LIST of armaments, but where the hell are they on the zoid? The only weapons I see are the standard 50mm Lightning Seix rifles! He saw another detail that startled him. "Only a prototype?!" Why the hell is it even available?!
"Well, have you made your decision yet, trash collector?" Harry snickered in glee.
Well, that settles it! Nikita thought evilly. Sure, I may not no how to bring out the fullest potential, or use the weapons systems correctly, or even know if it'll work, but who the hell cares? It's only a stupid simulation anyway. Besides, I need to show this rich bastard whose boss!
He quietly sighed, collecting his thoughts, calming his fury, and putting the headphones over his ears. He hit the play button, and went to his one of his favorite songs, "Come Out and Play"
"Alright, lets do it!" He bellowed, selecting the zoid.
"Black Jackal prototype selected." The computerized voice said. His vision was shifted into that of a zoid cockpit, which he realized was the cockpit of the zoid he was in!
He saw Harry up ahead in the simulated desert territory. He had chosen the Shadow Fox as his weapon of choice.
"Oh, so you're too lazy to even use your OWN zoid now? You've got to steal other people's, huh?" Nikita asked in mock amazement.
"Hey, shut up, junk dealer! I'm Harry Champ, a man destined to be king! You have no right to talk to me like that!" Harry bellowed in fury.
Just when Nikita was going to throw back another insult, the judge capsule slammed down to earth from the sky. It rose out from the ground, and the hatch opened, revealing the judge.
"Warning, warning! The area within a twelve-mile radius is a designated zoid battlefield! Only registered competitors and personnel may enter! Warning! All others must leave the area immediately!" The judge swiveled around, surveying the scene. "Harry Champ and the Shadow Fox versus Nikita Armstrong and the Black Jackal prototype model A-1. Battle mode: Zero, one, zero nine! Ready.FIGHT!!"
"Prepare to lose, junk collector!!" Harry bellowed as he charged the Shadow Fox toward Nikita's zoid. Somehow, Harry had shouted loud enough that Nikita had actually heard him over the music.
"I don't think so!" He bellowed as he charged toward Harry.
As he charged toward him, he felt a couple of triggers in the grooves of the controls, that were very finely shaped and rounded, made to fit hand grooves.
Hmm.weapon controls.
"Alright! Eat this!!" He bellowed, squeezing one of them. He heard something deploy out of the shoulders of his zoid, and a targeting crosshairs appeared. He locked on to the Shadow Fox, waited for that satisfying beep to tell him his target was locked, and depressed the triggers again, this time with more force.
Two large blue laser beams lanced out from his zoid's shoulders and slammed into the Shadow Fox with tremendous force, knocking the zoid over, melting off both legs on the right side of the zoid, and freezing the computer system.
"Battle over! Battle over! The winner is.Nikita Armstrong and the Black Jackal prototype!"
"Noooooo!!!!! How could the future King lose to this amateur?!!" Harry cried in anguish.
"Hahahahahaha! I am the greatest!!!" Nikita whooped loudly, shutting off his CD Walkman. The simulator shut down, and the two competitors stepped out.
Nikita looked refreshed and victorious, with a wide ear-to-ear grin on his face. There was not even a hint of the rage that had been there barely five minutes before.
Harry looked like a former shell of himself, no longer confident and pompous like he usually was. His face was sullen and shared the defeated look in his eyes.
"So, who's the junk collector now, amateur?" Nikita said, stretching out the pronunciation of "amateur."
Harry just groaned a response, and slinked out of the gym like a depressed snake.
Bit, Leena, and even Jamie, on the other hand, were all surprised and even stunned.
"H-he put Harry away in barely ten seconds!" Bit said in awe.
"B-b-b-but.how?" Leena sputtered, desperately trying to comprehend the situation. "He only fired two shots! I didn't those cannons a second before he fired them!!"
"I dunno how he did it.but he did it." He said, placing a hand on his hip and smiling joyfully. He may have more skill than he originally thought.he'll be a great zoid warrior yet!
"Hey guys! How'd I do?" The young man whooped in delight. "'Cause I'm feelin' really good right now!"
"Nikita, that was great! I've never seen someone adapt to a zoid's weapon systems so quickly! It's almost like you were destined to pilot that zoid!" Bit said.
Yeah, it was a great match.for a fluke. Jamie thought skeptically.
"Thanks! But, I don't think I'll get to pilot it anytime soon." He said dutifully. "The computer said that it was a prototype zoid."
"Aww, don't worry about that! I'm sure you'll find it sooner or later!" Bit said enthusiastically.
"Okay, the next battle is Bit and Jamie!" Mr. Pantaloni shouted.
Bit and Jamie both nodded toward each other, and entered the simulators.
"Nikita, can I ask you a question?" Leena asked suddenly.
"Huh? What is it?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at the violet-eyed girl.
"I was wondering, how exactly did you do that?" She asked, smiling in expectancy.
"Huh?"
"How'd you nail Harry in barely ten seconds?"
"Well, I just hit the triggers on my weapons controls, and shot the bastard!" He said, relating the ease of it.
"But, ya see, that's what's bugging me.I didn't see those two long-range rifles fire when you shot at him. Also, those blasts didn't look like they came from those two 50mm long-range rifles. They looked like they came from." Leena put a finger on her mouth, and thought for a minute. "From a pair of synchronized 105mm Armor-Piercing Cannons?" She asked, smiling.
"H-h-how'd you know?" He stammered, trying to comprehend the situation.
"Well, I recognized the rounds fired when the cannons launched them, and I saw the cannons themselves when they were deployed for that brief couple of seconds.it takes a good eye to catch that." She said, smiling. "After all, in order to modify my Gun Sniper to the level it's at now, don't ya think I would've looked at a few other weapons first?"
"Good point."
"Battle over! Battle over! The winner is, Bit Cloud and the Liger Zero Panzer!"
"Bit, that wasn't fair! You can't call that a good win if you used the Panzer! That thing's got too much armor! It was hardly fair!" Jamie whined as they stepped out of the simulators.
"Aww, c'mon Jamie! It was just a simulation! Besides, you didn't turn into the Wild Eagle anyway. You weren't up to your maximum skill I guess."
"I guess so." Jamie said, crossing his arms.
"Okay now, Leena, choose who you want to face." Mr. Pantaloni said, checking off a mark on his clipboard.
Leena thought for a moment, the smirked mischievously, looking at Bit, then at Nikita, and back at Bit, and then back at Nikita. "I'll face Nikita."