***********************
Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids! Not that anyone cares but I own the characters Blood and Gore but they were based on the lead singers of a band called Mushroom Head.
***********************
"What am I doing wrong? What am I missing? You'd think with my rival finally realizing his inferiority, marrying some half-wit, and moving to another country,
I'd have obtained Leena's hand in marriage by now! What am I missing?" Harry pondered deeply.
"Self control, sense, tact, your dignity, not to mention your pride, to still be chasing that carrot top," a metallic voice resounded. "Shall I go on?"
"Sebastian!!" Harry growled.
"You asked," the robot responded flippantly. Harry bared out the smart @$$ robot's comments and continued his desperate evaluations about the red-haired girl. He must have overlooked something. Something so obvious that he hadn't realized before? But what?
"WHAT?!" the heir of the Champ foundation called to the heavens. He wished he could ask someone.
~~~~~~~~~~
A heavily armed Gunsniper bounded along across the desert on what was an incredibly sunny day. Sunny, but not hot. Its cherry-red-haired pilot didn't even need to use the Zoid's built in cooling system. The fresh air seeped into the cockpit and re-energized her internally, and the roaming sand hills relaxed her. She was worriless. Careless.
"Hold it right there, sweet thing!" someone demanded. His voice somehow seemed to be everywhere at once. It had a thick coat of humor caked in it.
"Who? Who said that?" Leena Toros asked, looking around in full panic. She was afraid. Ridiculously afraid all of a sudden.
"The princesses of darkness, sweet thing," a second voice rumbled. This one sounded absolutely horrible.
Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, two Zoids stood before hers.
"Uh no," she gasped. She was too frightened to move. The pilots of the other Zoids started laughing cruelly.
"End of the line, sweet!" the first one shouted, and afterward, the scorpion Zoid ran straight for her. Somehow she knew it was called the Dagger. Her Zoid fell to the ground and disappeared. She now lay at the feet of their Zoids with none of her own. Mind too blind with fear, she only started calling for help, not caring for an explanation.
"DAD! BIT!... HARRY!" she cried when the monsters positioned their weapons to take her life away from those who loved her.
"Ahhhh!" Leena screamed herself into the world of the awake. Assuming anyone was awake at 4am, that is.
She searched the area around her frantically with her purple orbs to discover it was her pillows, her bedclothes, her room. Sighing, she rubbed her face and wanted to cry. The nightmare was still fresh on her mind. Every detail. Covering her in shivers and mocking her every time she blinked.
Where had it come from? She had never met Blood and Gore in person, and thank god for that. She also had no interest in doing such a thing. Especially not now. Not ever.
Then there was Doctor Laon's scary confession the other night. He had told her and her father that he had a hand in developing the Zoids they were using. Yet another attempt to get his ultimate revenge that had gotten out of hand.
"But what would they want with me anyway?" she asked with chattering teeth. "No one knows who I am. Heh," she admitted. Now was the only time to admit such things, for she had often proclaimed herself the greatest Zoid warrior of all time. "I'm a nobody!" Leena reassured herself, rubbing her shoulders, not awake enough to comprehend what she was saying.
"I'll bet they've never even heard of me," Leena thought as sleep claimed her for what was left of the night.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Ya know, that Toros chick is one hot tomato," a man said lazily as he rested before a campfire with a marshmallow on a stick. His face was painted half-black and half-red with red cut-like stripes breaching the black portion. His real name wasn't nearly as famous as his new one, Gore.
"You've told me," another man replied. He was taller and his painted face was far more serious. He sat with his forearms resting on his knees, clenching and unclenching his hands as if impatient. This one called himself Blood.
"Yeah..." Gore said dreamily. If Blood hadn't known the man since the two met in juvenile hall when they were both twelve, he would have thought the fool was in love. But he knew better.
"So how are we going to get Bit Cloud to face us?" Gore asked with a laid-back smile.
"Bait..." the other man stated with a growl that was mirrored by the flames he was staring into.
~~~~~~~~~~~
"The Blitz team versus...the Charger Team....Ready?....FIGHT!" a small white robot ordered the combatants on the monotonous battlefield. The wind was calm and a rocky field that rested below the feet of the Zoids upon it.
'One more loss and I think I may lose it for sure,' Leena rolled the thought to the back of her head.
"OK!" she shouted over the com link, "Jamie. You and I will take out the Dibison. Kirkland. You take on the Lighting Saix. We'll ignore the Iron Kong for now,"
"But I don't wanna-" Kirkland began to pout.
"DO IT!" Leena shouted, leering at the screen in her cockpit that showed Kirkland. The pilot swallowed and set out to do what he was told.
'I don't believe it,' Jamie said breathlessly. 'She is ACTUALLY using MY strategy! I think I may cry...' the boy rambled in thought, becoming emotional.
"Jamie! Pay attention!" Leena shouted at him seconds too late. He was hit pretty hard by enemy fire but was still in the battle.
"Jamie!" Leena hissed at him.
"Sorry, Leena! Sorry!" Jamie oozed apologies like an open wound.
Kirkland proceeded to battle the Lighting Saix as best he could, firing and running, but never getting close to the speedy Zoid. Jamie and Leena soon overpowered the Dibison and it was almost done with. The Iron Kong had no real chance of helping his comrades as it wasn't fast enough to keep up with them and defend them at the same time. The Dibison did manage to take out Jamie before Leena finished it with her favorite attack.
"WILD WEASEL UNIT TOTAL ASSAULT!" she chimed, and with that, the raptor Zoid let loose an incredible volley of ammunition. The missiles and grenade rounds tore into the bison Zoid, bringing it down in a pile of charred metal.
"Ha HA!" Leena cried, tossing an arm in the air. She then turned her attention to the approaching Iron Kong which bounded in recklessly. It found only disappointment at the end of its attacks. Leena bounded back, then to left and back again as it swung for her.
Leena commanded her Zoid to stand on its tail and lean back. From the Iron Kong's point of view, it was impossible to tell what she as doing until it was too late. The Iron Kong stood dumbfounded as the Gunsniper looked as though it were falling over, then the raptor Zoid's feet sprung out and sent the gorilla into a short flight, arms flaying as it went. It was unable to recover in time to stop what came next.
"WILD WEASEL UNIT TOTAL ASSAULT!" Leena shouted. Two Zoids. Almost ALL by herself? There was nothing between heaven and hell that could stop the girl from gloating now. And that was her downfall.
"The winner is...the CHARGER TEAM!" the robotic officiator of the match exclaimed not long after.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Errrr...." Leena growled, head held low as she sat at a table outside the Blitz Team's main base of operations. Her anger left her in a sad sigh.
"I can't believe it..." she mumbled afterward. They had lost another battle. And they had came so close to winning, too! She had finished off the Iron Kong but was unable to do anything against the Lighting Saix that had eluded Kirkland. Once it took her out, the battle had ended.
"All This LOSING is MAKING MY HEAD HURT!!" Leena shouted to the clear blue sky.
"Really?" who else but Harry Champ asked her. Whom she didn't know was there. Whom she hadn't invited here. WHOM she had just now accidentally confessed to being a loser in front of. Dammit! Could today get any worse?
"Well, if victory is all you need, all you have to do is allow me on your team-" Harry began with a business smile and a thumb jabbed at himself.
"No no NO!" Leena said. "I'm on a team of losers and I'm going to start collecting losers now? I don't think so!"
"But Leena!" Harry protested.
"But nothing, Mister! You're not getting on MY Class S team so you can just stop begging me already," Leena said, picking her words to prove she was still above him at least.
"Ok, Leena..." Harry reluctantly agreed, though he believed she was making a mistake. Hearing that, Leena sank back into her seat and a silence hit the two of them pretty hard. Leena was on the border of sulking over the team's status and the nightmare she had earlier and Harry was still calculating a proposition that would convince Leena to let him join her team.
Harry noticed the look in her eyes and was unable to stop from comparing to yesterday. She had had that same look. She looked so distracted.
"What?" Leena demanded. She shifted, finding herself tousled under his inquiring gaze.
"Nothing, nothing," he said looking away with a blush.
"Whatever," Leena said after studying him for a moment. The silence still stood between them and Harry realized something. Although it was uncomfortable and unsettling...he was still there! Maybe he could stay for as long as he didn't say anything?!
'That doesn't make one lick of sense...' Harry thought, 'But I'm desperate!' So he tried it. For three and a half minutes he was silent and Leena for all the world didn't know what to do with him.
"Well...?" She finally asked him. Her beautiful violet eyes desired an answer. Needed one. Her lips were slighted parted in that way they sometimes were in reality and almost always were in his dreams.
'No!' Harry forced himself. 'Not yet. Just a little longer maybe?' This was the longest she had probably looked at him in anyway that wasn't completely violent.
"What do you want?"
Those words stung and by impulse he was almost tempted to serenade her with his truths. With his dreams. But no. He flinched but held his ground. He managed to shrug which pretty much threw her off. Leena fell silent and her eyes fell to her shoes as she crossed her arms, finding nothing else to say herself.
Harry risked a quick glance at her then returned to his new silent nature. The image his eyes were treated to for a nanosecond pained him, but what could he do? A thousand ideas sprung to mind but he immediately denied them, having tried them all in the past. Had any of them worked, he wouldn't still be trying at this very moment now, would he?
"We haven't been doing too well," Leena said lowly and seemingly more to herself. Harry almost choked but kept quiet. "Haven't won one battle since Brad and Bit left. Not one!" Leena said with internal distaste clearly evident.
She rose, staring at Harry, who finally acknowledged her with his eyes but nothing else. Leena seemed to take this as a cue to continue and she did just that. She paced around the table, complaining about just about everything. Not enough ammo. Kirkland. Bad influences in Zoidaholic parents. Kirkland. Incompetent teammates. And finally Kirkland. No, 'finally' was when she mentioned something about a nightmare then went dead silent.
"What dream?" Harry asked blankly.
Leena froze almost in terror, then recovered.
"Was I TALKING to YOU?" she demanded hotly.
'Screw the silent guy act. Now is the time for action!' Harry decided confidently.
"If your sleep is troubled, you must tell me of your woes, my princess!" Harry exclaimed, rushing to kneel before the redhead. She glared down at him.
"Leena, you know your safety is of utmost importance to me," he said, rubbing his cheek against the hand he stole from her. "I should be at your bedside to watch over at-" his words and thoughts got stuck together and his cheeks automatically colored as he realized what his proposal probably sounded like.
"GET OUT OF HERE, YOU DAMN PERVERT!" Leena boiled over with anger.
Seemed he had been right.
Soon Harry was on the run again. Heading back to his base without Leena. Again. At least the sight of his retreating figure had lifted her spirits a little.
~~~~~~~~~
Doctor Toros stirred uncomfortably as he thought over what Laon had told him the other night.
"This is out of control," the man muttered to himself. "To think," he said, shaking his head. Doctor Laon had a hand in upgrading the Zoids the Carnage Team now used. All in an effort to get his mighty revenge. Doctor Toros now had mixed feelings. Laon had finally decided to drop his grudge, but the damage had been done. Zoid warriors, some he had personally known, had been killed by his work. Blood and Gore were still out there. Still killing.
Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids! Not that anyone cares but I own the characters Blood and Gore but they were based on the lead singers of a band called Mushroom Head.
***********************
"What am I doing wrong? What am I missing? You'd think with my rival finally realizing his inferiority, marrying some half-wit, and moving to another country,
I'd have obtained Leena's hand in marriage by now! What am I missing?" Harry pondered deeply.
"Self control, sense, tact, your dignity, not to mention your pride, to still be chasing that carrot top," a metallic voice resounded. "Shall I go on?"
"Sebastian!!" Harry growled.
"You asked," the robot responded flippantly. Harry bared out the smart @$$ robot's comments and continued his desperate evaluations about the red-haired girl. He must have overlooked something. Something so obvious that he hadn't realized before? But what?
"WHAT?!" the heir of the Champ foundation called to the heavens. He wished he could ask someone.
~~~~~~~~~~
A heavily armed Gunsniper bounded along across the desert on what was an incredibly sunny day. Sunny, but not hot. Its cherry-red-haired pilot didn't even need to use the Zoid's built in cooling system. The fresh air seeped into the cockpit and re-energized her internally, and the roaming sand hills relaxed her. She was worriless. Careless.
"Hold it right there, sweet thing!" someone demanded. His voice somehow seemed to be everywhere at once. It had a thick coat of humor caked in it.
"Who? Who said that?" Leena Toros asked, looking around in full panic. She was afraid. Ridiculously afraid all of a sudden.
"The princesses of darkness, sweet thing," a second voice rumbled. This one sounded absolutely horrible.
Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, two Zoids stood before hers.
"Uh no," she gasped. She was too frightened to move. The pilots of the other Zoids started laughing cruelly.
"End of the line, sweet!" the first one shouted, and afterward, the scorpion Zoid ran straight for her. Somehow she knew it was called the Dagger. Her Zoid fell to the ground and disappeared. She now lay at the feet of their Zoids with none of her own. Mind too blind with fear, she only started calling for help, not caring for an explanation.
"DAD! BIT!... HARRY!" she cried when the monsters positioned their weapons to take her life away from those who loved her.
"Ahhhh!" Leena screamed herself into the world of the awake. Assuming anyone was awake at 4am, that is.
She searched the area around her frantically with her purple orbs to discover it was her pillows, her bedclothes, her room. Sighing, she rubbed her face and wanted to cry. The nightmare was still fresh on her mind. Every detail. Covering her in shivers and mocking her every time she blinked.
Where had it come from? She had never met Blood and Gore in person, and thank god for that. She also had no interest in doing such a thing. Especially not now. Not ever.
Then there was Doctor Laon's scary confession the other night. He had told her and her father that he had a hand in developing the Zoids they were using. Yet another attempt to get his ultimate revenge that had gotten out of hand.
"But what would they want with me anyway?" she asked with chattering teeth. "No one knows who I am. Heh," she admitted. Now was the only time to admit such things, for she had often proclaimed herself the greatest Zoid warrior of all time. "I'm a nobody!" Leena reassured herself, rubbing her shoulders, not awake enough to comprehend what she was saying.
"I'll bet they've never even heard of me," Leena thought as sleep claimed her for what was left of the night.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Ya know, that Toros chick is one hot tomato," a man said lazily as he rested before a campfire with a marshmallow on a stick. His face was painted half-black and half-red with red cut-like stripes breaching the black portion. His real name wasn't nearly as famous as his new one, Gore.
"You've told me," another man replied. He was taller and his painted face was far more serious. He sat with his forearms resting on his knees, clenching and unclenching his hands as if impatient. This one called himself Blood.
"Yeah..." Gore said dreamily. If Blood hadn't known the man since the two met in juvenile hall when they were both twelve, he would have thought the fool was in love. But he knew better.
"So how are we going to get Bit Cloud to face us?" Gore asked with a laid-back smile.
"Bait..." the other man stated with a growl that was mirrored by the flames he was staring into.
~~~~~~~~~~~
"The Blitz team versus...the Charger Team....Ready?....FIGHT!" a small white robot ordered the combatants on the monotonous battlefield. The wind was calm and a rocky field that rested below the feet of the Zoids upon it.
'One more loss and I think I may lose it for sure,' Leena rolled the thought to the back of her head.
"OK!" she shouted over the com link, "Jamie. You and I will take out the Dibison. Kirkland. You take on the Lighting Saix. We'll ignore the Iron Kong for now,"
"But I don't wanna-" Kirkland began to pout.
"DO IT!" Leena shouted, leering at the screen in her cockpit that showed Kirkland. The pilot swallowed and set out to do what he was told.
'I don't believe it,' Jamie said breathlessly. 'She is ACTUALLY using MY strategy! I think I may cry...' the boy rambled in thought, becoming emotional.
"Jamie! Pay attention!" Leena shouted at him seconds too late. He was hit pretty hard by enemy fire but was still in the battle.
"Jamie!" Leena hissed at him.
"Sorry, Leena! Sorry!" Jamie oozed apologies like an open wound.
Kirkland proceeded to battle the Lighting Saix as best he could, firing and running, but never getting close to the speedy Zoid. Jamie and Leena soon overpowered the Dibison and it was almost done with. The Iron Kong had no real chance of helping his comrades as it wasn't fast enough to keep up with them and defend them at the same time. The Dibison did manage to take out Jamie before Leena finished it with her favorite attack.
"WILD WEASEL UNIT TOTAL ASSAULT!" she chimed, and with that, the raptor Zoid let loose an incredible volley of ammunition. The missiles and grenade rounds tore into the bison Zoid, bringing it down in a pile of charred metal.
"Ha HA!" Leena cried, tossing an arm in the air. She then turned her attention to the approaching Iron Kong which bounded in recklessly. It found only disappointment at the end of its attacks. Leena bounded back, then to left and back again as it swung for her.
Leena commanded her Zoid to stand on its tail and lean back. From the Iron Kong's point of view, it was impossible to tell what she as doing until it was too late. The Iron Kong stood dumbfounded as the Gunsniper looked as though it were falling over, then the raptor Zoid's feet sprung out and sent the gorilla into a short flight, arms flaying as it went. It was unable to recover in time to stop what came next.
"WILD WEASEL UNIT TOTAL ASSAULT!" Leena shouted. Two Zoids. Almost ALL by herself? There was nothing between heaven and hell that could stop the girl from gloating now. And that was her downfall.
"The winner is...the CHARGER TEAM!" the robotic officiator of the match exclaimed not long after.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Errrr...." Leena growled, head held low as she sat at a table outside the Blitz Team's main base of operations. Her anger left her in a sad sigh.
"I can't believe it..." she mumbled afterward. They had lost another battle. And they had came so close to winning, too! She had finished off the Iron Kong but was unable to do anything against the Lighting Saix that had eluded Kirkland. Once it took her out, the battle had ended.
"All This LOSING is MAKING MY HEAD HURT!!" Leena shouted to the clear blue sky.
"Really?" who else but Harry Champ asked her. Whom she didn't know was there. Whom she hadn't invited here. WHOM she had just now accidentally confessed to being a loser in front of. Dammit! Could today get any worse?
"Well, if victory is all you need, all you have to do is allow me on your team-" Harry began with a business smile and a thumb jabbed at himself.
"No no NO!" Leena said. "I'm on a team of losers and I'm going to start collecting losers now? I don't think so!"
"But Leena!" Harry protested.
"But nothing, Mister! You're not getting on MY Class S team so you can just stop begging me already," Leena said, picking her words to prove she was still above him at least.
"Ok, Leena..." Harry reluctantly agreed, though he believed she was making a mistake. Hearing that, Leena sank back into her seat and a silence hit the two of them pretty hard. Leena was on the border of sulking over the team's status and the nightmare she had earlier and Harry was still calculating a proposition that would convince Leena to let him join her team.
Harry noticed the look in her eyes and was unable to stop from comparing to yesterday. She had had that same look. She looked so distracted.
"What?" Leena demanded. She shifted, finding herself tousled under his inquiring gaze.
"Nothing, nothing," he said looking away with a blush.
"Whatever," Leena said after studying him for a moment. The silence still stood between them and Harry realized something. Although it was uncomfortable and unsettling...he was still there! Maybe he could stay for as long as he didn't say anything?!
'That doesn't make one lick of sense...' Harry thought, 'But I'm desperate!' So he tried it. For three and a half minutes he was silent and Leena for all the world didn't know what to do with him.
"Well...?" She finally asked him. Her beautiful violet eyes desired an answer. Needed one. Her lips were slighted parted in that way they sometimes were in reality and almost always were in his dreams.
'No!' Harry forced himself. 'Not yet. Just a little longer maybe?' This was the longest she had probably looked at him in anyway that wasn't completely violent.
"What do you want?"
Those words stung and by impulse he was almost tempted to serenade her with his truths. With his dreams. But no. He flinched but held his ground. He managed to shrug which pretty much threw her off. Leena fell silent and her eyes fell to her shoes as she crossed her arms, finding nothing else to say herself.
Harry risked a quick glance at her then returned to his new silent nature. The image his eyes were treated to for a nanosecond pained him, but what could he do? A thousand ideas sprung to mind but he immediately denied them, having tried them all in the past. Had any of them worked, he wouldn't still be trying at this very moment now, would he?
"We haven't been doing too well," Leena said lowly and seemingly more to herself. Harry almost choked but kept quiet. "Haven't won one battle since Brad and Bit left. Not one!" Leena said with internal distaste clearly evident.
She rose, staring at Harry, who finally acknowledged her with his eyes but nothing else. Leena seemed to take this as a cue to continue and she did just that. She paced around the table, complaining about just about everything. Not enough ammo. Kirkland. Bad influences in Zoidaholic parents. Kirkland. Incompetent teammates. And finally Kirkland. No, 'finally' was when she mentioned something about a nightmare then went dead silent.
"What dream?" Harry asked blankly.
Leena froze almost in terror, then recovered.
"Was I TALKING to YOU?" she demanded hotly.
'Screw the silent guy act. Now is the time for action!' Harry decided confidently.
"If your sleep is troubled, you must tell me of your woes, my princess!" Harry exclaimed, rushing to kneel before the redhead. She glared down at him.
"Leena, you know your safety is of utmost importance to me," he said, rubbing his cheek against the hand he stole from her. "I should be at your bedside to watch over at-" his words and thoughts got stuck together and his cheeks automatically colored as he realized what his proposal probably sounded like.
"GET OUT OF HERE, YOU DAMN PERVERT!" Leena boiled over with anger.
Seemed he had been right.
Soon Harry was on the run again. Heading back to his base without Leena. Again. At least the sight of his retreating figure had lifted her spirits a little.
~~~~~~~~~
Doctor Toros stirred uncomfortably as he thought over what Laon had told him the other night.
"This is out of control," the man muttered to himself. "To think," he said, shaking his head. Doctor Laon had a hand in upgrading the Zoids the Carnage Team now used. All in an effort to get his mighty revenge. Doctor Toros now had mixed feelings. Laon had finally decided to drop his grudge, but the damage had been done. Zoid warriors, some he had personally known, had been killed by his work. Blood and Gore were still out there. Still killing.