Zoids: A New Beginning
Chapter 11
Disclaimer: I don't own zoids
Stroma watched as the Blitz Team won yet another battle. This had been the sixth battle since the Battle Royal. The Blitz Team was on a winning streak. Not even the X Team had been able to face the Blitz Team.
Soon, however, the Blitz Team's string of successes would reach its end. Stroma knew that the time had come for the Backdraft Group to administer defeat to the Blitz Team. With the Blitz Team, the X Team would also fall.
Bit stepped out of the shower, refreshed. After winning once again, the Blitz Team appeared to be unstoppable. Brad was already in the lounge, relaxing on one of the couches as he usually did. Jamie was in the computer room, running through their finances.
"We're gonna be rich before we move up to the next class," said Bit.
"No kidding. Not only have we been able to take our zoids in for repairs and tune ups every couple days, but we also have the money we need for any modifications we want," said Brad.
"Leena should like that," quipped Bit. "Man, I'm hungry," he added.
"Oh, that reminds me, the Doc said he was gonna take us out to dinner."
"Dinner? Well it'll be nice not to have to cook for a night at least."
The Blitz Team entered the restaurant and looked around. "Wow," said Leena, "This place is really nice."
"And really expensive," added Jamie. "I'm not so sure we should eat up our finances with this sort of thing."
"Take it easy Jamie," said Bit, "Eat up is the first thing we're gonna do here."
"Yeah you said it," said Leena, "Let's chow down."
Bit and the others were enjoying their dinner when Bit spotted someone familiar. He looked closer and realized who it was. "You!"
Garret looked up from his own light meal. His smile was cruelly amused. "So, I never thought that the next time we'd meet would be at dinner." A mischievous look sprang onto his face.
"You're with the Backdraft," accused Leena.
"Indeed I am," conceded Garret.
"I have the suspicion that this is no accident," said Brad.
Garret met Brad's gaze, "You're right, but it is nothing special, merely a foreshadowing of events to come." His gaze dropped to somewhere behind them. "If you don't watch your backs, you will never see the blow coming from behind."
As one the Blitz Team wheeled around, looking for some indication of a threat behind them. Garret added, "Of course, if you are always looking over your shoulder, the blow will come from in front." When Bit and the others looked back, the found that Garret was gone.
"Where'd he go?" asked Jamie.
"I'd rather not know," said Bit.
When the Blitz Team arrived at the Toros base, they found information from the Zoid Battle Commission waiting for them. It was an announcement for their next battle. Jamie read the information. "It's the X Team again," he stated simply.
"Well, it's always nice to fight them," said Bit. "When is it?"
"Tomorrow."
"Well," yawned Bit, "I'm going to get some sleep."
"Me too," said Leena.
"Count me in," said Brad.
"The battle paperwork can wait until tomorrow morning," said Jamie as they all went to bed.
In a room in the headquarters of his more legitimate identity, Stroma looked at the public schedule for the next day's scheduled battle. "Well, the Blitz Team versus the X Team; perfect." He tapped the intercom, "Garret, tell your teammates to get some sleep. We deploy tomorrow."
Derrik looked at the information screen. He had taken an unusual interest in the doings of the Backdraft Group since Bit had talked about his meeting with Garret and the Organoid called Chaos in the mountains.
"Garret," he muttered, "So, the years have not changed you at all."
"That's one of the Backdraft pilots," said Vega coming up behind him, looking at the information that Derrik had on screen.
"Yes," replied Derrik. "Also, he is like me."
"Like you?" inquired Vega.
"Yes, he has been around for at least as long as I, if not even longer."
"Wow," was all that Vega could say.
"Go get some rest Vega. We have a big day tomorrow."
The day of the battle arrived and the Blitz and X Teams met on the battlefield. Both teams faced one another across the distance of the battlefield. Bit was using the Shnider armor while Vega was using the standard Berserk Fury armor. The ground shook as the judge capsule landed.
"Derrik," said Zanders over the communications channel, "There's a whale king approaching. I'm picking up microwave emissions. Should I fire?"
"No," said Derrik. He gave no explanation.
Meanwhile, the members of the Blitz Team were not aware of the approaching whale king. Not aware, that was until a beam of microwave energy stabbed down from the whale king and hit the judge capsule. The capsule opened, and they all heard a familiar voice.
"Hahahahaha! Sorry kiddies, but this battle has been taken over by the Backdraft Group. Area Scanned. Battlefield setup. The Blitz and X Teams versus the Strike Team." At this moment, from the underside of the whale king there deployed the Dark Spiner, a Death Stinger, and a familiar looking Genosaurer. "Ready…Fight!"
Bit looked on astonished. "They actually think that they can take on eight zoids with just those three."
"Don't be so sure Bit," said Dr. Toros, "The Gonosaurer we already know. But the one with the Spine is a Dark Spiner. If anything its even more powerful than the Gonosaurer. The other one is a Death Stinger. It's one of the most deadly zoids that ever existed."
"The energy signals that I'm picking up from the Death Stinger's zoid core are a lot weaker than they should be," said Zanders.
"The Death Stinger that we know of, namely the one that was used by the antagonists immediately following the Helic-Guylos wars, was created by fusing the zoid cores of a Deathsaurer and a Genosaurer. This one was created by a single zoid core and is therefore much weaker," said Derrik.
"That's good to know," said Leena, eagerly stroking the trigger.
"It's still the most powerful of the three."
"Not for long," said an ice-cold voice over the communications channel.
"Garret," said Derrik, "So it is you."
"Derrik," replied Derrik's nemesis, "So good to see you after these long centuries. What have you been doing to keep yourself occupied?"
"I've had enough talk with you," said Derrik taking his friends aback by the tone of pure rage in his voice. "Your sick mind and your lust for destruction must end before you get out of control."
"I'd like to see you try," Garret taunted.
"I will be more than happy to," growled Derrik.
"But first, Chaos! It's time!" The Brown Organoid, which had been standing on the ground next to the Genosaurer, launched into the air and fused with the Genosaurer. The Genosaurer's eyes glowed red briefly, and then it lunged towards the Raptorus with a roar.
Derrik rapped out instructions. "Vega, you take care of the Spiner. Stoler, you cover Vega. Pierce, Jamie, you two get the Death Stinger. Leena, you help them. Brad, you help Stoler and Vega. Bit, you're going to help me with the Genosaurer."
The pilots acknowledge and set out to attack the enemy zoids. The Genosaurer was closing with the Raptorus. The Rodan and Raynos swooped down on the Death Stinger from above. The Gunsniper moved in at the Death Stinger's rear. The Schnider charged at the Genosaurer's flank. The Berserk Fury charged the Dark Spiner head on. The Elaphander used its assault gattling unit to start pounding the Dark Spiner from afar. The Shadowfox closed in on the Spiner's right flank.
The Genosaurer fired at the Raptorus. The Raptorus easily dodged the barrage and closed in, its claws glowing with laser energy. Garret was about to press his attack when he became aware of the threat to his right.
"Buster Slash!" cried Bit. The Genosaurer used its hover jets to accelerate out of the Liger's way. However, the Raptorus took advantage of the Garret's distraction and leapt onto the Genosaurer's back. It managed a few swipes with its claws before the Genosaurer managed to buck it off.
Then the Liger charged in, its side blades extended. The Genosaurer jumped out of the way of the blades but was knocked off balance when the Raptorus latched onto its side, this time using its much larger hind claws to tear at the Genosaurer's flank.
Garret twisted the Genosaurer's head around and the Genosaurer closed its jaws around the Raptorus's neck. The Genosaurer pulled the Raptorus off its flank and flung the offending zoid away. The Genosaurer stumbled out of the way of yet another charge from the Liger. However, it was not fast enough this time and received a scratch for its sloth.
The Raptorus came charging in. This time it took one swipe with its fore claws and retreated, just in time to avoid a retaliatory slap from the Genosaurer's tail. Inside the cockpit of the Liger 0, Bit smiled; they were winning.
The Berserk Fury came charging in at the Dark Spiner, its blade array's slashing. The Dark Spiner proved surprisingly agile however, and was able to dodge the attack. Vega feinted, as if to press his attack, and ducked. The Elaphander's missile attack came whistling over the Fury's head and slammed into the Dark Spiner. But the Spiner was nothing, if not durable, and shrugged off the missile attack with ease. The guns mounted on its shoulders returned fire.
"Strike Laser Claw!" shouted Brad. The Dark Spiner dropped onto its belly, and the Shadowfox soared overhead, missing its intended target.
Just as the Dark Spiner stood up again, Vega activated the hover jets, sending the Berserk Fury rushing forward, catching the Dark Spiner in the chin with a resounding head butt. The Dark Spiner stumbled backwards then pivoted around its right leg, sending its tail crashing into the Berserk Fury's head, causing it to stumble to one side.
The Elaphander's gattling gun opened up, riddling the Dark Spiner with gunfire. The Dark Spiner fired its shoulder guns again, but the Elaphander activated the shield, which easily withstood the attack.
"Oh, I see," said Daniel, "An energy shield. We'll see how well it stands up to my charged particle cannon." Daniel engaged the Dark Spiner's foot lock. The Dark Spiner's spine shifted its position until it was oriented vertically, with the individual spines positioned horizontal to the Spiner's head. The spines began to spin, and then glow. Energy collected around the barrel that had extended from the Dark Spiner's mouth.
"Help!" called Stoler. The Dark Spiner fired and the Elaphander was lost in a flash of white light.
The Death Stinger almost toppled over as the Rodan's sonic boom hit it. The Raynos came in, firing its lasers at the slow moving zoid. However, the Death Stinger was more durable than even the Dark Spiner, and withstood that assault. Both airborne zoids were moving to fast for Jeremy to target. The annoying Gunsniper was another question entirely.
The Stinger's guns fired constantly at the Gunsniper. Fortunately Leena found cover behind a large rock. However, she could no longer be of any help to her friends.
Jeremy growled under his breath. The Death Stinger shook as a blast from the Rodan's micro plasma cannon struck it in the back. The Stinger began to move towards the rock behind which the Gunsniper was cowering.
The Death Stinger climbed up and over the rock, taking Leena by surprise. She managed a strangled scream of terror before the Death Stinger's claw clamped around the Gunsniper, lifting it from the ground.
"Now I've got you," taunted Jeremy. His good mood was short lived when a shot from the Raynos hit the Death Singer in the joint where the claw joined with the arm. The Death Stinger dropped the Gunsniper.
"Enough of this!" exlaimed Jeremy. The Death Stinger's tail opened to deploy the charged particle cannon, which pointed skywards at the Raynos. The tail was surprisingly quick and had little trouble locking onto the Raynos. Jamie tried to dodge and managed to actually avoid being hit by the powerful charged particle beam. But the shockwave made up for all the damage he had managed to avoid. The Raynos was sent tumbling head on into the ground.
"Jamie!" cried Leena. Without hesitation, she opened up on the Death Stinger with every single weapon the Gunsniper had. Despite her best efforts, the Death Stinger withstood the barrage like a ship weathering a fierce storm. Even the powerful sonic booms of the Rodan did little harm to the powerful zoid.
"Once more!" said Jeremy gleefully. The Death Stinger fired its charged particle cannon at the Rodan a second time. Once again, the beam itself missed but the shockwave sent the zoid tumbling to the ground like a broken balsa glider.
"And now," said Jeremy, focusing his attentions on the lone Gunsniper, "You're mine for the destroying." He leveled the Death Stinger's charged particle cannon at the Gunsniper. The charge began to build. He took his time, knowing that his target knew full well the futility of any actions she could take.
Leena watched her adversary taking his time building up for the blast. She knew it would come. She also knew that she would not have the good fortune to be taken out by a near miss. The beam would hit her full on. Leena knew that to take a direct hit from that cannon was to die. She closed her eyes and waited for the end.
Partway across the battlefield, the battle between Garret and Bit and Derrik was still at full swing. The Garret knew that it was unlikely that he would have the chance to use his charged particle cannon against either the Liger 0 or the Raptorus.
The entire hull of the Genosaurer was a mosaic of cuts, most of them dealt by the speed of the Raptorus and the skill of Derrik. Some were the results of lucky hits made by the Liger 0.
The Genosaurer staggered as the Raptorus slammed into its side with both feet, those deadly switchblade claws ripping more lines into the dark-blue armor of the Genosaurer. The Garret turned to retaliate, but found that the Raptorus had darted away. Sensing rather than seeing it, he sidestepped a charge from the Schnider, and reprimanded it with a slap from the Genosaurer's tail.
Derrik was about to attack the Genosaurer again, when the Raptorus, of its own accord, wheeled around and started sprinting in a different direction entirely. "What are you doing Raptorus!?" yelled Derrik. The Raptorus's image magnifier showed him a terrible image. The Gunsniper stood, unmoving, in front of the Death Stinger, which was slowly powering up its charged particle cannon.
"I had hoped that it would never come to this," said Derrik under his breath. "Hey, Bit," he called.
"Yeah?" replied Bit.
"I've gotta go back Leena up, try and hold down the fort," said Derrik.
"Leena?" Bit asked redundantly. "Hold on, I'll come with you." The Liger started to run in the direction the Raptorus had taken when it lurched and fell forward; its back foot caught on something. Bit looked back and realized the error of his attention lapse too late.
The Liger's back foot was caught at the ankle by the Genosaurer's cable claw. Servomotors in the Genosaurer's arm whined as the monster zoid slowly wound in the slack, pulling the Liger closer. "Now there is no escape for you," said Garret coldly.
Having understood the severity of the situation Leena was in, Derrik urged the Raptorus to run its fastest. All the while, he was running a check of the most unusual, and dangerous, weapons system ever to be possessed by any kind of zoid.
The Raptorus closed the distance between itself and the deadly confrontation taking place. Derrik knew that this was going to be close. Leaning forward into his seat, he urged the Raptorus to still greater speeds. Understanding its pilot's urgency, the Raptorus ran even faster.
Leena knew it was all over. She saw the Death Stinger fire at her, she knew she was about to die. Then, the bright light of the approaching charged particle beam was blotted out. Looking out of the cockpit, she spotted the lithe shadow of the Raptorus interposing itself between her and the unstoppable beam.
"Here goes nothing," said Derrik.
"Derrik!" a scream tore its way out of Leena's throat.
The Raptorus took the full brunt of the charged particle beam. Leena looked on, expecting to see the zoid consumed by the white light that engulfed it. Instead, the shadow cast by the Raptorus grew. The Raptorus was still there, standing as if it were unaffected by the charged particle cannon.
The Death Stinger eventually ended its attack. Jeremy was sure that he had destroyed his target. Of course, he had been in no position to see the Raptorus intercede, so he thought he had hit his intended target. He was surprised to see that not only had he not hit his intended target, but also the zoid he had hit was still standing, without a scratch no less. He managed to stutter, "What the…?" before the zoid he had inadvertently hit turned to regard him.
Leena looked on in amazement. Seconds ago she had been sure that she was a dead woman. Now, she looked at Derrik's creation with renewed respect. The Raptorus was the most unusual zoid she had ever had the privilege to fight. Now, it was displaying a new surprise. She wondered what the Raptorus was going to do next.
The Elaphander vanished in a flash of white light. Daniel looked on with satisfaction. The Dark Spiner was unstoppable. When he was done with the Elaphander, his next target would be the Shadowfox. Then he would finish his fight with the Berserk Fury.
The smoke from the blast was clearing. Daniel expected to see very little left of the Elaphander. What he expected and what he saw were two very different things. He was amazed when he saw the telltale glow of an energy shield through the smoke. "There is no way the Elaphander could have an energy shield that could withstand my blast!" he cried.
Then he realized that the shield was not a shield that could be projected by the Elaphander. When the smoke cleared completely, he saw the Berserk Fury standing inside a dome created by its energy shield. He also saw the Elaphander, intact and undamaged, standing behind it.
"You waste your time defending those weaker than you Vega," Daniel taunted.
"I'm not one to abandon my friends," replied Vega. The Berserk Fury deactivated its shield.
"Well, since the capabilities of our zoids are beyond those of the Elaphander and the Shadowfox, why don't we end this just between the two of us, zoid to zoid," the Dark Spiner began to gear up for another charged particle cannon blast, "Charged particle cannon to charged particle cannon."
The Berserk Fury straightened as it prepared its own weapon. Vents opened along the tail. The head came forward and a barrel extended from the mouth. The Fury's blade arrays took positions on either side of the body. Both blade arrays began to glow a hot white. The energy began to gather around the Fury's barrel.
"You can't defeat the Dark Spiner!" screamed Daniel.
Vega did not respond. Both zoids fired their charged particle cannons. The two blasts met halfway between the two of them. To Daniel's surprise, the Berserk Fury's blast began to force the Dark Spiner's attack backwards. He realized that he had been foolish to challenge the power of an Ultimate X. He increased the intake of the spines to give his beam more power, but it still couldn't match the Berserk Fury.
The Berserk Fury's beam got closer. Suddenly, Vega yelled, "Now Brad!"
"Strike Laser Claw!" The Shadowfox slashed at the base of the Dark Spiner's spine, cutting the thing off. Without the spines to supply the charged particle cannon with power, the Dark Spiner's beam disappeared completely.
Vega angled the Berserk Fury's beam upwards just in time to avoid sending the charged particle beam smashing through the Dark Spiner's cockpit. Instead, it stabbed through the Dark Spiner's haunches, crippling the zoid.
"Noooooooooooooooo!" screamed Daniel; "I can't have lost!"
"But you just did," said Brad smugly.
"Brad!" shouted Dr. Toros over the communications channel, "Bit's in trouble, go back him up."
"Sure thing Doc," said Brad.
The Liger's claws dug furrows in the ground as the Genosaurer pulled it ever closer. "Do you know what I'm going to do to you?" asked Garret coldly. Knowing that Garret was going to tell him anyway, Bit didn't give him the satisfaction of an answer.
"The Genosaurer masses the highest of any known zoid," Garret continued without missing a beat. "When my Genosaurer's foot comes down on top of your Liger 0, the armor will crumple like a tin can." He started to laugh. It was a strange, feral laugh that sent shivers down Bit's spine.
The thought of what Garret was about to do to his Liger made Bit and the Liger 0 struggle even harder. However, no matter what they did or how hard they struggled, the Genosaurer slowly pulled them closer. Bit knew they were fighting a losing battle. Then the idea came to him.
He suddenly turned the Liger 0 completely around and charged the Genosaurer, with the claw still attached to the Liger's leg. Bit fired the Schnider's boosters to gain even more speed. The result was more slack than the Genosaurer could reel in.
"Buster Slash!" The Schnider's Buster Slash penetrated the Genosaurer's chest. The Schnider swung its head, ripping through the Genosaurer's chest and severing the cable that connected the Genosaurer's claw to its arm.
Bit thought he had just won the battle. He was totally surprised when the Genosaurer swung its tail into the Liger's flank hard enough to send the Liger flying. The Liger crashed into the ground. It tried to get on its feet, but the side smashed by the Genosaurer buckled and the Liger 0 collapsed.
As Bit turned his attention from the status screen to his opponent, he saw the Genosaurer coming closer, getting ready for a charged particle cannon attack. "We're in trouble Liger," said Bit. The Liger 0 growled in agreement.
Zanders looked at the sensors to see if the data coming in was correct. No matter how many tests he ran he still arrived at the same conclusions. There was an anomaly in the Genosaurer's zoid core.
Curled up around the curve of the zoid core, Chaos was growing tense with excitement. The excitement did not come from its perceived victory over the Liger 0, but something else; something it knew its master had been waiting for. The fact that the master was engaged in the business at hand, Chaos knew that what was about to happen took precedence over anything else. The master had said so. Chaos knew that it would have to end the master's business prematurely. However, it was not apprehensive about that fact. The news it had would take any scolding the master had right off his lips.
The Genosaurer shuddered to a stop. Inside the cockpit, Garret looked down at the controls that had suddenly betrayed him. What had happened to his Genosaurer? Then he knew what the cause of the problem was. "Chaos?" he asked tentatively.
The Genosaurer wheeled around and activated its hover jets, speeding away from the Liger 0. "Chaos what are you doing!?" screamed Garret in a rage. His opponent had eluded his grasp, and this time through the actions of Garret's own Organoid.
Bit watched the Genosaurer's departure with plane confusion. "What was all that about partner?" he asked. The Liger 0 gave no reply, for it knew no answer.
Both Derrik and Jeremy bore witness to the Genosaurer's departure. "You coward!" screamed Jeremy. "Come back here!"
"You have to deal with me first," said Derrik.
The Raptorus's sickle claws plunged into the ground to hold it in place. The entire chest and underbelly of the zoid began to lower downward. What Jeremy saw was not encouraging. It was a series of three cylinders, each one wrapped around a smaller one. The smallest one was capped by a lens of some sort. The whole apparatus extended like a telescope. However, the device's purpose was most likely not so benign, thought Jeremy. At the rear end of the device some tubes ran back and up into the inside of the Raptorus.
Jeremy's suspicions were proved correct when the Raptorus began to glow. He saw the glow start coming down the tubes and feeding into the back of the weapon. The outside of the apparatus began to glow a fiery orange. The lens began to glow yellow. The body of the Raptorus moved so that it was angled upward, giving the weapon a clean line of fire to the Death Stinger.
"Plasma Cannon…Fire!" roared Derrik at the top of his lungs. The weapon fired. The beam was bright gold edged with orange. The blast passed just over the Death Stinger, but low enough to hit its tail. The Death Stinger's tail was gone in an instant. The heat began to eat away at the zoid's upper hull.
Far worse was the shockwave. The ground just seemed to sink, forming a massive furrow that followed the beam's path. When the furrow reached the Death Stinger, the zoid was literally blown to pieces by the power of the blast. The individual pieces flew in different directions. Luckily for Jeremy, the cockpit was flung to one side where it hit the ground hard. Jeremy hit his head and was knocked unconscious.
The beam continued onward until it hit a mountain that sat miles away. The entire mountain vanished in a dome of outwards expanding energy. All that was left was a crater; the ground, smoothed by tremendous heat and pressure, had the consistency of glass. Fortunately, being near a zoid battlefield, the mountain was completely uninhabited. There hadn't even been any form of wildlife on the mountain.
Leena felt her jaw drop at the unbelievable power of the Raptorus's weapon. The weapon had been powerful enough to wipe out a Death Stinger. She had no idea where the Raptorus could carry a generator powerful enough to utilize a weapon of such immense power. Much less impressive, was the fact that the Raptorus had shrugged off a direct hit from a charged particle cannon without so much as a scorch mark to show for it.
"You're just full of surprises aren't you," said Stoler, coming up in the Elaphander.
Derrik said nothing. He had felt it necessary to add such a device, but he despised using such an utterly destructive weapon. His hands were shaking. If anyone ever found out about that weapon and its power source, the human colonists would quickly go the way of the ancient Zoidians who passed millennia ago. He never wanted to use it again, but some instinct told him that this would certainly not be the last time he ever called on its power.
"What!?" cried the judge, "This isn't possible! Ohhh. The battle is over. The winners are…The Blitz and X Teams. Hmph."
"What was that," asked Bit. He had never seen such a powerful weapon, it made the Berserk Fury's charged particle cannon look like a flashlight.
"That was a plasma cannon," stated Derrik simply.
"Where do you keep the generator for that thing?" asked Leena.
"The Raptorus has no generator for such a weapon," replied Derrik. "Instead, upon my activation, the Raptorus is surrounded in a superconductor field. The superconductor field absorbs incoming energy, alters it, and feeds the energy into the plasma cannon. The plasma cannon magnifies the energy and fires. In a sense, I am turning my opponent's attack against him."
"Well," said Brad, who had just arrived, "We won, but what happened to the Genosaurer to just make it run off like that?"
"I have a feeling that this has something to do with Chaos," said Derrik.
Much farther away, the Genosaurer continued to jet across the desert. Garret no longer complained when he realized that nothing he could say or do would sway the Organoid from its purpose, whatever it may be. His confusion was clear, but Chaos was not in the habit of explaining itself.
Finally, the Genosaurer pulled into a sheltered canyon. Garret saw blue-white light as the Organoid detached itself from the zoid core. The light gathered in the cockpit. When it vanished, Garret saw that he was no longer in the cockpit, but outside on the ground looking up at the Genosaurer with Chaos at his side.
Garret said nothing, knowing that Chaos would still not give an explanation. Then, the Organoid fused with the Genosaurer again. Garret could not believe his eyes when he saw red lines growing up out of the ground. They were met by an identical set of lines coming down from the air over the Genosaurer's head. Soon, the Genosaurer was encased in a shell of energy that resembled a giant ruby.
"So," said Garret to himself, "It has begun." He began to laugh. His feral laughter grew louder and louder. He had finally realized the Organoid's intent. His insane glee at the horrors he would perpetrate was immeasurable. He stood there, admiring the handiwork of his brainchild, still laughing.
