Tori the Hanyou: Once again, I thank the reviewers for helping me get back
on my feet! I'll try to update as much as possible, but now I'm having to
keep up with four stories, so don't expect them to be fast, or very
frequent, I hope you understand. Anyway, get on with my first new chapter
for this story in over a year, Chapter 2: The Test
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Zoids: The Unknown UltimateX
Chapter 2: The Test
Morning dawned quickly as the sun peeked over the hills, shining brightly into the windows of the Blitz Team hover cargo.
"Jeez, sun, go away, will ya?" muttered Lena sleepily. Tori heard her, and opened her eyes. After nearly freaking out that she wasn't on the ground out in the middle of the plains with her Ligress beside her, she realized where she was, and the memories of yesterday, and jumped up.
"Oh, my test is today!" she said. Lena, hearing her, sat up quickly.
"Oh, my God, I forgot!" she said. "Today's the day we find out if you get to join us, though I'm absolutely positive it's going to be a yes!"
The girls quickly dressed, and went downstairs, where Bit and Brad were the only other guys up.
"Where's everybody else? We gotta go help Tori today with her test!" cried Lena.
"When I walked past their rooms, all I heard was snoring," said Brad quietly.
"DAAAAAAD! JAMIIIIIEEEE! GET YOUR LAZY BUTTS OUT OF BED NOW!!!!!" Lena nearly screamed the roof off.
Off in the distance of the hover cargo, a huge flock of birds flew off.
Tori had dove under the table with Brad and Bit to avoid having her ears blown off. When she pulled her hands off of her ears, her head was ringing.
"Jeez, Lena, how do you get the lung capacity to scream so loud?" asked Brad, crawling out from under the table, dragging Bit with him, who had persisted to hang onto the main table leg until Lena was done. Tori came out after them, shaking her head.
Five minutes later, Doc and Jamie came down, dressed, looking like they'd been awoken with an air horn.
"Lena, did you have to wake us up like that?" asked Jamie. "Even slamming us over the heads with pillows would've been nicer."
"You guys, today Tori has to take that test to see if she can be on our team," said Lena. The two nodded.
After breakfast, Doc drove the hover cargo to the Zoid commission office. Lena jumped out, dragging Tori and the rest of the team with her, heading into the front office. They stopped and Lena and Doc went up to the front desk to ask if they could speak with the head of the Zoid commission. It wasn't too long of a wait before they were ushered into another room.
Tori walked right to the other side of the room; where a large desk was, and behind it sat a man in a Zoid army uniform with many shiny badges on it. He stood up and greeted Tori with a handshake.
"Welcome back, Tori. I understand you wish to join the Blitz Team," he said.
"Yes, sir, I'd very much appreciate if I could. I would like to fight in actual battles," responded Tori.
"Well, what's the matter with how you're fighting now? You get to fight outlaw Zoid pilots who steal or mistreat their Zoids, I don't see anything wrong with that."
"Not to be ungrateful, sir, I'm very happy to have been honored with working for you in crime-fighting, but I'm afraid there's no real fighting in it. The criminals I fight are too easy to take down, sir." The leader sighed.
"You're one of our best law-enforcers, though, Tori."
"I know, sir, but I think my Ligress and I need a challenge now. Our fighting abilities are gathering dust because there's no need to use them."
"Alright, I see there's no convincing you. Head out the door down the hall on the left and speak with the people out there. They will report to me if you pass the test or not."
"Thank you, sir! I appreciate this greatly!" said Tori happily. Lena led the way out the door.
"Alright! The commission leader said it was okay in person! Now all you gotta do is pass a stupid test, and you can get into the REAL action!" squealed Lena. Tori nodded.
Some people outside were dressed in Zoid pilot uniforms. They walked up to the group.
"Are you the Ligress-Zero pilot?" asked the front one.
"Yes. I'm here to take a test," said Tori.
"Very well, come this way. Have you brought your Zoid?" asked another one.
"Umm, one second," said Tori. She turned and whistled. All was silent for a second, until vibrations began to emit through the ground. They heard a roar, and the Ligress came flying over the fence into the yard, skidding to a stop. "There she is." said Tori. The pilots stared at the Zoid. Ligress walked over, bending down so Tori could get in the cockpit. She straightened up. "So, where do we go?" came Tori's voice from the Ligress's voice box. Still staring, one of the pilots went over to the building and flipped an enormous switch. The ground began to tremble, and walls appeared just to Tori's right, shooting out of the ground.
When the dust cleared, Ligress was facing an opening in the walls. She growled, ready for a challenge. The pilot who'd flipped the switch jumped onto a platform, which rose to a control center on the side of the commission building. From the control center, he said into the microphone,
"All right, this is what you have to do. First, you have to get through this maze and around each obstacle within a time limit. I can't tell you what the obstacles are, that would be too much of an advantage. There will be one final obstacle at the end of the maze that will not be timed, but if you do not reach it in ten minutes, you fail the test, and do not get to overcome it. Are you ready?"
Ligress roared. "Ready!" came Tori's voice.
"GO!" yelled the pilot. Tori and Ligress zipped off into the maze and around a corner, vanishing. The other pilots came up to the rest of the Blitz team.
"Would you like to see the final obstacle?" one asked. They all nodded. They were led up a flight of stairs in the side of the maze, and into a set of bleachers on the walls of a huge arena.
"Whoa! So she has to fight one of you as the final test?" asked Lena.
"Yes, and we are specially trained for these sort of fights. Usually, the Zoid and pilot are exhausted at the end of the maze, and we have to be ready to try to take them down," said the pilot.
"Has anyone ever passed the test?" asked Jamie.
"Yes, there were a few, but they were VERY skilled and experienced pilots, so we don't know how this one's going to do," replied the pilot. One of the other pilots left the group and jumped down into a Saber Tooth, lined up next to a bunch of other Zoids, like Gunsnipers and D-Bisons. "We have several Zoids that reflect different strengths to oppose the test- takers with. The Ligress-Zero is a high-speed Zoid, therefore we will use a speed Zoid to take her on," explained the pilot. He pushed a button, and gates opened into the arena. The Saber Tooth walked in, and the gates closed behind it. "Now we wait," said the pilot, "You may check the progress of your friend on the big screen up there." He pointed to the opposite side of the arena, where a large screen rested on top of the bleachers, showing Ligress jumping between several silver spikes as they rained down on her.
Tori swerved to avoid the falling obstacles as she and Ligress raced on. She felt Ligress's excitement building. Now here was a real challenge. Suddenly, up ahead, more spikes closed together to make a wall. 'Guess I gotta jump it,' thought Tori. Ligress sensed her thoughts, and picked up enormous speed, leaping almost effortlessly over the wall, landing lightly on the other side. Tori smiled. They were making great time. Suddenly, metal whips lashed out at them, trying to grab onto Ligress. But, Ligress roared angrily and picked up speed, snapping the whips right off the walls. She raced around the corner, and suddenly, a bomb popped out of the wall, landing right in the middle of the road.
"Hurry, Ligress! Jump over it!" yelled Tori. Ligress did as she was told, leaping over the bomb, but, just as they were about to make a safe landing, the bomb exploded, sending Ligress off balance, and causing her to fall. They skidded on Ligress's shoulder until they came to a stop. "Ligress! You OK?" asked Tori. In response, Ligress jumped up, shaking the fall off. They turned and kept running. 'Good thing we jumped it. Stopping would've delayed us a lot longer, and if we hadn't jumped when we did, Ligress might've been blown to bits,' thought Tori. They soon saw an opening, and a timer next to it. It read 3:32, and it was counting down. 'That must be my time!' thought Tori as she and Ligress blitzed into the arena when a loud buzzer went off.
A mechanical voice rang out,
"Time completed, 6 minutes and 28 seconds!" Tori heard cheering, and looked up to see Lena, Jamie and Bit waving at her. Lena was doing the cheering. She smiled, but suddenly felt Ligress growling. She looked over to see the Saber Tooth approach her.
"Okay, so my final obstacle is to fight you?" asked Tori.
"Yes, you won't be timed," said the voice.
"Let the fight begin!" yelled the pilot in the control box. The Saber Tooth approached Ligress at a full run. Tori didn't need to do a lot of telling, Ligress could sense what she was thinking, and just as the Saber Tooth was about to slash at them with its claws, Ligress leaped into the air, landing on her opponent, and jumping off quickly to finish the combo attack with a few slashes from her own claws before she leapt away to avoid any surprise attacks. The Saber Tooth staggered to its feet, and Tori could see its right front leg sparking. That was where she would hit again when she ever got the chance. Now that she'd done that attack, her opponent would be a little more prepared for it. She ran through her long list of combo attacks in her mind as she leapt over the charging Saber Tooth again. She got an idea in mid-jump, and Ligress reached down with her claws, slashing at the right leg again. She landed, and turned around. No more evading. Now was the final attack. The Saber Tooth charged again, and this time she met it full on. "Okay, Ligress, DO IT!" she yelled. Ligress leapt at the opponent, finishing it off with one more deadly blow to the right leg, making it collapse. She'd won.
"WOOHOO! You GO Ligress! YEAH!!!" screamed Lena as Ligress added insult to injury by letting out her victory roar. Bit covered his ears as best as he could, but he was positive he'd be deaf for the next few hours.
Tori walked out of the commission about twenty minutes later with a file folder containing the paper work stating she was an official Zoid fighter, and that she was a Blitz team member. Poor Bit was still trying to get the ringing in his ears to stop.
"Jeez, Lena, how do you get enough air to scream that loud?" asked Bit. He was rewarded with a bonk on the head.
"None of your business," she said, a vein popping in her head. Ligress was waiting by the hover cargo. "Hey, Tori, how do you suppose Ligress got out of the garage to answer your whistle?" she asked.
"Well, Zoids usually push the button to open the door," she said, slightly sarcastically. Lena looked confused.
"What are you talking about? I don't know any Zoids that are smart enough to open a door by pushing the button," she said.
"Liger did it," piped up Bit. Lena whirled around.
"He did? When?"
"When Liger was nearly stolen by the Backdraft group. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, either. He always does that," said Bit.
"But my Gunsniper never opens the door by itself. I always have to open it," said Lena.
"Same with my Raynos," said Jamie.
"And the Shadow Fox," said Brad. "All the time I've known him, he's never opened the garage by himself."
"Hmm, interesting," muttered Doc. Lena turned on him.
"What the hell is interesting this time, Dad?" she asked angrily.
"It seems that the Liger and Ligress are, no offense, Lena, Brad and Jamie, smarter than the Raynos, Shadow Fox and Gunsniper. Tori says her Ligress doesn't spend a lot of time in garages, yet she could open it by herself easily. What an interesting discovery!" exclaimed Doc. Lena sweat- dropped.
"So, you're saying I have a dumb Zoid???" she asked.
"No, not at all, the Liger and Ligress are just a little more intelligent, that's it. It must be an effect of their being Ultimate-X's," explained Doc hurriedly, so as not to upset his daughter.
By the time they'd reached the hover cargo, Lena seemed to have forgotten it, and was buzzing around about having another girl to talk to, finally.
"Oh, my God! We're going to have SO much fun! We'll get to watch my favorite soap operas, maybe do each other's hair and nails . . .," She was still rambling on when a message suddenly showed up on the computer screen in the living room.
"Hello, Blitz Team, it's the Backdraft Group," came the deadly voice.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Tori the Hanyou: Ooo, cliffy! WOW! Finally, my first new chappie for this story is complete after about a year of writer's block on it! I'm sooo excited! Again, I want to thank the following people:
TheWraith1: Thanks for the encouragement, I really appreciate it!
Biddett da Pigeon Stalker: Thanks for your kind words, and I'm so happy to have finally recontinued this story!
Silver: Yup, I'm done w/ Chappie 2!
Chanco: Actually, I got the idea from the show, and when I looked it up on the Internet, I found that ligers were actually real. I then wondered what they would call a girl (combine Tigress and Lioness) and I got Ligress! It's not spelled the same way as urs, but be rest assured, I didn't steal it from you, lol! Wow, talk about major coincidence. I'll think about co- authoring, yeah! Email me about it; my email address is on my author's page.
Cya!
~*Tori the Hanyou*~
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Zoids: The Unknown UltimateX
Chapter 2: The Test
Morning dawned quickly as the sun peeked over the hills, shining brightly into the windows of the Blitz Team hover cargo.
"Jeez, sun, go away, will ya?" muttered Lena sleepily. Tori heard her, and opened her eyes. After nearly freaking out that she wasn't on the ground out in the middle of the plains with her Ligress beside her, she realized where she was, and the memories of yesterday, and jumped up.
"Oh, my test is today!" she said. Lena, hearing her, sat up quickly.
"Oh, my God, I forgot!" she said. "Today's the day we find out if you get to join us, though I'm absolutely positive it's going to be a yes!"
The girls quickly dressed, and went downstairs, where Bit and Brad were the only other guys up.
"Where's everybody else? We gotta go help Tori today with her test!" cried Lena.
"When I walked past their rooms, all I heard was snoring," said Brad quietly.
"DAAAAAAD! JAMIIIIIEEEE! GET YOUR LAZY BUTTS OUT OF BED NOW!!!!!" Lena nearly screamed the roof off.
Off in the distance of the hover cargo, a huge flock of birds flew off.
Tori had dove under the table with Brad and Bit to avoid having her ears blown off. When she pulled her hands off of her ears, her head was ringing.
"Jeez, Lena, how do you get the lung capacity to scream so loud?" asked Brad, crawling out from under the table, dragging Bit with him, who had persisted to hang onto the main table leg until Lena was done. Tori came out after them, shaking her head.
Five minutes later, Doc and Jamie came down, dressed, looking like they'd been awoken with an air horn.
"Lena, did you have to wake us up like that?" asked Jamie. "Even slamming us over the heads with pillows would've been nicer."
"You guys, today Tori has to take that test to see if she can be on our team," said Lena. The two nodded.
After breakfast, Doc drove the hover cargo to the Zoid commission office. Lena jumped out, dragging Tori and the rest of the team with her, heading into the front office. They stopped and Lena and Doc went up to the front desk to ask if they could speak with the head of the Zoid commission. It wasn't too long of a wait before they were ushered into another room.
Tori walked right to the other side of the room; where a large desk was, and behind it sat a man in a Zoid army uniform with many shiny badges on it. He stood up and greeted Tori with a handshake.
"Welcome back, Tori. I understand you wish to join the Blitz Team," he said.
"Yes, sir, I'd very much appreciate if I could. I would like to fight in actual battles," responded Tori.
"Well, what's the matter with how you're fighting now? You get to fight outlaw Zoid pilots who steal or mistreat their Zoids, I don't see anything wrong with that."
"Not to be ungrateful, sir, I'm very happy to have been honored with working for you in crime-fighting, but I'm afraid there's no real fighting in it. The criminals I fight are too easy to take down, sir." The leader sighed.
"You're one of our best law-enforcers, though, Tori."
"I know, sir, but I think my Ligress and I need a challenge now. Our fighting abilities are gathering dust because there's no need to use them."
"Alright, I see there's no convincing you. Head out the door down the hall on the left and speak with the people out there. They will report to me if you pass the test or not."
"Thank you, sir! I appreciate this greatly!" said Tori happily. Lena led the way out the door.
"Alright! The commission leader said it was okay in person! Now all you gotta do is pass a stupid test, and you can get into the REAL action!" squealed Lena. Tori nodded.
Some people outside were dressed in Zoid pilot uniforms. They walked up to the group.
"Are you the Ligress-Zero pilot?" asked the front one.
"Yes. I'm here to take a test," said Tori.
"Very well, come this way. Have you brought your Zoid?" asked another one.
"Umm, one second," said Tori. She turned and whistled. All was silent for a second, until vibrations began to emit through the ground. They heard a roar, and the Ligress came flying over the fence into the yard, skidding to a stop. "There she is." said Tori. The pilots stared at the Zoid. Ligress walked over, bending down so Tori could get in the cockpit. She straightened up. "So, where do we go?" came Tori's voice from the Ligress's voice box. Still staring, one of the pilots went over to the building and flipped an enormous switch. The ground began to tremble, and walls appeared just to Tori's right, shooting out of the ground.
When the dust cleared, Ligress was facing an opening in the walls. She growled, ready for a challenge. The pilot who'd flipped the switch jumped onto a platform, which rose to a control center on the side of the commission building. From the control center, he said into the microphone,
"All right, this is what you have to do. First, you have to get through this maze and around each obstacle within a time limit. I can't tell you what the obstacles are, that would be too much of an advantage. There will be one final obstacle at the end of the maze that will not be timed, but if you do not reach it in ten minutes, you fail the test, and do not get to overcome it. Are you ready?"
Ligress roared. "Ready!" came Tori's voice.
"GO!" yelled the pilot. Tori and Ligress zipped off into the maze and around a corner, vanishing. The other pilots came up to the rest of the Blitz team.
"Would you like to see the final obstacle?" one asked. They all nodded. They were led up a flight of stairs in the side of the maze, and into a set of bleachers on the walls of a huge arena.
"Whoa! So she has to fight one of you as the final test?" asked Lena.
"Yes, and we are specially trained for these sort of fights. Usually, the Zoid and pilot are exhausted at the end of the maze, and we have to be ready to try to take them down," said the pilot.
"Has anyone ever passed the test?" asked Jamie.
"Yes, there were a few, but they were VERY skilled and experienced pilots, so we don't know how this one's going to do," replied the pilot. One of the other pilots left the group and jumped down into a Saber Tooth, lined up next to a bunch of other Zoids, like Gunsnipers and D-Bisons. "We have several Zoids that reflect different strengths to oppose the test- takers with. The Ligress-Zero is a high-speed Zoid, therefore we will use a speed Zoid to take her on," explained the pilot. He pushed a button, and gates opened into the arena. The Saber Tooth walked in, and the gates closed behind it. "Now we wait," said the pilot, "You may check the progress of your friend on the big screen up there." He pointed to the opposite side of the arena, where a large screen rested on top of the bleachers, showing Ligress jumping between several silver spikes as they rained down on her.
Tori swerved to avoid the falling obstacles as she and Ligress raced on. She felt Ligress's excitement building. Now here was a real challenge. Suddenly, up ahead, more spikes closed together to make a wall. 'Guess I gotta jump it,' thought Tori. Ligress sensed her thoughts, and picked up enormous speed, leaping almost effortlessly over the wall, landing lightly on the other side. Tori smiled. They were making great time. Suddenly, metal whips lashed out at them, trying to grab onto Ligress. But, Ligress roared angrily and picked up speed, snapping the whips right off the walls. She raced around the corner, and suddenly, a bomb popped out of the wall, landing right in the middle of the road.
"Hurry, Ligress! Jump over it!" yelled Tori. Ligress did as she was told, leaping over the bomb, but, just as they were about to make a safe landing, the bomb exploded, sending Ligress off balance, and causing her to fall. They skidded on Ligress's shoulder until they came to a stop. "Ligress! You OK?" asked Tori. In response, Ligress jumped up, shaking the fall off. They turned and kept running. 'Good thing we jumped it. Stopping would've delayed us a lot longer, and if we hadn't jumped when we did, Ligress might've been blown to bits,' thought Tori. They soon saw an opening, and a timer next to it. It read 3:32, and it was counting down. 'That must be my time!' thought Tori as she and Ligress blitzed into the arena when a loud buzzer went off.
A mechanical voice rang out,
"Time completed, 6 minutes and 28 seconds!" Tori heard cheering, and looked up to see Lena, Jamie and Bit waving at her. Lena was doing the cheering. She smiled, but suddenly felt Ligress growling. She looked over to see the Saber Tooth approach her.
"Okay, so my final obstacle is to fight you?" asked Tori.
"Yes, you won't be timed," said the voice.
"Let the fight begin!" yelled the pilot in the control box. The Saber Tooth approached Ligress at a full run. Tori didn't need to do a lot of telling, Ligress could sense what she was thinking, and just as the Saber Tooth was about to slash at them with its claws, Ligress leaped into the air, landing on her opponent, and jumping off quickly to finish the combo attack with a few slashes from her own claws before she leapt away to avoid any surprise attacks. The Saber Tooth staggered to its feet, and Tori could see its right front leg sparking. That was where she would hit again when she ever got the chance. Now that she'd done that attack, her opponent would be a little more prepared for it. She ran through her long list of combo attacks in her mind as she leapt over the charging Saber Tooth again. She got an idea in mid-jump, and Ligress reached down with her claws, slashing at the right leg again. She landed, and turned around. No more evading. Now was the final attack. The Saber Tooth charged again, and this time she met it full on. "Okay, Ligress, DO IT!" she yelled. Ligress leapt at the opponent, finishing it off with one more deadly blow to the right leg, making it collapse. She'd won.
"WOOHOO! You GO Ligress! YEAH!!!" screamed Lena as Ligress added insult to injury by letting out her victory roar. Bit covered his ears as best as he could, but he was positive he'd be deaf for the next few hours.
Tori walked out of the commission about twenty minutes later with a file folder containing the paper work stating she was an official Zoid fighter, and that she was a Blitz team member. Poor Bit was still trying to get the ringing in his ears to stop.
"Jeez, Lena, how do you get enough air to scream that loud?" asked Bit. He was rewarded with a bonk on the head.
"None of your business," she said, a vein popping in her head. Ligress was waiting by the hover cargo. "Hey, Tori, how do you suppose Ligress got out of the garage to answer your whistle?" she asked.
"Well, Zoids usually push the button to open the door," she said, slightly sarcastically. Lena looked confused.
"What are you talking about? I don't know any Zoids that are smart enough to open a door by pushing the button," she said.
"Liger did it," piped up Bit. Lena whirled around.
"He did? When?"
"When Liger was nearly stolen by the Backdraft group. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, either. He always does that," said Bit.
"But my Gunsniper never opens the door by itself. I always have to open it," said Lena.
"Same with my Raynos," said Jamie.
"And the Shadow Fox," said Brad. "All the time I've known him, he's never opened the garage by himself."
"Hmm, interesting," muttered Doc. Lena turned on him.
"What the hell is interesting this time, Dad?" she asked angrily.
"It seems that the Liger and Ligress are, no offense, Lena, Brad and Jamie, smarter than the Raynos, Shadow Fox and Gunsniper. Tori says her Ligress doesn't spend a lot of time in garages, yet she could open it by herself easily. What an interesting discovery!" exclaimed Doc. Lena sweat- dropped.
"So, you're saying I have a dumb Zoid???" she asked.
"No, not at all, the Liger and Ligress are just a little more intelligent, that's it. It must be an effect of their being Ultimate-X's," explained Doc hurriedly, so as not to upset his daughter.
By the time they'd reached the hover cargo, Lena seemed to have forgotten it, and was buzzing around about having another girl to talk to, finally.
"Oh, my God! We're going to have SO much fun! We'll get to watch my favorite soap operas, maybe do each other's hair and nails . . .," She was still rambling on when a message suddenly showed up on the computer screen in the living room.
"Hello, Blitz Team, it's the Backdraft Group," came the deadly voice.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Tori the Hanyou: Ooo, cliffy! WOW! Finally, my first new chappie for this story is complete after about a year of writer's block on it! I'm sooo excited! Again, I want to thank the following people:
TheWraith1: Thanks for the encouragement, I really appreciate it!
Biddett da Pigeon Stalker: Thanks for your kind words, and I'm so happy to have finally recontinued this story!
Silver: Yup, I'm done w/ Chappie 2!
Chanco: Actually, I got the idea from the show, and when I looked it up on the Internet, I found that ligers were actually real. I then wondered what they would call a girl (combine Tigress and Lioness) and I got Ligress! It's not spelled the same way as urs, but be rest assured, I didn't steal it from you, lol! Wow, talk about major coincidence. I'll think about co- authoring, yeah! Email me about it; my email address is on my author's page.
Cya!
~*Tori the Hanyou*~