Chaotic Century Zoids fic. This is about the Shubaltz brothers when they're kids and their relationship to each other. Being the series doesn't go into detail things in this story may be OOC. My theory of the Shubaltz brothers life as kids.

Disclaimer: Check Bio in author section.

A/N: Thanks for all the wonderful reviews. This chapter is their eighth grade year. I'll try very hard to keep updating a lot sooner than I've been able to lately. Remember, this story happens during the War after Karl met Van. Enjoy reading!! ^_^

Chap.6 (8th Grade; Karl-14, Thomas-13)

Once again it was a new school year. Karl and Thomas were getting ready for their first day of school. They were chatting about what they thought they would be doing this year and what the classes would be like. Once they were dressed they went downstairs where they ran into Lisa, she ushered them over to their breakfast, made sure they ate, and then sent them out the door on their way to school. The two boys went to find out their homeroom assignments and get their class schedules for the year.

They picked up their schedules and headed to their lockers. Once at their lockers they compared their schedules and homerooms. Unloading their junk that they brought with them into the locker they started talking about the new year.

" Karl what homeroom did you get?" Thomas queried looking at his own homeroom assignment. Karl picking up his own schedule took a look at it.

" I have Ms. Groce. What about you?

" Really? I have Ms. Lynch. Looks like we're getting split up for the first time ever." Thomas replied. He looked at his brother gauging his reaction to the news.

" It was bound to happen one day Thomas. Anyways what classes do you have?"

The boys continued to compare schedules to find that they only had three classes together that year, English, Science, and Band. A little bummed out they headed to their homerooms for the first ten minutes of the day when teachers got the attendance and made announcements. The bell rang for first period. The boys left their classrooms heading for first period. They ran into each other in the halls and headed to their first classes together since the classrooms where side by side. Karl went into History while Thomas went into Math.

The day had been relatively easy for the boys after first period, Karl went to Math where Thomas went to PE. Their third period class was together which was band. After band, the boys went to English together. During 6th period they went separate ways again Karl having PE while Thomas went to History. Their 7th period was together with Science where they were lab partners together. Their final period was study hall which was held back in their homerooms.

At the end of the day, Karl and Thomas met up to walk home together. The two were chatting about the school day.

" Karl did you know that they changed when the baseball season is going to be?" Thomas asked.

" Nope. What did they do move it to the fall instead of the spring?" Karl inquired. Thomas shook his head yes. Karl looked at Thomas while he was thinking about the change in the baseball season. " Well now that it's in the fall we could play on the team and still do track in the spring Want to give it a try, Thom?"

Thomas looked off in the distance as he thought the idea over. He really did like the idea of playing for the school team but was also thinking whether or not they should do it, after all they had never played in a league before and other than PE had no prior experience in playing. " Sure why not! Let's try out! What's the worst they can say other than sorry we can't put you on the team cause of your inexperience?"

A week later saw both boys in tryouts for the baseball team. There was Mr. Hamilton their PE teacher from last year and also the baseball coach. Before practice, he came over to Karl and Thomas.

" I was wondering if you boys would try out for the team this year since it doesn't happen at the same time as the track season. What positions do you plan to try out for?"

" Well Thomas is hoping for pitcher, and I am hoping for catcher." Karl answered Mr. Hamilton's question. Mr. Hamilton nodded and smiled at his answer.

" I was hoping you two would say that. I don't think you boys will have a problem making the team."

The days tryouts went quickly. Two days later after school saw Karl and Thomas checking the cut off list. The two had made the team, Thomas as the pitcher, and Karl the catcher. The next day saw them on the field at practice.

The baseball season had flown with their school doing extremely well and seeing them straight to the title game. It was the top of the 9th the score 0 –1 in the boys favor. Karl's and Thomas' team, the Saber Fangs, were on their home field and were to bat at the bottom of the 9th. So far Thomas had pitched a perfect game. There were two outs if he was to get one more out he would have a perfect game and win his team the title.

The batter strode up to the plate. He stepped in the batters box with determination and confidence to end this. As the batter was getting set, Thomas turned around on the mound getting focused. He could feel the sweat trickle down his forehead and cascading in rivulets down the back of his neck. He watched his infielders and could hear their shouted words of encouragement to finish the game.

Focused on the task at hand, Thomas swerved around and planted his foot on the rubber. He locked on to the sign that Karl was signaling him. Seeing it was a fastball, he nodded and straightened his back out. Getting set the cheers of the crowd in his ears, he pulled his arm back and ripped the ball towards home and straight for Karl. He waited the split second after the pitch to hear the umpires call of STRIKE ONE.

Cheering mentally, Thomas caught the ball thrown back to him and chalked his hands with a Rosen bag. Once he was ready, he received the sign for another fastball from Karl and sent the ball whistling to home plate. He saw the batter swing and miss. He smiled internally as he heard the ump say STRIKE TWO.

As he was setting up for the next pitch, the roar of the crowd filled his ears giving him the encouragement to finish this. His infielders were yelling at him to go for it and to kick the other teams butts. He received the sign from Karl, a curveball. Nodding he stood up. His eyes narrowed focusing entirely on Karl and the plate. He became deaf to the crowds roar. His lips pursed tightly in a hard line. His face was the perfect look of determination. As he let the ball loose towards the plate he knew that it was perfect. As Karl caught the ball, the ump yelled STRIKE THREE! YOU'RE OUT! THAT'S THE BALL GAME!

Thomas jumped up and yelled in pure happiness. He ran and met Karl in between the pitcher's mound and home plate. They high-fived each other right before the entire team mobbed them. Thomas could hear the crowd chanting THOMAS over and over again. Karl's face as well as his mother's beamed with pride for Thomas.

Karl looked up at his brother who was now on the shoulders of his teammates. " You did it Thomas! You pitched a perfect game!" Thomas smiled elated with joy for his accomplishment. He knew then this was one of the happiest moments of his life. He only wished that his dad could be there to see it.

Jan. of 8th grade year

Christmas break seemed to fly for the two siblings. They decorated the Christmas tree with Lisa and their mom like they always did every year. It had kinda become a tradition for them. Lisa had made Christmas dinner which the boys had thoroughly enjoyed after the wonderful day they had. On New Year's Eve they had been permitted to stay up. As the clock struck midnight, the boys set off fireworks in their backyard.

School had started back up for the two siblings and they were currently working on their homework when they heard the front door close signaling their mom was home. The two ran downstairs to greet their mother. When they were downstairs, the two brothers did a double take their mom had brought home a man with her.

Seeing her sons, Tiffany smiled and waved them on over. " Karl, Thomas, this is Sean. He is a good friend of mine. Sean the one on the left is my son Karl, and the one on the right is my son Thomas."

Sean looked at them and smiled. " Nice to meet you," he greeted them, " Are you twins?"

Karl looked Sean over not liking how his mom and Sean were on such friendly terms. He definitely did not like the look of this. " No were not twins, sir. We are only around ten months apart. We just dress and look alike cause we feel like it. It's also to confuse our teachers."

" Aren't you in different grades? You can call me Sean instead of sir by the way."

Thomas also began to have a gut feeling that he didn't like this guy as well. " No, I started a year early."

Sean chatted a little longer with the two brothers, striking up friendly and meaningless conversation. Finally, Karl managed to change the subject. " Sean, why are you here if you don't mind me asking?" Thomas looked at Karl, meeting Karl's eyes he thanked him for asking the question he most wanted to know.

" I'm glad you asked that question. Well your mother and I have been going out. I just asked for your mother's hand in marriage, and she said we should run the idea by you two. Karl and Thomas' eyes met they both had shock and anger in their eyes. Instead of making a seen, the two nodded in agreement on a decision that they both knew the other was thinking of.

Thomas decided to speak up. " Well, you have to admit Sean, this has come as a surprise to both me and my brother. Could you give us some time to get used to the idea?"

" Thomas, right? Sure, I don't want you to jump into a hasty decision and be unhappy." Now the two brothers knew they didn't like this guy. He was way too polite. Besides to them it was like their mom was betraying Dad's memory.

A week passed with the two boys scheming on how to get this guy to hate them and not want to marry their mom. They had finally decided that this guy was a stuffed up business man that only wanted their mom for her money. They figured the only way to get rid of him was have him do the same exact things that their dad used to do with them. It was the kind of stuff that would scare the shit out of any stuff nosed business man. Once they had their plan they put it to action.

The boys were at breakfast with their mom and her fiancée. Sean had moved in after the announcement. He was going to live with them until the wedding. The siblings were having polite conversation with Sean never letting on what they had in store for him. Finally, Sean asked them what they planned to do with their day considering it was Saturday.

Karl spoke up, " Well we always train with our Zoids during the day." Karl winked at Thomas while his mom and Sean weren't looking.

" Really, that is interesting." Sean replied trying to sound interested.

Karl knew what was going to happen next. Sure enough it happened as Thomas asked, " Hey, you know our dad used to train with us and ride along with us in our Zoids. Do you want to come along? It would be fun. It would be like Dad was back with us. If you're going to be our step-dad you might as well get used to doing stuff with us that we used to do with our father." Thomas smiled. To Sean and his mother, nothing was out of the ordinary, but to Karl, he could see the mischievous glint in Thomas' eyes.

" Sure, I would love to join you!"

" Kay, you can ride along in the Redler with Karl. That okay with you Karl?"

" No problem." Karl replied matching Thomas' facial expressions.

A half hour later saw Sean sitting in the Redler which the siblings dad had modified into a two seater when they were kids. Karl took off. Once the boys reached their training spot, Thomas popped up on a communication screen in the Redler and asked Karl if he would like to race. Karl replied in an affirmative.

At first Sean, thought nothing of it until all of a sudden the Redler was flying at its top speed without letting up for a finish line that was at the end of the canyon which the boys training ground was in. The canyon that Karl and Thomas trained in wasn't straight and wide. It was very windy and narrow, flying at top speed in a Redler and having to maneuver was a very complicated task when canyon walls would all of a sudden appear out of nowhere in front of your face, and you would only have three seconds to avoid the canyon wall. By the time Karl reached the finish line, Sean was needless to say a little nauseous and frightened.

But this was only the beginning of the torture that the boys planned to put Sean through. Karl then challenged Thomas to a scrimmage. Their normal rules was the first one with a radar lock on the other would win. Thomas was smart and managed to find a good sniping position for his Gun Sniper. For Karl to avoid a radar lock, he had to do a lot of nose diving only to pull up at the last second before hitting the canyon floor. This tactic didn't work however as Thomas managed to get a radar lock on the Redler and win the scrimmage.

Sean was thoroughly frightened and nauseous by the time the scrimmage was over. He demanded that this stop and that Karl take them back to the mansion and land on solid ground. He kept ranting until the canopy was open on the Redler, and he was able to jump down onto solid ground again where he then puked his guts out. Once he was done heaving, Sean went straight through the mansion and past Tiffany and stormed out yelling that the marriage was off for no one could live with her barbarian children.

Tiffany went straight to the kitchen were she knew she would find Karl and Thomas getting snacks from Lisa. Sure enough there was the two siblings munching on snacks thoroughly pleased with themselves. They were telling their training session to Lisa, who was smiling, smiles plastered on their faces the entire time.

" Well! What do you two have to say for yourself? My engagement with Sean is terminated thanks to the two of you!" She screamed at them, tears rolling down her cheeks. Thomas and Karl looked at each other feeling guilty now that they saw how much he meant to their mother.

" You could sort of say we submarined him. We're really sorry that we did it now." The two of them said in unison. The guilt was showing in their eyes. They were looking at the floor ashamed at their childish behavior.

" Well what's done is done. But you boys have to realize that your father is never coming back. He would have wanted us to move on and be happy." Their mother scolded them.

" But mom, we are happy!" They both cried.  That night the two brothers fell asleep content that Sean was gone but guilty that they had destroyed a chance at their mother's happiness.

A/N: I need to know what you think before I continue with this story. If you want to see what the two were like in the past please review. FLAMES ARE ACCEPTED!! BUT PLEASE GIVE ME THE REASONING BEHIND THE FLAMES!!!!! Thanks for all the wonderful reviews once again. Till next time… Ja'ne and Sayonara ^_~