Not so far away on the edge of the Milky Way there was a planet inhabited
by humanoid lifeforms, called Earth. On this planet there was a girl who
did not own Zoids. That would be me.
Well Chapter 2 is up! I hope it comes it comes out good. Thanks for the review!!!!!!!
Around 7 years later
Marie stepped out of the door and smiled; today was a gorgeous day. The wind blew cool, a sign that fall was on its way and that soon the harvest would begin in their tiny oasis. Not much of an oasis she had to admit, but it was enough. She looked out at the fields and sighed, maybe not quite enough, the crops were stunted and small, bearing the fruits of little rain and soil that seemed to have lost it's strength in the past few years. Slowly the desert was claiming back the rich soil they had sucked dry in an effort to survive. Their aquifer was fading, the land was dying. Still it was useless to focus on the negative, what would happen would happen, and they'd manage. Somehow. Marie shook her head gently and began walking toward the mechanic shop where Danny worked. It was time for lunch and unless she reminded him he'd simply go on working until he grew too hungry and then came home and raided the fridge. There was nothing really wrong with that except that last time he had done it, he'd eaten an onion rather than waste time heating anything.
Marie reached the store and swung open the door. The tinkling of a bell announced her presence. The front of the store appeared empty, but then a regular cry shot out.
"I'm in back," yelled Danny.
"Hey Danny, " shouted Marie as she walked into the garage.
"Oh hey Marie," said Danny happily as he rolled himself out from under the car. His face and hair were streaked with grease. The black lines of dirt seemed to further accent the scar across his right cheek and the eye patch that covered his right eye. Marie had to giggle; he was utterly filthy.
"It's lunch time, " said Marie, "come on, clean up, you can't touch anything that dirty."
"I'll be there in a little while, I just want to finish here." Danny began rolling under the jeep again when Marie stopped him by placing her foot on top of his chest.
"Uh- uh, " said Marie sharply, "I know you better than that, you're coming now."
"But.but the car, it's not done," pleaded Danny.
"Is there anything in there that will explode or fall to pieces if you're gone for about an hour."
"Well.not really," conceded Daniel.
"Then come on," said Marie lowering her foot off his chest.
"Since when has a 18 year old guy needed his 14 year old sister to baby-sit him," Danny said agitatedly, but a smile was pulling at his cheeks.
"You watch out for me, I watch out for you," she answered matter-o- factly.
"Lucky for you, my looking out for you is protecting you and being there for you when you're scared at night," muttered Danny. Marie's face dropped and she turned away from him. "Oh.I'm sorry Marie, you know I didn't mean that." "Don't worry about it," she answered sharply, "come on get up, it's gonna get cold."
"Be careful you're sounding like a housewife," and at the look of her face he quickly added, "just kidding, just kidding." He rolled himself out and reached for a thick staff next to him. He stood the staff on end and then pulled himself up leaning on his right leg and then floundered around trying to get his balance. "Okay," he said cheerfully, leaning on the staff, "let's go, I'm starving."
Marie shook her head gently at his comment and smiled but her eyes laid on the staff. She could never get used to it. It didn't matter that Danny took it with a smile, or that he still managed to beat up a kid that bullied her. It wasn't right that he should have it, he didn't deserve to limp around for the rest of his life, leaning on a huge staff. Marie felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked up at Danny.
"Don't worry about it, I'm fine. I manage just fine," he murmured softly. Marie smiled at him and then turned back. He managed, not even a Zoid shooting at him could destroy his spirit. Still Marie had heard him scream in his sleep and she could never put it out of her mind, not even when Danny'd shaken her and yelled at her for thinking it, that it was inadvertently her fault.
'If I ever find out who did this,' she thought to herself, 'he'll wish he had never been born.'
Danny stepped out of the bathroom, attempting to adjust his eyepatch and balance himself at the same time. A loud thump announced to the house that he had not succeeded. Danny attempted to pull himself up before anyone noticed his embarrassing feat, but Marie came quickly.
"Are you all right?" she asked looking down at Daniel.
"Just fine," grunted Daniel pushing himself up on two feet with the help of his staff, "just some technical difficulties." He adjusted the strap for his eyepatch and smiled. "So, where's lunch squirt?"
Danny laughed to himself as Marie rolled her eyes. He might tease her to death, but he'd take care of her beyond it. Danny was following Marie into the kitchen and tapping her ankles with his staff as he walked, all under the pretense that it was accidental of course.
"Come on," complained Marie, "you're going to make my ankles sore."
"Sorry," answered Danny, his voice alive with mischief and then he tapped Marie's ankles again. Marie sighed to herself, god sometimes she wanted to strangle him. They were settling down for lunch, Mom and Dad had gone to talk with the mayor about something and would probably be staying there for lunch.
"So how's that jeep your working on?" asked Marie right before biting into her corn."
"It's a mess," answered Danny, "they rode on the breaks, the engines shot, it needed it's oil changed 10 years ago, and there's so much sand choked in there it could make its own desert."
"Whose car is it?"
"I think it's the mayor's, but it'll be mine once I save up the money to buy it."
"You want a car with enough sand in it to make a desert?" asked Marie unbelievingly.
"It'll be in good shape when I'm done with it," answered Dan defensively.
"Are you going to teach me how to drive anytime soon?" asked Marie suddenly.
"I am teaching you how to drive."
"Yeah right, you've let me drive all of 15 minutes about 4 times."
"It's not my fault that each one of those times you managed to narrowly miss objects that I wasn't aware a car was capable of hitting." Danny burst into laughter, "Zi, I wasn't aware a car could plow into a tiny sand dune, or a pebble. You found the one tree within 20 miles in the desert and managed to just barely miss it."
"Well I'm not going to improve if you don't teach me." A loud knocking at the door broke apart the conversation. Daniel lifted himself up quickly and limped toward the door, eager to get away from a conversation that had the capability to put his life in danger. He swung open the door and revealed a young man to whom he quickly raised his eyebrows. The boy was around Marie's age and now sported a fading black eye, which Dan had generously supplied with a swinging kick.
"Daniel," the guy said failing to hide his surprise and fear by squeaking.
"Ray," answered Daniel coldly, "I though we finished this last week." "I wasn't here to mess with Marie, I swear," stuttered Ray, "the mayor sent me to call people to a meeting, um it's in half an hour, in the town center." Dan nodded firmly, and ignored the urge to laugh. "Uh, well that's pretty much it, umm bye." With that Ray was gone, running until he felt safe and then strutting like the tough guy he pretended to be. Danny closed the door and turned to Marie dropping his harsh expression for a smile.
"Looks like the jerk isn't such a tough guy anymore," said Danny with a shrug. Marie smiled gently and then looked down. "Uh-uh," said Danny.
"What?" asked Marie.
"You are not feeling embarrassed because I beat up a guy that deserves to have his face permanently planted in the dirt."
"Why'd you beat him up?" asked Marie, "I mean all he did was tease?"
"He did more than tease, that guy spoke utter trash to you, and you are way better than that. Plus, he openly admitted it to me, teased me because of the staff, and pretty much asked me to plant him into the dirt by suggesting that I'd trip and knock myself out fighting him, and all and all had it coming. He's just lucky all I gave him was a black eye."
"I almost feel sorry for them, they don't have the slightest clue what they're getting into."
"They always underestimate the cripple."
"Danny!"
"Kidding, kidding."
"Not funny," grumbled Marie.
Danny settled himself back down and continued eating. Marie was getting better at cooking; their mother had decided that now at fourteen Marie should know how to cook. Danny still wasn't sure how Marie felt about it. He was just glad they didn't think he should learn how to cook, it had been insinuated for a while a couple years ago.
"You're getting better at this cooking stuff," commented Danny.
"Housewife training," grumbled Marie. Well there was his answer, better change the subject.
"What do you think the meetings going to be about?" asked Danny. Marie obviously noticed his quick topic change and acknowledged it with the raising of an eyebrow.
"I don't know, probably something to do with how poor the fields have been lately. Desert's taking over," she answered.
"God I hope it's not like the last meeting. That was an hour waste of time while the mayor and Luke argued about whether it was due to the weather or the aquifer."
"Ah yes the meeting you chose to spice up at the end by yelling 'Shut up!' at the top of your lungs."
"Come on Marie, after an hour of listening to that crap everyone else wanted to say the same thing."
"True enough."
It seemed like everyone in the village was at the town center. Not that that was such a big deal Marie had to admit. All in all only about 150 people lived in the village. She and Danny were sitting on the hastily set chairs that seemed to resemble a whirlpool more than rows. The mayor was busy fiddling with a microphone trying to get it at that perfect volume where he was perfectly audible, but there was no ear shattering feed back. Marie could feel Danny fidgeting next to her, tapping his staff up and down.
"Stop fidgeting so much Daniel," Marie heard her mother hiss. She turned to look at her mother and father sitting next to Dan. They seemed tense; that was odd. Their parents were rarely that tense and Marie had never seen the mayor fiddle with the microphone that long.
"Hurry up," she heard Dan grumble under his breath. Marie prayed Danny wouldn't have another outburst, she wasn't sure that her parent's nerves at the present moment could handle it. Still, the constant tap tap testing one two three four was driving even her steady nerves a little haywire. Finally the mayor cleared his throat in the microphone symbolizing that his speech was starting and the town center fell silent.
"I'm sure many of you people are wondering why I called this meeting," he began.
"No," whispered Danny sarcastically. Marie elbowed him and kept watching the mayor.
"I've been mayor of this town for the past 8 years and you don't need me to tell you that we've experienced our great deal of hardship. From poor harvests to an attack."
Marie stiffened and she could feel Dan doing the same next to her. Did he have to bring that up? "This year things are getting worse. Our oasis is drying up, and we are going to pull in a very poor yield this year. Still we have a plan to try to save our community." Marie perked up at this; she'd be willing to do anything to help her village. She glanced at Danny; he was staring at the floor. The mayor continued, "We've discovered that the aquifer that we have used to water our fields is running dry, however deeper below the ground is another aquifer. By building a deeper well we could supply water for our village."
"Can we afford that?" a voice called out. It sounded like Luke, he always argued with the mayor at meetings.
"No," answered Mayor Donivan, "that's where our plan comes in." There were murmurs around the crowd and Marie turned to Danny, who shrugged his shoulders and continued being mesmerized by the floor. The mayor cleared his throat and fiddled his hands. Marie noticed that they were rough hands, scarred and callused from working the fields all his life. The hands of every adult here in their village.
"Many of you know that a Zoid Battle Commission is beginning to emerge here in Zi." With that everyone stared up at the mayor. "They are forming a sort of battle association for zoid pilots to fight and from the battles they win gain winnings. There will be regulations and teams and placings, giving zoid battles structure and cut back on accidents." Here the mayor's voice broke and Marie saw the brief swish of his eyes in their direction.
'It was a good idea,' she thought to herself, 'give them something to fight for so they don't attack innocents.' Still what did that have to do with their village? Other people seemed to be going along her train of thoughts.
"Okay, that's great and all, but what's that got to do with digging a well?" a voice yelled; it sounded like Luke again. The only other person that yelled like that at meetings was Danny and that was only after Luke and Mayor Donivan had worn his nerves to a thread.
"We want to give some of our money to a few of our youth so they can go become Zoid pilots and with their winnings support our village," burst out the mayor, his words coming out quickly and fearfully. There was utter silence, if a pin had dropped it would have deafened the village.
The mayor started talking again, "We would supply them with money to purchase a Zoid, supplies, and to register, the rest is up to them. A portion of their winning would return to the village to support us through the year and to help pay for the new irrigation." There he faltered, but then started again.
"It isn't a perfect plan, and it's not guaranteed to succeed, but it's our only hope," he paused as if waiting for some sort of response and then continued softly, "we'll need some volunteers."
Marie looked around the town. Her eyes went to every one of the boys who had at one point or another wanted to be a Zoid pilot. There was Evan, who had wanted to be a Zoid pilot ever since he'd seen one in a magazine when he was three, staring at the floor as if it was all that mattered in the world. All these boys staring at the ground or the air, anywhere but at the mayor. Every one of those boys had either wanted to be a Zoid pilot or wanted to get out of this town. Why wasn't anyone volunteering, this was the chance of a lifetime! The only person in this entire town with an excuse was Danny. If she'd been given that chance she'd grab it in and instant. Then it suddenly hit Marie; she was being given this chance!
Suddenly everything seemed different. Could she really do this? Have the entire town counting on her for her survival? Could she even pilot a Zoid? She was going to be a housewife. With those thoughts everything slipped into place. She was not going to be a housewife! She, Marie, was worth so much more than that. She could succeed; she could save her village. The doubts crept back into her mind, a poisonous viper slowly uncurling.
'Can you really?' they seemed to whisper 'You? Who relies on her crippled brother to defend her?'
'Yes' she reassured herself 'I can be stronger! I will succeed! I will be a Zoid pilot and a good one at that!'
'Do you really want to do this?' the doubts whispered again.
Of course she wanted to do this. She would do anything for her village and she had played with Zoid toys just as much as Danny, at least before the attack. This would be an adventure, a real life. Escape from the horror of being a second best housewife. She wanted more than that in her life. She could do so much more?
Then came the most painful question of all 'Are you really willing to do this to Danny?'
Guilt encroached upon her. Could she really go off and pilot a Zoid after that one had nearly killed Danny? Could she do this to him? She turned to him, his eyes still staring at the ground and bit her lip. Then she turned back to the front.
'I'm sorry Danny' she thought to herself.
The path itself may not be as arduous as the first step. For Marie rising from that seat was the most difficult feat she had ever performed in her life. She could feel the eyes rising to her. She couldn't bear to look to her right at Danny and her parents. I'm sorry she repeated as a constant cadence in her thoughts. 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry.' Then she stared up at the mayor, noticing his eyes widening with surprise. She felt her body trembling; her voice wasn't going to work. She gathered her strength and opened her mouth.
"I'll go," she said her squeaking voice seemingly deafening against the silence. I'm sorry Daniel she thought one last time before she gave up her guilt and chose instead to gather her strength.
"I'll go become a Zoid pilot," she said, louder and with more strength. She could feel everyone's eyes on her and tried not to let it jangle her nerves. Not to let their stares force her back down.
"Uhh.does anyone else wish to volunteer," the mayor said, clearly stunned, "to uhh go along with Marie." Marie resisted the urge to stare around the town center and stayed staring at the front.
Then a voice from her left said almost nonchalantly, "I guess I'm coming along too." Marie was floored.it couldn't be.there was absolutely no way. Marie hesitantly turned to her right, sure that she was wrong. But there he was, leaning against his staff, Danny. Marie turned to him and he smiled gently.
"You don't have to this," she whispered softly.
"Come on," he answered playfully, "you can't drive, you can't fix your Zoid, and your gonna need me to take care of you out there."
"I'll be fine," she answered more strongly, "you don't have to."
"Yeah I do," he answered his voice softer and more serious now, "You watch out for me and I watch out for you, remember?"
Well Chapter 2 is up! I hope it comes it comes out good. Thanks for the review!!!!!!!
Around 7 years later
Marie stepped out of the door and smiled; today was a gorgeous day. The wind blew cool, a sign that fall was on its way and that soon the harvest would begin in their tiny oasis. Not much of an oasis she had to admit, but it was enough. She looked out at the fields and sighed, maybe not quite enough, the crops were stunted and small, bearing the fruits of little rain and soil that seemed to have lost it's strength in the past few years. Slowly the desert was claiming back the rich soil they had sucked dry in an effort to survive. Their aquifer was fading, the land was dying. Still it was useless to focus on the negative, what would happen would happen, and they'd manage. Somehow. Marie shook her head gently and began walking toward the mechanic shop where Danny worked. It was time for lunch and unless she reminded him he'd simply go on working until he grew too hungry and then came home and raided the fridge. There was nothing really wrong with that except that last time he had done it, he'd eaten an onion rather than waste time heating anything.
Marie reached the store and swung open the door. The tinkling of a bell announced her presence. The front of the store appeared empty, but then a regular cry shot out.
"I'm in back," yelled Danny.
"Hey Danny, " shouted Marie as she walked into the garage.
"Oh hey Marie," said Danny happily as he rolled himself out from under the car. His face and hair were streaked with grease. The black lines of dirt seemed to further accent the scar across his right cheek and the eye patch that covered his right eye. Marie had to giggle; he was utterly filthy.
"It's lunch time, " said Marie, "come on, clean up, you can't touch anything that dirty."
"I'll be there in a little while, I just want to finish here." Danny began rolling under the jeep again when Marie stopped him by placing her foot on top of his chest.
"Uh- uh, " said Marie sharply, "I know you better than that, you're coming now."
"But.but the car, it's not done," pleaded Danny.
"Is there anything in there that will explode or fall to pieces if you're gone for about an hour."
"Well.not really," conceded Daniel.
"Then come on," said Marie lowering her foot off his chest.
"Since when has a 18 year old guy needed his 14 year old sister to baby-sit him," Danny said agitatedly, but a smile was pulling at his cheeks.
"You watch out for me, I watch out for you," she answered matter-o- factly.
"Lucky for you, my looking out for you is protecting you and being there for you when you're scared at night," muttered Danny. Marie's face dropped and she turned away from him. "Oh.I'm sorry Marie, you know I didn't mean that." "Don't worry about it," she answered sharply, "come on get up, it's gonna get cold."
"Be careful you're sounding like a housewife," and at the look of her face he quickly added, "just kidding, just kidding." He rolled himself out and reached for a thick staff next to him. He stood the staff on end and then pulled himself up leaning on his right leg and then floundered around trying to get his balance. "Okay," he said cheerfully, leaning on the staff, "let's go, I'm starving."
Marie shook her head gently at his comment and smiled but her eyes laid on the staff. She could never get used to it. It didn't matter that Danny took it with a smile, or that he still managed to beat up a kid that bullied her. It wasn't right that he should have it, he didn't deserve to limp around for the rest of his life, leaning on a huge staff. Marie felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked up at Danny.
"Don't worry about it, I'm fine. I manage just fine," he murmured softly. Marie smiled at him and then turned back. He managed, not even a Zoid shooting at him could destroy his spirit. Still Marie had heard him scream in his sleep and she could never put it out of her mind, not even when Danny'd shaken her and yelled at her for thinking it, that it was inadvertently her fault.
'If I ever find out who did this,' she thought to herself, 'he'll wish he had never been born.'
Danny stepped out of the bathroom, attempting to adjust his eyepatch and balance himself at the same time. A loud thump announced to the house that he had not succeeded. Danny attempted to pull himself up before anyone noticed his embarrassing feat, but Marie came quickly.
"Are you all right?" she asked looking down at Daniel.
"Just fine," grunted Daniel pushing himself up on two feet with the help of his staff, "just some technical difficulties." He adjusted the strap for his eyepatch and smiled. "So, where's lunch squirt?"
Danny laughed to himself as Marie rolled her eyes. He might tease her to death, but he'd take care of her beyond it. Danny was following Marie into the kitchen and tapping her ankles with his staff as he walked, all under the pretense that it was accidental of course.
"Come on," complained Marie, "you're going to make my ankles sore."
"Sorry," answered Danny, his voice alive with mischief and then he tapped Marie's ankles again. Marie sighed to herself, god sometimes she wanted to strangle him. They were settling down for lunch, Mom and Dad had gone to talk with the mayor about something and would probably be staying there for lunch.
"So how's that jeep your working on?" asked Marie right before biting into her corn."
"It's a mess," answered Danny, "they rode on the breaks, the engines shot, it needed it's oil changed 10 years ago, and there's so much sand choked in there it could make its own desert."
"Whose car is it?"
"I think it's the mayor's, but it'll be mine once I save up the money to buy it."
"You want a car with enough sand in it to make a desert?" asked Marie unbelievingly.
"It'll be in good shape when I'm done with it," answered Dan defensively.
"Are you going to teach me how to drive anytime soon?" asked Marie suddenly.
"I am teaching you how to drive."
"Yeah right, you've let me drive all of 15 minutes about 4 times."
"It's not my fault that each one of those times you managed to narrowly miss objects that I wasn't aware a car was capable of hitting." Danny burst into laughter, "Zi, I wasn't aware a car could plow into a tiny sand dune, or a pebble. You found the one tree within 20 miles in the desert and managed to just barely miss it."
"Well I'm not going to improve if you don't teach me." A loud knocking at the door broke apart the conversation. Daniel lifted himself up quickly and limped toward the door, eager to get away from a conversation that had the capability to put his life in danger. He swung open the door and revealed a young man to whom he quickly raised his eyebrows. The boy was around Marie's age and now sported a fading black eye, which Dan had generously supplied with a swinging kick.
"Daniel," the guy said failing to hide his surprise and fear by squeaking.
"Ray," answered Daniel coldly, "I though we finished this last week." "I wasn't here to mess with Marie, I swear," stuttered Ray, "the mayor sent me to call people to a meeting, um it's in half an hour, in the town center." Dan nodded firmly, and ignored the urge to laugh. "Uh, well that's pretty much it, umm bye." With that Ray was gone, running until he felt safe and then strutting like the tough guy he pretended to be. Danny closed the door and turned to Marie dropping his harsh expression for a smile.
"Looks like the jerk isn't such a tough guy anymore," said Danny with a shrug. Marie smiled gently and then looked down. "Uh-uh," said Danny.
"What?" asked Marie.
"You are not feeling embarrassed because I beat up a guy that deserves to have his face permanently planted in the dirt."
"Why'd you beat him up?" asked Marie, "I mean all he did was tease?"
"He did more than tease, that guy spoke utter trash to you, and you are way better than that. Plus, he openly admitted it to me, teased me because of the staff, and pretty much asked me to plant him into the dirt by suggesting that I'd trip and knock myself out fighting him, and all and all had it coming. He's just lucky all I gave him was a black eye."
"I almost feel sorry for them, they don't have the slightest clue what they're getting into."
"They always underestimate the cripple."
"Danny!"
"Kidding, kidding."
"Not funny," grumbled Marie.
Danny settled himself back down and continued eating. Marie was getting better at cooking; their mother had decided that now at fourteen Marie should know how to cook. Danny still wasn't sure how Marie felt about it. He was just glad they didn't think he should learn how to cook, it had been insinuated for a while a couple years ago.
"You're getting better at this cooking stuff," commented Danny.
"Housewife training," grumbled Marie. Well there was his answer, better change the subject.
"What do you think the meetings going to be about?" asked Danny. Marie obviously noticed his quick topic change and acknowledged it with the raising of an eyebrow.
"I don't know, probably something to do with how poor the fields have been lately. Desert's taking over," she answered.
"God I hope it's not like the last meeting. That was an hour waste of time while the mayor and Luke argued about whether it was due to the weather or the aquifer."
"Ah yes the meeting you chose to spice up at the end by yelling 'Shut up!' at the top of your lungs."
"Come on Marie, after an hour of listening to that crap everyone else wanted to say the same thing."
"True enough."
It seemed like everyone in the village was at the town center. Not that that was such a big deal Marie had to admit. All in all only about 150 people lived in the village. She and Danny were sitting on the hastily set chairs that seemed to resemble a whirlpool more than rows. The mayor was busy fiddling with a microphone trying to get it at that perfect volume where he was perfectly audible, but there was no ear shattering feed back. Marie could feel Danny fidgeting next to her, tapping his staff up and down.
"Stop fidgeting so much Daniel," Marie heard her mother hiss. She turned to look at her mother and father sitting next to Dan. They seemed tense; that was odd. Their parents were rarely that tense and Marie had never seen the mayor fiddle with the microphone that long.
"Hurry up," she heard Dan grumble under his breath. Marie prayed Danny wouldn't have another outburst, she wasn't sure that her parent's nerves at the present moment could handle it. Still, the constant tap tap testing one two three four was driving even her steady nerves a little haywire. Finally the mayor cleared his throat in the microphone symbolizing that his speech was starting and the town center fell silent.
"I'm sure many of you people are wondering why I called this meeting," he began.
"No," whispered Danny sarcastically. Marie elbowed him and kept watching the mayor.
"I've been mayor of this town for the past 8 years and you don't need me to tell you that we've experienced our great deal of hardship. From poor harvests to an attack."
Marie stiffened and she could feel Dan doing the same next to her. Did he have to bring that up? "This year things are getting worse. Our oasis is drying up, and we are going to pull in a very poor yield this year. Still we have a plan to try to save our community." Marie perked up at this; she'd be willing to do anything to help her village. She glanced at Danny; he was staring at the floor. The mayor continued, "We've discovered that the aquifer that we have used to water our fields is running dry, however deeper below the ground is another aquifer. By building a deeper well we could supply water for our village."
"Can we afford that?" a voice called out. It sounded like Luke, he always argued with the mayor at meetings.
"No," answered Mayor Donivan, "that's where our plan comes in." There were murmurs around the crowd and Marie turned to Danny, who shrugged his shoulders and continued being mesmerized by the floor. The mayor cleared his throat and fiddled his hands. Marie noticed that they were rough hands, scarred and callused from working the fields all his life. The hands of every adult here in their village.
"Many of you know that a Zoid Battle Commission is beginning to emerge here in Zi." With that everyone stared up at the mayor. "They are forming a sort of battle association for zoid pilots to fight and from the battles they win gain winnings. There will be regulations and teams and placings, giving zoid battles structure and cut back on accidents." Here the mayor's voice broke and Marie saw the brief swish of his eyes in their direction.
'It was a good idea,' she thought to herself, 'give them something to fight for so they don't attack innocents.' Still what did that have to do with their village? Other people seemed to be going along her train of thoughts.
"Okay, that's great and all, but what's that got to do with digging a well?" a voice yelled; it sounded like Luke again. The only other person that yelled like that at meetings was Danny and that was only after Luke and Mayor Donivan had worn his nerves to a thread.
"We want to give some of our money to a few of our youth so they can go become Zoid pilots and with their winnings support our village," burst out the mayor, his words coming out quickly and fearfully. There was utter silence, if a pin had dropped it would have deafened the village.
The mayor started talking again, "We would supply them with money to purchase a Zoid, supplies, and to register, the rest is up to them. A portion of their winning would return to the village to support us through the year and to help pay for the new irrigation." There he faltered, but then started again.
"It isn't a perfect plan, and it's not guaranteed to succeed, but it's our only hope," he paused as if waiting for some sort of response and then continued softly, "we'll need some volunteers."
Marie looked around the town. Her eyes went to every one of the boys who had at one point or another wanted to be a Zoid pilot. There was Evan, who had wanted to be a Zoid pilot ever since he'd seen one in a magazine when he was three, staring at the floor as if it was all that mattered in the world. All these boys staring at the ground or the air, anywhere but at the mayor. Every one of those boys had either wanted to be a Zoid pilot or wanted to get out of this town. Why wasn't anyone volunteering, this was the chance of a lifetime! The only person in this entire town with an excuse was Danny. If she'd been given that chance she'd grab it in and instant. Then it suddenly hit Marie; she was being given this chance!
Suddenly everything seemed different. Could she really do this? Have the entire town counting on her for her survival? Could she even pilot a Zoid? She was going to be a housewife. With those thoughts everything slipped into place. She was not going to be a housewife! She, Marie, was worth so much more than that. She could succeed; she could save her village. The doubts crept back into her mind, a poisonous viper slowly uncurling.
'Can you really?' they seemed to whisper 'You? Who relies on her crippled brother to defend her?'
'Yes' she reassured herself 'I can be stronger! I will succeed! I will be a Zoid pilot and a good one at that!'
'Do you really want to do this?' the doubts whispered again.
Of course she wanted to do this. She would do anything for her village and she had played with Zoid toys just as much as Danny, at least before the attack. This would be an adventure, a real life. Escape from the horror of being a second best housewife. She wanted more than that in her life. She could do so much more?
Then came the most painful question of all 'Are you really willing to do this to Danny?'
Guilt encroached upon her. Could she really go off and pilot a Zoid after that one had nearly killed Danny? Could she do this to him? She turned to him, his eyes still staring at the ground and bit her lip. Then she turned back to the front.
'I'm sorry Danny' she thought to herself.
The path itself may not be as arduous as the first step. For Marie rising from that seat was the most difficult feat she had ever performed in her life. She could feel the eyes rising to her. She couldn't bear to look to her right at Danny and her parents. I'm sorry she repeated as a constant cadence in her thoughts. 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry.' Then she stared up at the mayor, noticing his eyes widening with surprise. She felt her body trembling; her voice wasn't going to work. She gathered her strength and opened her mouth.
"I'll go," she said her squeaking voice seemingly deafening against the silence. I'm sorry Daniel she thought one last time before she gave up her guilt and chose instead to gather her strength.
"I'll go become a Zoid pilot," she said, louder and with more strength. She could feel everyone's eyes on her and tried not to let it jangle her nerves. Not to let their stares force her back down.
"Uhh.does anyone else wish to volunteer," the mayor said, clearly stunned, "to uhh go along with Marie." Marie resisted the urge to stare around the town center and stayed staring at the front.
Then a voice from her left said almost nonchalantly, "I guess I'm coming along too." Marie was floored.it couldn't be.there was absolutely no way. Marie hesitantly turned to her right, sure that she was wrong. But there he was, leaning against his staff, Danny. Marie turned to him and he smiled gently.
"You don't have to this," she whispered softly.
"Come on," he answered playfully, "you can't drive, you can't fix your Zoid, and your gonna need me to take care of you out there."
"I'll be fine," she answered more strongly, "you don't have to."
"Yeah I do," he answered his voice softer and more serious now, "You watch out for me and I watch out for you, remember?"
