Okay everyone, this is Mercenary Pen here, I couldn't convince Van Flyhight to travel through time to be interviewed over the course of this chapter, so I got someone else, everyone, say hello to Raven! Audience is quiet. Sorry about that reception Raven, but to be perfectly honest you aren't the most universally adored character in the series.
(Raven) It's quite alright, I don't particularly care about the opinions of such mediocre zoid warriors anyway. Now about that agreement we made earlier...
What, the agreement that you got to watch your however many greats grandson in a zoid battle, and that I would leave the readers to guess themselves who you ended up marrying, mutters under breath as if they didn't know it would be her already!
Well then, since you know I wouldn't dare break my word with you aside certainly not with that organoid of yours breathing down my neck, lets get on with the story.
Chapter 11: The trap is sprung.
Baron Danthorn was tired, his hard work and the happenstance that had given him fresh data on the Dragowing-notably its intervention in the skirmish that had been planned as a takeover of the Hellfire syndicate- had begun to pay off, and now the first attempt at a proper ambush could be made, he only hoped that the zoid team they were paying for this was as strong as they claimed they were.
Garth was busy changing into the one outfit of formal dress that he had taken with him on moving out of his father's estates into the cramped quarters that was the base of the Paladin team. Why his father had invited several zoid teams for a formal dinner was beyond Garth's understanding, given that Professor Meyer was none too sociable to begin with, but the fact of the matter was that he had and that Garth would discover his father's motives soon enough.
Adrianne was sorting her hair out in the next room, the occasional bump as the Hovercargo advanced on their destination little more than a mild inconvenience. Adrianne had decided to make a good impression on Garth's father if at all possible; it wasn't that there was a love interest between the two of them, despite the clumsy matchmaking attempts made by her father in yet another attempt at social climbing, and since her father was a dealer in custom-built zoid parts-something the Paladin Team needed an awful lot of given the rarity of their zoids-and was able to offer them to the Paladins at a reduced price, making only ten percent profit rather than thirty on his deals with the team. Or at least Adrianne didn't think there was anything permanent forming between the two of them, but right now she was having difficulty telling what she felt about anyone, so she would try and stay on the good side of all of her colleagues until she was able to make up her mind on this particular issue.
Meanwhile, in the control centre of the Hovercargo, Mykkael was also dwelling on issues of some importance, how was he supposed to tell the rest of the team that he would have to leave, to return to the town of his birth to sit with his grandfather through the final stages of the slow but invariably fatal fever that the old man was suffering from, how was he supposed to walk out on his colleagues just as they had begun to climb the ranks, what did other people do when in his situation, he wanted to know, were their decisions just as hard or had some tribal demon of indecision from among his people come to torment him, at the moment, he mused, it was all he could do to keep the Hovercargo on the road rather than letting it careen across the desert, but under the circumstances he suspected none of the others would blame him, in fact the others probably knew there was something wrong with him already, given that he usually whistled whilst driving the transport, that's it, he thought to himself, I'll discuss it with the others first thing tomorrow morning.
Jake was also taking some time out from his rigorous regime of physical training to do a bit of thinking of his own, how were the team going to like it when they found he had been using all of his surplus cash to pay off his old gambling debts, all the while running up even more where he just couldn't break the cycle. He dreaded telling them that he had placed all the team's petty cash on a single bet that they would win their next zoid battle-before they even knew what team they would be facing. Things weren't much better for the other three, he mused, both Garth and Adrianne were locked up in both their room and their thoughts, and Mykkael was driving the Hovercargo as if they were under attack from a battery of long-range artillery, and he was usually one of their better drivers for the massive transport.
Finally, the sun setting behind them, the Paladin team arrived at the home of Professor Karyl Meyer, their Hovercargo being parked for them alongside the Gustavs and Whale Kings of many of the other zoid teams that had been mysteriously invited to this event, opposite them a number of jeeps and other small vehicles signifying that not only had numerous zoid warriors been invited to this event, but also members of the zoid battle commission, the Guardian Force, the armies of both the Guylos Empire and the Helic Republic and some of the faculty of the university of Geigolos, as well as others. The four of them, now all formally dressed, disembarked the Hovercargo and were escorted up to the house by staff that Professor Meyer had obviously hired in specifically for the event. Entering the house, they found themselves surrounded by the pilots of numerous zoid teams, with the guests ranging from "Slash" Viscera of the Viscera team all the way up to the entire Blitz team. The formal dinner, as it happened, wasn't anything like as formal as they had been expecting, taking the form of a self-service buffet. However, the main reason for this event was still to come, as Professor Meyer began to address his assembled guests.
"Good evening to you all," he began, "I would first like to welcome you all to my home, whether you are one of the assorted academics, a career officer in the military, one of the executives of the zoid battle commission, a member of the renowned Guardian Force, or one of the numerous zoid warriors here this evening. I have called you all together this evening to present some recent findings on a matter which, I suspect concerns you all, the matter of newly discovered zoids."
"The zoids that I speak of," he continued, "are the Panzer Dragons, mighty zoids of legend that are believed to be the most powerful of the early zoids, and also by the same argument the earliest of the true superpower zoids. I am able to tell you now, that the existence of these zoids was proven first almost two hundred years ago, when the base of the war criminal and renegade ancient Zoidian Hiltz was overrun by agents of the Guardian Force, just after the birth of the Deathstinger. Yes, I know that this might seem a little far fetched to some of you, but from the records I have seen, I must conclude that such zoids of legend as the Deathsoarer, the Deathstinger and many more of their ilk are as real as any of the zoids that you may have piloted. Anyway, back to the matter at hand, many of my fellow academics know that the mark of a Panzer Dragon is the lack of useless components built into it, and that no attempt yet to streamline the operating systems of a regular zoid to the level of a panzer dragon has met with success, all attempts having met with either no life in the first place or the critical overload of the test zoid, leaving little more than shards of charred metal as a testament to this failure. However, from my studies, I must surmise that Hiltz did not create his own Panzer dragons from scratch, but instead fused the zoid cores of Panzer Dragons to create his own zoids, this process generating zoids, which although powerful, have little endurance when using their ultimate weapons, resulting in zoids that are nothing less than a chimaera by nature."
"Due to the nature of my discovery, it has been decided that the University of Geigolos will pay a reward, the amount of which remains to be confirmed, for the discovery of a pure Panzer Dragon, the pure strain being something that I feel I am qualified to confirm if it is there. It has been decided that anyone who finds such a zoid will become its immediate owner, although a loan of the zoid to the University of Geigolos for study purposes would be greatly appreciated. Also, before we adjourn to sample the entertainment that has been prepared for the remainder of the evening, we are still in possession of some of these hybrid Panzer Dragons, and these will be made available to any registered zoid pilot here who is currently without a zoid. The selections of these zoids, because it appears to be the zoid that selects the pilot rather than vice versa in the case of the Panzer Dragons, will be posted on the website of the zoid battle commission first thing tomorrow morning."
The professor certainly hadn't skimped on entertainment, with jugglers, sword swallowers, fire-eaters and others to provide a certain sense of spectacle to the occasion, but Garth was drawn inexplicably to the virtual reality zoid arena that had been set up, proceeding to set himself up with a simulated Shield Liger and win against several opponents before he was taken down by Bit Cloud, whose skills with a Liger had never been in doubt.
The next morning, following Mykkael's announcement that he would have to return to his home to be with his grandfather, Jake announced that the team had been selected for a zoid battle that very evening. "The commission are matching us against the Raven team tonight, in battle mode 0966, which states battlefield radius of ten kilometres, terrain is winding canyons and there's a flight ceiling of 1000 feet above the base of the canyon, with the canyon wall rising 2000 feet from the base on both sides."
"Uh, I hate to tell you guys this," interrupted Garth, "but I think that we've just been set up to take a fall to someone. I know you won't have found anything about the zoid line-up of the Raven team in the ZBC database, I've already looked, but I got shown around their private zoid museum when they were busy trying to recruit me, well I say recruit but really all they wanted was to buy the Dragowing, they would never have used me in a zoid battle-but that's a whole other story, what I'm actually getting at is that they had, in their museum, almost a dozen functional Genosoarers and a single Genobreaker, so my bet is that they'll use at least one Genosoarer in the battle, and that's assuming that they keep those zoids to family members only-in other words, this time tomorrow our zoids may be dead!"
"This may not be the best time to tell you about this but," Jake began hesitantly, "I bet all of the petty cash on us winning our next zoid battle, so if you can think of any way to pull off a victory here it would be a great help."
"Jake, you're hopeless," shouted Adrianne.
"Is there no way to keep you away from the gambling halls!" asked Garth, his head in his hands.
"Hey, I'm sorry guys," Jake blustered, "only since we've won every battle so far this season I thought it'd be a sure thing, and besides I got us odds of 25:1 on that bet."
Soon enough the evening came, and the remaining Paladins (Mykkael having left them earlier in the day) found themselves mobilising their zoids into a ravine, the Liger Zero, encased in the newly purchased Schneider CAS, should, they hoped, be able to withstand the power of even a charged particle cannon for just about long enough, the Ursazerk had received as much of a boost to its shields as they thought it could take, and the Dragowing would rely on its sheer speed and manoeuvrability as per usual to stay clear of any weapon the enemy brought to bear on it. At the other end of the canyon, waiting, were two Gojelos and a Genosoarer, their silver armour reflecting the light of the sunset into the eyes of the paladins. The judge landed, mild tremor shaking the ground beneath them as it landed.
THIS AREA IS AN OFFICIAL ZOID BATTLE ARENA, WILL ALL UNAUTHORISED PERSONNEL PLEASE VACATE THE AREA. BATTLEFIELD SCANNED-BATTLEFIELD SET UP. THE PALADIN TEAM VERSUS THE RAVEN TEAM- BATTLE MODE 0966. CHECKING WEAPONS COMPLIANCE OF BOTH TEAMS: THE CHARGED PARTICLE CANNON AND THE PLASMA CANNON MUST BE DEACTIVATED BEFORE THE BATTLE COMMENCES. DEACTIVATION OF ILLEGAL INTEGRAL WEAPONS CONFIRMED. READY-FIGHT!
And with that the battle was soon underway, with the Ursazerk and the Liger Zero Schneider closing with the pair of Gojelos' quickly while both the Genosoarer and the Dragowing hanging back, waiting for the moment that Garth knew would happen when the odds would change, and the trap would be sprung.
Suddenly, the Judge shuddered, and came to life with a completely different personality, that of the virus the Chaos Storm had created. Then, as if a weight had been lifted from its shoulders, the Genosoarer sprang into action, the organoid of its pilot fusing with it in a flash of light, and without further ado the Genosoarer lifted from the ground beneath it, its claws raking out with phenomenal speed to impact on the hastily raised shields of the Ursazerk, flooding the energy shield with a jolt of electricity before retracting its claws and moving on. Meanwhile, the Liger Zero advanced on its opponent at speed, easily side-stepping the missiles and beams of the Gojelos, before with the cry of "seven blade attack" from Adrianne, it slashed through one leg of the mighty zoid, bringing the zoid to the ground with a mighty crash. Okay, that was one down, two more to go. Meanwhile, in the cockpit of the Dragowing, Garth surveyed the situation unfolding beneath him, loosing a couple of volleys of laserfire at the Genosoarer as it circled, bringing its pulse-laser cannons to bear on the Ursazerk with devastating effect, while the futile bolts of the Dragowing blasted into the rocky ground beneath them, right where the Genosoarer had been less than a second before. It was no use, Garth sighed to himself, he would have to launch into the fray himself and so, with a roar from the pilot, the Dragowing picked up speed and entered the combat zone itself, only for the Genosoarer, following the defeat of the second Gojelos, to retreat to the entrance of the abnormally straight canyon, its foot-locks clamping down as it turned to face the zoids that were inexorably advancing towards it. In a flash, the Genosoarer straightened out front to back, the particle filter vents in the tail of this mighty zoid opening in sequence as the Genosoarer opened its mouth, the gaping maw of this zoid revealing the whole body cannon which made the Genosoarer such an infamous zoid. The Dragowing rushed forwards, its acceleration taking it past the firing area for the charged particle cannon, just as that cannon engulfed both the Liger Zero Schneider and the Ursazerk, those two zoids barely surviving the blast, their pilots being ejected from their cockpits at high speed just as the beam penetrated the shields of the Ursazerk.
"You unfeeling bastard," shouted Garth, "I'll get you for this."
"I'd like to see you try, it might prove entertaining to watch," came the emotionless reply.
With that, Garth climbed until his zoid reached the thousand foot altitude which served as a flight ceiling in this battle, from there swooping into an attack run as his opponent hurriedly disengaged the foot-locks and particle cannon of his zoid, escaping with only minor laser scarring.
Abruptly Garth found the Dragowing not responding to his commands as it increased speed and turned onto its side, wings pointing up and down as it executed a gut-wrenching high speed turn to bring the Genosoarer back into its sights, letting loose another devastating volley of laserfire, which the Genosoarer dodged the majority of with inhuman speed. Garth looked at the speed dial in his cockpit, noting that the speed had already reached Mach 2.4 as the Dragowing, almost as if it were possessed, continued to accelerate, evading the continuous hail of pulse laser blasts with ease as the sun set behind them. Then, in a flash, the Genosoarer was once more at the mouth of the canyon, its foot-locks down and its cannon pointing generally upwards. Yet again, the Dragowing approached it, Garth by this time having resigned himself to enjoy the ride. But this time, as the Dragowing approached, evading the incandescent beam of the mighty charged particle cannon, it did not release the usual withering hail of laser bolts, rather, its wings stretched to their full extent, blades built into the same assembly as the wing mounted lasers, extending as the Dragowing turned right on top of the Genosoarer, its downward pointing blade severing the tail of its opponent. As the Dragowing rocketed back down the canyon for another pass, however, the Genosoarer maintained position, charging its cannon all the faster now that the filters in the tail had been removed. With that, the Dragowing turned, pumping yet more laserfire into the Genosoarer, which then began to fire its charged particle cannon. This blast the Dragowing effortlessly dodged, its Speed now Mach 3.2, and then, its speed dropping, it turned back, allowing Garth to witness as the Genosoarer exploded under the unrestrained power of its very own cannon.
The battle was suddenly over, and Garth, drained from the G-Forces that his zoid had put him through, collapsed, his zoid drifting back to the ground.
Meanwhile, on the expansive peninsula which had housed the royal cup only three years before, something sinister was happening. A strange, yet somehow familiar man approached the wreckage of a saurian zoid, compelled to do so by a force which he could only begin to describe. Then, as he touched the wreck of the once mighty zoid, it began to glow, absorbing him into it. This zoid, which had lain dormant for three years, was almost ready to re-emerge and exert its newfound strength over the world.
Okay, Raven, so how would you say that your descendant did in the heat of a pitched zoid battle?
(Raven) My descendant, I think not, I disown him, to think that I might be related to such a weakling. However it was instructive to learn that the Genosoarer has another weakness, how did your little protégé manage that anyway?
Its quite simple Raven, so simple in fact that even you ought to be able to understand it, the tail of the Genosoarer, as you know, contains the particle intake filters for the charged particle cannon, these, as well as filtering the charged particles out of the air, also regulate the intake of charged particles, keeping the intake of these particles to levels that the zoid can actually handle. Therefore, without the regulatory functions integral in the intake vents of the zoids tail the charged particle cannon is capable of overcharging in the period normally required for a single charge, which can lead to a charged particle blast on the scale required to melt through the armour of the zoid 's mouth, leaking into the cockpit and damaging the command systems of the zoid, including, in this case, the self destruct system that was built into the zoid to keep it out of the hands of others.
(Raven) Still, if a zoid pilot with an organoid cannot avoid a damaging blow like that, he does not deserve to be related to me. It's all her fault.
Whose fault was that exactly? I'm sure our readers would like to know who you have a grudge against, wouldn't they.
(Raven) It's all Riess's fault, if she hadn't gone and seduced me and weakened the blood of my family with all that emotional stuff. Raven realises exactly what he has just said How dare you! You've just orchestrated this entire scene to force me to reveal what I made you promise not to reveal. You scum, I'll get you for this!
Raven draws fighting dagger
(Raven) Now your days as a mercenary are over, prepare to meet your doom!
Raven springs at Mercenary Pen, dagger in hand, as Mercenary Pen starts writing
Raven, you know, you really shouldn't hold a dagger that way round dude.
Raven stops and looks, he is holding his dagger by the blade, the hilt pointed at Mercenary Pen. He is now wearing a pastel pink tutu, and his organoid has metamorphosed into a fluorescent pink organoid
Okay Raven, if you don't mind I'll take that knife, since you obviously don't know how to use it properly. Now if you hurry there's time to visit your young relative in the hospital before I throw you back into the time machine ready for you to save Van's hide from Hiltz yet again, you know, business as usual.
(Raven) I'll get you for this, shadow, attack!!!
No, you won't, Raven, turns towards oncoming organoid, knocks it out of the air with a flying kick and throws a weighted net over it now were you planning to come quietly or will I have to take even more drastic measures.
(Raven) You win this time, punk, but remember, we shall meet again, and then you will not be so lucky.
Raven skulks off, trying hard not to be noticed, still wearing the pink tutu, dragging his organoid behind him.
Okay folks, that's that little problem sorted, and yes I do freely admit to having well and truly orchestrated that little scene back there, so I'm pretty much guilty as charged. Ah well folks, I've not got any time left, so I shall see you next chapter.
P.S. Yes I can be a heartless little /53hole sometimes, its not forbidden in my contract.
(Raven) It's quite alright, I don't particularly care about the opinions of such mediocre zoid warriors anyway. Now about that agreement we made earlier...
What, the agreement that you got to watch your however many greats grandson in a zoid battle, and that I would leave the readers to guess themselves who you ended up marrying, mutters under breath as if they didn't know it would be her already!
Well then, since you know I wouldn't dare break my word with you aside certainly not with that organoid of yours breathing down my neck, lets get on with the story.
Chapter 11: The trap is sprung.
Baron Danthorn was tired, his hard work and the happenstance that had given him fresh data on the Dragowing-notably its intervention in the skirmish that had been planned as a takeover of the Hellfire syndicate- had begun to pay off, and now the first attempt at a proper ambush could be made, he only hoped that the zoid team they were paying for this was as strong as they claimed they were.
Garth was busy changing into the one outfit of formal dress that he had taken with him on moving out of his father's estates into the cramped quarters that was the base of the Paladin team. Why his father had invited several zoid teams for a formal dinner was beyond Garth's understanding, given that Professor Meyer was none too sociable to begin with, but the fact of the matter was that he had and that Garth would discover his father's motives soon enough.
Adrianne was sorting her hair out in the next room, the occasional bump as the Hovercargo advanced on their destination little more than a mild inconvenience. Adrianne had decided to make a good impression on Garth's father if at all possible; it wasn't that there was a love interest between the two of them, despite the clumsy matchmaking attempts made by her father in yet another attempt at social climbing, and since her father was a dealer in custom-built zoid parts-something the Paladin Team needed an awful lot of given the rarity of their zoids-and was able to offer them to the Paladins at a reduced price, making only ten percent profit rather than thirty on his deals with the team. Or at least Adrianne didn't think there was anything permanent forming between the two of them, but right now she was having difficulty telling what she felt about anyone, so she would try and stay on the good side of all of her colleagues until she was able to make up her mind on this particular issue.
Meanwhile, in the control centre of the Hovercargo, Mykkael was also dwelling on issues of some importance, how was he supposed to tell the rest of the team that he would have to leave, to return to the town of his birth to sit with his grandfather through the final stages of the slow but invariably fatal fever that the old man was suffering from, how was he supposed to walk out on his colleagues just as they had begun to climb the ranks, what did other people do when in his situation, he wanted to know, were their decisions just as hard or had some tribal demon of indecision from among his people come to torment him, at the moment, he mused, it was all he could do to keep the Hovercargo on the road rather than letting it careen across the desert, but under the circumstances he suspected none of the others would blame him, in fact the others probably knew there was something wrong with him already, given that he usually whistled whilst driving the transport, that's it, he thought to himself, I'll discuss it with the others first thing tomorrow morning.
Jake was also taking some time out from his rigorous regime of physical training to do a bit of thinking of his own, how were the team going to like it when they found he had been using all of his surplus cash to pay off his old gambling debts, all the while running up even more where he just couldn't break the cycle. He dreaded telling them that he had placed all the team's petty cash on a single bet that they would win their next zoid battle-before they even knew what team they would be facing. Things weren't much better for the other three, he mused, both Garth and Adrianne were locked up in both their room and their thoughts, and Mykkael was driving the Hovercargo as if they were under attack from a battery of long-range artillery, and he was usually one of their better drivers for the massive transport.
Finally, the sun setting behind them, the Paladin team arrived at the home of Professor Karyl Meyer, their Hovercargo being parked for them alongside the Gustavs and Whale Kings of many of the other zoid teams that had been mysteriously invited to this event, opposite them a number of jeeps and other small vehicles signifying that not only had numerous zoid warriors been invited to this event, but also members of the zoid battle commission, the Guardian Force, the armies of both the Guylos Empire and the Helic Republic and some of the faculty of the university of Geigolos, as well as others. The four of them, now all formally dressed, disembarked the Hovercargo and were escorted up to the house by staff that Professor Meyer had obviously hired in specifically for the event. Entering the house, they found themselves surrounded by the pilots of numerous zoid teams, with the guests ranging from "Slash" Viscera of the Viscera team all the way up to the entire Blitz team. The formal dinner, as it happened, wasn't anything like as formal as they had been expecting, taking the form of a self-service buffet. However, the main reason for this event was still to come, as Professor Meyer began to address his assembled guests.
"Good evening to you all," he began, "I would first like to welcome you all to my home, whether you are one of the assorted academics, a career officer in the military, one of the executives of the zoid battle commission, a member of the renowned Guardian Force, or one of the numerous zoid warriors here this evening. I have called you all together this evening to present some recent findings on a matter which, I suspect concerns you all, the matter of newly discovered zoids."
"The zoids that I speak of," he continued, "are the Panzer Dragons, mighty zoids of legend that are believed to be the most powerful of the early zoids, and also by the same argument the earliest of the true superpower zoids. I am able to tell you now, that the existence of these zoids was proven first almost two hundred years ago, when the base of the war criminal and renegade ancient Zoidian Hiltz was overrun by agents of the Guardian Force, just after the birth of the Deathstinger. Yes, I know that this might seem a little far fetched to some of you, but from the records I have seen, I must conclude that such zoids of legend as the Deathsoarer, the Deathstinger and many more of their ilk are as real as any of the zoids that you may have piloted. Anyway, back to the matter at hand, many of my fellow academics know that the mark of a Panzer Dragon is the lack of useless components built into it, and that no attempt yet to streamline the operating systems of a regular zoid to the level of a panzer dragon has met with success, all attempts having met with either no life in the first place or the critical overload of the test zoid, leaving little more than shards of charred metal as a testament to this failure. However, from my studies, I must surmise that Hiltz did not create his own Panzer dragons from scratch, but instead fused the zoid cores of Panzer Dragons to create his own zoids, this process generating zoids, which although powerful, have little endurance when using their ultimate weapons, resulting in zoids that are nothing less than a chimaera by nature."
"Due to the nature of my discovery, it has been decided that the University of Geigolos will pay a reward, the amount of which remains to be confirmed, for the discovery of a pure Panzer Dragon, the pure strain being something that I feel I am qualified to confirm if it is there. It has been decided that anyone who finds such a zoid will become its immediate owner, although a loan of the zoid to the University of Geigolos for study purposes would be greatly appreciated. Also, before we adjourn to sample the entertainment that has been prepared for the remainder of the evening, we are still in possession of some of these hybrid Panzer Dragons, and these will be made available to any registered zoid pilot here who is currently without a zoid. The selections of these zoids, because it appears to be the zoid that selects the pilot rather than vice versa in the case of the Panzer Dragons, will be posted on the website of the zoid battle commission first thing tomorrow morning."
The professor certainly hadn't skimped on entertainment, with jugglers, sword swallowers, fire-eaters and others to provide a certain sense of spectacle to the occasion, but Garth was drawn inexplicably to the virtual reality zoid arena that had been set up, proceeding to set himself up with a simulated Shield Liger and win against several opponents before he was taken down by Bit Cloud, whose skills with a Liger had never been in doubt.
The next morning, following Mykkael's announcement that he would have to return to his home to be with his grandfather, Jake announced that the team had been selected for a zoid battle that very evening. "The commission are matching us against the Raven team tonight, in battle mode 0966, which states battlefield radius of ten kilometres, terrain is winding canyons and there's a flight ceiling of 1000 feet above the base of the canyon, with the canyon wall rising 2000 feet from the base on both sides."
"Uh, I hate to tell you guys this," interrupted Garth, "but I think that we've just been set up to take a fall to someone. I know you won't have found anything about the zoid line-up of the Raven team in the ZBC database, I've already looked, but I got shown around their private zoid museum when they were busy trying to recruit me, well I say recruit but really all they wanted was to buy the Dragowing, they would never have used me in a zoid battle-but that's a whole other story, what I'm actually getting at is that they had, in their museum, almost a dozen functional Genosoarers and a single Genobreaker, so my bet is that they'll use at least one Genosoarer in the battle, and that's assuming that they keep those zoids to family members only-in other words, this time tomorrow our zoids may be dead!"
"This may not be the best time to tell you about this but," Jake began hesitantly, "I bet all of the petty cash on us winning our next zoid battle, so if you can think of any way to pull off a victory here it would be a great help."
"Jake, you're hopeless," shouted Adrianne.
"Is there no way to keep you away from the gambling halls!" asked Garth, his head in his hands.
"Hey, I'm sorry guys," Jake blustered, "only since we've won every battle so far this season I thought it'd be a sure thing, and besides I got us odds of 25:1 on that bet."
Soon enough the evening came, and the remaining Paladins (Mykkael having left them earlier in the day) found themselves mobilising their zoids into a ravine, the Liger Zero, encased in the newly purchased Schneider CAS, should, they hoped, be able to withstand the power of even a charged particle cannon for just about long enough, the Ursazerk had received as much of a boost to its shields as they thought it could take, and the Dragowing would rely on its sheer speed and manoeuvrability as per usual to stay clear of any weapon the enemy brought to bear on it. At the other end of the canyon, waiting, were two Gojelos and a Genosoarer, their silver armour reflecting the light of the sunset into the eyes of the paladins. The judge landed, mild tremor shaking the ground beneath them as it landed.
THIS AREA IS AN OFFICIAL ZOID BATTLE ARENA, WILL ALL UNAUTHORISED PERSONNEL PLEASE VACATE THE AREA. BATTLEFIELD SCANNED-BATTLEFIELD SET UP. THE PALADIN TEAM VERSUS THE RAVEN TEAM- BATTLE MODE 0966. CHECKING WEAPONS COMPLIANCE OF BOTH TEAMS: THE CHARGED PARTICLE CANNON AND THE PLASMA CANNON MUST BE DEACTIVATED BEFORE THE BATTLE COMMENCES. DEACTIVATION OF ILLEGAL INTEGRAL WEAPONS CONFIRMED. READY-FIGHT!
And with that the battle was soon underway, with the Ursazerk and the Liger Zero Schneider closing with the pair of Gojelos' quickly while both the Genosoarer and the Dragowing hanging back, waiting for the moment that Garth knew would happen when the odds would change, and the trap would be sprung.
Suddenly, the Judge shuddered, and came to life with a completely different personality, that of the virus the Chaos Storm had created. Then, as if a weight had been lifted from its shoulders, the Genosoarer sprang into action, the organoid of its pilot fusing with it in a flash of light, and without further ado the Genosoarer lifted from the ground beneath it, its claws raking out with phenomenal speed to impact on the hastily raised shields of the Ursazerk, flooding the energy shield with a jolt of electricity before retracting its claws and moving on. Meanwhile, the Liger Zero advanced on its opponent at speed, easily side-stepping the missiles and beams of the Gojelos, before with the cry of "seven blade attack" from Adrianne, it slashed through one leg of the mighty zoid, bringing the zoid to the ground with a mighty crash. Okay, that was one down, two more to go. Meanwhile, in the cockpit of the Dragowing, Garth surveyed the situation unfolding beneath him, loosing a couple of volleys of laserfire at the Genosoarer as it circled, bringing its pulse-laser cannons to bear on the Ursazerk with devastating effect, while the futile bolts of the Dragowing blasted into the rocky ground beneath them, right where the Genosoarer had been less than a second before. It was no use, Garth sighed to himself, he would have to launch into the fray himself and so, with a roar from the pilot, the Dragowing picked up speed and entered the combat zone itself, only for the Genosoarer, following the defeat of the second Gojelos, to retreat to the entrance of the abnormally straight canyon, its foot-locks clamping down as it turned to face the zoids that were inexorably advancing towards it. In a flash, the Genosoarer straightened out front to back, the particle filter vents in the tail of this mighty zoid opening in sequence as the Genosoarer opened its mouth, the gaping maw of this zoid revealing the whole body cannon which made the Genosoarer such an infamous zoid. The Dragowing rushed forwards, its acceleration taking it past the firing area for the charged particle cannon, just as that cannon engulfed both the Liger Zero Schneider and the Ursazerk, those two zoids barely surviving the blast, their pilots being ejected from their cockpits at high speed just as the beam penetrated the shields of the Ursazerk.
"You unfeeling bastard," shouted Garth, "I'll get you for this."
"I'd like to see you try, it might prove entertaining to watch," came the emotionless reply.
With that, Garth climbed until his zoid reached the thousand foot altitude which served as a flight ceiling in this battle, from there swooping into an attack run as his opponent hurriedly disengaged the foot-locks and particle cannon of his zoid, escaping with only minor laser scarring.
Abruptly Garth found the Dragowing not responding to his commands as it increased speed and turned onto its side, wings pointing up and down as it executed a gut-wrenching high speed turn to bring the Genosoarer back into its sights, letting loose another devastating volley of laserfire, which the Genosoarer dodged the majority of with inhuman speed. Garth looked at the speed dial in his cockpit, noting that the speed had already reached Mach 2.4 as the Dragowing, almost as if it were possessed, continued to accelerate, evading the continuous hail of pulse laser blasts with ease as the sun set behind them. Then, in a flash, the Genosoarer was once more at the mouth of the canyon, its foot-locks down and its cannon pointing generally upwards. Yet again, the Dragowing approached it, Garth by this time having resigned himself to enjoy the ride. But this time, as the Dragowing approached, evading the incandescent beam of the mighty charged particle cannon, it did not release the usual withering hail of laser bolts, rather, its wings stretched to their full extent, blades built into the same assembly as the wing mounted lasers, extending as the Dragowing turned right on top of the Genosoarer, its downward pointing blade severing the tail of its opponent. As the Dragowing rocketed back down the canyon for another pass, however, the Genosoarer maintained position, charging its cannon all the faster now that the filters in the tail had been removed. With that, the Dragowing turned, pumping yet more laserfire into the Genosoarer, which then began to fire its charged particle cannon. This blast the Dragowing effortlessly dodged, its Speed now Mach 3.2, and then, its speed dropping, it turned back, allowing Garth to witness as the Genosoarer exploded under the unrestrained power of its very own cannon.
The battle was suddenly over, and Garth, drained from the G-Forces that his zoid had put him through, collapsed, his zoid drifting back to the ground.
Meanwhile, on the expansive peninsula which had housed the royal cup only three years before, something sinister was happening. A strange, yet somehow familiar man approached the wreckage of a saurian zoid, compelled to do so by a force which he could only begin to describe. Then, as he touched the wreck of the once mighty zoid, it began to glow, absorbing him into it. This zoid, which had lain dormant for three years, was almost ready to re-emerge and exert its newfound strength over the world.
Okay, Raven, so how would you say that your descendant did in the heat of a pitched zoid battle?
(Raven) My descendant, I think not, I disown him, to think that I might be related to such a weakling. However it was instructive to learn that the Genosoarer has another weakness, how did your little protégé manage that anyway?
Its quite simple Raven, so simple in fact that even you ought to be able to understand it, the tail of the Genosoarer, as you know, contains the particle intake filters for the charged particle cannon, these, as well as filtering the charged particles out of the air, also regulate the intake of charged particles, keeping the intake of these particles to levels that the zoid can actually handle. Therefore, without the regulatory functions integral in the intake vents of the zoids tail the charged particle cannon is capable of overcharging in the period normally required for a single charge, which can lead to a charged particle blast on the scale required to melt through the armour of the zoid 's mouth, leaking into the cockpit and damaging the command systems of the zoid, including, in this case, the self destruct system that was built into the zoid to keep it out of the hands of others.
(Raven) Still, if a zoid pilot with an organoid cannot avoid a damaging blow like that, he does not deserve to be related to me. It's all her fault.
Whose fault was that exactly? I'm sure our readers would like to know who you have a grudge against, wouldn't they.
(Raven) It's all Riess's fault, if she hadn't gone and seduced me and weakened the blood of my family with all that emotional stuff. Raven realises exactly what he has just said How dare you! You've just orchestrated this entire scene to force me to reveal what I made you promise not to reveal. You scum, I'll get you for this!
Raven draws fighting dagger
(Raven) Now your days as a mercenary are over, prepare to meet your doom!
Raven springs at Mercenary Pen, dagger in hand, as Mercenary Pen starts writing
Raven, you know, you really shouldn't hold a dagger that way round dude.
Raven stops and looks, he is holding his dagger by the blade, the hilt pointed at Mercenary Pen. He is now wearing a pastel pink tutu, and his organoid has metamorphosed into a fluorescent pink organoid
Okay Raven, if you don't mind I'll take that knife, since you obviously don't know how to use it properly. Now if you hurry there's time to visit your young relative in the hospital before I throw you back into the time machine ready for you to save Van's hide from Hiltz yet again, you know, business as usual.
(Raven) I'll get you for this, shadow, attack!!!
No, you won't, Raven, turns towards oncoming organoid, knocks it out of the air with a flying kick and throws a weighted net over it now were you planning to come quietly or will I have to take even more drastic measures.
(Raven) You win this time, punk, but remember, we shall meet again, and then you will not be so lucky.
Raven skulks off, trying hard not to be noticed, still wearing the pink tutu, dragging his organoid behind him.
Okay folks, that's that little problem sorted, and yes I do freely admit to having well and truly orchestrated that little scene back there, so I'm pretty much guilty as charged. Ah well folks, I've not got any time left, so I shall see you next chapter.
P.S. Yes I can be a heartless little /53hole sometimes, its not forbidden in my contract.