Chapter 13: The Evolution of a legend (Part two)
Vega gasped as the cocoon of energy surrounding his zoid vanished, revealing a zoid whose appearance had not changed much, although its size had doubled and it had developed the manoeuvring thrusters previously seen on nothing much except Genosoarers, a tail mounted cannon of some variety, and the assault drill assembly on either side appeared to be of a modified design. Vega muttered to himself, "You are no longer the Berserk Fury, now you are the Kaos Fury, a zoid more chaotic than chaos itself. Then, with a prodigious leap, he sprang into the rapidly opening cockpit of this mighty black and red zoid, closing it behind him as he prepared to learn the true capabilities of his zoid on a training run.
Meanwhile, the Paladin team were on route to participate in the Dragonhead City annual Battle Royale, a melee battle involving any zoid team that could make it, in which the last zoid standing won. Other teams due to be participating this year were the Blitz team, the Champ team, the Sabers team, the Viscera team and the mysterious Rangers team, which appeared to consist of four zoid pilots, brother and sisters if the rumours were to be believed, who had won four of the Panzer Dragons that Garth's father had been studying and now used those four zoids in battle.
The Battlefield was a stretch of the red river valley, directly outside the city of Dragonhead, and including various types of terrain, including the ruins, now almost picked clean, where the Dragowing and various other Panzer Dragons had been found. As the Paladin team set up, they took the opportunity to scout out the battlefield, ready for the beginning of the Battle Royale in just under an hour's time. In addition to the teams that they had already seen while still on route, they now saw the Lightning Saix' of the Lightning team, complete with the groundbreaking new arsenal that Adrianne's father had developed for the design: a pair of energised blades, much like those of a Blade Liger; a pair of Strike Laser Claws; improved boosters; and a pair of diagonally-backwards facing Pulse Cannons. Also visible were the red Gunsniper and Blade Liger of the Flügel team, and at the far end of the valley, past the modified Rev Raptors of the Viscera team stood the Elefender and the Stormsworder which under the careful control of the ex-Back Draft warriors Stoner and Pierce made up the Renegade team. Out of the corner of his eye, Garth saw something, just for a moment, but it looked to be a red and black zoid of a reptilian build, its design, unrecognisable due to the speed at which it had disappeared.
The remainder of the hour passed quickly, seeming to pass in the blink of an eye, and by its end all of the participating zoid pilots were arrayed along both sides of the cliffs that bordered the red river valley, their weapons ready for action. Finally, the judge capsules that would preside over the competition landed, each armed with the pulse-lasers that were supposed to help them fend off any unauthorised competitors, rule-breakers or illegal judge units that were in the area.
"WELCOME," sneered the central judge in the tone of voice that was previously used only by the dark judges of the Back Draft group, "TO THE FIRST BATTLE ROYALE OF THE CHAOS STORM ORGANISATION, THERE ARE NO RESTRICTIONS, READY, FIGHT."
"What!" exclaimed Garth, "the Chaos Storm are taking over a battle royale?"
"It certainly looks that way," replied Jake, whose voice betrayed the bitterness he felt following the near destruction of his zoid following a battle that the Chaos Storm Organisation had taken over.
Then, with a mighty shriek, the black and red Kaos Fury sprang over the cliff to land on the ground in front of them. Several of the zoid pilots in that area shrank backwards at the sight of this massive and ferocious zoid that now stood before them.
Over the intercom came the voice of the renowned zoid pilot Bit Cloud, "Hey, why does that zoid look like the Berserk Fury?"
"Because that is the zoid from which it evolved," Vega replied, "Now Bit Cloud, it is time for a rematch, defend yourself."
And with that the Kaos Fury lurched into action, its assault-drills glowing as they charged with energy, but the Liger Zero in its Jäger form was just as quick off the mark, running back to the Hovercargo to modify its armour. Meanwhile, cheated of its preferred prey for a while, the Kaos Fury started to annihilate some of the other zoids in the battle royale, quickly dispatching the zoids of the Viscera and Sabers teams.
Jack Sisco of the Lightning team, however, did not realise the full capabilities of his opponent, immediately spurring his team into an attack run against the Kaos Fury, growling, "you may have the sheer power to defeat most adversaries, but do you have the speed to race the lightning?"
Within moments the three modified Lightning Saix were immobilised, knocked out of the action by the slipstream of a charged particle beam, launched through the tip of the zoid's tail, which they barely evaded.
"Such misguided fools," Vega remarked in a pitying voice, "if only they had known the true power of the Kaos Fury then perhaps they would not have mounted such a futile attack against me."
Garth, meanwhile, was in the midst of a conference with various other teams engaged in this battle royale, amongst their numbers the Champ, Blitz, Renegade and Flügel teams. "So that's settled then, we'll all focus on taking down the Kaos Fury first and then we'll finish the battle royale properly," he said.
"Agreed," Naomi of the Flügel team replied, turning her Gunsniper around to bring its tail-gun to bear on the Kaos Fury.
"You got it," growled Stoner, as he turned the ponderous Elefender to face its target.
"Harry, we're agreeing to this, so that probably means you are too," Leena shouted over the comm system, checking once more on the ammo of her Gunsniper.
"Whatever you say, my Leena," came the voice of Harry Champ, sounding somewhat the worse for wear (he had by this stage began to work out that any time Leena told him to do something it was only because she liked exploiting him).
"Okay," Garth continued, unwilling to let the situation with Leena and Harry escalate in the middle of the battlefield, "lets plan out our strategy, the Champ team, the Elefender and the Ursazerk are to provide fixed position firepower to lock the Kaos Fury down, all airborne zoids, both the red Blade Liger and the Liger Zero Mirage, and the Shadowfox are to keep moving, providing interference for the other zoids, including sensor blankets from both the 'Fox and the Mirage, meanwhile both Gunsnipers are to provide a continuous barrage from their tail-mounted rifle to punch through any shields that the Kaos Fury might deploy, and finally the Liger Zero Panzer, which has just reached the battlefield, will provide the heavy firepower to take the thing down. Okay, move out."
As one the Iron Kongs, the Elefender, the Gunsnipers and the Ursazerk opened fire, the airborne forms of the Dragowing, the red Phoenix-type Stormsworder and the hawk-like form of Jamie's new zoid, the Falcyon, began to circle, beginning their attack runs. On the ground below them, the Shadowfox and the Liger Zero Mirage began their work, scattering both smoke and false grenades to throw the targeting systems of the Kaos Fury off their mark, also, in combination with Leon's red Blade Liger providing a moving bombardment against Vega's zoid, Adrianne feeding everyone precise targeting data as the Kaos Fury ignited its thrusters and tried to evade the crossfire, then, with a roar, the Liger Zero Panzer fired its Hybrid cannons, followed seconds after the recoil from its cannon attack by the full power of its burning big bang missile attack, augmented by the use of EM pulse missiles to lower the shields of the Kaos Fury if the Gunsnipers did not have the necessary firepower for the job. Instantaneously the shields of the Kaos Fury were engaged, absorbing the full force of the Hybrid cannon assault before they fell to the precisely targeted gunnery of the Gunsnipers, but then, the unexpected happened, as Vega, rather than trying to dispose of the missiles that were bearing down upon its position, engaged all three of its forward facing charged particle cannons, bringing them to bear even as the cannons charged, on the Liger Zero Panzer, one to skim over its back and the other two to hit either side of it, cutting off any hopes of escape, and these fired, moments before Garth ordered an immediate all out assault on the Kaos Fury, taking it out of commission even as the missiles from the Liger Zero Panzer hit.
Vega's command system, although at the head of a vastly superior zoid, failed in short order, but the damage had been done, almost destroying Bit's Liger Zero, even in spite of its recently upgraded Panzer conversion armour.
The battle royale went as normal from there on, with Brad's Shadowfox and Jamie's Falcyon winning the competition for the Blitz team, even with Bit and the Liger Zero out of the picture entirely, soon followed by Leena and her Gunsniper as it fell to a barrage from the Elefender.
"Well that was a good battle, 'Fox," Brad remarked, receiving an affirmative whine from his zoid in response, "See y'all next time, and then we'll see what your zoids are really capable of."
Bit Cloud was feeling shaken, he had never felt quite so helpless at any point since he became a zoid warrior, his zoid, the Liger Zero, stood helpless in the hangar of the Hovercargo, the charred remains of the Panzer conversion armour strewn across the decks, looking pitifully weak after the scorching they had received from the charged particle cannons of the Kaos Fury. Suddenly, acting on an inexplicable compulsion, Bit left his room in the Hovercargo, heading for the hangar bay of the transport zoid. Once there, he accessed the other conversion armours of the Liger Zero, removing them from their casings upon the modification deck, using the cranes within the Hovercargo to place them in a heap around the scarred Liger. Once he had done this, scattering the Zero, Schneider, Jäger and even the newly purchased Mirage armour on the ground around his Liger, he simply waited, watching in silence as his zoid slowly but surely began to glow, finally encasing itself in a cocoon of energy. Somehow, Bit had known exactly what would be needed for the evolution of the Liger Zero, and what it would evolve into, giving him the chance to prepare for its new form, the Liger Omega.
Back at the Paladin base, Garth was feeling restless, wondering how the Chaos Storm, now his sworn enemy following their latest escapade, could have become so powerful so quickly, how they could have discovered such a mighty zoid as the Kaos Fury and how they could take control of judge capsules to hijack battles with so few traces of their presence left afterwards. He snapped out of his reverie, coming to his senses as his zoid called to him silently, its call echoing in the corners of his mind, telling him that Mykkael had returned, and with company.
Meanwhile, the executive committee of the Zoid Battle Commission were in session, joined for the first time since they were founded, by top-ranking members of the Guardian Force. The topic for discussion, the recent activities of the Chaos Storm organisation, and the steps that would be taken to defeat them.
"Okay, everyone, you know why we're here," began the chairman of the executive committee, Marius van Heldar, "the Chaos Storm organisation appears to have begun a reign of terror, one which we cannot track to its source or even defend ourselves against, this will change. Our main problem appears to be some sort of glitch or virus in the programming of our judge capsules which is being used against us, meaning that whereas we made preparations to deal with an outside threat, in the form of alternate judge capsules, we have now been outmanoeuvred thoroughly by an enemy who may even be within our own ranks."
"But how can we hope to combat such a threat?" inquired one of the junior executives.
"That," continued the chairman, "is going to be the tricky part. First, we must take our current judge capsules out of service for a full overhaul and program review, replacing them with members of the guardian force who have been briefed on the adjudication of official zoid battles. Then, second, we must begin a thorough analysis off our own staff, all of whom, including yourselves will be investigated with a view to finding any links we might have within the Zoid Battle Commission that lead to the elusive Chaos Storm organisation. Thirdly and finally, we will be upgrading all zoids belonging to the commission, in case we ever have to face the Chaos Storm organisation in pitched battle. Are there any questions?"
The room was silent as the assembled executives struggled to take in what they had been told, but then, the entire room burst out with questions.