DISCLAIMER:Once again, I don't own Zoids.I do own Trey, Sue, Rax, Max,Riz, Clara, the list goes on. Also the concept of the Psycho Saix is mine, along with a few other zoids in the planning stages. And my Ultimate X theory is up for grabs, but just mention me if you ever make millions on it.

That certificate for furniture came in handy, got a good deal on a dresser, desk, and a basic rolling chair. We shelled out some cash for a very nice bed, it even reclines and curves at different points for reading and watching screens. Rax already had furniture from his rented apartment, Sue had her stuff in storage and we were moving it out, and I had the clothes on my back. We ordered my furniture off the web and set it for express delivery, and Sue took the opportunity to look in my room at my bare floor, duffel bag, folded bedding, and a sealed cardboard box.

"What's in the box?"

"Those things they gave me at the Sectors, they engraved my name onto everything and shipped them to me."

". . . you mean that's like a dozen trophies?"

"Yeah."

She shrugged and looked at Rax's gift, that montage of the Saix.

". . . it really used to look like that?"

"All my life. Then it evolved, mutated, changed, whatever."

She leaned closer to the frame to look at a picture of me leaning on the Saixat the Sectors.

"Are you heading to the Western Sectors?"

"Nah, Clara and her relatives are competing. I only did the East because I needed to test the Saix out."

"That Clara chick's family is like all zoid-addicts, right?"

"Yeah. I had to fix like twenty of their zoids when I first got here."

"Any of them in the ZBC?"

"Sure, a few of the guys and the more serious girls."

"What about that Riz girl?"

"She's been looking for a good zoid to start out with, she wants to do battles."

"She a pilot?"

"Not sure, Clara took her out in the Liger once in a while for lessons."

"What zoid was she lookin' at?"

I knew what she was thinking.

"Command Wolf, but she wants to fight out West, it'd get trashed."

"Well, if we get a fourth pilot we can do quad battles, just have her sit out."

"In a Command Wolf?"

"Trey, you'd get to mess with a zoid from the ground up."

"You call her and get her to register, I'm gonna go check out that old Empire Base."

"What?!"

"The place has been sealed for years, it's gotta have some good parts in there."

10 Minutes of Giddy Saix Running Later

I looked down at the wreckage of the door to the base, these blades were great! I walk the cat into the pitch black warehouse and turn on night-vision. Huge place. Dear god, it's full of scrapped zoids. . . sweet! Let's see, Raptors, half a Saix, what appears to be a liger, and Sinkers galore. All of them long dead, trash strewn around by teenagers, and even some old tools left over from the War. I trotted to a different section and found what appeared to be a pile of limbs, guns, and torsos. Jackpot!

An hour later I was dragging a covered sled full of rusty parts and watching the desert cliffs against the setting sun.

"Now, how to make a Wolf Riz-proof. . ."

A beep from the console, and a screen goes white with blue lines. I spin to see a complete blueprint set up.

"What. . . the. . ."

"Command Wolf Urban Assault. Codename: Juggernaut."

Wow, it was pretty nice. . . wait. . . this cockpit didn't have a voice program. . .

"Um. . . confirm voice program?"

". . . voice program?"

. . . that sounded familiar. . . geez, it sounded like that interview I did for the news.

"Voice programs are just a bunch of phrases, this is a vocal copy of your voice and parts of your language use."

. . . it was talking just like me. Same tone.Even with spacing, slang, everything.

". . . say something already!"

". . . what. . . the heck. . ."

"You already said that. . ."

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!"

"You've been riding me around for a month now, you should know your own zoid by now."

"My what?!"

". . . it took me a while to copy your speech pattern, I would have spoke up earlier but I think growling and roaring is for morons."

". . . you. . . are. . . you're like a Black Box?"

"Huh?"

"That organoid thingy the Liger Zero has; the thing everybody won't shut up about."

"I guess."

"So you're alive?"

"Have been since that little storm incident."

". . . so you're one of those X things?"

"I honestly don't know or care. I mean, I have a mind, sure, but do I have to be labeled like that AlbinoLiger and the Ginsu Dinosaur?"

"Hehe, yeah, the Fury does look like that. . ."

"I know you want to tell everyone your zoid can talk, blah blah blah, but first things first, I'm not going to do this to anyone but you and maybe a few non-morons."

". . . I should be freaking out. . . I mean, you're alive, but I really want to loom at those blueprints."

". . . just get over it. A lot of zoids are like this."

"Really?"

"Yeah, they just have extremely stupid pilots."

". . . then how did that Cloud guy get to S Class?"

"You mean how did the Liger get to Class S, any smart hunk of metal can trick a human into getting in."

Holy crap, I was talking to a cocky, sarcastic giant robot.

". . . eh, have you ever fought for me? As in it's not me, it's your mind doing everything?"

"Not yet, I just let the command system kick in and take a nap."

"Can I break down screaming now?"

"Knock yourself out"

MY SAIX IS TALKING! MY ZOID IS ALIVE! Wait . . . is this a dream? Am I a scizo? I mean, it's talking in my voice. Then again, who cares, it even says it never interferes. We chatted until we got to the Whale King with my load of parts.

"So you think this Juggernaut wolf thing is good enough for our team?"

"I guarantee it, me and Max used to take these things on all the time."

"Eh, should I bother telling Max?"

"He probably wouldn't care. The sniper on his team had a living zoid, back in the day we were common. Now it's like one in a hundred. Dang factories."

So my zoid was talking, and it was recommending a weird type of Command Wolf for an inexperienced pilot. Meh. Beats the desert. He shut up when we got into the Whale Hanger. I wonder if it speaks and hears through the speakers or something. I dumped the sled of parts onto a platform and hopes out and ran for the mechanic console. I tapped a button and the platform of rusty parts glowed for a minute before the rust flaked off. I hooked up a Bio-generator to the loading dock, figured it would come in handy. As I was going through my findings Sue walked in with a paper print out.

"Done raiding graveyards for spare parts?"

"Yeah, got a good sled load, found some blueprints, and my Saix is alive and talks."

"Cool."

". . . I said, my Saix is alive . . . and it talks."

". . . oh, cool."

She kept reading her print out.

". . . eh, that doesn't bug you?"

". . . he kind of told me last night. You were in the bathroom, we made fun of your sunglasses/hat thing."

Sue and the Saix made fun of me while I was in my bathroom?! I managed to keep my jaw from dropping.

"Does Rax know?"

"Yeah, he's hiding under his cot still."

"Hehe . . ."

"Yeah, he screams just like a blonde in a horror flick."

I looked up at the non-moving zoid.

"I thought you were going to shut the hell up!"

Sue laughed.

"Psy, you told him you'd be quiet and a good little robot?"

"Hey, it was funny."

My zoid, was a jackass. Alive, talking, possibly an Ultimate X, but a jackass. Wait, Psy? (pronounced 'Sigh') Oh, short for Psycho, how clever.

Riz agreed, thank god. She said just give her the zoid and she'd join. Well, first I had to make the zoid. The parts I dragged back proved to be pretty usable, some we'd have to modify but for the most part I had all I needed to use the blueprints. Now we needed the main body.

"Sue, call Guy, we need a top-of-the-line Command Wolf."

"Why not take an old one from that base you just scrapped?"

"The processors would take days just to get running, and a fresh zoid core can be modified easier."

"I thought you were just gonna modify a Wolf, not make a new zoid!"

"Just order the parts, and tell Rax that my Saix talking was just a dream, we don't have time to explain it to him."

I was in a hurry because if we didn't get everything ordered today it might take weeks, and the best way to remake a zoid is all at once so the systems don't reject it. Sue flipped off her shades and raised an eyebrow at me.

". . . you seem to be calm for the owner of a living zoid."

". . . by morning I'll be insane, don't worry."

With that I walked out of the hanger of the Whale and into the living quarters. Rax was nowhere to be seen, probably hiding. Poor guy. They say he hasn't been the same since he fought some psychotic Gun Sniper to settle an argument. I flopped down into my empty room and shut the door. I spent a few hours staring at the wall.

". . . a talking zoid. . . "

Come on, what would you do in my situation? Run around to tell the ZBC? Call a priest? Try and get rich by selling it? I more or less blocked it out of my head, just get used to it over time. I did this whenever I was stressed about something weird and/or major. I'd spent weeks researching zoid evolution, changes, modifications, and Saixes in general. I almost had it figured out when it started talking.

"Okay, Trey. . . just calm down. . ."

That was myself talking, not an intercom or a giant cat thing. I wiped off some sweat and set up the viewer on my PDA for a holo-chat, and dialed in Max's serial. He picked up after a few alerts, he'd grown his hair out a bit but it was the same old Max.

"Trey, what the heck happened? You look more stressed than usual."

". . . Max, it's the Saix. . ."

He quickly became alert.

"What now, did it evolve again? Did it change back?!"

He looked a bit worried, probably over my future in battles.

". . . I was just out running in it. . . it started talking through the speakers."

". . . talking. . ."

"I thought it was a voice program until it started a conversation."

". . . your voice, right?"

"What?"

"Did it copy your voice?"

". . . yeah. . . perfectly."

". . . is it cocky, serious, what?"

"A bit cocky, probably sarcastic."

"Ah. Well, most Saixes are like that, even the silent ones."

". . . Saixes are arrogant?"

". . . well, not as much as Ligers but yes."

"Max, how many of these things are there?"

"My friend had one, helped out in battles a bit."

"You mean he had an Ultimate X?"

"No, just a regular Gun Sniper."

"That could communicate. . ."

"And move on its own."

"Like that white Liger. . ."

". . . that Liger is one of many that are fully alive, but it's body is what really defines an X."

"I'm not following."

"There are powerful zoids, there are X zoids, and there are powerful X zoids."

"So a black box doesn't guarantee S Class?"

"No, it'll mean you'll have some extra help and a companion."

"But what about that remember attacks thing?"

"Huge help. But I never had one, and I came out on top for a good while. The zoid doesn't matter, it's the pilot."

". . . what if this thing is like the Zero? A whole new breed, and a black box?"

"Then I'd suggest getting an expansion on your bank account."

". . . Max, it makes fun of me behind my back."

". . . all zoids do that. . ."

". . . Oh."

Author's Notes

Yeah, a talking zoid. But is it another Cliché Ultimate X, or is this just your average talking zoid? This is my first correction to the original zoids universe. Zoids are alive, no author denies that. But only fancy Ligers can communicate? I think an Ultimate X is just a living zoid that happened to get lucky power-wise. Is the Saix one? Either way he's a character now. 'Psy' will be used for humor and mood setting, instead of an instant S Class ticket. And he enjoys scaring small children who get too close to him in parking lots, and moonlit runs with attractive Sabre Tigers. To use another age old cliché, this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Complaints? Suggestions? Singles Ads? Go ahead and reveiw.