DISCLAIMER: I don't own a few chars in this chapter . . . if you can't guess which ones, go to your parent-people and ask for more sunshine capsules.

A night of forced sleep later I woke up to knocking on the sliding door of my quarters.

"Trey, the furniture guys are here."

"Gah. . . fine, fine. . "

I pack up my blanket, duffel bag and box and move into kitchen to watch one of the screens for the news and to munch some type of bread. I watched two workers move in the bed/couch, desk, chair, and shelves. One of them asked for an autograph. The three of us signed a piece of SBC stationary and bid them farewell after giving them drinks for the labor. I found a spare screen lying around in a storage room and fixed it to my wall, make it more comfortable I guess. I could paint on a later date, for now I had a bed at least. Still two more weeks of free time. Just shoot me.

Sue surprised us all by not wearing all black. She actually wore a loose gray shirt, no more awkward ceiling glances. She fixed herself breakfast and talked to me while unpacking eggs.

"I have to go out of town to check up with my sister. Be back by tonight, but will ya try to update the cockpit in the Snipe? I saw those holograms in your overgrown cheetah, if you're so work-obsessed at least get us up to your level."

"Thought you'd never ask."

"Oh yeah, Rax is gonna visit his girlfriends bayside."

"You mean. . ."

"I said plural, I meant plural."

"Dear zoid eve."

"And don't spend all time talking to your zoid and jumping off cliffs, do something fun!"

Twenty Minutes Later

"That last cliff was freakin' sweet!"

"Oh yeah!"

Get this, me and my zoid shared a hobby. Doing random tricks for no reason, massive practice, and jumping off cliffs. I, or should I say we, were next to the bay on the west side where those ridges are. And want to know something scary? I was lying back in the chair with my hands under my head. This thing operated itself. And pretty dang well too. We'd jumped off about five cliffs in a row, our next battle was in a canyon. And I/we wanted to scare the competition with some risky antics. Four hours later we finally quit and were walking back to the Whale.

". . . wait, she did mean plural right?"

"Yeah. How does that guy get the female audience?"

". . . you're asking a multi-ton piece of metal why some guy gets all the girls. . ."

". . . you have no idea, do you. . ."

"Not a clue. . ."

This whole living zoid thing wasn't so bad.

"Yo, we got a blip coming seven o'clock."

Translation: zoid approaching from behind and to the left.

"Breed?"

"Workin' on it. . . hey, a Raynos."

"How high is it?"

"A bit higher than this cockpit. This guy is nuts!"

I checked the radar manually. Yeah, some guy in a green Raynos is flying low enough to clip the ears off this thing.

"Open a link."

The speakers clicked and a hologram head appeared. A bit small, tanned, young features and spiky black hair slicked back with gel.

"Hey, Saix guy, whaddaya want?"

. . .okay, so he was a jackass.

"Eh. . . what's with the nice zoid but the suicidal piloting?"

"The name is Wild Eagle."

". . . what nationality is that?"

". . . my name is Wild Eagle."

. . . ah. So he was a bit of a weirdo. He hit a boost and soon his little bird-lizard was shoulder-shoulder with my jogging saix.

"Trey Brand, ZBC."

"I'm from the Blitz Team."

Holy. . . freakin'. . .

". . . you're the little sciz-I mean the aerial guy, right?"

"Heck yeah, first time a Raynos got to S Class. Hey, you did the Sectors a while ago right?"

". . . yeah. More or less."

". . .oh yeah, Team Reckless. You guys get to A Class yet?"

"Nah, two more before we get decided. Where's the other guys, anyway? Don't most S Classers spend all their time together doing commercials?"

". . . Bit is off running around with his Liger, not sure why. Brad is about a kilometer back, and Leena is chasing both of us."

". . . what?"

". . . don't ask."

So the psychotic ammo hog is chasing the mercenary and the fly boy. Where are the paparazzi? This, I gotta see!

"Eh, be right back."

I broke the com and ran the opposite direction where 'Wild Eagle' came from. Sure enough, there was a standard blue Sniper with non-standard guns shooting at a sprinting Shadow Fox. So this team got to S Class? They were trying to kill each other! Out of nowhere a Hover Cargo pulled up behind the Sniper, their owner must be trying to break it up. And he put up a public com signal, his head popped up next to my arm, he must be trying to find the fly boy.

"Leena! It was just a container of noodles!"

"WITH MY NAME WRITTEN ON IT!!"

That was scary. . . So far they hadn't noticed a black/mauve Saix with blades just sitting on it's haunches a mile away. Maybe that's a good thing.

"She's gonna mess up the Shadow Fox! Hit her with a dart or something!"

Probably the mercenary . . . hey, she stopped shooting in random directions. She was spinning around wildly. . .now she's facing me. . . now her huge guns are spinning. . .

"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?!"

"Eh. . . maybe we should. . ."

"Eh. . . yeah. . ."

Before the assault came I was springing in an arch going around behind the Hover Cargo. Oh, what the heck. I reached onto a hook over my head, put on that oxygen mask, and went full speed straight ahead. 190. 230. 290. Soon everything was blurred but I kept at it, just going in a huge circle. Then I saw what looked like a small dart over the Saix's shoulder. A homing missile? Hey, I was moving the same speed as a homing missile! I strafed left, it followed. Was this thing slow or was I moving fast enough to see it in bullet-time? After a minute of running around it just exploded and was swept back to nothing and I hit the brakes, spinning until the claws dug into the sand.

The Hover Cargo hadn't moved, and the Sniper and the Fox were just standing there. A com opened up, I was still breathing through the mask. At those speeds you needed one not to pass out. I slipped it off and accepted the com link. An older man's head popped up, long hair in rolls, wide eyed, tanner skin probably from being in the sun. He looked like a kid in a candy shop, kind of.

". . . is that a Psycho Saix?! Oh my god, is there a model kit for it yet?! Where can we buy one?!"

"Dad!"

"Leena, did you see him run circles around your ammo?!"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean we need to. . ."

"OH MY GOD, TREY BRAND?!"

. . . happy place, happy place, happy place. . .

Now they're all doing it! The red-head is ranting about me running past the speed of sight, her father wanting to buy a Psycho even if it's a one of a kind, and the mercenary just shaking his head at the situation, and mumbling about dodging is easy with 'Leena'. I was staring into space while they ranted. I had out-ran a bullet? Sure, Max had gotten pretty fast in the day but I may have clocked a land-speed record.

"Pssst . . . these people are freaking me out. . ."

Oh great, now the giant robot is scared. Do they always do this at random encounters?! So they see a zoid move faster than the human eye, shut up already!

"What if we kicked off some one and had him join?!"

These people hadn't noticed that I wasn't talking.

"We could take apart the Saix and make it into armor for the Liger Zero!"

"Sayonara. . ."

I'm not sure if it was me or the Saix itself that sprinted out of there. I got my mask on and we were moving about 300 pretty soon. The Raynos flashed by at one point, probably wondering how they scared me off. I didn't stop breaking the sound barrier until we were locked up in the Whale King. I popped up and email, panting for breath.

"Dear. . . Guy. . .whew. . . we're not fighting the Blitz Team! EVER!"

"Treeeey. . ."

"Gr. . ."

"Trey. . .time to wake up. . ."

"How about you go. . ."

". . . fine."

I took a stylish combat boot to the temple. I'd fallen asleep on the seat of the Snipe Master. Sue was decked out in her usual all black, but was wearing shorts. And no jacket. Welcome to the desert, land of hundred degrees in the shade this time of year.

"Ow. . ."

"Serves ya-whoa!"

Her cockpit had been gutted and completely rebuilt to match the top-notch one in my Saix. New super-chair, screens everywhere, and all of them holograms and force fields. No cheap plasma displays. I'd even painted it to cut glare. And it was all a huge aiming system.

". . . Trey, did you do this to the Liger too?"

"Yeah."

"Is that a cup holder?"

"Yep."

"Can it do everything yours can?"

"You mean get the web, massive communications, seat adjustments, etc?"

"Does it?"

"Sure, but it's all a huge aiming program."

She pushed me out of the seat and looked out the hyper-glass at the hanger.

". . . wow."

"Can I go back to sleep?"

"No, you have to show me what everything does."

Okay, two hours later.

". . . and the chair temperature scale is right there."

"Sweet! It'll be great for that Q and A demo down West. . ."

". . . can't you people leave a freakin' post-it note?!"

We were taking a quick trip down West. It was only a three hour flight in the Whale, I loved this flying fish/mammal/robot.

". . . did some one give Rax the schedule clipboard or is our owner a moron?"

". . . we get to check out old bases and cities."

". . . fine, but one more trip and we're changing our name to Team Pointless Sitcom."

Notes

Sorry about the off-time, couldn't log in or put up the chapter due to the upload. But hey, it's all good. Maybe some non-US people will see this. And maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and NOT want to lift weights over and over again.