DISCLAIMER: I don't own zoids copyrighted concepts, plots or characters. I do own my own original ones, which this fic revolves around.

…okay, now to just replace the film...I guided the beam back to the core and trimmed back the filaments. I was currently looking through a very large lens at a diamond ring, with a very tiny laser and pair of pliers. Sue was standing over my shoulder anxiously. The ring I was working on was a small gold band with a diamond built into the center, it didn't stick out like a wedding ring. Soon I retracted the laser and replaced the outer layer of the diamond. I'd been at this four hours. Take my advice, never work with diamonds.

I pushed back the giant lens and collapsed back in the desk chair. Sue leaned over me to look at her ring.

"…are you done?"

I grunted positively but didn't signal for her to touch it.

"…give it time to settle…"

I had just turned her great grandmother's ring into a remote control for the Geno Reaper. And I was never doing that again, diamond is impossible to cut traditionally. And one of this size needs special tools, which took weeks to be ordered. Well, another hour later I examined the ring again, put it in a formal box and walked over to Sue in the living room, kneeling down and opening the box for her.

"…awww….I knew you'd propose…"

She grabbed the ring quickly.

".I'll just take the ring, thank you."

We both laughed a bit as she slipped the ring onto the tan-lined finger.

"…now, it's all in the twist. You activate the device by twisting it around your finger. Do it once to open voice control, twice to turn it off."

She raised yet another eyebrow.

"…voice control?"

I sat down on the coffee table.

"…talk into the diamond. Say 'bow down' to get the Reaper on its haunches. 'I summon thee' for it to home onto your location and fly there…"

A half hour of which command does what.

Why did I make all the commands gothic and old fashioned? It fit the Reaper. Techno-sounding terms didn't describe this thing, I had to think Dark ages. Besides, Sue loved acting like a witch.

The wannabe-witch DID love the ring. She went straight to the Hanger to break in her new pet, I went straight onto the couch to sleep. Seems all I do is work and sleep these days. By the time I woke up we were on the surface of the lake, judging by the rocking sensation. I looked around to find the Slash and the Reaper gone. Wait…this thing must have hatches on the top….wait! How the heck did they get the Liger out?! We're floating on the lake, it's a land zoid! I did a scan of the lake bottom, just in case Rax wanted to go swimming in his zoid.

The scan picked up a few wrecks, a little crab zoid scuttling around, another Whale, a few dead bodies strapped to cement blocks, but no Slash Liger.

An hour of radar scans later I had the Whale floating over a canyon, watching the Reaper and Slash jump around a river. I set the thing to remote, and walked into the garage. Psy was asleep, more or less.

"Hey, Cyborg-Kitty, we're goin' down."

He got up and stretched, opening his hatch.

"…gr…"

I hopped in, opened the mouth ramp and we more or less dropped a thousand feet onto the Saix's paws. They always land on their feet.

"Hi chase!"

I watched a black Slash Liger bounce up to us, like a playful kitten. Then the Reaper appeared in a puff of smoke. Drama Queen.

"Chase, 'bout time you and your cat showed up."

I glared through the tinted hatch.

"…my name isn't…"

"…Chase…"

I hate when he finished my sentences…I picked up the control wheel and got into position for moving around. Psy took this as a sign to let me take command. Rax bounced again in his Slash, nodding toward the river.

"We're gonna follow this river."

Normally I'd point out we have maps, a Whale King, better means of traveling. But hey, I never did get to go hiking as a kid. It was your basic canyon-making river rapids. Curves every mile, rocks everywhere. Well, I ran the Saix up to the edge, hurdled to the other side and started jogging deeper into the trench. Rax did the same at a similar pace on the other side, Sue floated over the water with her cloaking on.

Well, for the sake of doing so Rax and I turned on cloaking, less paparazzi. I swapped around the screens in my cockpit to one that showed bright red figures moving beside me, heat-vision. Cuts right through cloaks, you can't mask heat. We set our voice systems to open range, and started a casual conversation as we swerved and sprinted around the river.

"…but can she adjust to the Juggernaut?"

Sue made a grunting sound.

"Clara's cleaned out the Sectors before, she could probably use that thing better than we can."

Rax asked why. I answered.

"Clara grew up using a Command Wolf, it should be second nature. I grew up with this exact Saix, Sue has switched around a lot, and you're a freak of nature."

"Oh."

I like how he accepts whatever answer we give him.

"…so is she going to, like, move in with us?"

Sue is a bit quick to the arrowhead.

"…she's living in that Molga right now."

Sue made a sound of recollection, she stayed with me in the Molga a few days. I remembered the little apartment in that thing, my first place in the real world. Sue then cut away.

"…she can park the thing in the Hanger and keep on living there."

…how does she think of this when she gets hammered every morning and night? We ran a bit farther up the canyon before we came switched subjects.

"…guys, the ZBC is pitting us against an S Class."

"WHAT?!"

I shrugged.

"…they want to see how we'd fair."

Rax sounded a bit anxious.

"…well, who are we up against?"

"…Lightning…Cisco, Taskers…all Saixes."

Sue sounded relieved.

"Great…heck, you have an evolved Saix, we're a shoe-in."

"Sue, it doesn't work like that…These guys are possibly better pilots than me. Heck, Max even."

Silence.

"…I'm serious. You ever see those patterns? They use formations to top their max speeds. I've never seen speedsters move that close."

Rax piped in.

"…I worked with Jack once. He's good."

….Rax worked with…never mind…

"…the Taskers are friends of my sister…they're insane."

I looked over at Sue's invisible zoid.

"…like, insane like we're insane, or Blitz Team insane?"

"…they can match moves perfectly…"

Great…we're up against Mister Lightning Saix and the Wonder Twins. I twisted left and hopped over the river, dodging the Liger in mid-air as we switched lanes. As I landed I let the blades loose. They were your basic blades, one long on each side, smalls ones peppering the body and sides. The ones on the Saix also lined the torso to look like stripes. A striped cheetah. Zoid Eve must be a blonde.

Well, I slashed a line into the wall with the left blade and folded them back up. I remembered the guns on this thing. They were hidden in the armor, just short to mid range powerhouses. Sadly, I have the aim of a drunk Rax. Sue actually aims better while boozed. I can't shoot for shit. I'm serious. I've worked on at least using the short range ones, but it'll be months before I can use the guns in a battle. Besides, I have blades.

We kept on about the Lightning Team.

"…those guys, together, can get speeds that none of the networks have measured."

Rax was curious.

"…so…they could be either slower or faster than Psy…"

"…not sure, actually…maybe I'll ask Zoid Eve for a blueprint."

"…um…Chase…she's the god of a planet, not a secretary."

"…what, like she's too high and mighty to just fax me some papers."

"…feminist…"

Sue laughed in triumph, I sighed.

"Great, great…well, it's possible the trio can out-do the Psycho Saix. But it's possible they're turtles."

"…I predict turtle stew at the after-hours party…"

"Psy, go get a comedy movie already, your remarks are falling flat."

"Will do."

Suddenly we found ourselves in open desert, we'd followed the river clean out of the canyon.

"…that was a short trip…"

I tapped my remote/watch, ordering the whale over to our location. I watched the gray Whale float up a few miles away. Was it possible to make it blend in, or possible cloak? Wait…what if I made a new transport? Well, not build one…more like get Eve to give ours a little motherly kick-in-the-ass-to-get-the-job-done-ness…But first things first.

"Hey guys, would you mind being stuck in a hotel for a few days while ithe Whale's in a crystal cocoon?"

"Sure, sounds fun."

"Can we rent movies before we do?"

"Yes. Rax, we'll get movies."

"Can Sue make cookies?"

"Sure, I've been meaning to experiment."

Wow, Sue didn't shoot the poor guy down.

"Can Trey show us those movies he has about zoids?"

My history programs?

"Sure, why not."

We started running toward the Whale as it lowered, a good few miles away still.

"Can I invite some girls over and…"

"Yes!"

"No!"

…you'd think I would be the one to say yes…but no, Sue had been asking every female how the surgery-affected portion of her body looked…I don't know if she likes girls in that way though, never bothered to ask. I hated the idea of our hotel room being the site for a beer-bash though. The papers compared us to rock stars enough as it is. I also hated the idea of waking up buried in female bodies. Dear god, I've been in that Hanger waaay too long…

Author's Notes

Well, I have good news for all of you. Not just the new transport zoid. I am upgrading my entire computer system. I've already started to gloss over my upgraded programs and web system, but now I'm getting new hardware. I've ordered a few new parts for my computer to replace the little parts that came with my Dell. Namely, a wireless keyboard with hundreds of programmable features, web control, a wireless optical mouse to replace my old corded one, and I've replaced my computer chair with a LA-Z Boy recliner. And an upgraded sound system. Why am I telling you this? My new, comfortable style of typing and working will let me give you a new chapter every three days instead of four. And I get to brag to my friends that my office rocks their socks. What? I used up my comedy on the golf course.