…our bar patron has been at his bar for six hours now…so has the rest of the patrons. Watching a screen with nothing on it but the occasional flash of color, a skeleton high in the sky doing nothing, and a three legged slash Liger on its side but not smoking. Next to it, were two downed Saixes. All three had gone down in one flash of impact. The Reaper was airborne, undamaged but apparently incapable of firing at the unseen remaining Saix. The two Tasker Saixes and liger went down four hours ago. It had been a two hour slash/miss fest. Then the Cisco Saix and the Psycho disappeared from human sight, now only visible as the occasional mirage. They've been going top speed for four hours, we're not sure who's winning or losing. The Reaper had no shot at hitting either, so it settled for floating above the invisible crossfire.

The Judge had gone into Sleep mode a while ago. An hour of nothing happening later it woke up and, to the bar's hatred, called it a draw due to time restrictions. A few minutes later both Saixes appeared, staring the other down as a Whale King approached from the West, a Gustav train from the East. The network focused on both of the speedsters. Dear…Eve…

…neither one had a scratch…not even the LS, even after facing the bladed evolution. The Psycho didn't even have a chip. As the Reaper, to everyone's interest, swooped down and grabbed the Slash Liger off he ground like a hawk. Both floated into their Whale but the two cats kept staring. Then both turned on a dime back to their teams.

The network, an hour of commercials later gave a slow-motion simulation of the two cats. Apparently they'd been striking and dodging for six hours straight. One thing for sure, it wasn't clear who was the aggressive one.

Well, I slept for twenty hours after the battle. After fixing the Slash of course. But still, that was our first battle that lasted more than ten minutes. That Cisco guy was good. As in better than me good. His Saix could move just as fast as mine could, and Psy is possibly an evolution. Psy was also crashed, he can get tired I guess. That guy was matching us move for move. Neither got a hit on the other, but he got closer than I did.

But this proved something. Whenever Psy and I got to high speeds, it wasn't him doing everything. That guy had an LS and he was just as fast. It wasn't the zoid. It wasn't Zoid Eve, even. It was me. Sue and Rax wondered why I tended to train eight hours a day, when Psy could do all the work. I honestly have to give Rax the best pilot in hat match, even between me and Jack. The sisters broke formation, probably against Jack's orders, to go after the Reaper and Rax. The Liger jumped in front of Sue and took them both down with a blade attack, but the impact knocked a leg right off. Rax didn't act any different after the battle. Gotta love that guy.

Sue was pissed at the fact she was useless. By the time I woke up she was out in a canyon working on speed-sniping. One of the reasons I got her with us, she always wants revenge. One thing none of us liked though. It was a draw. We don't mind losing, we just never lose. But a draw. What if Cisco and the Taskers want a rematch?

If they did, I had to double our training time, AND re-work a few zoid parts. I've been making plans to make the Reaper not just a floating skeleton, but modify the structure to let it fly traditionally, at much higher speeds. It was very tricky though. I wasn't confident enough to try it out yet. The Slash would need even thicker leg armor, it already had legs thicker than a Blade Liger, the hardest zoid in history to de-limb. As I thought about joint supports I was still in bed after waking up. I managed to pry myself out from the suddenly heavy sheets and change clothes, walking out for something to eat.

Sue, like I said, was out speed-sniping. Rax was sitting by his liger as its leg healed internally. I don't think the Slash can talk, but Rax seems o understand the growls pretty clearly. Sue could understand her zoid way back when it was a Geno, then a Snipe, then a resurrected Geno. I'm not sure if any other teams did this with their zoids. Psy was still in sleep mode, imagine the stress he took in those six hours. He was stretched out in place, his sharp blue eyes dull and his limbs extended to full length. I noticed his folded blades were intact, thank Eve. I'm a bit worried about his ego though, being matched by an LS after all.

I got ZBC Message about our class. We had only had two A Class battles before they had this sideshow battle happen. We had held out against an S Class Team. Barely, but still. Did you know they have a point system for ranking? We were climbing the charts. And they also had a set for individual pilots. We were in the top 100 so far. Lighting Team was in the top 10 easy. But I noticed in the last day I'd jumped twenty places. Must have been the Jack effect. Rax had gone up fifteen, Sue I couldn't find. I logged off the living room console and laid back on the couch. We were all wiped, even a day after the battle. To think they may be promoting us. Maybe I should use my ZBC connections to get us back into C Class.

After Sue got back at around sunset, she baked a cake to try and get us all a little sugar. It got us talking a little at least.

"…I changed a program in my zoid for increased snipe tracking."

I looked at Sue while chewing.

"Hm…pretty nice…I guess you'd be better suited to adjusting the long range programs."

She shrugged, admiring her new zoid-linked ring as we shared the cake, spread out in her a bit too spacious bedroom. Rax licked his chocolate-covered fork as we asked him about his Liger. He shrugged in a positive way. We were really starting to read each other well, must be the fact we live so close.

"Chase, how you doin' after your little boxing mach?"

I was too tired to correct her calling me Chase again. It was Max's name, not mine. He deserved it, I don't want it just because of my battle style.

"…gimme a few days of repetitive repair work and I'll be fine."

"…and your little weight lifting set…"

I glared, Sue smirked. She'd been using my gym almost as much as me, go figure, she works out.

"…Psy is still asleep, he's out of it."

My team-mates nodded. Soon, once again, we were talking about Clara.

"…if it's not going to hurt anything, I'm going to ask her."

Rax and I looked at Sue and shrugged, figuring it was worth a shot. Worse comes to worse we have a new training partner. We had slept out of schedule so we spent the night watching movies. Then when the sun came up we went downtown and saw six movies in the theater. You catching a trend here? I know I wasn't, I was still a tad out of touch, just a bit below my current mental state. More rented movies later we finally slept a few hours. That battle threw us off a good while.

But let me focus on the main event of this entry. I woke up from yet another nap to find Sue shaking me awake. She needed me to surface our Whale to the lake and fly over to the Public Hanger. We were picking up Clara, her Molga-Home, and her Liger. Call me crazy, but I think she said yes to joining. We spent an afternoon moving her in.

"….hey, Trey, could you rig in my Molga with your wireless system?"

Clara and I were getting her Molga settled in the Hanger. She chose to live in there, rather than switch to one of our rooms. She was the only person who called me 'Trey' nowadays.

"Sure, no problem."

I set down one of her clothing containers and walked over to the console at which I learned modern computing systems. I admit I like having my old temporary home around. As I searched for our signal from the Whale Clara asked about something Sue had said.

"…Sue said you may upgrade his transport…"

I shrugged and kept tapping panels.

"….evolve it, actually…"

"…wait…what?"

I realized she was a bit out of the loop.

"…um…I'm going to get the Whale to evolve."

I didn't know how o explain how, exactly…She spun me around by the shoulders to look me in the eye.

"….so you CAN evolve zoids…"

I blinked.

"…um, is it a rumor?"

She stared.

"…I've been wondering about you since your Saix changed…and then you started making…well, those zoids…"

I looked out the window at my prototypes decorating the Hanger. She kept talking.

"…You're not just a mechanic, you're some kind of magician…"

I stared. Um…magician?

"…I would love to explain all his to you…but um…"

I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out of the worm and over a hundred yards to where Psy was sitting.

"Metal-head, make yourself useful and give Clara an update."

He moved his head up and nodded his cat-molded head.

"…sure, no problem…"

Clara looked at me.

"…are you a ventriloquist, too?"

Psy explained his being alive, as usual in a voice identical to mine, as I side-stepped away a few yards, then sprinted like hell back to the Molga to work on the console. By the time Clara walked in after me she looked like she'd just been given the secret of life.

"…um…your zoid is a nice guy…"

I closed a panel on her console and looked at her.

"…he has his moments…so, you want to run off screaming by now?"

This was basically, did she want to stay with Team Reckless?

"…put in some speakers in the Juggernaut and I'm in."

The ZBC gave us a week off, both from battles and my little projects, since that battle sparked some issues. Each day either Sue, Rax or myself got Clara used to her new battle zoid and getting her familiar with our strategies. Namely, just kick ass and get paid. She had me build a remote for the Wolf in the form of a necklace she wore. As I put the thing in, she stood behind my desk chatting.

She was wearing a fitness-looking jumpsuit, dark blue on both parts, her black hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. She resembled Riz slightly. Both had forward features, Clara just looked a bit less frail and more angled. I'd say she was dominant looking but she was too attractive for that.

Don't ask why I told you so much about her just now. It's just a mild crush, I figure it's because I've met so few females. I mean, between her, Sue, Riz and a few others she was the least dangerously flawed. And she works out more than Sue. I'm sorry, but a girl in a gym is somehow a good thing to me. Well, after implanting the voice remote into her pendant she went out for her first time alone in the Juggernaut.

She came back two days later with a wild look in her eyes, her hair loose and un-combed, and her clothes on the verge of falling apart. She had fallen in love with the Command Wolf Urban Assault and gone for a little trip to elope with it. Namely waving it in her family's face. They didn't like her joining our team. They weren't fans. Well, they just didn't like me since I punched out her uncle and stopped being their free grease monkey. And canceling Riz's bogus contract.

After her little wild trip she started acting like the rest of us. Zoid addicts with nice zoids. And a bit of a hard-to-handle attitude. We'd just converted a tame little Sectors pilot into a battle addict that would put Leena Toros herself to shame. Well, maybe not that crazy. But hey, Team Reckless was now a foursome of ass-kicking.

Author's Notes

Well, my new wireless desktop system came finally. I typed out most of this chapter on the couch while my better half and I watched a movie.She's okay with it, she gets a kick from watching me type fast with two fingers. This wireless thing will le me get to updtae more often, thankfully. I have a gigantic moniter on my desktop, both screen size and the fact it's the size of a microwave. Well, going wireless can let me rest my eyes and be a little comfortable. And of course save desk clutter. And what's with Trey and Clara? My girlfriend was sitting next to me while I wrote this, figure it out. Next chap will feature the media commenting on Reckless actually tying a match. Le this fic show my passion, I hate super-powered chars in fanfics, and in original fiction even.