Disclaimer; See previous chapters

…our little bar patron has returned…he's at his bar stool, drink in hand, both eyes at the screen over the bar. The pre-battle show is doing a profile on the new Quickstrike line-up. Salamander, a vintage Ice Blazer, a matching Zeek Dober, and a rather lacking Storm Sworder. A bomber, an amazing aerial zoid that they jammed some weaponry onto, killing off its stunt abilities and two doberman zoids. They were tough…but not that smart.

All the QS zoids were painted a royal green, making the two dog zoids rather hard to tell apart. The two aerial zoids had deployed and were circling the battlefield. Today it was a vast concrete plain, a literally leveled Republic Base from who knows when. The dogs, were…eh…tearing each other apart. Literally, he two green pitbulls were pinning each other down and biting. The pilots seemed to have a bit of a grudge.

When the Killer Whale made its appearance over the field the two dogs pulled apart and stareda the horizon, the prehistoric bird and the skinny dragon going back toward the center. The orca opened its mouth out launched four dots, which touched down in a cloud of dust. Strangely enough, there is no dust or sand on stone. They must have launched a smoke bomb for effect.

Well, that weird smoke hadn't cleared by the time the Judge called the battle mode. The minute he swung his hand down four dark shapes sped out of the cloud in different directions. The Quickstrike Team Dobermans backed into each other slightly, covering each other's back. The flyboys just kept gliding. The cameras got their sight on the Urban Slash first. It was jogging around the perimeter, not seeming too offensive today. Well, that shadow flicking around the area over and over again in a figure eight must be Brand…there's the dinosaur skeleton…its hidden boosters charged up as it sped along the ground, and somehow it propelled itself into the air, its wings folding sideways for extra lift. It was…flying…not exactly a Raynos though...it bobbed a bit on dives, took turns pretty sharply when it didn't jus sp and hover, and its speed was jus above average. But at the time, the whole bar stared as it ascended into Heaven to go tear St. Peter a new one.

Nobody looked twice at the other shadow, they figured it was just the Juggernaut. Then the remote camera operator did a double take, revealing something was…different. That wasn't a zoid, that was a giant freakin' wolf! Wait…those were guns…it's a zoid after all. So, big realistic wolf that was currently a dark concrete color. Nice looking, but where's the CPC? The Vulcan cannon? The chain guns? Before we could make guesses the camera switched to one of the Dobermans, probably the Zeek. It made took off like a rocket toward the circle of Reckless zoids. And it was…fast. That little dog was going at nearly Saix speed! And its brother caught up without even trying.

A second later they were tailing the speeding Mystery Wolf. They then slowed down staying behind as the wolf pilot tried to jog to the side. They hung right back there, fast enough that they could do whatever. Then the larger one shot out fast enough the camera didn't catch it. Right as we braced for the strike there was the same speed demon, flying back with its legs flailing. There was a cannon in the wolf's tail…nice. The dog's brother went on without it, stalking the Wolf. Well, he dog landed on its side, got up, shook itself off and went o chase it again when the Saix flashed by and it decided for a different hunt. Soon enough he dog was chasing the cat, which was easily twice the speed, the poor dog. And the arrogant dog waited for its wild cousin to slow down so he could kill the new zoid.

Another camera angle showed the Reaper, now airborne, chasing the Salamander while the Sworder kept flashing by shooting a powerful blast with a large cannon and missing every time. Who puts a chain gun on a flying zoid. Soon enough the Salamander's wing caught fire from the Reaper's barrage and started lowering itself, signaling the Judge that it was out. The bar groaned, we loved crash landings.

Now back to the Reckless speedsters getting chased by two hungry attack dogs. Well, the Saix wasn't just stopping and killing his pursuer while the wolf occasionally teased the Zeek with a rear cannon blast, making him roll o avoid it and sending him back a mile before catching up. Rax, was nowhere in sight. The cameras soon flashed up the Saix, with the dog behind it in hot pursuit. The Psycho Saix cut left and back again for some reason. The dog did no such thing, must have caught on to Brand's tricks. Then it happened. One minute the Ice Blazer was going at it like a greyhound, sleek head forward, feet pounding the stone as it chased the cat it couldn't catch.

Then something wiped its legs out from under it, its head rammed into the ground, and it started rolling forward, whacking the turf each time. The Saix leapt up and flipped to celebrate, as it went on, laving the trashed dog behind. The camera zoomed behind it to reveal what had KOed it. There was a Slash Liger, laying stretched out on its belly on the ground. Rax and Brand had made the thing trip over the Liger.

That's why Doberman zoids weren't popular. They were fast, but they could only travel in a straight line. No slow turns even, no dodges. Brand had run that thing through a whole chase scene, building its speed and hen had Rax trip it. That's why Brand cut to the left like that, so he wouldn't hit Rax. The Ice Blazer, had no such blessing.

The bar had a good laugh at that. They even did slow-mo replay of the blazer tripping and rolling flat onto its face. They cut back to the wolf and Zeek Dover on its tail. Well, it seemed the Wolf was having a good time out there. Except now the Dober was pissed off and trying to rush full speed at the thing. But every time he even went to lunge the tail cannon sent him braking. He could turn to the side, he's just as bad as his brother. As in both the other zoid, and the fact the two dog zoid pilots are identical twin, that explains the little scuffle before the battle.

Well, then the would pilot showed her claws. She jumped sideways and stopped. Well, her pursuer kept straight ahead, overshooting a few miles into nowhere. Then it fell onto its side and slid to a stop after a half mile slide. It hadn't tripped on Rax, the Slash Liger and Psycho Saix stood off to the side, making their zoids do a handshake. The Wolf ran up to them and flipped its hind legs forward, sliding sideways for a yard like it was going to fall over like the other canines, then calmly stopped and let the cameras admire the silver-tinted lupine as it stood in a classic pose. Out of focus, brand as making his Saix look like it was laughing.

While the other cameras collected promo footage of the new Team Reckless pilot and her mystery zoid, the main cameras swiveled to the sky chase. The weighted-down Sworder was swooping back and forth to avoid a barrage of blasts from the three headed, winged skeleton of a long-dead beast. I mean the Geno Reaper, for those of limited vocabulary. That Sworder was an odd specimen. Standard pterodactyl shape, but on each wing was a small cannon and the back was striped with a chain gun knock-off. The ending effect, a very bad plane.

Yet it kept swerving so much the Reaper pilot couldn't aim and fly at the same time. Then the green little dinosaur finally jolted as its wing left wing clipped off, sending it into a shallow dive. The pilot popped out of the cockpit, and floated down on a parachute even though the green bird landed on its belly rather smoothly. But let's watch the replay. The bird was struck from the side. And playing back another camera shows the new wolf zoid firing a sniper shot from its open mouth.

The Judge called it, and the bar broke into a wave of questions about the new Reckless machine. But the after-battle show was priceless. The twins, the pilots of the Zeek Dober and Ice Blazer, ran out of their zoids and started beating the shit out of each other. Team Quickstrike's zoids were out of commission, so they had to have a transport pick them up. But here's another quirk, they left behind both Dobermans. Just lf them for scrap, after their first battle. Needless to say, Reckless still has it.

And that's how it would have looked to any fan at home. But in the cockpits, it was even better. Quickstrike left us a message the night before the battle. Basically showing off their new zoids, the Blazer and Dober. This essentially pissed us all off, and gave me time to plan out our little tripwire stunt. But Clara and the Shadow Wolf stole the show.

I mean, she's a relatively new pilot when it comes to battles. Amazing track record in the Sectors though. But in a new, unfamiliar zoid, and she shakes off two speedy attack zoids like that? I admit I tipped her off on how to finish the Dober off, but her tail firing was amazing. And her little ground-o-air snipe was…well, before everybody knew Rax, Sue and I as Team Reckless. They sometimes mentioned a fourth member, but Clara was up there with us now, her Sectors past had caught up with her.

But enough of this background dribble and battle statistics. Back to Team Reckless in their natural habitat. Let's cut to ten minutes after leaving the battle site. We were all in the living room, keeled over whatever soft furniture we had. Hey, it was a fun battle, not an easy one.

"…well, Miss Olympia seems confident after beating me to my mark…"

Sue, face down in the armchair, was saying Clara shot down her prey before she the Reaper could catch it.

"…eh…sorry, the new zoid and the adrenaline got to me…"

No kidding. She was whooping and dancing all the way back to the Whale. Remember how she got a bit wild with the Juggernaut? Well, the Shadow Wolf is like a second skin to her now. Either that or there's a gas leak in her cockpit.

I was hunched down on the couch, my arms killing me from the speedy turns. Rax was lying flat on the carpet, his bandana dripping in sweat. Clara was rcinedon the other half of the couch. This was the biggest upcoming team in the Zoids Battle Commission, all zonked out like a litter of kittens, Makes you think really.

I've been reading my earlier journal entries. I haven't changed that much. I became a bit more sarcastic, more street smarts but deep down I'm still Trey. Rax is still the freakshow pilot from down South. Sue is still a registered mercenary, but she hasn't done a job in months since we're financially stable. Clara? I'm not sure what she was like before I met her.

Is his what Eve meant? Helping people? I took a bunch of no-names, including myself and made it big time. And we helped out charities, stuck to our roots, trained just as hard, we didn't become some spoiled A Class team. Then again neither did the Lightning Team, and they're in Class S.

You're probably wondering what happened to Sarah and Vega. Well, good news. Sarah and the little guy went to the ZBC and turned themselves in. Well, more like gave out every bit of info they had in exchange for immunity and new identities. I heard she wanted to get a place out in the suburbs. Of course this was only a couple days ago, it's not like I'm looking back on it. We did miss Vegas. And I wanted to get to know my sister a bit more. And get revenge.

But back to my team. We were all passed out in the living room as the whale went on autopilot back to the Lake. It had been getting hotter during the day. Nights were terrible and getting worse but when it got like that during the day that was our signal to get back under the Lake. We didn't move much during the flight and during the trip to the bottom of the lake. But when we did wake up and Clara went to get something out of her Molga she came back with some questions.

"Hey Chase, what's with the new zoids?"

…okay, I'd kind of picked up the Ice Blazer and Zeek Dober…the other guys abandoned them in their prime, I hate to see a zoid left like that. And on top of all that crap I want to improve their design. I know, I know, we nearly get killed by those things and I want to make them more efficient.

"…beats leaving them at the Pound."

She just laughed and left me alone in my room, watching a movie on my couch and doodling little dog zoids onto a scrap of napkin with a pen I found in my jacket.

Six Hours Later

"Pssst…"

Psy was trying to wake me up through the intercom. I sighed, turned on a lamp and pressed the respond button.

"Which zoid evolved this time? The Molga?"

He chuckled. I hate it when he does that. Like I've mentioned, he speaks in my voice. As in exactly my voice.

"Nah, this is just another midnight social call."

I groaned and rubbed my eyes.

"And Eve says she likes that you did with the Shadow Wolf."

"…pardon?"

Now he had m wide awake.

"…the way you designed the Wolf was amazing, she said so."

"Psy…it evolved on its won, remember? She made the zoid…"

He didn't miss a beat.

"Really…is that why a day before it grew a cocoon, you sketched a little picture of it on a fast food receipt?"

…what…?

"…look in your drawer."

I scrambled to my desk and opened the cluttered drawer, finding a small white slip of paper. I flipped it around to see a slightly detailed sketch of a realistic wolf zoid. With a sniper in its mouth, two barrels along the back and a tail…cannon…

"I…I forgot I mad this…"

The intercom snickered.

"Eve didn't. She loved the idea and brought it to life."

I thought this over for a second.

"…wait…so you mean I made the Shadow Wolf?"

He didn't answer, telling me that I should rewinding this conversation in my head. So, I'd made the Shadow Wolf…an agile, powerful yet classic zoid that used a few weapons to cover a variety of situations…dear Eve, I'd made something like the Shadow Fox. One problem with that, I'm nowhere near Layon's level of intellect, creativity or engineering.

"Well, G'night."

And he clicked out. Leaving me wide awake in the middle of the night, staring at the dim lamp light.

Eight Hours Later

"Chas, how long you been up?"

"…few minutes."

Actually, eight hours. I couldn't sleep so I went into the Hanger and started fixing our zoids, not exactly fixing the Fury but a tough job. Well, truthfully I fell asleep for a couple hours halfway through so I wasn't sleep-deprived. Sue had walked in on me examining the legs of the Shadow Wolf, which was now nearly silver because the sunlight that flickered through the Lake into our skylights changed the lighting in here. This thing had no real color, it truly was a chameleon. It wasn't very apparent in the battle though, it blended in very well but didn't change color. Well, live and learn.

"Just eat something before Noon, Chase."

And Sue walked out to go cook breakfast for herself and the sane habitants of this Giant Robotic Killer Whale. Psy had stayed pretty quiet. Either he was in sleep mode or reading a book off the web like he sometimes did, he was getting to be a bit more intellectual. At least I thought he was until he opened his jaws as I tapped a tension wire on the Wolf's foot.

"…you know what you need? A girlfriend. Clara has the hots for you already, and Sue would date a horse if he was rich enough."

"Psy, by any chance are you reading a book about New New Jersey?"