DISCLAIMER: ...see the last forty chapters.

…and then the blonde girl is the only survivor. I had just predicted the entire plot of this lame horror flick we were watching. And the opening credits were still rolling. I was leaned back in the movie theater seat, Sue and Clara did the same on each side of me. Rax stayed home to clean his toy room.

"Pssst…Sue, pass the buttered milkballs."

Clara had gone through the popcorn during the previews. Sue sighed and passed them over my lap. The credits stopped and the characters walked onto the camera, said each other's name loudly and clearly and started walking through the woods. Eve, kill me now.

Thirty minutes later the monster was revealed, a freaky wolf thing in a trench coat with chainsaw hands. The Chainsaw Man. How overused. Team Reckless groaned in unison as a bunch of teenagers with no knowledge of weapons fired round after round with a hard-to-use fire-arm into its head. Pfft, yeah, all hot blondes can use guns perfectly.

We walked out after the torture finally ended. The blonde lives, but a Chainsaw pops out of a vent and grabs her in the last scene. How does a chainsaw have fingers? I don't know either. We walked out of the theater and into the neon-lit downtown area. I had on my usual gray shirt, black faded jeans and dark performance shoes. And my hat and sunglasses, of course. No jacket because of the sweltering heat.

Sue had on some tight shorts with a few belts, a tank top and sunglasses with a visor slid through her hair. Clara, eh, dark jeans and a tee shirt? We don't exactly live in black clothes, it's just our uniform. And Clara needs to take a few sleeze lessons from Sue, she's getting a lot of media coverage with the Shadow Wolf, might as well attract some hormonal teens into the market.

We took shelter in a late night bar club, staking out seats by the screens at the bar. The blonde bartender-ess or whatever female bar hops are called, walked up and saw us staring at a zoid battle screen like moths to a light.

"…eh, you guys pilots?"

We nodded slightly and kept watching the screen without blinking. Bar-Blonde laughed and leaned over onto her elbows, the rest of the bar was empty because of the dance floor kicking up.

"…lesse…hat and sunglasses…a fine pair of legs…and the girl scout face…you from Team Reckless?"

I'm guessing in order she referred to Me, Sue, then Clara. How did she see Sue's legs? Well, she was leaned back with her heels on the edge of the bar, I think she was a call girl before a mercenary. I shrugged and looked at the blonde to answer during a commercial break.

"Yep, that's us. You get any zoid freaks in here?"

This bartender wasn't exactly tall, she was slender, blonde and had a New California Tan but she was a tad petite.

'You're checking one out. Heck, a friend of mine dated your Liger pilot for a while."

Sue snorted out a laugh, Clara nodded innocently and I raised an eyebrow. The blonde took this as a cue to keep talking.

"…so what did you think of the Checkmate interview?"

My ears perked up at the Checkmate.

"…pardon?"

She shrugged.

"Yeah, the other day Max Brand did an interview about the ZBC and he commented that Checkmate was getting back together."

I stared. This supposed zoid addict wasn't aware Max and I were related. We chatted with the bartender for a quick hour before we left for home. I was silent most of the time, until Clara popped the question as we walked into out kitchen.

"…Trey, what's Team Checkmate?"

I winced and took a seat on our counter.

"…um…it was Max's team when he was battling…he was the first Saix pilot to reach S Class."

Sue suddenly was in the conversation, staring daggers into me.

"…and they're coming back…what does this mean exactly?"

I shrugged.

"They'll just be a high-class S Class team. They went through the classes years ago, so no use doing it again."

Sue wasn't satisfied.

"What zoids? You're using Max's Saix…"

No, I was using Psy! Wait…crap.

"…eh…Max told me once he was looking for an X."

Now both Clara and Sue were staring at my little perch on the counter.

"…um…what kind of Ultimate X?"

I slipped off my hat and ruffled my hair.

"No clue. Last I checked there are no Saixes in the X Files."

(…hehe…I am such a bad writer…)

"Up yours!"

Our heads swiveled to the intercom as it clicked out. Eh…I guess he eavesdrops on us with that thing…

Twelve Hours Later

Berserk Fury Sighting. Liger Zero X Sighting. Backdraft Sighting. All the headlines were the same thing. Somebody saw something and wanted to tell everyone. Some dirt farmers saw the Fury fly by their hunting perch. I guess Vega picked up some practice habits from his handsome uncle. A family on vacation saw a black Liger in the distance. Turns out it was just a black Liger. And the Backdraft flew one of their Whales over a residential area and the cloaking flickered for thirty seconds. I tossed the newspaper printout back onto my desk and went back to working on blueprints.

Psy had called me on the speaker this morning asking about the Reaper's flight statistics. He'd apparently forgotten about last night completely. In one voice receiver, out the other. Did Eve make him that way or was he like this deep down as a normal zoid?

My desk screen was currently flaunting a complete schematic for the Berserk Fury. An identical screen showed off a video frame of the Liger Zero X, or Negative Zero as we called it. The headlines had given me an idea. My cursor on each screen was on the back legs of each zoid. There was a similarity in the support style. Same thing with the neck supports, claws, even the teeth reeked of Berserk fury if you looked from an angle. Then again I notice if an ant has a missing pinky toe.

I was shirtless and cross-legged in my chair, staring at the dual screens. These visual similarities may be the tip of the Titanic-Killer. If the BF copied the Fury in order to simulate the Liger Zero, they were on the right trail. Truthfully, the Liger and Fury are extremely similar. Under the armor they're both simple, weak yet agile and fast black zoids. Strap on some armor and you have two powerhouses. In fact the Liger only had problems with Vega because those CAS armors were inferior. The Backdraft at least knew to make an armor with no obvious weaknesses.

In fact my drawer at the time held a notebook sketch of the Hailstorm armor Layon had made for the Negative Zero. I knew it was him because in all honesty the man is a genius. The folding blades, lightning manipulation and advanced shielding system just painted a picture of his inner mind. This thing must be what he, as a scared little kid, imagined a deadly Hailstorm looked like. And its appearance. I reached down with one bare arm and took out the sketch to take it in again. It was terrifying.

I scratched my shoulder as I put it away for the fifth time. I turned back to the two screens and repeated this cycle for another hour before retiring to the garage. I stepped out of the elevator to gaze on two brand new-looking dog zoids in adjoined parking spaces. I'd fixed the Blazer and Dober out of pity, I'd work on improving them out of curiosity later. I pulled on a shirt as I walked to the main console.

"Mornin'…"

I grunted and started ordering files from the keyboard and screen.

"…so…whatcha gonna call it?"

…I'd stopped wondering how he read my mind a long while ago. I just finished typing a word, calmly turned to the reclined zoid and stated.

"…the Liger Zero Torment."

He nodded his cat-head and rested it back onto his outstretched paws. He always thought he was a tabby housecat. I turned back to the console and kept typing.

"…so, what color? Black, orange, blue, green, gold, white and even red are taken."

…those two Ligers should be on a gay pride flag.

(What? They should. They're colorful and have good sense of furniture space.)

"I was thinking of copying the Wolf's chameleon trick and applying that."

"…a color changing Liger…and I thought a wolf was a stretch."

I shrugged in agreement as I adjusted a file size.

"…I kind of took a page from Layon's book."

"How? You got hair plugs under that hat?"

"…he named that armor after his childhood trauma…well, I'm naming this one after my childhood in general."

Temporary silence.

"…good to see you've forgiven your parents…"

I snorted at his joke and typed up a schematic for a leg joint from the standard Liger that was now dominating the transport market.

"Hey, maybe I could steal it from that Cloud guy for a day and trash my home town with it."

"…oh come on, I hated that warehouse too. I wouldn't mind going back, showing off the new threads, and the new blades…"

From behind my back I heard him deploy all his blades at once.

"…you realize you have guns built into you, right?"

A grunt.

"…you're the one who can't shoot a fish in a shoebox."

I winced. Okay, I was more speed and close combat, not a gun user.

"So I hear Clara is taking lessons about men from Sue."

I stopped typing in mid sentence.

"…what?"

"Yeah, they were both sharing a shower and Sue was going on about different things. Night clubs, drinks, fashion."

"…Psy…how did you know they were sharing a shower…?"

"…the intercoms have cameras. There's on in every room of this place, thank Eve for making the Killer Whale suited for my lifestyle."

...I'm scared...

"…better question…why were they sharing a shower?"

There are like seven baths/showers on this ship. Why did they need to share?

"…and I thought I was bad with human culture…"

…what the hell was that supposed to mean! Yes, I was that stupid. Hey, you thought I went from spud to stud in a month in the city?

"…well, let's shake off the image of two girls showering together and get back to the two Ligers slashing it out."

"…kinky."

Now, I didn't wonder this till months later, but who the hell programs a sex drive into a zoid! Eve, if you're reading this, which I know you are you intrusive bitch, you are a sick, sick person. Goddess. Whatever. I hope I don't turn into a pillar of salt after writing this.

The Next Day

"…I cannot believe you said that in the interview…"

Sue had her head buried between her arms, sitting next to me on the couch as I flipped through a magazine that had asked us some questions.

"…I was telling them the truth."

The reporter had asked about being a Saix pilot. Well, Saix heads are close to their engine, meaning they overheat and can make even stronger pilots pass out. She wanted to know how I put up with the heat.

"…you told them not wearing much clothes while piloting a zoid is common practice…"

"It is. Ask any respected Saix pilot, and I bet they go commando."

She sighed and kept hiding her face. I rolled my eyes.

"You're the one who said you were a supporter of group sex…"

"I WAS SHOWING THEM I HAD A DEEP PERSONALITY!"

"…right, right…"

Rax walked by with an armload of toys. I looked up to see what'd they'd asked him.

"…I didn't know you were bilingual…"

He responded in fluent Japanese as he went to turn the bathroom into a Republic battlefield for his action figures. I shrugged and flipped to Clara's page.

"…hm, Sectors crap…Sectors crap...behind the scenes Sectors crap…Sectors Crap: Directors Cut…"

Next page. They did a fake, humor-based article about what would the Psycho Saix say if it could talk. Am I the only person who notices the sick irony of our lives? They made him sound like some Hispanic soccer player. They even typed in how he mispronounces words. And they hint at him going inter-racial with the Shadow Wolf. I tapped the intercom button on the table.

"Psy, you readin' this?"

I heard a sniffing sound.

"…I feel like a cheap whore…"

"…what, you have on six seat covers at all times. Besides a few scars, I'm not THAT bad with my clothes off."

Sweet revenge…