Wow, this story was more popular than I thought. This is the reason why I write stuff like this, for opinions and desires to read more.

Raven: (sarcastically) Like you weren't expecting it.

I wasn't

DarkMetalist: Yay! Tons of reviews makes the author happy! So I'm happy.

Raven: Who are you!

I don't own Zoids, or have rights to them.

Chapter 2

Van Awakes and Thomas' Luck

Van's Dream:

There was a large land area with papaya trees growing all over the place. The sky was a perfect shade of blue without a cloud in the sky and the sun shining brightly down upon the trees. The papaya trees could be seen for miles around and they were tall and provided lots of shade underneath with their overlapping leaves. Van took a spot under the grove of trees and observed them. All of the fruits were orange and ripe. Van thought that he could just spend the rest of his life here, eating nothing but papayas in this serene setting. He had just grabbed the fruit from a tree and started to munch on it. The orange fruit was absolutely delicious and Van was savoring each sweet bite of the papaya. Not soon after, he woke up.

Back to reality:

Van woke up to find his pillow shoved into his mouth with drool all over it.

"I've gotta get something to eat." Van thought

Van realized he was in his room and tried to figure out how he got into bed again, but didn't care and headed for the cafeteria.

He walked down the hall and happened to bump into Moonbay. They talked as they passed each other.

"Hey Van, how are ya?" Moonbay said passing Van.

Van turned around to respond, "Um, good. I'm just going to the cafeteria to grab something to eat, you want anything?"

"No thanks. I don't want to eat after what happened this morning. Hey are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine, why?"

"Just checking"

"Okay..."

Van turned back around to continue on his walk.

"Thanks for making me twenty-five dollars richer!"

"You're welcome." Van responded.

He then realized what he just said, and turned around to say, "Wait a minute, what?"

Van found himself talking to air as Moonbay was nowhere to bee seen.

"Weird"

Van walked into the cafeteria to see that it had already closed. Considering that it was almost lunchtime, he thought the cooks would be busy warming up lunch and it would open soon. He decided to eat a snack and bought some chips from the vending machine. Van was about to sit down with his chips when he saw Fiona mopping the floor. He walked over to talk to Fiona.

"Hey Fiona"

"Hello Van" Fiona responded in a cheery voice even though she wasn't doing anything happy.

He noticed some orange residue left over even though most of the stuff was already cleaned up.

"Sheesh, what a mess", Van said "Who did it?"

"You did Van. After you ate your pancakes and fainted, you threw up and it almost got on me."

"Oh Fiona, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that." Van then gave a hug to Fiona, hoping she would accept his apology.

"Don't worry Van, its okay as long you didn't mean to." Fiona said as she gave a reassuring hug back.

"Hey, when you're finished, let's go out and have dinner together to make up for this." Van suggested

"Alright, when I finish this and my duties, we'll have dinner somewhere nice."

"Great, see you tonight."

Van gave Fiona another hug and left her to finish mopping.

He wandered towards the hanger wanting to go out for a quick run around the base before lunch. He noticed that Irvine's and Thomas's Zoids were gone so he assumed they had duties elsewhere. Van walked to the back of the hanger to find his Blade Liger waiting in its spot. It was very majestic, a glimmer of light which bounced off every part of the Blade Liger, from the head, blades and boosters under the hanger lights.

"The repair crew did a nice job of cleaning up the Blade Liger after that last battle." Van thought.

He jumped into his cockpit and got ready to leave for his afternoon run. But before he could get out of the hanger, a gruff voice came over the communications screen.

"Lieutenant Flyheight!"

Van looked down to see Colonel Herman's face on the screen and he had his usual I'm serious face on.

"Yes, sir?"

"Van, don't go out too far, we might need you to fight at anytime so remain within 20 kilometers of the base. Is that understood!"

"Yes sir. No further than 20 kilometers out, got it. And don't worry; I won't be going out that far since lunch is going to be served soon."

The Colonel's face disappeared and Van finally got to go out on his afternoon run. He slowly eased out of the hanger by slowly pushing the controls forward and the Blade Liger walked out of the hanger area.

A scene for Maelgwyn:

Thomas had just gone out in the desert in his D-Bison to collect his thoughts about losing the bet with Moonbay.

"I can't believe I lost just because I worded my terms wrong. I just wanted to get something nice to Fiona so that she would notice me. I just wish I had some more money so I could get her that nice ring I saw at the jewelry shop the other day."

As if on cue, tons of one hundred dollar bills started to fall from the sky. Thomas felt that he was extremely lucky to have this occur. He started to collect the money that fell, but then he realized what he was doing was wrong. Thomas continued to pick up the money anyway because if he didn't take care of the money, someone else would. Then something fell on his head.

"OW!" Thomas yelled while rubbing his head. "Now I know this money belongs to someone."

He looked over to see that a briefcase had fallen on him. Thomas placed the money in the briefcase and he planned on taking the money back to the Guardian Force HQ. He took the money there and fortunately there was someone there to claim it after a couple of seconds.

An old man into his sixties with balding hair and a rather round girth claimed the money. He looked as if he was ready for a business meeting in a blue suit, red tie, and black shoes.

"Thank you young man for finding my money." said the old man

"Yeah you're welcome; I'm just doing my job." Thomas responded sadly

After quickly counting his money to confirm that it was all there, the man handed Thomas a bundle of ten one hundred dollar bills.

"Thank you sir, but I couldn't accept this money."

"Nonsense, I should give you something for doing the right thing and returning it to the authorities instead of taking it. Besides, this is only pocket change compared to what I have."

"Oh, well thank you sir."

The man was about to leave when Thomas yelled after him.

"Excuse me!"

"Yes?"

"How did you lose the money? When I found it, it was falling out of the sky."

"Well my boy let me explain. I was on my way to a very important meeting in New Helic City when the Pteres' cargo hold door flew open. The briefcase holding the money was supposedly secure, but it fell out. If those things occurred, I suppose it was and old Pteres which flew during the war and was damaged. It happened to land in your vicinity and all I could do from the air was watch it. Luckily you were there to pick up the money, instead of a bandit, and returned it here."

"I understand now." Thomas said

With a nod the man left to attend his meeting.

Thomas immediately asked a nearby officer who the man was.

"Are you serious sir? That man is the key developer of military grade Zoids."

"Oh" was all Thomas had to say.

Thomas left HQ and went into town to buy Fiona a ring.

DarkMetalist: Yay! Thomas got his money.

Raven: Lucky idiot.

DarkMetalist: Don't say things like that.

Raven: You can't tell me what to do!

Something will happen in the next chapter that will relate to the title; other than the constant mentioning of papayas.

Please, review, thanks