Zoids Rhapsody
Into the Mist
Author's Note: Hello again, a new chapter, gung ho! Man, once I break a writer's block, I really tear loose… all this in like two days! Well, I hope this chapter answers a question or two, I know I left you all hangin' out to dry with the last one. So here we go! Thanks again to all who reviewed! You guys totally ROCK! Umm… yeah, thanks MuggleBuddy. You're my faithful fan! Maybe you could round up a few more, eh?
Oh, and I apologize ahead of time for the short chapter. I couldn't draw it any more, folks.
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Chapter Five: Storm the Brigands!
The trio of red and gold Zoids all turned towards the west as the first fleeting sounds of heavy footsteps came their way. The Gunsniper seemed to paw the air with its arms and sniff like a bloodhound, earning an inquisitive glance from the Shadow Fox. Then all at once, the 'sniper's spike-like ears perked up and it gave a grating roar in alarm.
Jamie nearly jumped out of his skin, literally leaping out of the sleeping bag he'd been dreaming in ever so peacefully. The cold night air sent shivers down his bare back and formed goose bumps on his lower legs. He only half-considered getting dressed before Josh pulled a leader move and cried "Zoids on the horizon! Let's go!" Thus, three shivering men clad only in their under shorts ('Dear God, Ches is wearing hearts!') climbed groggily into their Zoids.
"How many?" Ches asked in a slow, dragging voice. He seemed to be the least able to awaken. His Shadow Fox swayed a bit nervously. On the other hand, perhaps its swaying made Jamie nervous…
"I only see one… I can't quite tell what it is yet… Jamie, lad, use that night-vision scope to—"
"On it!" He replied, moving into sniping position. 'I'm a damn cliché,' he thought a bit sourly. As he moved the cross hairs over the sleek Zoid that was galloping their way ('So fast!'), Jamie felt a grip of ice settle around his abdomen that belied the cozy warmth of the cockpit. There in his scope stood the sleek, resplendent form of Major Gordon's Konig Wolf.
"Um, Josh… we may have a little problem…" Jamie said nervously. Major Gordon was the best close-quarters fighter in his Unit. He'd battled alongside Jamie's father in the early days of the war, some fifteen years ago. He'd even been with him when he was killed. He had turned down many promotions, thus the less-than-flattering rank of Major.
"Well, speak up, boy, what is it?" Josh demanded peevishly. Jamie told him, simply enough, and Josh laughed. "Well, hah… umm… do you know him?"
"Yes… but I don't think he knows it's me… I also don't think he really cares right now!" Jamie cried as the Konig Wolf revealed the AZ 5-shot missile pods mounted to each shoulder and let loose a volley. The small missiles kicked up plumes of sand all around the trio, but none struck.
"Warning shots. I say!" Josh cried. Before he could say anything else, the Konig Wolf was in full sprint, making a beeline for the Liger. Jamie and Chesnee scattered, but Josh stood his ground, deploying his blades.
"Come on, what! Let me have it!" He cried. He mentally suppressed the dark, murderous tendencies that welled up absentmindedly, forcing himself to remain Josh Bishop, not Major John Bishop of the 27th Expeditionary Task Force.
The distance closed between the Zoids rapidly, and it looked as if they would collide head on, but at the last second, the Konig Wolf veered to the right. The Liger roared in annoyance, and bounded after the white Zoid.
'Don't do that, Josh, come on!' Jamie thought desperately, already knowing what would happen. His fears were confirmed when the Konig Wolf unleashed a bolt from each of the two scrambling units it housed on its back. Both clusters of antistatic chaff struck the Liger Zero full on, and it roared in annoyed pain as its systems locked up and it crashed into the desert floor. After a few meters, it came to a halt, and lay still.
"Great Tomy I'm out of commission!" Josh cried angrily, slamming his hands on the console. 'Crap. Crap crap crap crap and CRAP!' Jamie thought desperately. He turned the Sniper and made for a hill, hoping that Major Gordon would choose to chase after Chesnee for a while. He almost set up for sniping, but then remembered he had a few thousand credits of unused artillery. Now was the time to take advantage of it. He dropped the fore-claw anchors and readied himself. As soon as Ches was out of his sights, he'd open up on the Konig Wolf. He gently thumbed the master trigger, readying himself to empty his ammo stores. But for now, he had an interesting skirmish to watch.
The Konig Wolf and the Shadow Fox were an excellent match, about like the Blade Liger Mirage and the Liger Zero X. They were both sleek Zoids, very agile, and with an excellent turning radius. Major Gordon wasn't weighted down by the common double-barreled Sniper Rifle the Konig Wolf usually carried, thus greatly improving that already excellent mobility.
The two Zoids circled at close quarters, snarling and nipping the air suggestively. Ches then chose to employ his biggest advantage—a turreted weapon—and swiveled the Vulcan pod around to face the Wolf. After the briefest of pauses, the gun opened fire, sending a good fifty rounds into the Wolf's side in a few seconds. Major Gordon took the hint and broke the circle, loping ahead a few lengths before firing a burst from the scramblers. Somehow (to this day, Jamie couldn't explain it), they didn't even faze the Shadow Fox. The red Zoid just bolted right through them, not skipping a beat.
Unfortunately, in doing so, the Shadow Fox's foot caught on some minute shift in the sand and toppled over, pulling several cartwheels before settling. The Wolf was on it before Ches could right the controls, and with one mighty lurch, had sunk its fangs deep into the Shadow Fox's shoulder.
"Oh no… Ches!" Jamie cried, knowing what came next. There was a brief pause, and then, the sudden silence was punctuated by Chesnee's agonized screams as electricity flowed through the Wolf's fangs and all throughout the Fox, even into the cockpit. For several infernal seconds, Chesnee was caught in the middle of a five-hundred-megavolt battery in operation. Then the Wolf stood, victorious, and turned away.
Jamie's heart started racing and his pulse quickened. He suddenly realized how much of a backseat pilot he'd been the past couple days. The first battle he was in (against Josh), he'd lost miserably; the second, all he'd done was snipe from an unbelievably safe distance (Saving Ches), the third (Little Rusty Rock), he'd hidden behind some well-placed rubble and sniped, and the fourth, he hadn't done a thing but stand there and watch as Josh made mince meat of his former Major General. Now, he was on his own, and he was terrified.
His hand started trembling on the controls. Where the cocky little Aryan pilot had gone to, who knew, but Jamie knew one thing—this was flat-out crazy. Here he was, a rookie pilot with very little field experience, facing down a war hero in a fricking Konig Wolf! Where all sanity had gone to, he had no clue.
"Fiddlesticks," he swore angrily. The Kong Wolf broke into a mad run.
Jamie screamed he pulled the trigger, unloading a volley from every forward-facing armament on his Zoid. The kickback from the massive unloading rocked the cockpit violently, and Jamie had to grab the wrecker bars that lined the sides of the cabin to keep from flying into the canopy. When the cockpit settled, he made a production out of strapping on his safety harnesses.
He waited on the verge of patience for the smoke to clear and the dust to settle, and when it did, he was presented with a… gruesome sight. The Konig Wolf stood there before him, its pristine off-white armour stripped away in most places, including the face, which was now a sci-fi representation of some mechanical hound's hellish visage. Smoke gently wafted off the was-white Zoid in six or seven places, including a large hole, right where the cockpit should have been.
The Konig Wolf lurched forward and fell over with a clang. His father's best friend, now a smear of blood in a dead Zoid's cockpit. Jamie opened the canopy, leaned out over the sniper's muzzle, and vomited so ferociously that he brought up blood.
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On the other edge of the planet, in the midst of the Dark Continent Nyx, a single figure strode along the lonely shore. It was a darker than normal day, and bitterly cold; the person's breath rose in great white puffs. He turned to the ocean and let out several breaths in a rhythm that suggested chanting, then took a slow, purposeful step into the very fringe of the surf. The waves suddenly boiled out in the bay, rising in his breakers that surged several inches of water over the young man's bare feet. He shivered absently, but took another long, slow stride into the water.
As though angered by his vigorous motions, the sea churned mightily. A wave rushed in to shore and crashed across the youth's torso, tearing away his cloak and revealing a form clothed only in ragged pants and many jagged scars. The wind tossed his vermillion hair all about his head, and with the next wave, he was gone.
All quieted, and the bay calmed to a gentle rolling cadence. The winds died down, leaving a mere breeze that rolled in from the ocean. Eventually, even that vanished, leaving the air dead. The waters even stilled, as though the bay were an inland pond unaffected by tides.
Then all at once, the waters of the bay rushed out to shore, leaving a soggy sand basin. Laying there in the waterlogged sand was the lanky figure of the young Nyxian, sprawled out across the shell-strew shelf like a washed-up carcass. However, he wasn't alone in this revealing basin.
The receding waters had left in their wake a half-buried Zoid. It was massive, with a red back, two spider-like legs and one massive, lobster-like claw revealed on the left side. Several meters down, the sand bulged around the form of an outstretched tail.
The Zoid's eyes flared into brilliant red life for the first time in fifteen years…
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