Chapter 2
ENTER THE BLACK DRAGON
Battlefield, day...
"Sing ONE MORE verse of that song, and I'll staple your lips shut!" The purple-haired goth threatened. "Is that clear?" The two boys nodded and Shiva released them. Axel remained quiet, driving the team's new Whale King, more than thrilled Shiva had put a stop to that annoying song those two have been singing over and over for the past half hour. Well, the song wasn't as bad as the voices singing them. Shiva shifted in her seat, and got back to eating the hot dog she had been eating for lunch.
"Hey Axel..." Shiva asked. "How long till we get there?" The silent man mumbled something that sounded like "About 20 minutes" after glancing at the onscreen map where a glowing blip indicated the designated battlefield they'd be attending. The purple-haired girl leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling, remembering her father's worlds.
"Don't let me down..."
With the zoid the two of them had restored, Shiva would find so excuse for botching this battle. Especially with the rigorous training she and hopefully the rest of the team had received in advance.
Later...
A black Storm Sworder accompanied by three black Reddlers made up Shiva's team. The enemy team consisted of a sky-blue Command Wolf, a Cannon Tortoise, an Iron Kong, and a Gunsniper. Shiva examined each of them from her Storm Sworder's cockpit. The owner of that Command Wolf must have been really vain, because it was definately the shiniest zoid she'd ever seen. Maybe its owner liked to see himself in it or something, because it had clearly been shined up like a new car. The Cannon Tortoise was armed with a Heavy Beam cannon curved in a forty-five degree angle, clearly made to take down an airborne zoid. It also seemed to have a pair of missile launchers equipped to the sides. The zoid was clearly designed to be a stationary unit. The Iron Kong was well-armed and supporting a pair of laser rifles on its shoulders, and a some extra guns on the wrists and head. The Gunsniper, however, was a real paradox. The owner had to be a complete idiot. No other explanation. Its mouth had been equipped with a charged particle cannon. The zoid would literally destroy itself if that thing actually worked properly. The owner still kept its wrist guns, though.
Finally, the Judge capsule dropped from the heavens and crashed into the earth. Seconds later, it rose from the crater. The capsule opened, and the small white humanoid robot began its speech.
'Scanning... scanning..." It said in a low mechanical voice. "Area scanned! Battlefield set up! The Black Dragon Team vs. The Hip Team! Battle mode 0982. Ready... FIGHT!" The judge shouted, spreading his arms out.
"Like, watch this boys!" A girl's voice shouted from the Gunsniper. The zoid opened its mouth and the charged particle gun began to build up energy. Shiva could almost hear sighs of disappointment from the Gunsniper pilot's teammates. Shiva opened communication to her teammates.
"Launch when I say..." She began. The cannon was soon ready to fire. "NOW!" All four zoids sprung into the air as the beam was fired. The impact of the recoil was simply too much for the small zoid to take and it was hurled out of control clear across the battlefield and into a rock wall. Luckily the pilot ejected before the crash.
"SEE, Jess?" A female voice said from the Iron Kong "I told you that was a stupid idea. A Gunsniper just can't control something that strong!" The other pilot was too busy sitting in front of the decimated zoid bawling.
James took on the Command Wolf, which in turn fired rapidly at his Reddler. A shot managed to damage the left hind leg of the dragonlike zoid. James cursed a bit, but was relieved the wings weren't damaged. The Wolf's pilot opened communication with him, revealing a guy that looked like every girl's dreamboat. Complete with perfect hair and letterman. This guy clearly knew it too, due to the snobby smirk he had.
"What's this?" The young man asked haughtily. "I wish to see the face of my opponent, and I find a scrungy nobody? Get out of my sight!" The young man aimed and fired at James's zoid, blowing it clean out of the sky.
"Great shooting, Dan." The Iron Kong's owner shouted, caught up in a fight with Cooper and Axel.
Shiva flew above and around the heavily-armed Cannon Tortoise. She caught sight of James's Reddler plummeting to the ground with a crash. "James! Is your zoid still active?" She asked, worried he may have been knocked out of the battle.
"No, I'm fine, but my zoid's grounded, thanks to that pompous a-hole with the shiny Command Wolf!" The boy replied. "But I'm not down..." He added as he fired a shot at the neck of the Command Wolf, bringing it down on the spot and subjecting it to a command system freeze. James barely had time to celebrate when a final shot by the Wolf knocked his zoid out of the battle as well.
Shiva groaned as her communication with James ended and turned her full attention back on the cannon tortoise, just in time to see it fire a missile at the side of her zoid, giving it a decent amount of damage to the chest. "I was careless..." she thought to herself as she pulled the zoid up to avoid the rest of the Tortoise's shots and anti-aircraft missiles. One narrowly-dodged Heavy Beam Cannon shot later and communication with the Tortoise opened and a scowling young man appeared on the screen.
"Quit moving around pretty-boy!" The pilot shouted at Shiva. The girl made a mental smirk. Just as she'd hoped, the male clothing she wore did a good job concealing her figure. She'd heard somewhere that male pilots tended to hold back against female ones. Chivalry or some crap like that she assumed. Of course, this overconfidence often cost them the fight, but Shiva had no desire to face someone who held back because of gender issues. She launched the Storm Sworder's forehead spike into the beam cannon of the Cannon Tortoise as it was charging it up. The jam caused the massive cannon to backfire and destroy a good portion of the zoid's torso and subject its pilot to a command system freeze that put it out of the battle, leaving only the Iron Kong left to contend with.
"Cooper! Axel!" Shiva called out, re-opening communication with the two pilots. "Continue circling the zoid until it runs out of ammo, then we destroy its arms and that should cause the zoid to topple over. Got that?"
Her co-pilots nodded and she turned the Storm Sworder to face the hulking gorilla-like zoid. A cocky female voice came from it.
"Well, well, so now it's just me? Well I'm not as easy to take down as my friends!" The girl said in a snobby tone. The Iron Kong suddenly opened fire, shooting lasers and missiles in seemingly every direction. One missile managed to tag Cooper's Reddler in the back, but the zoid managed to stay in the air long enough to fire at the missile pod, which in turn exploded on the Kong's arm, severely damaging the zoid's bulky arm as a result, Cooper's Reddler slowly lost altitude afterward. The Iron Kong's pilot cursed loudly and used the Kong's shoulder-mounted laser rifles, shooting like a maniac, attempting to blast the remaining zoids that buzzed around it like huge flies. The pilot suddenly heard a tell-tale click- click, indicating that she was out of ammo.
"Oh, sh-" Before she could finish her sentance, the Reddlers and the Storm Sworder all attacked the Zoid's head at once, and the wing blades of the Storm Sworder buried themselves in the back of the massive Iron Kong's neck. The zoid toppled forward, and collapsed to the ground, its pilot subjected to a command system freeze. Shiva's teammates let out a sigh of relief that the battle had concluded.
"The battle is OVER! The battle is OVER!" The Judge yelled out. "The winner is... THE BLACK DRAGON TEAM!"
Shiva landed her black Storm Sworder on the ground in front of the fallen Iron Kong, taking a few deep breaths. "Not bad for our first battle..." She thought to herself. "Not bad..." She took a few moments to finally regain her breath and glance over at James's fallen zoid, as well as the heavy damage inflicted on her own zoid. "But it's still not enough..."
TO BE CONTINUED...