Chapter 5

RESTORATION

Black Dragon Base, Afternoon...

It had been about 3 days and the dragonlike zoid was nearing complete restoration. More anxious to return to the battlefield before she began to fall out of practice then anything else, Shiva spent hours upon hours at work. Sometimes, when her father was taking a rest, he'd come by and watch her a little before rejoining her. It was like an obsession; Shiva didn't seem to care about the splendor of the severe rareness of this zoid nearly so much as its power being a benefit to future zoid battles. It was almost scary sometimes, like he barely even knew his daughter anymore.

Shiva's teammates had been busy working up the rest of the money they needed to repair their own zoids, as their most recent battle, which had been against that psycho in the black Geno Breaker, was a complete failure. All in all, this would take time.

Nyx Backdraft Base, Afternoon...

Anubis stared up at his fully-restored Geno Breaker. It had taken awhile, but the zoid was finally repaired and the damage from that Storm Sworder blade was no longer an issue. The test drive certainly proved everything was operating perfectly again. The commander, Altail, had assigned his team to dispose of a few aspiring teams to keep them out of the Nyx Tournament. And Anubis would most certainly take care of that.

At that thought, he mused to himself. He certainly wasn't doing it for the benefit of the old fart the man worked for. It was all simply about adding to what he considered the two most important things in this world: money and power. Some considered him crazy for thinking that, but Anubis would quickly point out that these are the only two things that will get you anywhere in the world as soon as you've grown up.

His teammates occasionally would suggest he ought to try and get a girlfriend. Anubis never took that comment seriously. He'd much rather have people fear him then oogle over him, and even then it would never last because he always considered women to be awfully shallow. To them, men are no different then toys you could play with for five minutes then toss aside when a cooler, new one comes along. Anubis would then say he was always in control of his life, and commented the last thing he needed was some woman trying to take that control from him. He'd leave it at that.

And speaking of control, he'd definitely be looking forward to facing that team from last time. The leader of that team didn't look like he took defeat easily, and would undoubtedly provide a better challenge next time. "Well..." He thought to himself "We shall see."

Black Dragon Base, Late Night...

Finally! After days, it was finally finished. Shiva crossed her arms and stood a couple feet back to examine the handiwork.

Not bad. Her and her father didn't do too bad at all on restoring it, at least from how it looked. The others had restored their Reddlers back to decent shape so the team was looking ready to rejoin the zoid battles. Then the next thing dawned on her; The zoid needed a test drive. The massive dragon zoid's red eyes and perpetual toothy grin seemed to hint some agreement at that thought.

"Well done, Ayane." Her father commented. "I'm very impressed."

Shiva walked up the stairway leading to the open cockpit, her strait face not changing expressions. "Let's see if it impresses me as well." Without another word, she hopped into the open cockpit and activated the zoid as the cockpit closed shut. Her father moved out of the way and opened the hangar door, allowing the Gunguyarados to head out into the training field they owned. The zoid's wings folded and it tore off at an incredibly fast pace on foot for a zoid its size. He remembered the zoid had always been praised for its odd ability to adapt to practically any fighting environment aside from underwater, and thus move incredibly fast for its size on foot. After running around a little, the massive red wings of the zoid unfolded and the zoid lunged into the air. Having most all of her zoid piloting experience be from flying zoids rather then ground ones, which Shiva was only sub-par in. Shiva fared much better in the air, and was able to do many more maneuvers and tricks while airborne. Again, the zoid displayed incredible speed for its size. Aside from use of its claws, teeth, and the drill-like tail tip, weapon testing would have to come later, since they hadn't been able to fit the zoid with new weapons just yet, and the rather powerful charged particle cannon that had formerly been mounted on the zoid's back would take a lot more work to restore. It would need a substitute. And fast. The sooner she was on the battlefield again, the better. She'd never forgive herself if she were to fall behind. After a few more minutes the zoid returned to the ground and walked back into the hanger. It came to a stop and shut off, and the cockpit door opened, and Shiva stepped out and rejoined her father, her expression still unchanged.

"I'm impressed." She said as she headed out of the room to call the ZBC and tell them her team was ready to return to the battlefield.

TO BE CONTINUED...