Ok, hopefully this chapter will be an improvement on the last, and please R&R. I do not own zoids, but I do own all origional characters. (Garrett, jenny, Eddie/Edgar, and a few other nameless chars.)

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The inside of the Gustav surprised me. Most of the standard issue Gusavs are mostly engine with a cockpit attached, but the Rayne family's was different, in ran on a smaller engine so the internal shell could be hollowed out. It had five rooms, not including the cockpit. Three had been converted into bedrooms, one was a restroom, and one was a surrogate kitchen. While all of these where incredibly cramped, I gotta tell you, the spare bed felt like heaven as compared to the stiff command chair in my Proto Zaber. I woke up the next morning, and the intial shock of not being back in Belaqua hit me like a ton of bricks, and it took me a minute to recover my wits and remember where I was. I vaugely remembered setting my wounded Zaber ponto the sledge, and being shown the spare room. After that, I was drawing a blank.

I got up, stretched, and changed my sweat-drenced clothes. I thought back to the guysacks last night as I retied my headband... My first battle had almost seen my zoid totalled. I remembered the wierd, inscetile cries, and an involuntary shiver went down my spine. I came to the door, and, beng far more accustomed to traditional doors- you know, the kind with a handle? It took me almost three minutes to figure out wich button would open the metal plate in front of me. After it grudgingly ground open, I was greeted with a short, undecorated hallway. At my far right was a big double door, I guessed it went to the cockpit, mainly because of the heavy metal blaring through it. Not wanting to have to guess with the other doors, I stepped out in that direction.

As the plate doors slid open (after a couple of seconds of random button pressing) a blast of gitaur and drums greeted me, as did a bright midday sun. Edgar leaned over from the command chair. "Hey! He's finally up! How's it going, uh..." "Garrett." I shouted over the music. "Yea, that's right." He noticed that I has covering my ears. "Oop, Sorry. One sec." The music receded, leaving my brain a shambled mess of gitaur riffs, unintelligible lyrics, and heavy drum solos. "Hey, have a seat, but watch for Marcia." I stepped forward. "Mar-" A heavy clunk came from my feet, and Eddie held his temples in aggrivation. "Marcia. Why do people never listen when I tell them to watch their step...?" I looked down at the injured Bass Gitaur sitting at my feet. It had been dented more than once. "Sorry! I didn't mean to kick your gitaur!" He waved it off. "Doesn't matter. She's taken plenty of damage, what's another dent gonna do?" I carefuly made my way to the copilot's seat, and after moving some fast food wrappers, I sat down.

He turned his gaze from the desert road ahead of us to me again. "So Garrett. That was one hell of a fight last night. What are you doing all the way in the middle of field zoid territory anyway? Those little buggers attack anything that gets in their turf." I scratched the back of my head. "Honestly, I had no idea that there where any Field Zoids left. I thought the ZBC wiped them out." Eddie laughed. "Not a chance. They killed most of the surface dwellers, but you can bet that the oceans are full of fielders, and every undiscovered Zoidian Ruin has a leigon to it's name..." I sat back and looked forward at the road. The desterts of Zi where all very similar. Big, open expanses of sand and grit. About noon, the radar pinged, and on the very edge, a large group of structures appeared. Eddie roled his neck. "Ahh, Crane city. It's small, but compared to Ilian Town, it looks like a metropolis..." The door behind us slid open and Jenny walked through, wearing a light green T-Shirt and shorts. "Hey sis, you're up early, it's not even three yet." She punched him in the arm. "Ha, ha Eddie. Oh, Hi Garrett." She had just noticed me taking up the copilot's seat. "Hey." (I'll admit it now, I'm really bad at talking with girls, always have been.) She smiled, then yawned and streched. "You guys must be hungry. I'll go get something..." Eddie slowed teh Gustav. "Nah, it's ok sis. You drive for a while, I need to rest my eyes. Ill get you guys something. And besides-"He grinned at me. "Don't want sis to kill you with her cooking before we even reach town." He then scampered out the door, dodging the wrench that Jenny threw at him. She sighed as the door closed behind him. "Sorry about that." I just grinned. "No problem, no problem."

We sat in uncomfortable silence for a while, until she brought up the question. "So, why are you going to crane city?" I told her pretty much what was my life story in right around twenty minutes. As I finished, she stopped the Gustav looked at me with big eyes, and gave me a hug. "Oh my god... I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to pry, that's horrible!" This hit me with a bit of a shock. I mean, yeah, I've lost a few people I love, but everyone does eventually, right? It's not that bad, is it? "It's okay, I really don't mind..." But she persisted with hugging me. The door slid open, and Eddie walked through, carying a plate of sandwiches. "Woah, sorry,didn't know you two where making out up here." This time, he did not dodge the wrench.

After a few minutes of unconsiousness, he came back around, and we coninued onward. It would be a few more hours before we reached town, so Eddie set the Gustav in cruise control, and we moved as a group to the kitchen. I related my story again to Eddie, and then asked why they where heading for Crane City. This brought a heavy silence on the room. "Uh, did I say something wrong..?" Eddie only shook his head, and Jenny looked up at me. "No... Just some bad memories. We're heading to the city to get ourselves into a team... Again..." I, being an idiot, pressed the point. "Again? You where on a team before this?" Jenny looked away, and Eddie spoke. "Yes... Although I wonder if a team will take us after..." "The incedent..." Jenny finished ofr him. "Incident? What?" But I sensed that I was treading closer to getting kicked off the Gustav, so I backed down. "I'm sorry. You guys obviously don't want to talk about it." Eddie looked up. "No, you told us your story, we'll tell you ours." "We used to be members of the Gamma Breaker Team. We where class A. Well, one battle, we where battle jacked by the backdraft group. They cut our team all but to peices. And they where going to take our zoids..." Eddie picked up after where Jennny stopped and sobbed. "Or leader, a pilot named Ray, told us to run. But the BD captain, he pointed his Zoid's weapons at Ray's cockpit nad told us if we fan, he would fire. We... we ran... And he... he launched everything his zoid had..." Jenny took off the ruby ring she had on her finger. "He gave this to me on my 16th birthday. I'm nineteen now. We where on that team for quite a while." I was stunned. "But it's not your fault! Why wouldn't another team take you on?" Eddie shook his head. "The match was telivised, and broadcast on a pirate channel. Backdraft editied the voices. They made it seem like we abandoned Ray, out of selfish fear for ourselves... And I know why backdraft would do that, too." I was all on, attention-wise. "Why?" Jenny fixed me with her peircing, big green eyes. "Our family, the Raynes, have been zoid pilots for generations, and we have wiped out more than one Backdraft base, and destroyed many, many Backdraft zoids. You could call it a long standing grudge." I nodded. :"So they painted you as cowards." Eddie nodded and took off his sunglases, revealing eyes much like his sister's. "That's about it..." he checked his watch and brigtened up. "But no time for worrying now. We're almost in town. Come on, let's get ready."

Thirty minutes later, we here pulling up a long cement pathway into a garage on the outskirts of Crane. As Eddie flashed his ID to the guard and went to go park the Gustav, I got out and just walked among the isles of Zoids. I was awestruck. Save for a few old tapes of battles, most of my knowlege of Zoids came from Grandpa. I wandered back and forth throuought the Warehouse, marveling at the sheer number of zoids. I could only name a few, while most evaded my knowlege completely. There where so many... As I wnadered the isles, I realized why I was hooked on these giant machines. They where shher works of art. In that first hour of just wandering, I saw everything from an insanely modified Molga to a spin-off Elephander. Jenny found me marveling at a brand new Blade Liger, painted A Beautiful dark Green. She handed me a keycard. "Take that. It's a card to get onto the Gustav." I was still staring at teh blade liger, and then what she said connected in my mind. "Huh? Oh, oh no, I couldn't impose on you or your brother any more that I have already." She smiled and giggled. "You don't have a place to stay, right? Eddie has a motel room booked, we're fine. Besides, all your stuff is still on the Gustav." True... "You're sure?" She winked at me as she began heading back the way she came. "Positive. see you tomorrow, Garrett." And she left me in the middle of the isle, pilots bustling past the out of place rookie.

As I hade my way back to the Gustav, i caught sight of the ZBC terminal, and made a note to get there later. As I got back, Eddie was welding a loose plate on his Desert Liger. "Oy! Garrett! Get up here, you lucky punk! Just because Jenny managed to talk me into letting you use our spare room, it does't mean you can loaf around! Come on, this baby isn't gonna fix herself. After we fix my Liger, We'll relod sis's Fox, and then we'll see what we can do for your Zaber, huh?" I rolled my shoulders. "Ok, one moment..." Several minutes later, I was working on his Liger. Let me tell you, that thing was as old as the dirt clogged in it's gears. As I poked my head out of the cenetr torso casing, I called up. "Geez, Ed. You could at least clean this thing out. Heck, you'd be doing it a favor by retiring it..." Almost instantly he was in front of me, his eyes ablaze. "Can it, grease monkey. This liger's been in the family since my grandpa's days. You suggest retiring her one more time, and you'll be looking fro lodgin elsewhere, kapeesh?" I shrunk back. "Sorry...Sorry..." He laughed. "Just givin you a hard time. You could learn to deal with humor a bit better. Just treat her carefully, ok?" he whacked me on the back, and climed back up to where he was fixing the tarheting on the torso's missle pack. I grinned, grimaced, and then spat the motor oil invadng my open mouth out onto the cement below.

It was nightime by the time I even got to my Proto Zaber. Eddie looked beat. "In the name of the deathsaurer, what are you possesed?" He gaped as I climbed up my Zoid'slegs to get at the laser scars. "That cracks it. I'll be back in a while, there's a pub here, I'm gonna grab some well erned drink and then sleep. I'll see you tomorrow, I'll help you then." He shambled off, wiping the motor oil off of his hands and onto his jeans. I however, worked truly like a man posessed. I checked my watch as I sealed the wound in my Zaber's back, and it was 12:30. I considered quitting right there, but an image of how truly grand the Zaber had appeared when I first opened the garage flashed through my mind, and I knew I couldn't quit until my noble metal steed had been restored. I worked almost nonstop. The next morning...

Something nudged me in my sleep. "Oh, Gaaaarrrrreeeeettttt..." Jenny's voice. "MMMph, 'sonly five more minutes..." "I'll wake him up..." It was Eddie. "Huh...? Ed-" WHACLANK! The wrench hit me square in the forehead. "FREAKING OW!" I shot strait up, and danced around in pain until my vision cleared. Eddie and Jenny where looking at me strangely. "Firstly, what where you doing in the cockpit of MY zoid?" Eddie asked. My world slowly became less painful and more lucent. "Making a few slight modifications. If you want to get someone to pick you up for a team, you can't be driving an old clunker like that one." A vein in his forehead flared. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Jenny held him back. "Relax Eddie. Secondly, Garrett, what happened to your zoid? You couldn't have fixed it up in one night...?" I looked up and grinned. "Oh, my Proto Zaber? I just gave it a little tune up, that's all." Eddie had relaxed, and motioned at my zoid. "You call that a "Little" tune up? It looks like it just came out of the factory!" Indeed it did, although I knew it was mostly just a new coat of paint and some reinforced plates. But what was the real attention grabber was the insignia- a Roman numeral 5 in crimson with the old Guygalos Empire sword in silver peircing through it.

"Heh, you're crazy, man." Eddie shook his head. "Get a shower, you stink to wake the dead. After that we'll talk about what in the name of Hades you did to my zoid." I was more than happy to oblige. One hot shower and change of T-shirt and Jeans later... It took me a few minutes to explain what I had done. "I fixed up the targeting, I noticed it lagged. Your armor is reinforced again, and I managed to get the shield working again, although I don't really know how, you had enough sand dirt and bugs to choke an Elephander in there-" "Wait...YOU GOT MY SHIELD RUNNING?" "Yes. I also-" "HE GOT MY SHIELD RUNNING!" "And I re-wired your speakers, You now have surround sound, and they blast at least 8 times louder than they used to." Ediie became very quiet. " I..." He never finished, he just jumped into the cockpit and his old liger came to life with a (literal) roar, grabbing the attention of anyone in the hangar, almost as much as the Heavy Metal that began shaking the cement a few seconds later. Jenny steeped up next to me as the old Liger's signiature shield activated, and I heard Eddie Whoop with joy, even over his deafening metal. "I've never seen him so happy, thank you... Garrett." I turned and smiled. "But we're not done yet..." Her jaw dropped. "You... didn't..." "Oh yes, I did." We walked over to her Dark Red Scout Fox. I pointed to a small blister on it's left torso. "It had an older N77X BLADE Radar dome, but with a bit of work, I increased the range 40-50 percent. And your Chain Gun..." I clicked a button on the cable contol that I temporarily plugged in for maintenance reasons. The turrett spun 360 Degrees. "You can now fire in any direction, and I moved the tail camera and mounted it on the gun. See, aim and shoot." Jenny had said nothing. She just stared at her Fox. Then she turned, gave me a huge hug that I'm sure almost broke my spine, and tore into the cockpit almost faster than I could track with my tired eyes.

I Grinned, although waves of exaustion pulsed through me. I really did love working on zoids, even if I had only been in the cockpit of one four or five times. I whipped the ZBC disc from my pocket, and glanced over to the ZBC teminal. "Ok, Garrett. Let's go... Right after a quick nap..."

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Hey, hope you're enjoying the series as yet. PLEASE R&R!