Chapter 20: Taking Action
Bit was shaken out of his thoughts by the Ligers growl. #Bit, someone has arrived…#
Shaking himself, Bit quickly climbed down the Ligers body. "Where?" he asked as he dropped the last couple of meters to the floor.
#Outside, in a Whale King#
Bit stepped outside, and was stunned at what he saw. 'That's Harry's Whale King!'
As he watched, a white shape ran down the transport zoids mouth ramp and headed towards him. Sensing that urgency was in order, Bit began to run towards the oncoming person. It was only as he closed that he could recognise her.
"Mary Champ!" As he slowed down, he noticed the torn nature of her clothing. She was holding her shirt closed, but one shoulder was still bare, and her legs flashed though the tear that ran right up her skirt. "What happened?"
She slowed to a stop, gasping for breath. "Harry, he's gone insane! He started into our supply of Nicholas's whiskey…" She shuddered, unable to elaborate.
Bit was stunned. The Champs 'special' Whiskey was both a legend and the Champs families' mark of shame. It was a drink with one hell of a kick, but it had severe side effects. No establishment was allowed to sell it legally, but if one knew where to ask, you could get one glasses worth, for quite a price. No one was allowed more than one.
It was known as Champs Whiskey simply because it had been an eccentric member of the Champ family who had built the still that produced the 'special' stuff. He had later added to it and built a full-scale distillery, and it had become one of the Champ family's most basic sources of income.
After he died, the distillery had passed down the lines, always perceived as an unwanted family heirloom, but they couldn't knock it down. The distillery had saved the Champ family from bankruptcy at least once. The distillery mainly produced normal whiskeys now, but it was rumoured that the original still was still working, producing more of the 'Hell blasting good stuff', as the inventor had described it.
The Champ family were allowed to keep a small stockpile of the stuff, for celebrations and the like. But to drink it to drown your sorrows…
"H… how much did he drink?" Bit was almost afraid of the answer.
"At least two bottles…" Mary sobbed.
'Over two bottles!' That should have put Harry out cold! Worse, it could kill him!
The wind picked up, and was threatening to send the remains of her clothing flying away. Bit quickly shucked off his jacket and threw it round her shoulders. As she accepted, her shirt parted. Bit adverted his eyes, but not before he caught sight of a large amount of creamy flesh, marked with clear fresh bruises. Her face was also marked.
"He did that?" Mary simply nodded. Bit felt sick to his stomach.
Mary's eyes flew open as she remembered why she had run across. "Bit, is Leena around?"
"Yea, she and I are the only ones here…" Bit trailed off as he caught the look in her eyes. Cold dread and raging fury filled Bit's soul with fire and ice.
Without a word, Bit turned and raced back to the hanger, Mary Champ right behind him. They tore past the zoids in their ranks, Mary not even bothering to stop and stare at the Liger. The Liger recoiled when it saw Mary wearing Bit's jacket, but when it saw the cloth of her own clothes trailing from underneath, worry began to coil around it's core. …Oh shit…
Tearing into the main base, they paused as they heard Leena scream. With murder in his eyes, Bit charged down the sleeping corridor. He found Harry dragging a terrified Leena down the hall. When Harry caught sight of Bit, he scowled.
"Drat! When ever I get this close to having Leena, YOU show up!" Harry let go of Leena - who simply collapsed to the floor - and advanced on Bit, who stood his ground despite feeling the cold tingle of dread run down his spine. "Well, this time you won't stop me Bit! I'm taking my Leena with me, this instant!"
"Harry, don't do this…" Mary pleaded from over Bit's shoulder. Harry's eyes struggled to focus on his sister.
"Ah, I see you crawled out of your little hiding place! And what's that you're wearing? BIT'S JACKET?" Harry looked shocked. Then he scowled and began to advance on them both.
Bit's left hook stopped him cold. In fact it snapped Harry's head to the side. But he slowly turned back towards Bit.
"So, the commoner dares strike a king eh?" And with that Harry began to swing back.
At first Bit tried to put in return blows, but nothing seemed to affect Harry and his blows were fuelled by more then strength. Harry's blood was up; he had alcohol singing in his veins and an uncontrollable rage in his heart. All Bit could do was to concentrate on blocking and hope Harry would tire.
Suddenly Bit felt a hard mass slam into his stomach. Keeling over, he dropped over Harry's leg. Coughing badly, he had no chance against Harry's next strike, which knocked him over and into the wall. Struggling though the pain in his head, Bit watched as Harry brought a foot back.
"Harry! NO!"
Mary launched herself at him, trying to bring him down herself. But she had no chance. Within a few seconds she too was knocked sprawling. Harry leered at her, before turning a triumphant smirk on Bit. He drew a foot back again, before smashing it into Bits chest. There was a crack and a lance of pain shot though Bit. Definitely a cracked rib there, he managed to think.
"Say good night, arrogant little man!" Harry taunted as he brought his foot back.
Bit didn't say anything, he could only watch as a shape rose up behind Harry's head. It swung down fast, and smashed into tiny pieces. Harry's face lost its raged expression, replaced by a look of confusion. Then his eyes rolled up into his head and he fell forwards onto the floor with a loud 'thunk', between Bit and Mary.
Behind where Harry had stood, Leena held onto the remaining part of the vase she had hit him with. Tears ran down her face, running across the blaring red handprint on her cheek.
"Thanks for the… assist." Bit croaked. That rib was really beginning to hurt like hell.
Leena dropped the vase neck before going down herself, and crawled to him. He welcomed her into her arms, guiding her so that she was under his arm and not lying on his damaged side. Leena cried into his neck like a baby, her body raked with sobs. Bit pulled her closer, gently stroking her head with his hand.
Across from them, Mary managed to sit up and take stock. Harry was finally out cold, and Leena appeared unharmed. She slowly got to her feet, her own share of aches and injuries making themselves known.
"I'll get Harry's servants to come and get him…" She whispered. Her eyes were filled with tears of shame. "He won't come back again. Not once our father hears of this!"
"Just go." Bit told her. Mary nodded, and then slowly limped away. She'd badly twisted her leg when she fell.
Bit turned his attention to Leena, who was still crying. "Shhh, it's all right." He tried to reassure her. "Harry's out cold. There's nothing to worry about. It's all right…" Bit carried on with similar themes for some time.
Harry's robot servants quickly arrived, Benjamin carrying Bit's jacket. Wordlessly he handed it to Bit before working with Sebastian to drag their boss away. Bit draped his jacket across Leena, who seemed to find reassurance in his touch. At least she had stopped crying.
"Thank you Bit…" She whispered.
"For what?" Bit asked gently. Slowly Leena tilted her head up to look him in the eye.
"For standing up to him. And for… this" She hugged him a bit more tightly, causing a spike of pain from his cracked rib.
"Ack! Ease off a bit there…"
Leena pulled back, letting him breath easily again. "Sorry…" She whispered.
"It's okay, as long as you're okay…" Was all he said before drawing her into a gentle kiss.
Leena's eyes closed in contentment. No, she was more than content; she was in paradise! She returned the kiss with a passion, gripping his head in one hand fiercely, refusing to let go until the need for air demanded it.
As they caught their breaths, Bit's face creased into his trademark grin. He had been hoping for a repeat of that, ever since they shared that kiss back just after the battle. Who would have thought it would come this soon!
"Bit… don't ever leave me…" She whispered as she snuggled into him again.
"I won't."
X-X-X-X-X-X
Jamie, Steve and Leon drove back to the base. Although it had taken very little time to clear the teams' debts, the work on the Hover Cargo was going to take at least the whole night. Luckily, they had a spare jeep tucked away in the huge transport, so they didn't have to find a place to stay overnight.
As they rattled along, Steve thought more and more about his daughter and Bit. Surely they could not keep dancing round each other forever? The mutual attraction was there, it just had not yet been condensed down into love. Remembering his own experiences, he was determined to ensure that this chance of happiness did not slip though their fingers!
Leon was dozing in the back, but his thoughts were not about his sister, but rather a certain dark blue haired lady…
So intent on their thoughts, Jamie had to yell twice before they responded. "Huh?"
"Does that Whale King look familiar to you Doc?" Jamie asked a quaver in his voice.
"What Whale…" Steve trailed off as he saw the great flying transport zoid sitting outside their base, its jaw hanging open from the block shaped head. It was painted a deep red, the main colour of the Champ Corporation. But above the triangular green eye there was a logo…
"That's Harry's Whale King!" Leon gasped. Dread began to pool in Steve's stomach. Jamie's lips compressed as he pushed the throttle harder.
As they roared closer, they made out the form of Harry's two robot servants dragging something. A body. Clearly they heard the on coming jeep, since they dropped the person's arms before splitting up. One raced up the Whale King's ramp while the other moved out to intercept them.
As they closed, Jamie eased off the throttle until the jeep eased to a stop. The robot - a simple stack of disk that tapered towards the top and bottom - pulled up besides them.
"What happened?" Steve asked in worry.
"Oh nothing much, just a drunk Harry decided to make off with Miss Toros!" The robot, Benjamin, held his head in his hands. "Harry's plastered out of his mind! He always hits the hard stuff when he loses to Mr Cloud."
"'Hard Stuff'? You don't mean…"
"Nicholas Champ's Whiskey" Mary Champ answered for Benjamin. She had walked over from the Whale King to explain to Leena's shocked father what had happened. "Go help Sebastian, Benjamin."
"Yes Ma'am!"
"And don't forget to tie him down!" She called after the robot as he sped over to his partner. Both Steve and Jamie noticed shreds of cloth hanging out from underneath the sheet Mary had wrapped herself in. Her hair was tangled and a bright red mark was flaring on her cheek.
"He hurt you… his own sister?" Steve felt sick at the idea of such a monster getting his hands on his daughter. Leon's face contorted in anger at the very idea of some one striking their own sister.
"I made the mistake of confronting him when he had drunk almost two full bottles…" Mary shrugged, unknowingly allowing the sheet to slide off her shoulder a bit. It didn't fall completely, but it was enough to show that her clothing was ruined, and display the ugly bruise marks on her upper arm and shoulder. Both clearly told of what Harry had been doing. "I managed to escape his clutches, but he decided to come after Leena…"
"How is she?" Steve could barely ask the question.
"Last I saw, she's all right, if a little shaken by everything." Mary answered tiredly. Steve sagged into his seat. Leena was okay, that was all that mattered.
"What about Bit?" Jamie asked. The safety of their star pilot was a valid concern.
"He's going to be sore for a while. He took the brunt of Harry's blows." Mary got an odd look on her face. "But somehow I don't think he'll mind the pain…"
"Huh? Why?" Leon pressed.
"Why don't you see for yourselves?" Mary looked over her shoulder at the Whale King as Benjamin and Sebastian dragged Harry inside. "Look, I've got to go. Harry needs to have his head examined, and not just for a skull fracture…" Steve wondered why she said that. "…But also because some things gone seriously wrong in there. Besides, my father's going to need to hear about this." She sighed in exhaustion.
Suddenly that small fact that had been buzzing Leon's mind returned in full. He had read reports about some of the soldiers who had been exposed to charged particle beams. Many of those who had escaped a direct hit had slowly gone insane, as the charged particles had damaged their brains, affecting their judgement and morals. It was one of the two reasons charged particle weaponry was banned from Zoid Battles. On someone who was already crazy like Harry…
Mary pressed on, her face weary. "I'm sure he'll send something as compensation. He may be harsh, but he is fair. At the very least I severely doubt Harry will ever bother you or Leena again." And with that she turned and began to walk back to the Whale King, limping slightly.
As the transports engines turned over, the three men looked at each other, before Jamie put the jeep back in gear and drove it all the way inside the hanger. Tools lay around the Liger, clearly showing that Bit had been working on it when everything had happened.
Slowly they made their way into the base. Seeing nothing amiss in the central area, they stepped into the sleeping corridor. And it was there they found Leena and Bit, locked together in each other's arms, her head nestled into his neck. The shattered remains of a vase lay just beyond them.
Grinning with pride, Leon slowly crouched besides the couple while Jamie went to look for a broom his face flushed bright red. Steve walked beyond them towards the vase shards. He picked up largest fragment of the vase.
"I guess it was you Leena who used this?" He asked in good nature. Leena and Bit snapped round to look at him. They both visibly relaxed when they saw that it was only Steve and Leon.
"Yea Doc, it was." Bit answered. "Dropped it right on his head. Got him before he could give me a face full of his boot."
Leon grinned at his little sister's handiwork. "Nice one!" He noticed the discoloration on her cheek. A discolouration that was familiar. "He slapped you?"
Leena nodded. "Yes, but I'm safe now." She snuggled even closer to Bit, but paused when he winced.
"Oh my god! I forgot he got a kick in!" She gasped before wiggling free of his arms, despite obvious reluctance. Once clear she and Leon pulled Bit to his feet. As they headed for the small medical chamber, Leon looked between the two. Leena's eyes showed clear signs of recent heavy crying, and the cloth around Bit's neck was soaked.
'The attack by Harry must have affected her badly…' He thought.
Steve watched them go, before looking down at the fragment of vase he held. Shaking his head, he let it fall to the floor. It shattered into several smaller pieces.
"Never liked that thing anyway…" He laughed before following his children...
Irvine: (From under table) is he gone?
DR: Harry? Yep. Down and out.
Irvine: Thank god (Crawls out from under table followed by Zeke)
DR: Well, that's Harry out of the picture, though you do have to feel a little sorry for him. After all, it's not all his fault that he was driven insane... (Hears strange sounds coming from behind sofa)
Leena: Oh Bit...
DR: Please you two, do that somewhere else! (Bit & Leena get up and run out of room in each others arms...) Anyway, till next... (Sound of breaking china. DR drops his head into his hands) Not in the kitchen!