Chapter Two

Construction

"Pick yourself up, Sambi, and watch your left flank! Grrr!" Talis growled as a barrage of cannon-fire rumbled his Liger Zero-X. He was so caught up in covering the butts of his teammates that he was leaving himself wide open for the simplest attacks.

But these weren't simple attacks. This was the Crushed Star team, a trio of heavily stocked Dark Horns that were amazingly light on their toes—and heavy on the ammo. They were the best group of Horn Zoids that Talis had ever seen, and it was no surprise that they were Class-S.

Pushing the accelerator control handles fully forward, Talis sprinted Exaber forward and then around the impressive arsenal of the grey Dark Horn. Spreading the triple-thick Liger's blades like wings, Johrenson leapt into the air, slashing through the weapons system of the styracasaurus Zoid, ripping it clean of its only real source of power.

As the giant gattling and beam cannon arsenal collapsed onto the dry desert ground, Exaber spun around on its front feet, then dropped its rears to the sand. The Dark Horn roared in anger and charged the Liger-X. The lion simply stepped to the side—blades fully extended—and let the rampaging Zoid cut itself in half as it stormed by.

Quickly re-setting the blades, Talis looked for his teammates, and was shocked to see a pink Rhimos roll across the ground in front of him. "What the hell? Anna? Are you all right?" But there was no answer. "Crap!"

Exaber turned to face a Navy Blue Dark Horn—with its horn broken off—charging at it. Talis whipped the blades back out and swung them into a forward-pointing position. Pushing off at full speed, the Liger jousted the Dark Horn straight in the mouth, severely gouging its head before the right blades finally snapped off and the styracasaurus slid face first onto the ground. Exaber flipped around horizontally through the air over thirty yards, yet still made a perfect four-foot landing.

Cursing at himself for damaging his Zoid, Talis looked for Sambi. When he looked behind him, he saw a sight that would forever be burnt into his mind: Sambi's little Rev Raptor was standing atop a smoking black Dark Horn that was torn to pieces.

"S-Sambi! Great job, pal!" studdered his team leader.

"And to you as well. This was a difficult match."

"Battle over. Battle over. And the winner is: the Liger-X team!" Sambi and Talis looked over to the Judge Capsule. They had totally forgotten about the annoying little robot. "Congratulations on an impressive victory. Until the next battle!" With that, the Judge blasted off again.

Talis' smile quickly turned into panic. "Uh-oh. Anna!"

Crackling sounds of the welder were not music of any kind to Johrenson's ears. The slash across the pink metal armor plate was severe, and it was taking over three hours to re-weld it back together.

And this was the easy work.

The damage to the Liger Zero-X' blades took three days to repair. Talis swore never to try jousting a Zoid ever again. Rewards from the victory were substantial, but not enough to pay for a set of brand new blades and a new armor shell for the Rhimos. Especially a rare pink one. At least the blades were indestructible. The connectors were just about shot, but the blades were guaranteed stronger than the Berserk Fury's. Regardless of them, he had to pay for massive gear repairs to the stupid pink Rhimos. He was stuck with fixing all the damage to its armor plating himself. Sigh.

What ate up most of the cash was the amount of debt that Talis had built up over the years. The last two victories had helped him pay off a few debts, but there were still sixteen to go. Having well over a dozen people angry at you for owing them money also made pinpointing the issuer of the death warrant pretty darn difficult.

There. All done. Talis flipped up the welding mask and checked his work. Perfect. Only mostly lumpy.

"Hey, Tally. How's it lookin'?"

Johrenson turned around to see Anna walk into the garage, then stop by a power generator and lean onto it. "Anna! Why are you up and around? Get back in bed." Despite her slightly bruised skin, she was still beautiful. He golden hair never looked bad.

She shook her head. "No way, not until I see my baby. I need to know if she's all right."

Talis patted the Rhimos' plating above its right leg. "It's doing okay. I've completed repairs on the armor, and I'm pretty sure all the inner systems are working again. I just need to take it around for a walk."

Anna smiled. "Thanks, Tally. .I owe you one. I'm sorry I didn't last too long in the fight."

"Hey, you broke the nose off of the Dark Horn!"

Laughing out a snort, she replied, "Yeah, I shot it right off! That's why he rammed my Zoid so hard!" The two of them laughed for a second, then Talis jumped down from the leg.

"Look, Anna, are you sure you want to keep doing this? It's only going to get harder."

As her green eyes watered, the young blonde bartender looked up at Talis and answered, "I'm not doin' this just for me, baby."

Sambi entered the garage, but upon seeing his teammates locked in an embrace, he quietly turned around, gently closed the door and let them be.

The dimly lit room flickered to life as Sambi activated the display screen. Digital displays of a Liger Zero, a Shadow Fox, a Gun Sniper and a Raynos appeared on the large plasma monitor. Talis and Anna studied the Zoids and the information racing across the screen about the Zoids and their attributes.

"This…is the Blitz Team." began Sambi. "I am sure that you both have heard of them."

"Oh yeah." Said Anna. Talis just nodded his head as Anna petted it.

"They are about the most famous team in the world, considering their victories against the Berserk Fury and the Backdraft Group. It is quite humbling to say that they will be our next opponents."

"Yikes!" cried Anna.

"Calm down, hun. They haven't been Class-S very long." Re-assured Talis.

"Well, we haven't been a team very long!"

Ignoring her, Talis ushered for Sambi to continue.

"The center of their team is Bit Cloud, who pilots a Liger Zero. It is very similar to your Liger Zero-X, Talis, except that he often changes its armor systems to better handle combat situations. Against your Liger Zero-X, I would expect his Jager Unit, or more likely the Schneider Unit. The former is fast, the latter uses blades."

"Makes sense."

The black fox Zoid carrying a gattling gun on its back and a raptor-type zoid, smothered in missile-launchers and sporting two massive gattling guns on its sides appeared on-screen. "The other Zoids are a Shadow Fox, which is a type that we have handled before, and should be no problem. Lastly, is a heavily armed Gun Sniper. The Gun Sniper, if taken out quickly enough, shouldn't be too much of a burden.

Anna raised her hand. "What about the Raynos?"

Sambi brought the image of the green pteranadon-type Zoid up on-screen. It had light cannons on its belly and a radar dish on its back. "The Blitz team occasionally uses that Zoid, but not often, and considering that we do not have any flying Zoids, I doubt that they would use it this time."

"Oh, okay."

"I've heard that they get a lot of direction from their big 'Hover-Cargo,'" said Talis, "The massive snail-like Zoid that carries the Zoids in its shell, then launches them from the top. The team's owner and the Raynos pilot stay inside and direct the team. That's an unfair advantage, if you ask me."

"I totally agree." Replied Sambi.

"What are you smiling about, Tally?" asked Anna.

"I think there's something we can do about that unfair advantage."

Talis hoped the shock of his slamming the door open would keep him safe. It did. Gekito jumped up from his position behind the table and collapsed to the floor.

"What the hell did you do that for?" he growled.

Talis took a bite out of the papaya he was carrying. "Just wanted to make sure that you weren't waiting behind the door, anxious to kill me."

Gekito licked his lips. "Of course I'm anxious to kill you. It's money for me."

"Still snippy, eh? Guess you can skip dinner, then." Johrenson took a big bite of his fruit as he turned around.

"No! Wait!" Gekito weakly stood back up and sat in his chair. "See? I'm all better. Please. Give me something to eat."

Talis smiled, then turned around and set a second papaya on the table. Leaning forward, he stared deep into his prisoner's eyes. "Here's your dinner. Now, there might be a steak dinner in it for you, if you tell me everything I need to know."

His prisoner's eyes bugged out. "Serious? You'd go that far?"

"There's someone trying to kill, me, bonehead! Don't you get it?" Standing back up he rubbed his head. Gekito tipped himself forward and took a chomp at the papaya. Talis opened his eyes back up, then got an idea.

Once again he reached into his pocket and lifted out his flip-coin. Despite the sloppy amount of fruit juice splattered on his face, Gekito looked nervous instead of embaraced. "What…what are you doing with that?"

Johrenson flipped it high into the air, caught it in his right hand and slapped it onto his left forearm without looking at it. "This is your life, scum-ball. Heads you live, tails you go out with the morning trash, understand?"

"But…but you can't just--."

"Why can't I? You want me dead! And you won't give me a chance to live!" Talis took a step closer. "All you have to do is tell me who put the bounty on my head!"

As the papaya juice dripped from his scruffy chin, Gekito stared solemnly down at the floor, then shrugged his shoulders. "Either way I'm dead, I guess." He looked up at Talis and gave a weak grin. "I did."

"You lie!" Talis leapt across the table and slammed a cross-hook into Gekito's cheek-bone, crashing the weakened prisoner into the wall and then flat to the floor onto his stomach. The Liger pilot then stood on the prisoner's back and yanked up on his handcuffed arms, pulling a shriek out of his opponent.

"P-please! I tell you the truth! Let me go!"

"I don't know what response you are trying to get out of me, Gekito, but you have really pissed me off!"

Sambi swung the door open with a look of concern on his face, which quickly turned into shock at the sight before him. "I heard commotion. What is going on here?"

Talis let Gekito's arms go and stepped off of his back. "Nothing. Nothing." He sighed and picked up the papayas. "Get this jerk a bowl of rice, then take him to the bathroom."

As Johrenson stomped out of the room, his former teammate called out to him. "You can't just ignore me, Talis. Keeping me here isn't stopping anything."

Feeling his face tighten to painful levels, the Liger Zero-X pilot spun around and glared. "And what do you think you can do to hurt me from in here? Spit?"

Gekito gave a sickening Cheshire-style grin. "I've been in cybernetic communication with my Saber Tiger ever since you captured me, and giving orders to my accomplices. Your bounty has tripled since yesterday." Talis strained to control his urges to strangle Gekito. "But don't worry, there is a way to redeem yourself."

"What is that?" asked Sambi.

"If you defeat the Blitz Team tomorrow, I'll take the bounty off of your head."

Talis blinked in confusion. "What have you got against the Blitz Team?"

Enjoying his newly acquired control of the situation, Gekito barked at his captor, "That is for me to worry about, not you! Defeat them, and I won't add bounties onto other members of this team."

"You son-of-a-! Who do you think you are?" barked Talis.

"Someone who can place bounties on your head with a mere thought, then have an automated bank account pay it if I die, that's who. I do not fear you, fool."

Talis stood in silence, squeezing his jaw shut and clenching his fists. Gekito had turned the tide in his favor. But the game was far from over. "C'mon, Sambi. Let's go find Anna and practice our maneuvers."

Sambi watched in confusion as his teammate walked out of the room with a fiery look in his eyes. "Yes, sir."

"What about letting me go?" asked Gekito.

"Quadruple it. I don't care anymore."

"I think you do."

"Why?" asked Talis as he turned around.

"Don't you want to know why I am doing this?"

Talis fought the urge to leave, then stepped back into the room. "Okay, what's your problem?"

"I need an assassin. Someone to defeat teams for me when I need to make a few bucks, or get rid of a team. It's as simple as that!"

Talis shook his head. "And you chose me because I'm good."

"Don't flatter yourself, moron! Look at you! You live in a dump in the middle of nowhere! I chose you because you'd be the easiest to control! Ha!" Gekito practically started dancing.

"You know what, Sambi, forget the rice." Johrenson slammed the door.