Chapter Four
Destinies
Talis and Sambi marched down the decrepit, dank hallway. It always amazed the Liger pilot how such a place with mold-ridden green walls could exist in the desert. But the moisture came from somewhere, and the sunlight sure didn't.
"Do you think our plan is wise?" asked Sambi."
"What plan, the plan we already did or the one you just thought up?"
"I do not remember thinking up any of our plans."
Johrenson spun around with an index finger raised, "Well, I sure as hell didn't think this new one up; it's crazy!"
Sambi blinked and scratched his neck, "Of course you don't; you were drunk when you thought of it."
"What?" denied Talis, "I don't remember being drunk! I remember sitting in the bar, thinking about what to do next, then…uh…coming home."
"If you are so confident," Sambi cracked a small grin, "Then tell me what the plan is."
"Why?" Talis coughed and lowered his finger.
"Because I can't seem to recall all the technicalities. Please refresh my memory."
Johrenson looked at his finger and wiggled it around, then scratched his ear with it. "Okay, so we need a new plan. Any ideas?"
Sambi sighed. "Just the one we discussed last night."
The door slammed open again, and Gekito jumped again. But this time, he was standing up, so he didn't crash to the floor.
"Afternoon, Gekky ol' buddy! How have you been?" asked Talis as he skipped into the room.
"I haven't eaten in twelve hours and I've been pissing in the corner. How do you think I've been?"
Talis made a clicking sound with his mouth. "So sorry. Guess you've learned not to fly coach again, eh, partner?"
Gekito's forehead shriveled with rage. "How dare you come in here and act like an imbecile! I've already told you that I can kill you with a thought, and you're pushing me beyond—"
"Whoa, whoa, there pal. Don't push yourself downhill too hard. I just came to tell you that…I'm letting you go!"
The enraged expression only slightly relaxed. "What?"
Talis stood to the side of the open door. "You're free!"
Gekito's face hardened more than ever. "What is your trick?"
"Look, you probably already know, but I didn't beat the Blitz Team. It was a draw, and who knows when I'll ever face them again. I can only hope that if I let you go, you'll be happy enough to leave my friends be. You can keep your stinking bounty on me if you want, I can take care of myself."
A smile slithered across Gekito's mouth. "Yes, I knew of your failures with the Blitz Team, but you achieved my goal nevertheless: you severely damaged the Liger Zero." The prisoner walked over to his captor and turned around so that his 'cuffs could be removed. "I will leave your friends alone and reduce your bounty, but it will never go away." Gekito looked at his stone-faced servant. "As long as I can use you for a Zoid-assassin, it will stand. But I will keep it low." The freed prisoner rubbed his sore wrists, then stared deep into Talis' raging eyes. "See you later."
Johrenson watched Gekito walk down the hallway laughing, then whispered, "Sooner than you think, jerk."
It wasn't often that you'd see a Zoid parked out in front of a tailor shop—in a city—but this was a small town out in the middle of nowhere. There were fewer buildings than there were Zoids—a stark contrast to a city. And usually in a town like this, a Zoid was more important than the building it was parked in front of.
Except today.
Talis sat cramped in the cockpit of his Liger Zero-X, keeping a sharp eye on the tailor shop that the ruby-red Saber Tiger had flopped its metallic butt in front of. Gekito had driven his Tiger here, then walked into the shop over two hours ago. Why he would need that long to buy some new clothes was beyond reasoning.
The dominating source of anxiety was the fact that the Liger-X Team had very little time to repair their Zoids since the battle with the Blitz Team. Exaber's leg was rush-repaired, but the Rev Raptor still had no tail. The Pink Rhimos was working, but only at half-power. All that, and they were about to face a full-strength Saber Tiger…
Lost in thought, and staring at the evening sunset, Talis nearly missed the tailor shop door swing open.
Nearly.
As Gekito climbed up into his Saber Tiger, wearing a nice tan and light-green outfit, Talis flicked the coin into the air, then checked it after it fell. Heads. Heads was a good thing.
Before the Tiger's cockpit closed, Liger Zero-X stood up out of the shadows behind the warehouse and roared. Gekito turned his head in panic, then quickly powered up his Zoid. Scrambling off down the street, the Saber Tiber broke off for the open desert. Talis followed, but at a moderate distance.
Gekito's image appeared on the HUD of the Liger. "You truly are an idiot. I am going to offer my entire fortune to the man that kills you!"
"Go ahead and try it."
Gekito's image looked deep in concentration, attempting to broadcast his thoughts with his special mental device, but after a few moments, hysteria spread across his eyes. "What—what have you done? You can't do this to me! You have no right to do this to me!"
"And what you have done to me is any more justified?" Talis increased Exaber's speed. "I am a more reasonable man than you, however. Leave town and never return, and I won't destroy your Zoid."
The laughter was annoying. "You think that you can destroy my Saber Tiger with your busted-up Liger Zero?"
"It's a Liger Zero-X."
Snorting, Gekito replied, "As if that makes a difference."
Talis cracked his knuckles. "It makes all the difference in the world."
"Not against Bit Cloud, it didn't."
After sitting in silence for a moment, Johrenson said, "So, do we have a deal?"
The Saber Tiger pirouetted on its left front leg and its eyes glowed green. "No." Jumping forward, the Tiger opened fire on Exaber and hit it a half-dozen times before the Liger was able to run east and get out of the way.
As the ruby-red Zoid skidded to a stop over the Liger Zero-X' former sitting spot, the Liger ran around, then made a hard right turn and fired a couple of shots from its box cannon, which shook up the Tiger. But distance was not on Talis' side. The Saber Tiger pounced toward the black Liger, which had to stand up to stop it. The two giant Zoid felines stood pressed against each other, desperately trying to throw the other one down. From a distance, they appeared to be engaged in some kind of twisted Zoid dance.
Just as Gekito was gaining the upper hand, and Exaber's weak leg was about to give way, a small stampeding sound rumbled across the ground. Before either pilot could see what was causing the noise, Anna's Pink Rhimos slammed into the Saber Tiger's back left leg. The leg didn't break, but it weakened the Zoid's stance enough so that it slipped to its left and came crashing down on top of Pinky—and brought the Liger Zero-X with it.
Now a massive pile of twisted Zoids, the mesh of opponents attempted to break free from each other, and unfortunately Gekito was the first to jump off. Quickly setting a firing stance, he unloaded a blaze of energy shells onto the members of the Liger-X Team.
"Ha! You fools! You and your dime-a-dozen Zoids are no match for my Saber Tiger! I don't need a bounty anymore, Talis Johrenson! I'll just kill you myself!"
But, as is the norm, Talis' life was saved yet again when his team's Gustav crashed into the ruby-red Saber Tiger and sent it rolling across the sand.
"S-Sambi?" asked Talis as he fought the ringing in his ears.
"Yes. I am afraid our Gustav's transmission-jamming tower is now destroyed."
"It's comin' out of your pay." Exaber, smoking and losing pieces of armor as it stood up, looked out towards Gekito's Zoid. "I'm through with this nice-guy stuff, Sambi. What I'm about to do isn't exactly legal."
"I saw nothing, my friend."
As its ruby-red target stood up, Liger Zero-X spread out its sole remaining stack of blades in a jousting position. The Saber Tiger opened fire on the Liger, but the blasts didn't stop it. "Talis!" cried Gekito, "Talis, you can't do this! Get away from me! No--!" The blades tore into the Tiger's mouth and main body, causing an energy eruption as they pierced into the Zoidcore, then shattered the main power supplies.
Gekito ejected and sailed through the air as his Zoid exploded, then crashed to the hard desert floor. Exaber's blades snapped off of their connectors to the Liger-Zero-X—but didn't break themselves.
Walking his Zoid next to Gekitos body laying limp out on the sand, Talis called out to him over the bullhorn, "So, how about that request to leave town?"
The beaten blackmailer rose up to his hands and knees, but remained looking at the ground. While nodding, he replied, "Fine."
"What was that?"
Looking up at the Liger with a glare, he repeated, "Fine!"
"Good. Get out. Now. No going back to town. Not even now. Go."
Gekito got up, brushed some dirt off of his new clothes and walked off into the desert.
Anna's image appeared on the HUD. "He could die out there, you know."
"Oh, what a shame."
"You could have least given him some water!"
"Let's go home, Anna."
Sitting on the roof of the garage, Talis and Anna leaned against one another and drank wine. It was quickly becoming their new custom, now that the level of stress in their lives had been greatly reduced.
"Sambi says we're fighting the Fire Griffins Team in two days." Said Anna.
"Yup."
"They're supposed to be really good. Nearly undefeated."
"Should be tough."
Anna leaned back. "Aren't you worried?"
Talis took a shot, then poured some more wine. "If I worry, I'll never be able to stay focused. Besides, I'll know what the outcome will be." He pulled his flip-coin out of his pocket, "I've got this." Anna quickly snatched it from his hand. "Hey!" He protested.
"What's the deal with this thing, anyways? Is it legal?" She started to bite it. Talis pulled it out of her mouth and she cried out in pain, then grabbed her mouth.
"Sorry. Look, it's got a lot of sentimental value, okay? And it always works."
After wiggling her tooth a couple of times, Anna asked, "So what's the story?"
Talis sighed, but gave up. "When I was sixteen, I wanted to pilot Zoids, so my dad began training me in the family's Guysak.. Less than a year later, I snuck the Zoid out, joined a team and got in a battle."
"Did you win?"
"No. I didn't win. After only one fight, the Guysak was massacred. It was beyond repair. I came home and got in a fight with my dad so strong that it sent me running away and never coming back."
"So where did the coin come from?" Anna held out her hand, and this time, received it in kindness. After Talis handed it to her, though, she could see that he was shaking.
"Seven years later, I learned that my father had died, and had left me something, When I went to pick it up, I was shocked to see that is was just a little wooden case with something rattling inside." Talis took a deep breath. "When I opened it, I found this coin, and a piece of paper. If you look at the coin, on the head's side is a picture of a Guysak, and the tail's side is a picture of my family's house."
"What did the paper say?" Now Anna's eyes were weakening.
"I won't tell you everything, but basically it told me that after I had run away, my father had made a coin out of a piece of the Guysak's claw, just for me, if he ever saw me again. If not, he would make sure I got it somehow, because I was still part of the family."
"That's sweet."
Talis took another sip of wine. "Yeah."
Anna handed the coin back to him. "What do you think the coin says about the two of us?"
"You sure you want to play the game of chance with our relationship?"
"Why not? I know how I feel about you."
"It's never been wrong so far." Warned Talis.
"Go for it."
Talis flicked the coin into the air…
The End?