The midday sun had faded, but its warmth still wrinkled the horizon as the day crept onward towards its close. Bit lounged in the shadow of the hangar, the vague breeze tousling his hair. He'd just finished the afternoon's routines, had a light dinner, and sat enjoying the quiet. He glanced lazily at the Liger, which was gazing out into the distance. He yawned.
Half-dozing, he sat up only slightly to register a smudge of motion in the distance.
It quickly became recognizable - a unique, bounding leap. The Shadow Fox, approaching at a dead run.
Bit startled, shot up, and took a breath to shout with. But the Liger curbed him with the mental equivalent of an arm thrown across his chest.
~That is not Brad.~
"What are you talking about? That's the Shadow Fox!"
~Layon is its pilot.~
Bit tilted his head, but as soon as the Fox was in direct transmission range, the videlink came in. Frantic.
"TOROS! GET OUT OF THE BASE! ALL OF YOU! BIT CLOUD! R-"
Something tangibly changed in the air. The transmission cut out with interference and-
~BIT!~
A fraction of a second later, the leading beam of a charged particle cannon sliced neatly through the hangar. Followed by the pressure-wave and rest of the beam, obliterating a gaping tunnel through the hangar, part of the base, and the entire side of the parked Hover Cargo. The Liger near-instantly snapped Bit up in its jaws and ducked away.
The Berserk Fury crested the canyon rise in the distance, smoke filtering from closing jaws. By seeming luck alone no one had been in the actual path of the CPG.
This fortune caused chaos, however: everyone bolted to the hangar for their Zoids from every-which-way in the fractured base, correctly assessing they were somehow under attack but incorrectly assessing the scale of the problem.
Despite the acrid sting of ozone, there wasn't any hesitation. Bewildered, Bit hurried to scramble out from between the Liger's teeth and into its cockpit: they both immediately charged out at the Fury with laser claws blazing. The blonde's voice tried for anger but was really just terrified:
"Vega, what the hell-"
He expected the Fury to stay still. In retrospect he wasn't sure why, but both he and the Liger weren't expecting their charge to be met with such violence. The Fury streaked forward with a full-body uppercut, a move Bit should've been wise to but he didn't think-
Bit could feel a sharp emotional rise from the Liger, bafflement - and thought it was the Zoid's response to the attack. He quickly parsed otherwise: the Liger's concerned tone shook him deeply. ~Bit. That is not Vega. That is Brad.~
"Brad?" That didn't make sense. At all. Bit more-or-less refused to process it until he slammed the command for a videscreen channel. "Vega-"
And it certainly was Brad. Though he didn't look right at all. Blue eyes flicked to the open videscreen - and the mix of elation and terror etched into the man's expression was the single most disturbing thing Bit had ever seen. Brad terminated the connection with a single, dismissive flick.
Bit immediately wheeled to a better vantage, the Liger crouching to survey the situation. The blonde couldn't help but recall the confusion he'd experienced when Brad showed up in the Shadow Fox, ready to fight. That was clearly a more friendly situation, though. This…?
"Bit," It was Layon's voice, dire. A videscreen popped up to one side with the man's helmeted face on it. "Listen to me. They're trying to kill you. This isn't a friendly match. Don't hold back!"
Kill? A jarring statement. Bit and the Liger both swung their head to glance at the hollowed-out hangar. It was clear this wasn't friendly by any stretch of the imagination. But… kill? "Layon, what's going on?!"
Layon looked helpless. "I don't- I can't explain right now. Stop them, if you can!" The Shadow Fox promptly retreated from view with a bound and kicked-up plume of sand.
Naomi's Gun Sniper twisted curiously, watching the Fox, but she'd seen and heard Layon's transmission from within. The red Blade Liger came up alongside her, the two Zoids glanced at each other, then everyone looked at the Fury with confusion.
Naomi: "What the hell is…"
Leon: "Why is he piloting the Berserk Fury?"
"Brad!" They both tried contacting the wayward Warrior to no avail.
The Fury charged again with no warning, jaws crushing air where the Liger's head had been a half-second before. In a single, fluid motion the Liger landed in a crouch and sprung into the side of the saurian Zoid, knocking the Fury off-balance and pivoting it on a haunch. The Fury recovered immediately and slammed right back into the Liger.
Armor and structure screeched indistinctly as bodies collided, claws and teeth lashing out, grasping for purchase. Bit swore under his breath and watched the Berserk Fury's movements, wild-eyed. He wasn't really even ready for battle, but had no choice but to engage.
The immediate intensity brought him back to the Royal Cup's vicious fight. The tension he felt now wasn't pinned on victory or loss, however. Instead on confusion, horror - he truly didn't understand what was happening. Once in his junk-dealing days while snatching up scrap from a battlefield, an angry pilot had pulled a gun on him. It was his only real frame of reference for these feelings, and these were infinitely worse.
The cockpit shook hard and Bit's head painfully slammed the restraint bar as his world went forward, then sideways. The Liger and Berserk Fury locked into a vicious tangle, bodies tumbling as neither relinquished what holds they'd managed.
The Liger's teeth were firmly locked around one hind leg of the Fury's, one blazing foreclaw outstretched to keep the thrashing tail at bay. The Fury's jaws were likewise sunk into the armor of the Liger's flank, the Liger's own hindclaws pressed taut against the Fury's chest. Metal screamed with strain.
Bit glanced at the severely-damaged Hover Cargo, realizing that even if he could get away from this mess, he'd be unable to exchange for any perhaps-more-suitable armors. The Panzer seemed ideal for outright protection and meaningful firepower: the knowledge that a charged particle weapon was in conscious possession of ill-meaning opposition was more than a little terrifying. He wanted bigger guns.
But there would be no Panzer today. There would be no escape at all from severe damage to existing armor. This became a new and keen source of distress as the Fury finally sheared all the way through the armor on the Liger's side, tugging the plate of it off like so much skin.
As jaws ripped away and lost their bodily hold, the Liger took that moment to release the Fury's leg and kick aside, lurching towards brief freedom in the hopes of somehow better tackling the situation.
Bit was abruptly reminded he wasn't alone in this, as the red blur of Leon's Blade Liger cut past, seizing the opportunity of the two Zoids' separation. The red Liger's namesake blades were out and charged; the Fury stepped smoothly back and caught the slashing attempt with a parrying buster claw.
Glowing blade did no real damage to gleaming claw. The Fury simply used the Blade Liger's own momentum to shove it aside. It didn't seem to care about, nor did it even glance after, the Blade Liger. Its attention stayed on the Liger Zero.
Leon recovered swiftly and spun back. He and Bit exchanged glances on the videscreen - Leon nodded upwards, unspoken indication of a plan.
The crack from above was familiar, but Bit startled - he wasn't expecting it. The red Gun Sniper's shot was true as always, smoke and shrapnel pluming from where the sniper bullet had struck the Berserk Fury's side.
The Berserk Fury turned and inclined its head towards the Gun Sniper. Naomi looked between her scope and readouts several times, concern rising. Had she missed?
The shot would've easily downed a lesser Zoid, and should have made even the Fury flinch. But it was clear that nothing vital had been hit, or hit hard enough, because the beast simply didn't seem to care.
Or, it did care, but not in the way anyone would've hoped. The Berserk Fury bunched its haunches and launched into a leap, aided by boosters - slamming into a perch on the compromised hangar's roof beside the Sniper. The Gun Sniper's interference was apparently much less welcome than the Blade Liger's - or viewed as much more of a threat. The Fury's jaws gaped, and it crouched-
The Raynos slashed by, powerfully strafing the Fury and knocking its strike off balance. Without the Hover Cargo it'd taken more work to get the Raynos airborne, but Jaime knew that an aerial Zoid would be indispensable in this mess. And he was right.
The Berserk Fury tracked the Raynos just long enough for Naomi to disengage the Sniper and leap away. She boosted hard to the ground and bolted, giving Jaime a nervous salute of thanks.
The Fury glanced back and Brad's teeth bared in an angry sigh, the human face of the Zoid's irritation. It was only here for the Liger Zero, yet all of these meddling pissants -
No, no. These were his friends, teammates, lover - all people he very, very distinctly did not wish any ill upon. "Leave them out of this."
The Fury's attention seared into the cockpit. ~We will destroy the Liger, and anyone in the way of that pursuit.~ The Zoid hissed, dragging Brad's profound and unfortunate surrender to the fore: the man did want this power, he did want this control. Desperately so.
But he was tired: not just physically, but mentally. The Berserk Fury possessed no temperance and was quick to bleed pilots dry, not unlike what'd happened to Vega in the Royal Cup. Hands trembled on controls and Brad started to black out.
~No.~ He felt the Fury's smothering grip tighten. Every wrong ever inflicted upon the man came together, distilled into a single moment of rage - and weakness. It was by this soft throat the Fury seized him again. Painful didn't even touch the description of what he felt. His entire life made into a single, asphyxiating mouthful to sate the needs of an ancient, amoral beast whose fight could not be won… without help.
There was really no use in resisting it anymore. He didn't want to anyways; he'd never really wanted to. This was his to claim, always had been, and always would be. He felt pain, concern, everything, simply melt away - replaced by pure, raw, glorious power .
The Berserk Fury shrieked wildly.
Vega wanted to be closer. Much closer. But the Fury had given the Hel Digunner very death-threat-filled instructions to stay far away. Vega glared at the small consoles in the Zoid, watching eagerly, anxiously as he saw the Fury stalk closer to the base.
His pulse raced, his pupils constricted, he started to sweat. He still wasn't able to escape the Fury's boundless rile, even though he could tell that the Zoid was fully distracted by Brad. This only piled on anger of his own - he wanted to pilot the Fury to victory. This simply wasn't fair.
The distant crack of the CPG quickly made things much more real.
Some part of his mind registered concern. It was violently overruled.
His eyes scoured the consoles. Had the Liger-?
No, it showed up on the readouts. The child briefly worried he was still too close to the Fury mentally, that this wasn't going to work, that there may have been serious danger and this could all-too-easily become the Royal Cup's failures again…
Vega gasped as if he'd been thrown into icewater, as he felt the two Zoids powerfully collide. Clash. Rip into each other. After which point he was too rapt to care. The Fury's vicious love of combat was exquisite, divine - if Vega couldn't be directly involved, this was certainly the next best thing.
The Hel Digunner shifted with a growl, not really liking any of this but staying put. It was pinged by another Backdraft Zoid and answered uneasily, unsure of the Fury's directives on the matter - and far too scared to ask. It wasn't as if the Berserk Fury would've deigned to respond anyway.
"Vega!" It was Sara. "What do y- " But she stopped, realizing by the far-off look in his eyes that he'd likely not had much input in this chain of events.
Damn Alteil and damn that Zoid and damn her every poor decision that'd led her to let Vega anywhere near the damn thing-
"Sorry, he wanted to leave." Vega clearly wasn't sorry, he wasn't anything besides drenched in sweat and grinning with twisted glee. "This is fun."
Sara and a small group of other Backdraft units - Helcats, Gun Snipers, a Redler and a Hammerhead - arrived near Vega's Zoid shortly afterward, the soldiers and pilots scrambling to set up a makeshift transmission array. Without Satellites, it was the best they could do: this battle had been promised to the Committee, who in turn had promised it to the Elite. Under the looming threat of further disgrace and feeling pressured to make "use" of the resource-heavy Fury, Sara had to deliver - albeit more abruptly and unexpectedly than she would've liked.
The woman scowled at the narrowly-controlled chaos of the scene. Backdraft without in-service Whale Kings and Satellites was not her cup of tea, and this granular level of command was far below her. Her hair snapped in the desert breeze, disdain flaring at having to bend to the will of the Committee.
Her gaze softened as she walked towards Vega's Zoid. She helped her son up out of the Hel Digunner's cockpit and brought him to the cold shade of the Hammerhead she'd arrived in. The Digunner seemed conflicted and gave a rumble of protest, but was intimidated into silence by the glare Sara shot it.
The child sat sprawled in the sand, barely-there eyes darting at unseen combat. Sara watched him to make sure he was steady before she returned to overseeing the area.
After a few moments Vega's arms went protectively taut around his torso, and he leaned as if in pain. Mirrored experiences that none of them could see at this distance, but-
Focus returned to brown eyes. Vega's posture changed substantially; he scrambled to stand and glared off into the distance, clearly cut out, clearly incensed. "FURY!"
It'd only been several seconds.
Leon and Bit were trying to formulate some kind of plan when the Fury smashed back down between them, shattering the concrete. The massive Zoid recovered gracefully and stared down the Liger, its utter disregard of the Blade Liger clear.
"Brad…" Bit said, to an empty videscreen. "Talk to me, dude. What's going on?"
"Brad!" Leon was more angry - because he was more afraid. "What-"
"Not here for you, Leon. Only them. Stand down."
"You know I can't do that."
No response. The Fury simply lunged back into the Liger Zero, boosters flaring as it shoved the white cat Zoid back. The Liger's claws left furrows in the concrete until losing their grip on the ground; it pressured back with a flare of its own boosters. They slammed the few feet back down, deeply gouging rock before the earlier, gnashing tangle was repeated.
It was incredibly violent; Bit fought against deep horror. Mainly because the Fury's jaws kept crashing shut inches from the cockpit on either side, with only the Liger's quick reflexes staving off literal instant death.
"C'mon. Hold still. I'll make it quick."
Bit blinked several times at how casual the request was. "N-no thanks!"
"Nothing personal, Bit." The two Zoids circled tightly and slammed into each other, broadside. "But you're making this really difficult."
"I like living!" The blonde screamed.
"Eh," Was the reply. That wasn't terrifying or anything.
The Fury tried to push the Liger over but the feline hunkered down, spinning to face the Fury's hindquarters and snapping at an ankle. The response was a vicious swing of heavy tail, which nearly took off one of the Liger's boosters.
~I don't know what to do!~ The Liger cried out. Besides what it was doing - pressing close and not letting up, snapping at limbs, trying to break a few key servos and joints to disable something, anything-
That honestly terrified Bit the most. He didn't know what to do. The Liger didn't know what to do. Nobody did.
It happened. The Liger swung back the wrong way and the Fury's teeth finally caught its head. The Berserk Fury bit down for purchase, but had to shift for a better angle to bite down with. In that narrow window Bit and the Liger bucked back with all their might - and the tenuous grip was lost, at the cost of deep gouges. The cockpit glass webbed on one side but stayed intact, the omni-readout flickering with serious damage.
"Bit!" The others cried out.
"I'm fine, I'm fine!" He absolutely was not fine, his heart was in his throat and he was fighting the Fury, the Liger's angry bewilderment, gravity and an unmet need to scream. Bit wouldn't openly admit to it, but Brad was one of few pilots he thought might be able to beat him in a 1v1. That thought wasn't really helping right now.
~We cannot fight them this way, Bit! You are frightened and I cannot-~
"Wild Weasel Unit Total Assault!" Steve Toros yelled, unleashing a ridiculous arsenal on the Berserk Fury.
In idle response, the Fury had splayed a buster claw and deployed a shield. As if nothing had happened, it turned its head and snarled through the clearing smoke, shifting to stroll towards the Gun Sniper with intent. "Pretty sure you still owe me, Doc."
That simple sentence was somehow petrifying coming out of the casually approaching Berserk Fury. It snapped up its other buster claw and fired unflinchingly at the Sniper-'s head, Leon's Blade Liger lurching into the way with its own shields deployed.
"Get somewhere safe, Steve!" Leon reprimanded his father, watching the Berserk Fury continue to approach. "This-"
"Take your own damn advice, Leon." The Berserk Fury's tail-vents flared but it didn't lock down, building just enough of a particle-charge in its mouth to spit a mean explosive. The Blade Liger's shield took most of the hit, but the pressure still roughly shoved the Zoid back.
"Brad!" It was Naomi again - angry, frightened. "Where've you been? Why the fuck are you piloting that? What-"
"Babe," He cut her off. "I'm really sorry."
"You don't have to be sorry, just stop!"
"Can't. Really can't." There was an uneasy hesitation. "Get out of here."
Leon frowned at the dissonance - actions versus what he knew was genuine conflict in Brad's voice. "We're not going to let you hurt anyone. Bit or the Liger included."
No response but a deeply irritated sigh.
Naomi made several firm, silent hand-signals to Leon on their videscreen. He glanced, did a double-take, but nodded. Then he looked at the Liger Zero, debating how on Zi to communicate this plan to Bit.
The Fury bunched its haunches and leapt. It was as if it was prescient of the Liger's movement; fractions of a second later the Liger slashed past where the Fury had been . The Liger's charged laser claws screamed against concrete, as the Zoid twisted to again face the-
Fury. It seized the Liger's lower jaw and shoved the whole Zoid backwards into the ground. The Fury bit down hard, and though not at a crushing angle, its teeth sank into the Liger's face, cracking facial-flange armor and structure. The point of one massive, serrated metal fang appeared in the cockpit floorboard, the rest sinking into console components unseen - the edge nicked Bit's sharply-lifted calf and ankle. He yelped, and no sooner had he registered the strike, the Liger had ripped them both free.
The massive surge of pain and the sight of blood rapidly soaking his pant-leg woke Bit up. He had to stop being afraid and do something.
~Yes! We are strong! We have defeated the Fury before and we will do so again!~
~No. You will not.~
The second voice, deep and threatening, was new to Bit. He reflexively glanced up at the Fury, which now stood regarding them coldly. Bit's throat worked anxiously but he steeled himself. Fear wouldn't help him. Determination would.
~Why have you forsaken Vega?~ The Liger asked.
~I have not. Vega is perfect.~
"Then why the fuck is Brad piloting?"
"Because I felt like it. "
~You cannot have two partners.~
~One partner. One pilot. And no more of YOU~ The Berserk Fury screamed and lunged forth.
Around the back of the base, Leena's retreating Gun Sniper - piloted by Steve - came face-to-face with the Shadow Fox. The Fox regarded the Gun Sniper's many weapons.
"Layon."
"Steve."
Toros's fear-lined face creased slightly more with anger. "What have you done?"
"I don't know what y-"
"Stop it." The man's trembling tone held no patience. "Everyone in my home could have just died. You're lucky no one was hurt or I'd have your head." The stabilizers on the Gun Sniper's head pinned; it was confused by its pilot's very-truly-murderous ire versus his inaction. "But to make matters worse, you show up piloting a Zoid that not only isn't yours, it belongs to someone who's been missing, and we've been worried about and looking for, for weeks. And somehow, that someone is in a Backdraft Zoid. Again. And here you are. Again."
"This wasn't my idea, Steve! I came to warn you-"
"You went back to the Backdraft. You're an idiot."
"I'm a broke idiot." Layon said matter-of-factly.
"You have 30 seconds to explain what's going on."
"Or what?"
Toros said nothing; the Wild Weasel Unit simply shifted, arming.
"...you make a compelling point. However," And Layon braced the Fox, its gatling pointing straight at the Sniper.
The Liger Zero dodged the Fury's strike yet again, whole body twisting aside.
Bit struggled to stay focused, muscles starting to keen with exertion. Battles were usually quick clashes: he'd no idea how long this all had dragged on, but he was getting very, very tired. Sweat soaked his shirt and streamed down his temples, dripping onto the floor as he dipped his head in exhaustion.
The wound on his leg had stopped bleeding, but blood was still everywhere he could see. Bit stared for a split-second into the gash in the floorboard. Damaged wire sparked, and metallic Zoid blood oozed from small, severed conduits.
The blonde looked back up.
"Come on, Bit. This ain't ending any other way."
"Dude, I'm not going t-"
The Fury was immediately upon them again.
"COME ON!"