Creation began on 07-17-19

Creation ended on 08-22-19

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Welcome to your Escape: The Clover Team Unites

Vacating her personal quarters, Nico yawns as she walks down the hall to the kitchen area for some breakfast as the new day began.

"Nico, have you seen Shinji?" Geisha asked as she ran down the opposite end of the hall to her.

"No," she answered. "I just got up. Why?"

"Drake says he's not here and Valerie looked everywhere in the hangar. Not only that, but the front of the hangar was open and the Liger Rogue is missing."

"What?!"

-x-

"…I hear that the Second Child and Unit-02 will be arriving here by the end of the week," Ritsuko informed Misato the next day at NERV.

"Will things get any easier for NERV after they're here?" Misato asked her.

"Not most likely. Commander Ikari will still want the Third Child here, so he's trying to get in contact with Ms. Megumi's parents to convince them that their daughter selecting him to be part of her Zoid team was an error and correct it."

"What are the chances of the girl's parents actually considering her choice of Shinji being a mistake?"

"Not good. I'd say if the girl's parents permitted her to be a Zoid team manager and build her own team, then they must trust her judgment to be of sound mind and body, despite being eight years old."

"And what are the chances that her parents helped her pick the members of her team?"

"They're fifty-fifty, at best on that. Child prodigies aren't like regular children; they're smarter and less likely to fit in with other children their age."

"Something tells me that this Megumi girl isn't your run-of-the-mill child and may not be as cooperative with NERV as Commander Ikari would demand of her. And something tells me that Shinji won't be as cooperative with us, either if he found out from the girl why his father wanted him here."

"Well, Commander Ikari isn't the most pleasant person to work with. One could say that his son is like him…in a sense."

"His son refused him simply because he said he hated his life here in Japan…and because his father wouldn't tell him why he wanted him here. I mean, he could've told him over the long-distance call, told him of the situation we were in, but instead of doing so, the guy stressed that he needed to be here before he could be informed. He probably just didn't want for Shinji to refuse him, but in the end, Shinji did refuse him."

"We really didn't have time to explain everything to him. And what could he possibly see in participating in Zoid battles? Sure, he'd be a part of the entertainment business for those that enjoy robot matches and receiving a large sum of cash if his team wins this Royal Cup, but what would be his motivation for staying there?"

"Just being there, away from his father, away from his aunt and uncle, and away from Japan would be his reason."

-x-

"Aaahh! Who gonna pray for me?! Who gonna take my pain for me?! Or save my soul for me?!" Shinji yelled as Liger Rogue continued to run across the vast canyon, seeing song lyrics displayed on the screen in front of him. "Oh, Liger Rogue, please…STOP!"

Then…the Zoid ceased running and came to a halt…right in front of a cliff, and basked in the sunlight.

"Rrrraurgh!" Liger Rogue growled as it sat down.

"Thank you," Shinji praised the Zoid, looking out at the vast canyon in front of them. "Oh, man… Where are we?"

Beep! One of the buttons on his left side lit up.

"Incoming transmission from Clover Team HQ," the female voice informed, and Shinji pressed the button to answer.

A second screen popped up and revealed Nico's face.

"Shinji, are you alright?" She asked him.

"Yes, I'm fine," he answered. "A little lost, but fine."

"Are you inside the Liger Rogue?"

"Yes, ma'am, I am."

"How did you get inside it? It hasn't let anyone else inside it after my parents had the cockpit altered."

"It…let me in."

"Really? I mean, you…you didn't try to get in yourself?"

"No. Geisha's Fire Phoenix gestured for me to climb into Rogue's cockpit…and Rogue opened up, so I climbed in."

"It sounds like Rogue took you out joyriding. You two are about five-hundred miles from the hangar. Hold on a moment, I need to check something with the liger's internal systems."

Shinji waited, wondering if there was a problem before anything else could be settled.

"Whoa," Nico went, "Shinji, it says here that…Liger Rogue registered you as its pilot."

"It…it scanned me after it closed up and ran out of the hangar," he explained. "I didn't…press any buttons or flip any switches or anything."

"No, you wouldn't have needed to. I never imagined the most fickle of Zoids would choose you of all people, though. Sometimes, people don't get to choose their Zoid. The Zoid chooses them. For whatever reason, this, more or less, means that this Zoid belongs to you now, Shinji."

"I'm sorry," he apologized to her.

"Don't be," she told him. "It's part of my job to find you the best Zoid possible. I just didn't think that the best one would end up being the one nobody else could use because of its fickleness. You must have some special quality that attracted Liger Rogue to you; otherwise, it wouldn't have chosen you."

Shinji then heard a second beep on Nico's end, seeing her head turn to the right.

"It looks like the Clover Team was assembled just in time, too," she explained. "We've been challenged by a veteran Zoid team. The Triad Team, a trio of Zoid pilots that all use Elephanders, heavyweight hitters. They're not that far from where you are right now. Are you up for your first match?"

"Yes. I'll learn on the go."

"I look forward to seeing you there."

-x-

"…Well, as you're the young man's father and the head of a paramilitary agency under the control of the United Nations," said the voice of Burt Kaizer to Gendo over the phone, "I'd be inclined to agree with you that your son should be close by. But as much as I could tell my daughter that her selecting this Shinji Ikari was a big mistake…I'm afraid I'm not going to do that, even for you."

"What? What do you mean by you're not going to do it?" Gendo asked, losing his patience with this man that took half an hour to get in contact with.

"That's exactly what I said," the man responded over the phone. "I helped her look over the boy's file personally, and it was a complete wreck. It's no wonder she decided to pick him over countless other boys his age to see if he'd be interested in joining her team. If he accepted, then that makes him her responsibility as the Zoid team manager. I'm not going to tell her to send him back to Earth to pilot a monstrosity that doesn't work for more than a few minutes and causes intense mental instability because it connects with your nervous system."

"This isn't a game!" Gendo yelled. "We're facing a global crisis that threatens the human race, and it is a necessity that the boy be sent back here! By force, if need be!"

"Heh, you say global crisis, I say reckless child endangerment. Zoid battles aren't as dangerous as they appear to be, not all that different from your basic contact sports. They're just games that anyone can enjoy and profit off of if they feel like gambling. And one of the aspects that keep it interesting is bringing in new people and Zoids to form teams and participate in the sanctioned battles to show their potential. I would say that your son is in safe hands with my daughter. I mean, it's not like you have any plans of reconciliation with him, and if he knows why you wanted him to come to this Tokyo-3 city so much after more than ten years of estrangement, I don't really blame him for wanting to stay away."

"So, you'd encourage the boy to run away from something that only he can do?"

"Is it truly running if the person has nowhere to run to? In order to truly run away, one must have someplace to run to, whether it's to a shelter for the homeless or a derelict warehouse where people go to make whoopee. And Shinji Ikari, due to his circumstances, what with all his relatives, including you yourself, didn't have anywhere to run away to before Nico requested that he come see her on Zi. You can't get any further away from your problems than on the other side of the Milky Way. Why do you care about him so much now? You couldn't be bothered with telling him the truth about why you wanted him in that city. It's hard to imagine why he'd even want to go back to Earth just yet. You could try the All-for-One Risk Gamble, a major risk on the Zoid battles."

"And what is that?"

"You bet on the Zoid team that opposes the one your son is on, make sure that team knows who you are and why you want the enemy team to lose. A Zoid team is only permitted five losses before their class rank drops to the class beneath the current one they're in. The team your son is on also has to be made aware of the gamble so that they know what's at stake and are able to put up a fighting chance to keep things as they are. If your son can be defeated by a Zoid team representing you, five consecutive times, and his team's class rank goes down, then he'd have no choice but to return to Earth."

Put quite simply, Gendo would need a Zoid team (or a number of teams) to represent NERV, cause the Third Child's team to lose five times in a row in order to drop a rank, and once that was accomplished, the boy would have no other choice but to return to Earth and pilot the Eva for them against the Angels. It was a heavy risk with multiple factors from the layout of the battlefield, the type of Zoids permitted, the range and degree of weapons allowed…to the pilots themselves and their strategies, none of which Gendo had no control over. But if it enabled him to affect his son's life over there, then he had to ensure that it was one of difficulty in order to break him.

"…But it's not like anyone can be bested five times straight," Burt Kaizer told him. "Even newbies learn from their mistakes in the first battle, and if your son has been learning from my daughter on how to operate a Zoid and to test his compatibility with them, then it's likely he's going to become a skilled Zoid pilot in due time."

"You actually believe that?" Gendo asked him.

"How else can I believe in my own daughter's ability to turn a small number of young men and women that have no strong ties to anyone into a team that cooperates well enough to make it to the top? If I can't believe in my own child, how can I believe in anyone else's? Do you believe in your son? Do you believe that he can escape from the pain of his past and take hold of his future…and live without the people that gave it no sense of acceptance or hope?"

"I have no time for such beliefs."

"Then you'll be on the receiving end of more losses than you can possibly tolerate."

Then the guy hung up on Gendo, leaving the leader of NERV to ponder if he'd just been threatened by a Zoidian that was light years away from Earth. But the information he got regarding the Zoid battles and how to affect them to a degree would suffice. All he needed to do was exploit the Zoid teams that would oppose the one his son was on, and there were bound to be dozens of them where the members were far more skilled than them if they were starting out.

-x-

"…Okay, ladies," Nico told Geisha and Valerie as they used her Gustav to carry the Geno Saurer and an empty trailer across the terrain to the battlefield, "you two and Shinji are going up against the Triad Team. They use Elephanders for their overwhelming firepower and heavy armor."

"My Geno Saurer eats Elephanders for breakfast, lunch and dinner," Valerie told the girl, looking out the side of the Gustav and noticing that they were going quite fast for a Zoid that could only move go so far due to pulling two trailers behind it, and one of them had her Geno Saurer on it. "Has this Gustav been heavily modified, Ms. Megumi?"

"Oh, you've noticed?" Nico went. "My mother's doing. She had my baby updated to move faster by installing new hardware that uses an aggressive nitrous system to boost the speed. Put quite simply, my Gustav is the fastest model currently in use right now."

"A nitrous-fueled Gustav?" Geisha questioned from within her Storm Sworder. "I bet without the trailers, you could race a Shadow Fox down a race track."

"Thank you, Geisha, but unlikely. I just get to where I need to go at a faster pace…and here we all."

The Gustav stopped and Nico pointed up towards the sky, just as something crashed into the ground a few feet away. Opening up the cockpit, Nico let Valerie out to get to her Geno Saurer and get ready for the battle as the Judge for it rose from the impact crater to make its presence known.

"The area within a thirty-mile radius is a designated Zoid battlefield," the robotic being announced, just as the Triad Team's Elephanders arrived from a distance. "This zone is now restricted. Only competitors and personnel have authorized entry. All others must leave the area at once."

Nico revealed her Gustav and checked the layout of the designated battlefield; wherever the Judge appeared, all the land that spanned thirty miles on all sides were to be used for the battle between the two teams. Because the desert terrain spanned eighty miles from the nearest stretch of civilization still inhabited by Zoidians, this thirty-mile sand patch was their playground.

"Grr!" Valerie's Geno Saurer growled as it activated and got off the trailer.

"Any sign of Shinji yet?" Valerie asked Nico and Geisha.

"I've spotted him," responded Geisha, sending a heads-up-display to them showing that Shinji and Liger Rogue were approaching their location. "He's moving like those bullet trains do."

"You hear that, Shinji?" Nico's voice uttered over the intercom. "You and Liger Rogue are thirty seconds from where my Gustav and Valerie's Geno Saurer are."

"I know," they heard Shinji's voice in response. "I can see Valerie's Geno Saurer."

"I can see Liger Rogue," Valerie's voice revealed, and Nico saw the purplish blur as it came to a halt. "Welcome to the first battle of the Clover Team, Shinji."

-x-

"…Hey, we're getting a pirate broadcast from Zi," said one of the NERV personnel to her friends as she showed her tablet to them. "Oh, man, it's the first battle of the new season."

As he walked down the hall, Gendo overheard this and wondered just how many people in NERV knew about Zoids.

"What the…" He heard a man express. "This roster of people on the two teams. One of them is named Ikari, Shinji. Doesn't the commander here have a son by that name?"

"Yeah, he does," went another woman in the hall, "but he never showed up here when the Angel attacked. I mean, he was expected to show up, but never did. It must be him on a Zoid team. The Clover Team. Check out the Zoid he's using. Is that a Shield Liger?"

"No, the shape isn't right," said another man to her. "I've never seen a Zoid like that before. It looks almost like…Evangelion Unit-01, but on four legs."

Gendo then approached the group and demanded that they show him the broadcast of the Zoid battle.

"Battlefield set up," they heard the robotic Judge announce. "The Clover Team versus the Triad Team. Battle Mode Zero-Nine-Eight-Two. Ready… Fight!"

"It's on now," the woman expressed as the battle began, her tablet displaying the three Elephanders charging as fast as their heavyset bodies would allow. "Three Elephanders against a Storm Sworder, a modified Geno Saurer, and a…something Zoid that nobody's seen before."

Indeed, the Zoid in question had a slight resemblance to Unit-01 in terms of its color scheme, if not slightly rusted to a degree, but with very little information on it, there was no telling what it was or what it was capable of.

"Oh, wait, we're getting an update on the mystery Zoid," a man said as he held out another tablet. "They're calling it Liger Rogue? Well, it's definitely nothing like a Shield Liger or a Blade Liger. I don't think anyone's seen a Zoid like this before…and it's registered to Shinji Ikari. So, this is his Zoid while he's affiliated with this up and coming Zoid team? It must cost more than the Eva."

This put a frown on Gendo's face and a new wrinkle to his agenda.

-x-

It was the first battle for the Clover Team, and Shinji was keeping his distance due to one crucial problem he had with Liger Rogue: He didn't know what kind of weapons it had at its disposal, only knowing firsthand that it was quite fast for a Zoid.

"Nico, does Liger Rogue have a weapons inventory I can call up?" He asked Nico over the intercom, trying to avoid one of the Elephanders that came after him.

"Yes, you need to tell it to bring up its weapons display list," her voice responded. "It should have a voice-actuated system installed."

"A voice what?"

"Voice-actuated, meaning your voice is the key to the weapons inventory. Say your Zoid's name and what you want it to do for you, and based on how you voice your request, it will do it."

"Uh, Liger Rogue, show me weapons list, please?" Shinji tried saying, and a display list popped up on the screen, showing a blueprint of the Zoid and where its weapons resided. "Okay, we have a high-density beam gun at the end of the tail, a triple-barreled cannon under the head, a double-barreled beam cannon on the back and an energy claw attack on the front legs. Not a bad selection for a Zoid that has never been in combat. Let's put them to good use."

Memorizing the switches and buttons for each weapon, Shinji grabbed the primary controls and activated the double-barreled beam cannon on Liger Rogue's back.

"Let's go, Rogue!" He shouted, his eyes set on the Elephander on the far left of the battlefield.

"Rrrraaurgh!" Rogue roared and the beam cannon rose up on its back and unleashed a barrage of fury on the enemy Zoid.

"Shinji, for now, just keep your distance and bring on the rain," Nico instructed him, "but if you see an opening to disable one of them up close, you take it."

"Copy that," Shinji responded, circling the Elephander as Rogue kept firing at it, intending to cause damage to the joints, just enough to disable its mobility.

As he evaded his Elephander's attacks, Geisha's Storm Sworder continued to swoop down and rain heavy fire on one of the other two while Valerie faced down hers.

"Valerie Axiom," the young woman heard the guy inside the Elephander through her intercom, "I heard you were picked up by a little girl to join her pack of wimps. I never thought anyone would be desperate enough to want you as part of their Zoid team, especially a small prodigy. Does she know about your shameful past?"

"Dracob Hurtz," she responded as her Geno Saurer anchored onto the ground and straightened out to unleash its Charged Particle Gun, "my past is off-limits. You want to go toe-to-toe with me, pretty boy? You'd best be ready to lay down the hurt. Bring your endgame with you, not your chatty habits."

"I've modified my Elephander to be more defensive with its E-Shield. I can overcome your CPG without breaking a sweat."

Fortunately, Valerie wasn't deterred by his claim that her attack would not work on his Zoid. Part of the reason she had her Geno Saurer modified the way she did was to improve the quality of her CPG by improving the armor by adding a cooling system to the back and adding the versatility of the Buster Claws, which would triple its force to cause a cascade of system failures if any Zoids happen to get in the way of the beams. The way her Geno Saurer was modified to fight was also part of why some in the battle community called her the Vixen Warrior; her assaults were like the wrath of a woman that claimed many broken hearts out of an unreasonable spite.

"Come on, then," Dracob provoked her as his Zoid raised its E-Shield. "Come on! Do your worst, Axiom! Take your best shot! Take your best…heart-breaking…shot!"

Her Buster Claws aimed at the Elephander alongside her Geno Saurer, Valerie let him have it.

"It's not my fault if this breaks your Zoid," she told him, and opened fire.

FLASH-BANG! The Geno Saurer unleashed the charged particles across the field towards the Elephander, colliding with its E-Shield.

The Elephander was only slightly moved, but otherwise putting up a resistance.

"Is this really the best you got?!" She heard him ask her. "Is this really your strongest move?! I…"

Crack! The sound of the shield cracking caught their attention, and then the Elephander lowering to its front, as if under pressure.

"Now, hey, wait a minute, Valerie," he tried to say.

"You brought this on yourself," she cut him off, and her CPG shattered his E-Shield, forcing his Zoid to fall on its back onto the ground, suffering a cascade of system crashes it couldn't cope with. "This will teach you a thing or three about messing with me."

-x-

"…Damn, that woman's got her own doomsday weapon there," one of the NERV personnel expressed as they saw Valerie defeat one of the Elephanders. "Just one attack, and that walking tank went down!"

Gendo was mildly impressed that a Zoid like this Geno Saurer that had been modified possessed such a powerful weapon at its disposal; nothing NERV currently possessed (not even the JSSDF or United States Armed Forces, for that matter) had that kind of offensive power, and the people that owned these…biomechanical monsters used them in these competitions as though they were giant toys. If any government on Earth had even a small number of these Zoids, they'd probably put the Evas into suspension or enable small countries to become powerhouses. But due to the agreement the UN had with the Zoid Battle Commission, the use of Zoids on Earth was prohibited, and the use of them to wage wars was also a crime. Still, to know that Shinji chose this type of life over the lives of the human race was nothing short of an insult and a selfish act of self-preservation; Gendo had refused to admit that his reasons for wanting Shinji to join NERV and pilot the Eva were for his own self-interests.

"One Elephander down," another personnel member uttered, "two more to go."

"Oh, it looks like Shinji's having a hard time taking down his with his Liger Rogue," another person expressed, but then changed their tone and the new footage presented itself. "No, no, he took its trunk off. Damn, he could be a marksman."

Gendo looked at his screen and saw Shinji had indeed shot off the trunk of his Elephander adversary with that cannon on his Zoid's back, which in the process allowed him to score more points as a result of causing more damage to the enemy team.

"I take it you heard about your son being in a Zoid battle, too?" He turned around and looked at Ritsuko, who was looking at a tablet of her own, no doubt watching the battle. "It would seem that Ms. Megumi has quickly brought out potential in Shinji to do what he can as a pilot."

Gendo gave her a look of contempt and she backed away from him.

"This is nothing more than a game for children to play," he stated.

"…Two-hundred yen says that Shinji defeats that Elephander on his own," some of the personnel were saying in the background.

"Four-hundred yen on Shinji!"

"Well, they're certainly eager to watch him play," Ritsuko told Gendo.

-x-

Seeing an opportunity to get up close, Shinji ceased using the beam cannon and charged towards the damaged Elephander.

"Here goes my first close-range assault," he told himself, one of his displays showing Liger Rogue's left forepaw generating laser energy to increase its shredding potential. "Huh? What's this?"

The display in front of him changed to show the claw attack shifting in its ability, its name changing from "Strike Laser Claw" to "Shield-Shredding Laser Claw".

That's strange, he thought; none of the Zoids he practiced with in the simulations demonstrated a shift in their abilities. Can a Zoid actually do that?

Meanwhile, the damaged Elephander erected its E-Shield, unwilling to let itself be defeated by some Zoid that had never seen combat until today.

Liger Rogue, with its paw surging with charged energy, leapt into the air.

"Shield-Shredding Laser Claw!" Shinji yelled as his Zoid pulled back its claw and thrust it forward, colliding with the shield.

"You newbies must've never fought against Elephanders before!" He heard the guy inside this one say to him over the intercom. "They're powerhouses! And your Zoid's like a demented toy! Where'd you get it, the backyard of some little girl?"

Shinji frowned and sneered, "You're about to eat your words. Let's go, Rogue!"

"Rrrrraaurgh!" Liger Rogue roared, applying further pressure against the E-Shield.

The Elephander started sinking into the ground by a few inches, no doubt a result of the attack it was trying to endure.

CRACK! Something on the Elephander snapped…and the E-Shield gave out, causing the larger Zoid to get slammed on by the smaller one, and fell to its left side in defeat.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me!" The pilot yelled.

Standing on its legs, Liger Rogue roared in victory over defeating the Elephander.

"We did it," Shinji cheered, elated and relieved over his first match against an actual Zoid.

"Congratulations, Shinji," went Nico over the intercom. "You and Liger Rogue are an impressive team. Although…I think we're going to have to do something about the armor."

"Huh?"

Liger Rogue's armor had showed signs of heat warp and singe; somehow, the heat generated from the collision between offensive and defensive power had caused cosmetic damages.

"Aw, man," he groaned, wondering if his Zoid could self-eject the armor.

Suddenly, the damaged armor popped off Liger Rogue, freeing the Zoid.

-x-

"Hell, yeah!" Fuyutsuki heard some personnel cheer over Shinji's victory over the Elephander he was facing.

Even he wouldn't deny it, but the sub-commander was thoroughly impressed by Shinji's first achievement. He could've piloted the Eva, but Shinji chose the path of the Zoid instead when he found out about why his father wanted him here. In a way, Fuyutsuki couldn't be any more relieved over the fact that Shinji was light years away from NERV on Zi, trying to find his own way there rather than find a way here on Earth. And all because a little girl took an interest in him joining her Zoid team.

"Battle over," he heard the voice of the Judge on one of the tablets. "The winner is the Clover Team!"

"That kid is likely to become a champion of the Zoid battles if he continues on this path he's on," a man suspected.

"Yeah, he's certainly showing his skills," a woman agreed.

In his silence, Fuyutsuki agreed with them.

-x-

Landing on the ground after downing her Elephander opponent, Geisha climbed out of her Storm Sworder and ran over to Valerie and Shinji, who had met over by Nico's Gustav where said girl was praising them.

"Our first Zoid battle and our first victory," she told them. "I feel like we're unstoppable right now."

"That's how the first victory always feels," Valerie responded. "A first win feels like invincibility has been bestowed upon you…until the next battle, that is, and you're up against a different team that has most likely studied your tactics and gets the upper hand on you. You can't beat everyone the same way more than once or twice."

Nico felt like this was a let-down coming from Valerie, but she was right about it. Still, this was their first win, so she wanted them to enjoy their high while it was still fresh. Then, she looked at Shinji, who seemed bothered by his Zoid being exposed.

"Now that Liger Rogue has seen battle for the first time in a long time," she stated to him, "we should be able to do something about its armor next time."

He turned to her and responded, "Yeah… Just…maybe something that isn't purple all the time. It was good armor, but it just didn't give her a sense of intimidation."

"Yeah, purple is an overused color for armor."

"Rrrraaurgh!" Liger Rogue roared again, displaying its independence more so than Geisha's Storm Sworder or Valerie's Geno Saurer.

"Question, though," Valerie went. "Why the clover?"

"Clovers have always been a symbol of luck," Nico explained their team's designation. "Depending on the number of leaves on it, the clover can represent any of these aspects: Faith, hope, love, good luck. People love clovers."

"Yeah," Geisha agreed with her, "people love clovers."

-x-

With one victory for the Zoid team his son was on, this situation was likely to get worse for Gendo until he could get a list of the Zoid teams that could or would be competing in this tournament to determine which one would make it to the top. The All-for-One Risk Gamble was still possible to implement if he could manipulate the opposing teams to defeat the Clover Team five consecutive times in order to retrieve the Third Child and force him to pilot the Eva.

It's just one victory, he thought as he checked the stats of the Clover Team. They need to win five consecutive times in order to move from Class "C" to Class "B". Then twenty wins to move to Class "A"…and fight against the other teams just to stay in that class.

-x-

"…So, uh, Drake," went Shinji as he looked down at the large cauldron full of the discarded armor of Liger Rogue melting away into a superheated sludge, "you know what you're doing here, right?"

"Yeah," Drake responded; the hangar possessed a foundry for constructing new armor from old armor, reusing the metallic scrap heap they managed to accumulate over the years. "My father worked in a foundry for a few years in order to amass the money he needed to buy a new Zoid he wanted. He taught me everything I know about retooling armaments. For Zoids that focus on power-to-size, thicker armor is required, and for Zoids specializing in speed, the armor has to be tough, but light enough for them to move as fast as they're supposed to be able to. I checked the individual pieces Liger Rogue had before I started melting them, and despite it moving as fast as it could, these components were actually weighing it down by at least ten tons due to their density."

"So, while the armor was tough, it limited her mobility?"

"That's right. Armor for it should weigh at least three tons, which will enable faster mobility and less friction in the joints. There's just one thing I need to know from you about it."

"What is it?"

Drake presented Shinji to a small screen with a selection of various color options…and smiled.

"What color do you want the new armor to be?" He asked him. "Customization is a form of modification that appeals to the owner in their own way. The colors and patterns for the Zoid armor makes for a pleased pilot and contented Zoid."

Shinji thought about it and looked over on the other side of the hangar where the Zoids were, seeing the exposed Rogue. There was just something in him that stressed out on the Zoid being female, despite many Zoids having no gender pronouns, similar to how certain people referred to their cars as just machines. But she deserved better-looking armor, and the purple and green armor just didn't do her any justice. So, looking back at the color palette, he chose two colors that he felt were better.

"Blue and silver, huh?" Drake asked.

"I think they're going to make Rogue pretty and intimidating," he explained.

"Who am I to judge? Okay, blue and silver it is. The new armor will be ready in eight hours."

"Thank you."

As Shinji walked away, Nico came into the foundry, a look of worry on her face.

"Did something happen?" He asked her.

"I got a call from my father, and he informed me of something your father's going to do," she told Shinji. "He's so adamant on you returning to Earth that my father told him of a gamble he could try to make you do just that."

"You talking about the All-for-One Risk Gamble?" Drake questioned. "That's a live-or-die struggle. Only people that think they got nothing to lose and everything else to gain take that gamble."

"What's the All-for-One Risk Gamble?" Shinji asked Nico.

"It's where someone bets on another team against ours," she explained. "If a Zoid team loses five times in a row, causing their rank to drop, the winner of the gamble is entitled to whatever they demanded when they set the stakes. It could be anything, ranging from a certain number of Zoids, free parts for five years…or someone removed from an equation that they feel is jeopardizing their own plans. Basically, if we get defeated five consecutive times by any other Zoid team, don't matter who they are, then that means…your father can make you go back to Earth and do whatever he wants you to do."

Shinji couldn't believe this. There was a gamble his father was going to try to get him back to Earth, a place he didn't want to go back to right now, not when he was feeling like he was starting to fit in here. Worse was how the gamble worked, meaning any loss they gained was one his old man could use to tie a chain on his fate.

"He only wins if we lose five times in a row," said Drake, "meaning it'll be awhile before something like that even occurs."

"And we're still Class "C", with just one win and no losses," Nico added, reminding Shinji of where they stood. "Even if we lost four times out of five, just one win forces the initiator of the gamble to continue waiting until they get their five wins over a Zoid team, meaning your father can't get you so long as we avoid a fifth loss, Shinji."

This put a smile on Shinji's face.

"What are the chances of the Clover Team losing five times?" He asked.

To be continued…

A/N: Well, Liger Rogue won't be wearing the same armor next time. And the Clover Team relishes their first win. Gendo is going to cause them problems in the future, but they're not going to let him rule their chances of victory.