By Sh33p, CultofSh33p@aol.com
Hats off to this fic. It tops most fics I've read....including most of the ones I posted here. Tim Seltzer, seltzer@seltzerbooks.com
Sh33p Disclaimer: II do not own Zoids, but I do own the OCs in
this story for the most part.
"What was that?" Vega asked himself, leaning up in bed and taking a moment to pause and take his surroundings back in. The details of the room sent him sliding fervently back under the covers, dragging the pillow along with him and staying hidden for several seconds at the sound of an oddly familiar blasting alarm in the distance, something that made him curl up into a ball on instinct and try to compress his body mass beneath the covers. "... Can`t be," he thought, regarding the sound of the alarm fading into the distance followed by tire screeches and a distinct crashing sound, but no explosion. At this, Vega calmed and strightened up in bed, his pajama pants making a few ruffling sounds with the sheets while the pillow was shoved back into place.
In a show of stealth, the boy slipped out of the bed through the side, falling haphazardly onto the floor since he didn`t want to be seen, then scooting underneath the bed.
At least that was the plan, Vega didn`t count on his own body growth and wound up half stuck for several seconds before prying himself loose and sitting up on the floor with a slightly terrified glance. He was alone. The room was as clean as ever, to the extent that it literally lacked any sort of built-in smells that he could detect, and it also had windows.
The layout was the same though, all that was changed was the lack of the Backdraft Group`s crest directly in front of the bed, where a TV on a dresser had taken over. There was also a more convincing change too, one that virtually sealed the deal on this not being the old prison cell-styled-like-a-hospital room.
The windows were glass. And they didn`t have bars on both sides. Vega breathed a sigh of relief, plopping down uneasily onto the bed and staring the floor with a visible lack of worry. Everything seemed to be fine, his ears weren`t sore, his sight was clear, he didn`t feel any pain from where he should`ve had a black eye and...
There was something else that just felt so different about it all. He couldn`t quite put his finger on it but he felt there was something unbelievably different about the place. Like he had been there before, somehow, but at the same time, hadn`t ever been there at all.
"I guess I`m just feeling the after effects of having my ears almost blown out," Vega thought, standing up straight and stretching out for several seconds before walking onward to the window and staring out of it.
That was when the door ripped open, the sound of an angry dart being fired and the feeling of something small and sharp jabbing into the skin of his left shoulder. With a small wince, Vega turned around to find himself staring at a piece of history. Two, in fact.
"Come on Kale, it`s time to come home," Sarah said sternly, a younger,
quieter Vega Obscura standing in front of her as a pair of gaurds entered
the room and...
And Vega woke up with a snap of movement, instinctively almost flying out of the bed in a blur to attack whatever was closest to him, finding his fist reflexively blocked in a boxer-styled movement by whoever had been standing at the foot of the bed, but even then, the full weight of a ninety pound child moving at the speed of an Olympic athlete was enough to knock anyone back several steps, and as Vega toppled off the edge of the bed with a dull thud, only to spring back up ferally, another voice cut into things, rumbling, gruff and deep all at once.
"I warned you not to stand at the edge of the bed when he`s asleep," it warned as Vega snapped his gaze back, glaring briefly before softening up and letting out a sigh at the sight of Stigma Stoller, arms crossed lazily over his chest, one leg resting over the other at the ankle and the knee, his usual neutral expression being worn as it almost always was. "Oh," Vega said finally in understanding, resisting the urge to shield his still-bruised eye with his elbow.
"Jeez," Bit grumbled, lowering out of his defensive posture and dusting himself off with an annoyed look. "You hit harder than most of the supposed 'athletes' back in High School," he added with the same tone. Vega sheepishly chuckled and almost robotically sat back down on the edge of the bed, staring over towards the window without another word.
"I think I should check out today," he stated. "You already are, 3:00 PM today," Stigma said in his usual tone. "How much longer is that?" Vega asked. "Five hours," Stigma answered. "... Oh... Okay," Vega shrugged, glancing over at Bit as he made his way towards the door. "Tell Leena I said to get well soon," he asked, even though he`d probably said it a dozen times already. "Alright, I`ll see ya later," Bit replied with a half-hearted wave, exiting the room and shutting the door behind him.
"That was weird," the Royal Cup champion thought worriedly, tucking his hands into his shirt`s front pockets and walking onward, headed for the room Leena was presently assigned to.
"Stig," Vega began, trying to pick his words out. "Did Sarah come by yesterday?" He asked. "Yes," the former warrior who had adopted him replied. "And?" Vega asked again. "I left before she could say anything that I`d remember," Stigma replied dryly, leaning back into the chair a bit further. "Gee, thanks," the boy grumbled sarcastically. "Is the Fury doing okay?" He asked. "It won`t let me do anything but lead it the shop and let the repairs begin working, nothing else."
"Good enough," Vega commented, ignoring the tone of the old veteran
and standing back up to look for his normal clothing. "In the bathroom,
wating for you," Stigma replied to the unspoken question, getting up. "I`ll
be in the lobby waiting for you since you`re in such a rush, then we can
do the paperwork and check you out early," Stigma explained in his usual
tone, walking around the bed and heading for the door while Vega moped
his way tiredly into the bathroom.
"Where`s Jamie?" Was the first question voiced by Bit as he returned, carrying along a cup of coffee in the process. "Off on a date," came the robotically instinctive reply from both Brad and Leena, though the former mercenary was busy enjoying his usual morning cup of tea. Like a weirdo. Of course, nobody had in the room thought it that out of place that anyone would be drinking piping hot tea when the rest of the room`s occupancy had a few odd tendancies of their own to deal with, like the Doc`s infatuation with his model Zoids or Leena`s enjoyment of giving Bit a concussion whenever he stole he cookies, or the fact that Bit still did it despite the five foot thick stack of medical bills he`d paid off over the past months because of it...
In short, tea drinking was so mundane that nobody noticed it, even though a scruffy headed, tough guy mercenary was doing it. "... Jamie got a date?" Bit asked after several seconds. "He said it was 'just lunch with a new friend,' but in Jamie-speak that means 'HOT DAMN, I`VE HIT THE MOTHA LOAD!'" Brad shouted, breaking his normal reserve to speak in an oddly Southern accent for several seconds, drawing stares and raised eyebrows from everyone else in the room.
"It was with that Leyla girl you guys were teasing him about," Steve commented, inching back a bit from Brad, despite still having posted himself up in the chair next to his daughter`s bed. "Oh yeah," Bit replied dumbly, setting the coffee onto the table and sitting himself down lazily. "Forgot about that..."
"You forget about a lot of things, Bit. Nobody cares," Brad reminded dryly. "Better to forget then spend a week obsessing over it like you," Bit grumbled back. "Observe, yes. I observed as Jamie psyched himself out, I observed as he spent an hour trying to pick out a decent pair of shorts and I observed the fact that you`re a blonde twit," Brad replied quietly, setting his tea onto the table. "But obsessed? No, just an innocent bystander," the former mercenary added with a slight yawn.
"... Right... Anyway," Bit shifted. "Vega said to get well soon... Again," he offered over to Leena, who was utterly unphased. "I think that kid`s developing a crush on me..."
"If not for the fact that he tried to kill the lot of us, I`d almost think it was cute," Brad commented, idly flipping open a newspaper. "... Wow, Brad`s expanding his vocabulary, shocking," Bit chided. "Least I have a vocabulary," Brad retorted. "Tea drinker," Bit mocked. "Coffee chugger," Brad shot back. "Toast nibbler," Bit fired off. "Bagel muncher," Brad sharply let out.
"... That is so wrong on so many levels..."
"The truth always is. Deal with it."
"She isn`t here, let`s go home."
"No, you said you`d meet her here!"
"... Damn it, I don`t wanna blush to death!"
"Too bad!"
"Shut up!" Jamie growled in thought at his alter ego, still leaning idly against the wall next to the door in his usual clothing, though this was a set he had cleaned so thoroughly that it actually sparkled if viewed in the proper lighting. "Uhm... Five minutes?"
"We just got here."
"... I hate you," Jamie thought, again aiming for his alter ego in the process and again nailing it on the head. "Glad to see the feeling`s still mutual, ol` buddy, ol` pal!" The Wild Eagle replied pleasantly, projecting the mental image of his own physical persona-like thought avatar giving Jamie`s a noogie. Coincidentally, it was around that time that Jamie felt something roughly grind into his scalp and turned around.
Nothing was there but the wall.
With a sigh of frustration, Jamie tucked his hands into his pockets and ignored the people coming in, looking for a particular head of blue hair. "I hate waiting," Jamie grumbled. "You spend most of the battles we have waiting for your strategy to pay off and enjoy it," the Wild Eagle replied. "Because lengthy strategy is the only thing I own you in," Jamie grumbled. "And as you keep getting better at piloting, that`ll change too... Wonder how long it`ll be?"
"Eh?"
"Nothing."
"Tell me."
"... Nah..."
"Tell me."
"Eat me," the Wild Eagle replied, just as a chain of events wound up with Jamie holding his nose sorely with an annoyed grumble or three. It had started when Jamie stood up straight from leaning on the wall, then taken several steps forward, intent on reaching the bench placed at the other side of the row of entrances, and then it had continued when one of the door was rapidly swung open at random, and it ended with said-door smacking Jamie in the face. It wasn`t bad enough to bleed or anything, but Jamie would probably have a small bruise later on.
Not that had minded of course. It had been an accident, right?
"Get back here!" A familiar voice shouted as a very unfamiliar little boy looking about half of Vega`s age darted through, cackling loudly before doubling around and heading to try and hide behind Jamie, though the teen merely sidestepped out of the way as the door swung back open, narrowly avoiding the door smacking into his face again, though the boy let out a yelp and a shout, finding himself rapidly flung up into the air and caught with a slightly painful sounding grunt as his stomach impacted a large shoulder.
A few seconds went by as a very broadshouldered man looking about Steven`s age lumbered through the door, followed by a girl about Jamie`s age, a girl he recognized instantly and a girl who looked little, if anything like either of two people she was apparently coming in with.
"Leyla?" Jamie asked, head cocked curiously to the side. "Something wrong?" The girl asked, wearing the same kind of outfit as she had been when they`d first met. "No, just kinda had a long day," Jamie lied, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head, all the while thinking the same thought as his alter ego at the sight of the large man who was leering at him like he was her father...
"Please don`t kill me..."
Harabec grimaced to himself, again slamming the door shut for the umpteenth time in the face of a reporter. They`d been all but harrassing him for almost a week and a half now, almost driving down business rather than helping it. "Go get the story from the Blitz Team!" He yelled through the glass, shooing away the reporter and slinging the curtain on the door shut.
"Jesus... Now I remember why I wore the god damned mask and went by an alias," he muttered annoyedly, turning around and going back to the counter. He hadn`t opened yet of course, he usually opened at around one in the afternoon and it was only eleven or so now, meaning he was still basically alone in the place for a little while longer before his employees started coming in.
"You really should`ve told me," a voice asked, and Harabec lazily turned around to spot a familiar young man leaning back against the bar with a smirk that made something in the old veteran want to scream. "And you really should call us more often," he stated. "You have any idea how many times your parents`ve called me tryin` to bleed your whereabouts outta me? Or what about Abbie?" He asked annoyedly. "Sorry," Marcus excused with a shrug.
"But you should`ve told me you were a former Zoid pilot - let alone the guy who had Class S by the balls for four years straight... Seriously, I cou-" "No, you couldn`t have used me as a teacher. I`m a lousy instructor, just ask that guy I trashed the other day," Harabec reprimanded sharply. "Yeah well... Why keep something like that from your own family?" Mark asked dryly. "Your mom and dad already knew, so did a few others," Harabec answered in the same time, yanking a few chairs off of the tables he`d set them on and placing them upright on the ground. "What`d you do with all the money anyway?" Mark asked curiously. Given his age and the fact that he was battling mainly to help pay for Abbie`s college education, money was never far from his mind anymore.
"I gave most of it to charity and used what was left to open my bar `n` grill," Harabec shrugged. "... Never figured you for the charitable type, Uncle Beck," Marcus chided, hopping down. "And I never figured you to be the type to have the balls and the lack o` common sense to be a Zoid warrior, guess that makes us even?" Harabec retorted.
"Eh? Thought you`d be happy..."
"I am. Happy that you aren`t dead," Harabec replied sharply. "I`m also not too happy about how you got the Zoid," he added with annoyance, repeating the process of taking chairs off of their tables and setting them upright in the process. "I won it fair and square..."
"By tricking a guy into a card game," the veteran snorted. "He challenged me!" Mark defended. "... You never lose games of chance and you have the indecency to accept a challenge from some poor sap like that? Come on Mark, I ain`t that dumb," Harabec growled, referencing his nephew`s unbreakable streak of luck through the years. "... Not my fault I`m lucky," Mark grumbled defensively. "Lucky ya aren`t dead," Harabec shot back. "A Royal Cup champion, Marcus. You fought a guy like Bit Cloud and got to a draw because you`re lucky," Harabec chastised, walking around the counter a second or so later.
"... Fox would disagree," Marcus growled.
"That`s `cause Fox is the reason ya won, dunce," Harabec replied. "That Zoid`s your luck now, but without him you ain`t crap," Harabec shot off. Marcus just stared at his uncle with a look of mixed anger and annoyance. "You`ve never even trained to pilot anything but a Gustav, kid, that Zoid`s correcting every mistake you make and it`s only putting up with you because you don`t treat it like you own it, but wait until someone it doesn`t have to correct every other move comes along," Harabec growled.
"Yeah. Lovely. Just give these to Abbie and tell her I said 'hi' and 'I love you,' later," Marcus ordered glaringly, slamming down three checks and storming towards the side exit without so much as a single good-bye.
Harabec shook his head and went back to getting ready for opening shop up again, not saying or thinking a single word, just wearing a soured expression and possessing an equally soured state of mind.
There was a jingle at the door and Harabec looked up, first in annoyance, then in surprise as a fellow veteran-and-retiree from the world of Zoid battling stepped inside, a little shorter and a little rounder than Harabec himself but still easily recognizable even after ten years.
"I always wondered what you`d look like without the mask on," Oscar
Hameros stated at the man he had knocked off for the Class S championship
a decade before, only to crash a few minutes after his victory from battle
damage.
Kale hopped down off of the nose of the Genosaurer, landing with a shock on both feet and looking up without a single expression at the healing Zoid above him. A thirteen foot high stack of looted, drained batteries of every size piled off at the edge of the crater as he waled over to the foot of the huge Zoid, ignoring the storm clouds gathering overhead and settling down onto it`s foot, even as rain began to trickle down from the skies above.
"It`s almost time," he said to himself, a crash of thunder and a blinding flash of light sounding off in the distance. The Zoid rumbled agreeably, the damage to it`s enormous frame almost completely repaired by now.
"Vega..."
Another clashing impact of thunder and lightning, hitting somewhere out in the distance as the rain started coming down in buckets, the only saving grace for Kale`s meager belongs being that they were in the Geno`s cockpit.
"I`m going to kill you."
Another threatening impact, and the empty pile of batteries ignited into a fireball, clashing red with blue-white froma lightning bolt.
"And it`s going to be soon."
Rain poured, and the elder of the Brothers Obscura continued to sit,
lost in his own murderous thoughts while the Genosaurer allowed itself
to be consumed in the flow of hatred it recieved from him...
Author`s Note: So now you`re beginning to learn of the connections between all of the old timers in the story, from Harabec and Oscar to Leyon, Steven and Rina(Leena`s mother), and you`re also being treated to a bit of development on Kale and Vega. Did I mention you`re finally going to get to see a bit more into Leyla`s personality? Not too much, of course, but still.
And I`d bet money none of you are gonna see what`s coming when I`m through with them *Snicker.*
Shiro: I don`t actually know German but given how a few of my friends are rabid about the fact that they have a bit of German blood in them, and how the shows had a few things I personally identify with Germany(Imperial uniforms(for some reason), certain Zoid names(the Saurers, Fuhrer, Liger(it sounds German to me for some reason...), Blitz, etc), not to mention a few future twists, it only seemed prudent to have at least one other team named in German. And yes, I do decrease the chances of screwing your name up now... I dunno why but I just can`t spell your full name correctly more than twice in a row :P
Zinou: *Snark* Understood about why ya haven`t been reviewing as much as you would otherwise, it happens, eh? And yeah, it would seem that way. Maybe that was why Jack and the Taskers proved to be the only opponents who actually beat the Blitz Team officially, to kick off a fued between the ways to say lightning? I dunno, seems kinda symbolic for some reason.
Odd point about the instrumentals, I`ve been listening to everything from Linkin Park to dubbed DBZ songs for my inspiration o_O None of it tops a good, intense round of orchestrated music though, been using Carl Orff - O Fortuna a good bit. If ya want, I`ll post up all the songs I use :P
And sorry about the run-ons, blame the fact I used to be a major RPer, in that sort of environment, longer-than-hell sentences are the norm when dealing with anyone who was a real description freak. And yes, I agree about the OCs, I hate how most OCs tend to be made solely to hook up with main characters or take over the story from them entirely, and I especially hate how they usually have some unendingly tragic background. You`d be surprised at how I had to change a few OCs from the original versions to fit them in without them being angsty puddles of goo or uberly rich, benevolent good guys with full-fledged bases and multiple Zoids(NA Kyle for example, his only similarities to the original version of him my friend thought up are almost the only reason I didn`t rename him entirely, he even looks a little different).
Another thing I absolutely despise is how so many villains(in fan fiction and in so many anime series) are so sympathetic once you learn about them. I know I`m probably going to wind up doing a bit of that to Kale if I haven`t already, but jesus... I hate when people make excuses up for their characters to be evil. The chief villain of the story for example, I changed him so much his only real similarities to his original version are in name and Organoid.
So the OCs in this story are generally going to just be co-stars with a few shining moments while I figure out how to better write down the Blitz Team, and the story itself may very well lack a true main character but so far it seems like Vega, Jamie or Bit will take that role over.
Hope you guys liked all the stuff that happened in this one, in particular, the bit about Harabec cutting down Mark about his draw with Bit. It had to be addressed more openly at some point since Forte`s review got me thinking about just how Mark could have pulled it off.
Aardwulf, ZeonReborn and Sick Little Fiend: Come on guys, where`d ya go? :P
Enough rambling from me now, Sh33p out! Enjoy, leave a review and see
ya next time!
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