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: I don't own Zoids.
In life, there seemed to be a code of survival amongst people like Jamie Hameros, a code of survival which could be quite useful given most conditions. It came down to a select set of rules:
1) Do not be noticed.
2) If noticed, shift attention to someone else. Unless it`s being noticed for strategy.
3) Try to maintain maximum distance from the opposite sex.
Supplimental: Try to maintain maximum distance from the same sex as well.
4) Avoid dating.
5) If shnookered into a date, try to act as unattractive as possible while maintaining manners, simply try to be boring.
6) If the girl`s dad is 6'5", features three or more grizzly looking scars, a wild glint in at least one eye and a half-a-foot long beard, tuck your head between your legs and kiss your ass good-bye.
These rules were adhered to quite strictly by the teenaged son of Oscar Hameros, especially since he had successfully survived to the ripe old age of 15 and a half years old through them, but now it seemed he had failed on rules 3 through 6.
Because of that, he was now standing in front of an extremely cheerful Leyla - that at least made the likelihood of dying seem relatively pleasant, along with an overly energized little boy flailing around on the shoulder of a man that Jamie easily pegged as her father, who happened to be a good three inches over the height floor for rule number six, had four fairly pronounced scares across the right side of his face and a wildly studious glint in both eyes, not to mention a graying, half-a-foot long beard.
The worst downside to this was that Jamie wasn`t flexible enough to bend over, tuck his head between his legs and kiss his own ass good-bye. The Wild Eagle could probably do it on account of the 'opposites' rule that he and Jamie had, but that wasn`t a gaurantee either.
And speaking of the Wild Eagle...
"If he starts throwing punches, turn control over to me..." The secondary personality ordered rapidly. Jamie gulped and thought back his reply with speed. "If he starts throwing punches, dive us out of the nearest window and run like Hell..." He ordered back. "That was the plan to begin with."
"Something wrong?" The man asked with a voice that practically rattled the teen to his core as a result. "Oh... Uhm... No, not really," Jamie replied uneasily. "Ready for lunch?" He asked almost robotically. "Sure! Oh, and say hi to my dad," Leyla replied happily, sidestepping out of the way even though it probably would`ve taken another step or two to get fully out of Jamie`s line of sight for the huge fellow.
"Call me Paul," the man ordered, though Jamie could find little, if any trace of generosity in his voice. He simply nodded blankly. "Nice to meet you, Paul," he half-lied. It was nice only because there were so many nearby bystanders and a hospital wasn`t more than a few blocks away. "So you`re gonna be taking my daughter on a date," the large man mused, eyes narrowing in such a way that only Jamie could see it. "... Erm... I du-" "Of course he is! Come on, Jamie, we`ve got an arcade to hit!" Leyla intruded, grabbing the teen by his arm and virtually dragging him away under Paul`s murderous gaze.
"We`re gonna have to start carrying a handgun if you agree to a second date..."
"... A handgun? We`d need a rocket launcher to deal with that thing!"
"Don`t mind him too much," Leyla advised once the two rounded a corner and got out of Paul`s watchful glare. "Kinda hard not to," Jamie gulped, standing up straight on his own and grimacing to himself. "He does that to all the boys I meet," Leyla shrugged. "... Uhm..."
"Besides, he`s not too bad once you get to know him. Certainly has taken a liking to me over the years," Leyla stated, tucking her hands into her vest pockets and walking along with Jamie. "I thought you said he and the kid were-" "They are. I`m adopted," Leyla cut him off at the pass with the answer to the question he hadn`t even asked yet. "Oh. That explains the difference then," Jamie said, sheepishly covering his verbal screw-up a second later. "No offense but you look too good to come from the same gene pool as him," he grumbled complimentingly.
"... Did you just compliment a girl on her looks?" The Wild Eagle asked in a stunned manner. "... Yeah..."
"Holy crap!"
"Thanks... I think," Leyla replied with a quirked up eyebrow. "I don`t really look at people`s outsides though, that`s why I offered to go out to lunch with you," she shrugged. "Thats pretty nice," Jamie replied carefully, trying to pick his words out. "Really, I look at your skin and I see a loser, I look inside and I see a genius," Leyla tried to explain, though without much success. "... You don`t get out much, do you?" Jamie asked dryly. "Nope."
"Same."
"Never did figure out why you wore a mask like you did," Oscar stated, sipping on a glass of water and glancing across the counter at Harabec. "Simple, I wanted to fight but I didn`t want the glory cuttin` into my social life," the other veteran replied simply enough. "Never figured out why you dropped the handle of 'Wild Eagle' just before our match either," he added.
"... Heh..." Oscar voiced. "Family curse, I guess you could say," he explained. "How so?" Harabec asked. "The first born male in the Hameros family has always been doomed to carry a second mind, and his first son carries it and his first son carries it and it goes on and on," Oscar began.
"The curse is all because some psycho a few dozen generations ago envoked something on my ancestor, stating that his first son and every first son after him would be forced to fight an endless battle with a demon called the Wild Eagle. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, but every time the result is the same, one personality consumes the other and gains it`s talents but nothing else. I won my bout with the Wild Eagle in my last match before I fought you," Oscar stated.
"So now your son`s stuck with it until he eats it or it eats him," Harabec finished understandingly.
"Exactly. Thing that worries me is, Jamie`s Wild Eagle isn`t the same as mine was, it comes out both in and out of a Zoid cockpit, and it has no qualms about killing..."
"Well, he`ll sort it out. He`s your kid, after all," Harabec replied jovially. "Yeah... One thing that bugs me though..." Oscar trailed off curiously. "And that is?" The grizzled veteran asked. "Just exactly what in the hell got you to come up with a costume like that?" Oscar asked. "Seriously, the whole loose fitting black bodysuit thing, the black-and-gold striped mask, the funky black vest with a gold Rev Raptor head emblazened on the back..."
Harabec paused at the question. "... Well... Seemed like the right thing to do at the time."
"You were high as a kite, weren`t you?" Oscar asked monotonously. "...
It was that obvious?" Harabec asked in the same tone.
"I don`t know who you are, or why you`re here to see me, so be quick about it or leave. And if you`re a reporter, get the hell out now," Sarah ordered sternly, sitting across the table fromthe man who`d come to visit her. "My name is Doctor Steven Tauros, I can guess by now that you`ve probably heard of me and certainly heard of my team," the man responded casually. "Ah... Yes, I remember you from my trip to see Vega. How is he?" She asked. "He checked out of the hospital just as I was leaving to come see you. His hearing hasn`t fully recovered but the swelling around his eye is going down," Steven informed with a good bit of understanding in his voice.
"Thank god for that much..." Sarah muttered. "I`m guessing you`re here to get information I have on Kale, right?" She asked.
"That and to ask legal permission to rummage through the files of the Backdraft Group," Steve replied. "The internal network of the Backdraft collapsed, Doctor Tauros, I can`t help you there," she stated. "Actually you can... Given that the Group tried to steal my Zoids and all, I hacked them several times."
"... I see. And Leyon didn`t notice?" She asked cynically. "No... I`m sure he noticed, whether or not he cared is the real question. The only files I couldn`t access after ripping off the entire network a few days prior to the Royal Cup tournament were those on the Five Kings project, the design specifications of the Genosaurers, Shadow Fox, Berserk Fury and something called the Blue Project..."
"You`d have to consult Doctor Leyon on the Shadow Fox and the Blue Project, both were his brainchildren and he gaurded them zealously," Sarah replied. "Alright," Leyon nodded, getting out a small notepad and a pen. "Can you give me the access codes for the Five Kings and the Genosaurers?"
"Why not the Fury too?" Sarah asked cynically. "Because it`d be completely illegal now that Vega has formally registered it," Tauros replied dryly. "But you`d love to take it apart, wouldn`t you?" Sarah asked with a knowing smirk. "Just like Leyon wanted..."
"Leyon and I are two sides of the same coin, let`s leave it at that," Steve ordered. "Agreed," Sarah replied with a nod. "Can I have the codes now?" He asked.
"5K-0310-PX-BDGP1A," Sarah began, letting Steven mark down each letter and number. "Alright, next?"
"XRZ-14M-3V11-1337," Sarah continued, going just as slowly as before. "The first is to the Five Kings, it contains the personal data, video and audio of each subject, as well as a psychological profile for each one of them," Sarah stated calmly. "Want me to avoid Vega`s then?" Steven asked. "No," Sarah replied. "The second is to the Genosaurers, all the data you need that we could gather from them," she stated.
"I see."
"And now I`m guessing that you need to question me about my oldest son, Kale, correct?"
"If it means my team could survive when they try to help Vega, yes," he answered. "Don`t bother Steve," Sarah ordered. "Kale is like a force of nature, if he wrecked them once he`ll finish the job at the next chance he gets. He won`t stop until his objective`s been met or he`s been killed, and Vega is the only one with the right potential to defeat him," Sarah said darkly. "You keep forgetting that Bit defeated Vega," Steve reminded.
"Only because he had a lot of help. In a straight up fight, under any condition, Vega would beat Bit Cloud five times out of nine," Sarah stated. "... It`s not easy, is it?" Steven asked knowingly. "No. It`s not," Sarah sighed before looking up. "Are we finished now?" She asked.
"For now, yes. I`ll call you if anything turns up and keep you posted on your sons," Steven explained, standing up and heading for the door.
"Thank you," Sarah said as he knocked on the door, a gaurd stepping
in an instant later. "Don`t mention it."
"Leon Tauros, I presume?" A voice sounded from behind the back of the older Tauros sibling while he ate his lunch. "Yeah," he said after swallowing his food, turning around to see that he was faced with someone who he didn`t know, standing there without another word. The guy was Bit`s height, but a little thinner, with silvery hair that was cleancut, bar a set of bangs which framed a face that Leon guessed a good many women had likely gone ga-ga over at first sight. The guy was dressed in a pair of jean trowsers, a short sleeved, white t-shirt being worn beneath that with a pair of plain sneakers on his feet.
"And you are?" Leon asked suspiciously, watching the youth`s light blue eyes narrow slightly in response. "Kyle Mazemia, owner of the Ivory Blade Liger," he stated in reply. "You`re only Class B," Leon pointed out, intelligently stopping the other from trying a challenge. At least he tried, anyway. "Doesn`t matter, I`m here to issue a challenge for you. Meet me in a battle, in one week. Your Liger against mine, deal?"
"No deal," Leon shook his head. "I only do team battles now, and you`re a solo warrior only," he stated. "And if I said I could get a partner by the end of the week?" Kyle asked. "I still wouldn`t. You`re Class B, I`m Class A," Leon replied.
"And if I could get myself and my partner into Class A by the end of the week?" Kyle asked. "Then you`re a miracle worker and a total lunatic," Leon answered dryly. "Would you accept then?" The silver headed youth asked once more. "Assuming Naomi agrees to it, sure," Leon answered after a bit of consideration.
"Good. See you in a week," Kyle replied, walking off an instant later.
"... How in the heck do you do that?" Jamie asked in shock as another Zoid in the VR arena went crashing down into a ball of fire, rolling along briefly to a stop before it`s pilot was disqualified. "Pretty natural really," Leyla answered, manuevering her virtual Command Wolf around in a liquidly swift motion to put her sights squarely onto Jamie`s virtual Pteras, though the other was just a bit too quick, bursting upward and dodging out of the way before Leyla even tried to fire a shot.
"Not bad," she commented, only to pull the secondary triggers and send two smaller-sized shots into the air, which both shattered into clouds in the digital battle, right as a Shield Liger went driving through the air in a blur, slamming into the shots and emerged to find a third, high powered shot from Leyla`s long range rifle marking it squarely in the collar, cutting down into it`s virtual Zoid core and 'stoning' it instantly as a result.
"She wasn`t aiming for us at all," the Wild Eagle observed. "I noticed," Jamie growled, barrel rolling the Pteras towards the virtual battlefield`s ground and lowering it`s legs, grabbing a hold of the backside of a Rev Raptor and dragging it up into the air before going into a loop-de-loop and flinging it higher into the air, only to cut the engines of the Pteras in an instant and allow it`s own momentum to carry it up to point blank with the flailing Raptor, opening fire with a single missile before he reactivated the engines and harshly descended away from the ensuing explosion.
"I think I`m getting better!" He stated happily. "... In a simulator," the other personality reminded sharply.
An instant later, the simulator cockpit rattled around and Jamie swung hard into a loop, virtual bullets flying in from above in a rain that would have knocked him out of the game if not for reflexes he had slowly been cultivating over the course of several weeks. "Don`t count us non-warriors out just yet!" A civilian gamer yelled, only to promptly yell again as his Redler went crashing into the unreal battlegrounds in a fireball, a trio of rounds slamming into the thinly proportioned Zoid`s wing joints and bomb bay at the same time.
"You need to learn to watch your back," Leyla commented, shimmying her virtual Irvine-styled Command Wolf into a number of trees and dropping yet another non-warrior with a single shot, rapidly moving again. "And you need to learn to look up," Jamie commented as the virtual forest exploded in flames, a Pteras and a Redler flying overhead of it a second later before crashing to the ground, one felled with a pair of weaker shots while a stronger round nailed the second.
"You were saying?" Leyla quipped, her unharmed Command Wolf dashing up to a Molga under heavy fire and headbutting it onto it`s side before gutting it with one swift forepaw strike, firing off rockets backwards and her cannons forward in the same swift moment, downing two other Zoids as a result.
"Remind me not to get you mad," Jamie muttered. "Catering to a girl... Tsk, tsk, next thing ya know, you two`ll be at the altar..."
"... Oh shut up."
Mark grimaced.
Again.
It wasn`t because of the situation from earlier of course, it had more to do with the odd fact that for the past weeks, he had encountered more and more fairly sharpened objects pressed into his personal space than he`d rather there have been.
Of course the first had been to the Shadow Fox`s throat, but that was a little different. This time, the blade was pressing gently across his own throat, broadside and possessing a similar curve to a Gurkhan Kukhri knife, but with a curved hilt more like a pistol than an actual handle, which, when combined with the angling of his would-be killer`s positioning and how the knife was being held, could all combine to remove Mister Harlock`s face.
Along with the entire front third of his skull from the jawbone up.
"Yanno... You bastards are really starting to annoy me," he growled with audible distaste at the figure currently standing back to back with him in the awkward, potentially lethal pose the two were maintaining at the front door of a local flowershop. Mark had originally intended to go there to get some flowers for Abbie, his girlfriend, mainly since he hadn`t seen her in close to two weeks straight and had only talked to her four times in that duration.
"Annoyance won`t matter if your head`s been removed," the man stated darkly, though both of them were obviously ignoring the onlookers in the street. "... Yes, no shit. Now, be a nice little mystery man and remove the knife threatening to permanently remove my razor sharp tongue so that you and I can engage in a mystique-filled chit-chat, ending with me somehow electricuting you with a fork, two pennies and a space heater."
"... My, aren`t we just filled with confidence," the man stated, gently pressing the broadside of the longknife into Mark`s atom`s apple. "Let me take a guess..."
"No."
"Then what the hell do you want?"
"I challenge you to a match, tomorrow afternoon, near sundown. If you don`t show, or if you decline, I`ll hunt you down and kill you. Is that clear?" He asked. "... Oh, how kind," Marcus sardonically spat, feeling the blade`s dull side pressing further into his throat as the sharpened edge began to just glightly knick the junction of his lower jaw and upper next. "... Fine," Marcus growled.
The knife vanished from around his throat in a flash and in a whipping movement, he turned around, flinging a hand out and finding it blocked on the broadside of the weapon that had would`ve cleaved his head off moments before, currently pressed broadside against a darkly reddish colored sleeve, which lead to the shoulder-region of a turtleneck sweater of the same color, being sported by a man with black hair, though his face was obscured by a hockeymask of some kind.
"Who are you?" Mark asked angrily. "Arihmanes," the man replied, holding Marcus` hand back for several seconds before whipping his own arm back, the pistoled hilt of the Khukri-styled knife allowing him to easily twirl it several times before sheathing it at his side.
"I`ll see you," he stated before throwing a hand up, a line of some sort shooting out of his sleeve and stabbing into the ledging of a nearby building. "... Right," Mark growled, watching annoyedly as the man swung up off of the ground ala Spiderman, vanishing over the edge of the building`s roof in a bungee jump-like manner, promptly leaving the former Gustav trucker`s line of sight as a result.
"Pompous ass," Mark growled. "I`ll make you eat that knife," he muttered through grit teeth, squeezing the batch of roses he had bundled in his hand so tightly that the sheath of paper around them split open, causing thorns to promptly jab him in the palm. He didn`t notice though.
Marcus Harlock had the unique talent of totally ignoring his own pain. You could kick him in the groin with a steel toed boot and he would likely just stare at you until he could find a better time to scream his lungs out. It was this unique talent that meant he didn`t notice the trickle of blood coming from his hand, and he didn`t really care either way.
That was because while Marcus Harlock could shut off his pain, he knew that it was unlikely this Arihmanes fellow could even try such a feat.
And he was going to personally find out if the challenger came within arm`s reach of him again. But that could wait.
There were more important things to do. Like look for a connection between the symbol on Arihmanes` sweater and that gang he had personally helped crash a few weeks earlier. Cracking his neck silently, the young man switched hands with the roses and wiped his bleeding hand off on his pants` leg, walking towards the parking lot he had left his Gustav and the Shadow Fox in when he`d arrived.
It was time to put in a few calls and pull some strings that might not
even exist, but he was going to try anyway.
Author`s Note: To quote Kosh Naranek from Babylon 5: *Twinkle twinkle.* And so... It begins... *Twinkle twinkle. Hovers off.*
ZeonReborn: Argh... That sucks dude :\ Glad you like the story so far but it`s a shame you`re grounded :[
That`s all for now, Sh33p out, enjoy, leave a review and see ya next
time!
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