New Age Chapter 23, a Zoids fanfic by Sh33p

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

"You say that every thing sounds the same
Then you go buy them! There's no excuses my friend
Let's push things forward!"

"I feel like hammered shit," Mark groaned dryly, wiping his eyes with one hand and then letting out a fairly loud seeming yawn. "Look it, too," Kyle replied with an equally dry tone, though his voice lacked most of the exhaustion that had plagued his team mate. "... No, that would be you. Chinfucker," Mark growled back annoyedly. "Yanno... I must`ve been on something real good to agree to twenty battles in four days..."

"You were probably in horrified awe of the fact that I can decapitate you with my sharpened chin," Kyle shot back, letting out a yawn of his own a few seconds later. "... You didn`t sleep last night either, huh?" Mark asked. "Nope," the other replied. "... We`re both fethin` nuts..."

"Like I had it to begin with?" Kyle asked. "Good point," Mark replied. "When`re the sock puppet brigade due to show up?" He asked, obviously referencing the Packard Team. One could easily tell that Marcus Harlock had a palpable dislike of the group, or at least the leader. "Not too long," Kyle answered dimly.

A sonic boom, followed by the sound of four tracks of dirt shuffling up and falling away several seconds later proved that Kyle was more correct in his guess than he had wanted.

Four Zoids. One was a Heldigunner, one a Saber Tiger, another was Guysack and the last was a Command Wolf that had been decked out with three gattling guns, two on it`s sides, one on it`s back. It also had two machine guns on it`s face, rendering the Zoid a fairly dangerous weapon on it`s own. Complimented by three others, things looked a bit grim for the Suicide Team

"The area within a five mile radius is a designated Zoid Battlefield. This zone is now restricted. Only competitors and personnel have authorized entry. All others must leave the area at once. Area scanned. Battlefield set up. The Suicide Team versus the Packard Team. Battle Mode 0982."

A delay. The action didn`t start just yet as the surrounded Shadow Fox and the Ivory Blade Liger held their ground.

"What?" Norris answered finally. "Your mom has anal warts the size o` my dad`s pet dog!" Mark shot off, promptly swinging the Shadow Fox forward and smacking the Heldigunner across the cheek, only to have his Zoid reflexively jump up to avoid the Heldigunner`s bladed tail. "SHE DOES NOT!!!" Norris screamed irately. "Cheap shots by the truckload, huh?" Kyle asked, shrewdly dodging between the Heldigunner and the Saber Tiger with the opening that Mark had caused to form there.

"Cheap is the only way to go when dealing with people who have ANAL WARTS!" Marcus replied cheerfully, twisting the Fox around and swiping the attacking Guysack before it could do any damage. The Fox growled annoyedly and then proceeded to shoot the smaller Zoid right out of the air with it`s main gun. "What`s with you?" Mark asked dryly, darting away from the Heldigunner. The Shadow Fox growled again, then swerved around, smacking the Command Wolf on the side of the face with a hip and leaving it wide open for Kyle and the Liger to execute a shield ram.

"... Oh, come on man, just because I`m not letting you missile someone yet doesn`t mean you won`t!" Mark retorted. Fox growled again. "Yeah, so?" He asked. Another growl. "... You`re right, perhaps it`s a more serious problem..."

A pause from one half of the Suicide Team while Kyle and the Liger basically dismantled the Command Wolf, slicing it in half at the waist after the shield ram and then tearing the left foreleg loose in mid-air before spitting it at the Saber Tiger. "Hey Norris!" Mark shouted.

"... HEY DAMNIT!" Norris screamed. "Ding, ding, ding," Mark voiced in reply, promptly dodging out of the way of the smaller Zoid once again. "Good call, Fox," he congratulated, causing the Zoid to rumble a bit in response.

"Your Zoid has some serious issues, yanno that?" Kyle asked. "I blame white Ligers," Mark answered dully, again jumping straight up and dodging the irate Norris Packard`s Heldigunner before amputating the Zoid`s arms and legs in a quick double swipe of the Strike Laser Claws, activated seconds before the actual strike by the Shadow Fox itself. "Cute," Kyle muttered. "Real friggin` cute."

One hideously oversized explosion later, the remains of a Saber Tiger rained down near the Shadow Fox. Most had been burnt, a few were cut cleanly but overall, it bore the damage of having been struck in too many ways with too much speed and brutality to reveal any singular way as to how the Saber Tiger had begun or finished being torn apart.

"Gee, sounds like someone`s grumpy over having to do work that doesn`t involve their pelvic muscles, huh?" Mark asked. "... I`m not that much of a bishounen, am I?"

Unlike the past two days, Leon had basically been kicked out of the apartment circa last night since he`d been close to living there for three days. It hadn`t been a harsh kicking out of course, more along the lines of a joking Naomi playfully shoving him outside under complaints that he basically lived there more than he did his own home. This wasn`t exactly untrue, of course, but Leon had to agree that there was a certain point where two people needed to be alone, so he`d left without question, even though Brad was probably staying there even more than he was.

Hands tucked in his jeanpockets, Leon Tauros was slow and even a little on the lazy side as he made his way down the street over towards one of his favorite places to eat, especially early in the morning. It was unusually chilly in Farentown this morning, not painfully so or anything, but Leon was glad he had on his jacket.

"Today is looking to be another big day for the Suicide Team. Already having made up for a no-show with the first day`s events by outright demolishing the well respected Packard Team, Kyle Mazemia and Marcus Harlock are looking to cement the likelihood of their team making it all the way to Class A in just four days of excessive battling, meeting with opponents today in the forms of the Breacher, Norsemen, Darson, Talon and Steiner teams, all of whom have stated that they`re gunning for the Suicide Team - and each other..."

"Six in one day... Guess the lack of rest is starting to chip away at any common sense they might`ve had," Leon thought, glancing idly down the sidewalk and watching a middle aged businessman almost knock an old lady out of the way just to dart across the street, covering four lanes of busy morning traffic at a four way intersection and almost getting hit as a result.

"Guess it`s not so common anymore," the older Tauros sibling thought distastefully.

"The area within a five mile radius is a designated Zoid battlefield. Only participants and authorized personnel are allowed within, all others must leave the area at once! The Suicide Team versus the Breacher Team. Battle mode 0138. Area scanned..."

"HELL NO, THEY WON`T!" Marcus answered loudly, launching the Shadow Fox forward with the laser vulcan ablaze, spewing out pulse lasers quickly enough to plaster the Breacher Team`s only aerial Zoid out of the sky before it could even pose much of a danger, while Kyle followed suit a few seconds later, charging forward with blades extended out.

Shadow and Ivory both shrieked and roared their battlecries, with the smaller of the two almost seeming to look enthusiastic as it slammed into the falling hulk of what had been a Redler, driving right into line of fire from the Breacher Team`s lone Dark Horn and using the fallen aerial Zoid like something of a shield in the process. The larger on the two was swifter though, terrifyingly so if someone was on the recieving end of things. A matter of seconds passed as the Zoid slipped between the Gordos Zoids that made up the rest of the team, passing like a three striped white-and-gold blur between the two before swinging it`s blades back into neutral and swerving around with a growl.

Both Gordos promptly toppled over, severed neatly in half at the mid-point of the hip. Kyle smirked tiredly. "Guess we`ll be having another easy day, eh?" He asked.

"Easy?! You call this crap easy?!" Mark asked in reply, just as the Shadow Fox jumped all the way around the Dark Horn and jabbed a claw right into the joint between a hind leg and the bigger Zoid`s body, twisting straight and basically breaking the leg right off before putting two explosive rounds into the opening that resulted there, then allowing the effect of a chain reaction do the rest, blowing holes out of the larger Zoid`s thick hide until it finally toppled over and didn`t move again.

"... Well, now that you mention it, I guess it is," he mumbled finally. "Concession accepted. Newbie."

"Interesting," Leon thought with an ominous tone. He had lingered near the public broadcast screen - every city had them, and usually it played Zoid battles or government announcements - rather than continuing on to breakfast, if only so that he could watch the match. "Their opponents haven`t been getting weaker at all, most have been pretty powerful and still, it`s like they`re running circles around them. Could their Zoids be doing the work or have they improved so much in such a short time that it`s almost like child`s play for them?" He wondered to himself, grayish eyes narrowing for a bit before easing to their usual state.

"Suppose they actually might make it through this. Would be interesting to wipe that smirk off of Mazemia`s face though," he mused, deciding that breakfast was more important than watching a pair of lunatics try the impossible and/or stupid and actually get away with it.

"So..." One began. "So..." The other continued. "You wanted to settle this?" The first of the two asked dryly, a look of grizzled resolve on his face. The second, and older of the two merely gave a nod before continuing. "Yes. This has gone on long enough, it`s time to end our little game. Once and for all."

The first gave a small sigh before reaching up and scratching the side of his head. The second remained silent and dangerous, but both never took their eyes to anything else. Not once during their heated staredown, did they move. Their surroundings were unfamiliar and familiar to both at the same time. A desert, surrounded by smashed and burnt ruins, ruins that had once been a small, temporary town owned and governed by the International Association of Zoid Academics, an organization founded originally by Thomas Schubaltz a few years prior to his death and later maintained for almost half a century by Fiona Alysse Linette-Fleiheit. It was an organization currently maintaining the membership of every single major, and almost all minor colleges across Zi, including places like the D Institute for Higher Learning, among others.

"A Zoid battle. Your Shield Liger versus my Saber Tiger, best equipment we can find on both," the second answered. "Winner take all?"

A pause. The first seemed to settle into deliberation, markedly lowering down to sit upon a chunk of rubble, the result of a battle that had raged here not too long ago. The catch to having a Zoid battle was that it meant that both of the two potential combatants would be 'saddling up' for the first time in close to ten and a half years. Neither had fought in an official match during that time, neither had really trained and both were very likely to have to re-new their registrations just to carry their single battle out.

The second waited patiently though, arms crossed over his chest, not a word coming out to disrupt the other`s thoughts, only an expression laying somewhere between contempt and competition.

"The Kairan Valley, three days from now. That should be long enough to get our Zoids back out and soup them up," the second stated. "Agreed," the first replied, turning away. "And one more thing," the second began. "After this, win, lose or draw, we have to talk."

"Will do," the first said. Minutes passed by, and two jeeps split apart from each other, leaving the ruins behind, almost undisturbed from what it was like before their newly concluded meeting.

"... Hi-ho, hi-ho," Mark began before Kyle joined in. "It`s off to Hell you go," both of them sang rather cheerfully like the absolute lunatics they had become from days of little food, even less sleep, hard physical labor and fairly rapid Zoid battles. Their only real saving grace was that they`d become so flamingly reckless that their opponents were literally caught off guard by how stupid and suicidal their moves had been at times, or their random bursts of skill.

Two against two now, though. A Rev Raptor and a lightly modified Gunsniper. Relatively even compared to the majority of previous matches, but it still promised to be something of a squash given the mismatch in size, firepower and armor that the two teams had with each other. Gunsnipers and Rev Raptors weren`t the toughest Zoids after all, nor were they the most powerful.

Neither side opened fire for several seconds, and then the Rev Raptor and the Gunsniper both lunged forward, actions replicated by the Suicide Team. The Liger and the Raptor met halfway, but the lighter Zoid showcased it`s agility in grand fashion, jumping over the Blade Liger and trying to swipe across it`s hind legs with both bladed feet. It didn`t work, but it was a good try.

The Sniper and the Fox on the other hand, had a less spectacular meeting as the smaller Zoid came to a dead stop, hopped to the side and then kicked in it`s back mounted thrusters, darting right by the charging Shadow Fox and landing with it`s tail already flipped into sniper-mode. An instant later, the round came flying, single and dangerous, punching a trench into the topside of the Fox, narrowly missing the ear and before that, only barely avoiding the turreting mechanisms for the Zoid`s main gun.

"Guess we actually have a challenge now, huh?" Mark asked dryly. "Challenge? What challenge?" Kyle asked, charging the Rev Raptor again and meeting with the same jump tactic, only to flip the blasters straight up and smash in the Raptor`s gut with two quick shots, continuing along afterward as the other Zoid tumbled to the ground in a heap, slow to get up.

"Arrogant bastard," Marcus muttered annoyedly. "It isn`t bragging if you can back it up," Kyle shot back. "Your mom," Mark grumbled, just as the Fox willfully dodged under another sniper round, twisting about and opening fire. The Gunsniper sprang out of place without even unlocking it`s rifle, landing with it`s back still turned before taking another shot, then a second right after it.

The Shadow Fox narrowly dodged both, but the Blade Liger didn`t, taking a full impact duo of hits right into it`s side and staggering from them, only to outright fall over an instant later with a loud roar. "Shit," Mark growled. "Like ducks in a row," the Gunsniper pilot stated.

"Did he knock your Zoid out?" Mark asked. "Only the combat system," Kyle replied drearily. "Which means you`re out of the fight," Mark groaned. "Unless you win," Kyle reminded. "Right," the less experienced of the two muttered to himself, dodging yet another round by inches as the Gunsniper continued it`s attack. It was almost like a ranged dance as the larger Zoid closed in on the smaller, scurrying out of the way of incoming shots and taking shots of it`s own at the other Zoid at every chance, but eventually -

- it ended. The Gunsniper shrieked and howled, toppling over forward as both left limbs were severed in a single, precision-based attack, gouging out three parralel trenches in the process. The Shadow Fox landed several yards ahead of the Gunsniper, twisting around and allowing the smaller Zoid to land with a trio of dull thuds, it`s arm smacking into the ground just before it`s severed leg finally keeled over with an equally loud thud, though unlike the body of the Zoid, it didn`t skid several inches along from the force of the attack.

"Get to work on rebooting that damn thing," Mark ordered before the Judge could even give the ruling.

"Looks like I missed some of the action," Leon thought, vaguely amused at how the Ivory Blade Liger seemed to be doing the equivelent of complaining after the match. "Must`ve taken a few hard shots to the side," he noted observantly, settling down into his usual seat and glancing up at the waitress. The resturaunt wasn`t one he frequented that often - Leon Tauros was a man who basically lived most of his time camped out either next to a Gustav during he and Naomi`s battle trips(neither of them were ever really home more than a week at a time) or under the Red Blade Liger in a waterproof sleeping bag, and sometimes inside the Zoid`s cockpit.

Never once had he gotten the actual name of the place, apparently it was something like 'Rev`s Diner,' but he knew at least three of the people who worked there on a first name basis. Among these three was the green haired young woman who had paused politely next to his table, though one look at the expression on her face could easily show the mixture of annoyance, worry and outright anger, mixed further with a bit of patience, though it seemed to be wearing thin.

"Worried?" Leon asked. Abbie hesitated briefly before letting out a snort. "Don`t worry, he`ll be fine."

"Fine? He`s wearing himself to death out there," Abbie growled. "He`ll be alright, trust me. It`s his partner who`s probably in more danger," Leon replied. "How so?" Abbie asked dimly. "Because unlike your boyfriend, Mazemia`s taken at least one big hit, Mark is pretty much a-okay aside from a bit of armor damage," Leon pointed out. "That just means he`ll be forced to fight mostly alone..."

"Not much of an optimist, are you?" The older Tauros sibling sighed drearily, wiping what remained of sleep out of one of his eyes with a yawn. "Haven`t been for over a month," she sighed right back, taking out a small notepad. "What`ll it be?" She asked. "The usual," he answered. "So... Large mug of coffee, hot enough to melt most people`s taste buds off?" She asked, going by memory while jotting the order down. "Yeah."

"And a fried chicken sandwhich, ketchup and mayo only, side of bacon and steak fries, right?"

"You know my eating habits too well," Leon stated with a dry smirk. "Comes with the job," Abbie replied with another sigh, darting off to another table a few seconds later. "Cute couple," Leon mused, not giving it another thought and instead, turning back to the nearby television as the next match began.

"Finished yet?" Mark asked with a bit of a nervous sweat running down the side of his face. Sure, he had improved over the past days, but three against one?

The Shadow Fox growled approvingly and dashed forward, ignoring the controls of the pilot to do otherwise and instead dodging through a hail of explosions with a nearly insane glee echoing through in each synthesised-sounding shriek it made, jumping the remaining way and tackling the first of the three Darson Zoids right off of it`s feet, slamming the Helcat into the ground and quite viciously biting a chunk out of it`s chest, jumping back off before corkscrewing out of the way of a number of rockets and landing a dozen or so yards from the downed Zoid.

Mark finally took control, almost reflexively triggering the launch of the EMP net missile. A few seconds passed and the second Darson Zoid, a Command Wolf, toppled over, out of commission and covered in netting. The Fox took control back though, practically yanking it out of Mark`s hands and then dodging through the air again, avoiding the second rocket barrage from the Darson Team`s Gunbluster, a heavy ordnance Zoid, low on agility, relatively quick and heavily armed and armored alike. This one just happened to be packing enough rockets to turn the battlefield into a fireball visible from low orbit.

"You lousy bastard, let me take a whack at it!" Mark demanded in his thoughts. Fox only growled passively and landed with a skid, it`s path through the air causing the Gunbluster to unwittingly blast the still-downed Helcat out of the battle due to the pilot`s recklessness. From there, it was all over.

The Gunbluster landed on it`s belly with a flop and a wave of dust and dirt, sparking off electricity after it`s entire arsenal of rockets was literally torn off, flying through the air for several dozen yards before exploding into a great ball of fire with rolled through the air almost a hundred more feet until it hit the ground and exploded again, the blast being visible from half-a-battlefield away but thankfully not big enough to consume the Fox and the Darson Team.

"Glory hog," Mark grumbled while the Shadow Fox had a field day, shrieking out it`s now obvious(to the Fox anyway) superiority over the Ivory Blade Liger, which only roared back in an annoyed sort of way.

"Halt," a voice echoed sternly into the cockpit. "This is far enough anyway," he thought to himself, bringing the Storm Fury to a total stop at the trench lined around the Guardian Force Maximum Security Women`s Prison, causing the Zoid to rumble uneasily at all of the guns that were being aimed at it in a matter of seconds. Instead of attacking though, Vega simply brought the huge orange Zoid to turn around, coaxing it into staying calm via his own emotions, then flipping onto the usual Guardian Force frequency to save them all some effort. Sure, it would probably get a normal offender a fine of close to 15,000 credits, but given that Vega was underaged to be tried and fined as an adult, he knew that he could get away with it.

"Because I have reason to believe that Kale Obscura will be attacking soon. I can`t allow him to succeed, and it was either this or the prison that the Count is being kept in, and I value my mother more than I value a balding asshole I never met," Vega answered dryly. "Kale Obscura is heading this way?"

"He might be headed this way, but he might be headed for the Count, and he might switch patterns again."

The guard on the other end of the conversation made a fairly uneasy sound and then flipped the comm off, leaving Vega alone with his thoughts. And one other.

"We`re back online!" Kyle exclaimed proudly. "And still busted up like a crack whore," Mark stated dryly. "... Gee, such enthusiasm," the more experienced member of the team muttered, obviously more than a little annoyed by his team mate`s sarcastic nature. "Damn right I`m enthusiastic," the former trucker finally replied. "I get to have the fun of whacking these sonsabitches at point blank while you have to pansy around and snipe them," he exclaimed.

"Just shut up," Kyle groaned as the Ivory Blade Liger promptly turned tail and started to limp away in a near run, leaving the Shadow Fox to draw fire from the three Talon Team Zoids, two of which were Red Horns armed with dual hyper cannons and triple machine guns on either side, the third of which was a quicker, more agile Command Wolf, crafted specifically to cover the two larger, more powerful Zoids as a point guard.

Mark and the Fox were immediately put on the defensive, unable to attack without fear of being outright crushed under the sheer volume of firepower that the two Red Horns were spraying out like water hoses, firing in a chained sequence that allowed one to cover during the cooldown time of the other`s weaponry, with machine guns blazing off whenever the Fox made a pause to try and change course in between strides, with the Command Wolf only sparingly taking pot shots.

"A little help would be nice!" Mark complained, halting the Fox and then blasting forward with the rear thrusters at full power, sending the Zoid almost out of control if not for it correcting his mistake on it`s own, narrowly dodging a pair of hyper cannon shots, both of which detonated into fairly pronounced, white hot fireballs in front of the smaller Zoid. Fox growled, Mark grit his teeth and then both swung around to face the Talon Team, charging forward in an instant.

It was a fairly bad move, the only saving grace being that the two Red Horn pilots were caught off guard by how unbelievably stupid it was, delaying their reactions just long enough for the Fox to get within melee attack range. Mark wasn`t going to take the time to try and aim for them, Fox was too busy just trying to keep them from getting fried but while the strategy was sound - if one lacked common sense - they hadn`t accounted for the Command Wolf, which shot up from behind the two Red Horns and tackled the nimbler, slightly larger Shadow Fox in mid-air, twisting violently before slamming it down onto it`s side.

"SHIT!" Mark screamed, though, Fox was too busy putting up a fight of it`s own, rolling over again and dodging machine gun fire by default, slamming the Wolf down this time and then locking jaws with it. Again, the two agile Zoids rolled over, and again the Red Horn pilots missed, but this time the Fox jumped off of it`s foe, lunging forward at one of the Red Horns only to take a number of light impacts from the Wolf`s back mounted pulse guns, delaying the attack just long enough for the second Red Horn to close in and slam into the Shadow Fox`s side, throwing the small Zoid into a tumbling roll along the ground.

"Whenever you`re ready, assfuck!" Mark yelled angrily, swinging the disoriented Fox back up to it`s feet only to be rocked right back onto it`s side by the missed hyper cannon shots.

"Always bitching," Kyle groaned, swinging both of his blades straight up. In unison, a pair of interchangeable barrel container units, cylindrical in shape, sprang up out of their concealment places, unlocking the blaster barrels and whirling around to put the sniper-type barrels onto the backs of the blades before dropping down into the body. Both blades then swing straight forward, while the forelegs of the Liger spread out and bent slightly, allowing the two weapons to have a better line of fire by lowering the forward half of the Zoid`s body down.

Two lenses extended out in front of Kyle`s face, one to either side. Both joysticks handled the movement of the barrels, and with the patience of a fisherman, he bid his time. Mark was in dire straights but Kyle was still waiting until finally -

- he pulled both triggers. In unison, two thick, powerful bolts of plasma shot out of the sniper barrels, screaming through the air with precision and speed along. The first bolt slipped through the Command Wolf`s path and missed it`s nose by inches, continuing on to punch a perfectly circular hole through the upper face of the Red Horn, so precise that it blew off the front of the cockpit and left the pilot completely unharmed, though it came dangerously close to breaking the rules. The second shot was equally precise, zinging behind the first and tagging the second Red Horn right through the hole that the first shot had caused, slipping under the frill-like armor extensions and striking the bottom of the Zoid`s throat, cutting over a dozen vital functions and then continuing on to blow out a small crater in the ground.

Both Red Horns paused and then fell over at once. It had been a perfectly executed snipejob, leaving only the Command Wolf as the last standing member of the Talon Team.

"... I hate you," Mark answered dully with a sigh, bringing the superficially damaged Shadow Fox back up to it`s feet once again, then shifting it`s head to face the lone Command Wolf. With a ragged sigh befitting a man who`d had little sleep, little food, was utterly exhausted and more than a little angry, Marcus Harlock brought the Shadow Fox into an all out assault, catching the Command Wolf off guard and jamming it`s claws into the wrist joints of the other Zoid`s forelegs, then promptly - harshly - biting the smaller Zoid`s throat before breaking into a crocodile-like death roll, tearing open the wrist joints and outright severing the Command Wolf`s head in a fairly brutal way before dropping it, and the pilot, onto the ground.

"See what I mean?" Abbie asked in a disgruntled tone, setting Leon`s food down on the table he was seated at. The man could only give a mute nod of agreement before speaking up with a dry tone of voice. "I guess so. Does seem pretty reckless, but his partner definately should have been quicker on the draw if he was going to sit there and snipe," he pointed out, taking a sip of his coffee without another word. It had taken the Suicide Team roughly thirty minutes to punch through four of the five opponents they were up against today, the same time as it had taken his food to cook, him to eat and then order seconds on everything(just because he happened to have the only legitimate claim to sanity in the Tauros family didn`t mean that Leon ate any less than his sister or father did), good timing on their part but he was easily able to pick out mistakes in every attack they`d made.

"I`ll go easy on them if they make it to Class A - and I think they will," he promised dully, noticing the glare that Abbie had set on him as he was about to continue eating. "At least, I`ll go easy on Mark. His partner, I`m not to sure about, and I can`t really make any promises about Naomi - she`s got a grudge with your boyfriend since her own lost the Shadow Fox to him," he corrected himself. Abbie rose up a brow. "Eh? I thought she was single..."

"Officially she is, but at the rate she and Brad are going, I give that two weeks. Tops."

"I could care less about getting a significant other. I have other priorities," Leon replied darkly, a tone of dedication that hadn`t been seen on Zi in decades showing in his voice before he promptly went about eating his food. Abbie only nodded lightly and glanced back at the screen as her boyfriend`s last match of the day began.

"The Suicide Team versus the Steiner Team! Battle mode 0138, sub-match five of five! Ready?!"

With a shriek, the Shadow Fox lunged forward, ignoring the damage to itself and charging recklessly into battle against the far larger, far more powerful Gojulas. It was a standard model, white-and-gray, packing two heavy twin repeater cannons on it`s sides, twin Republic Supercannons mounted to fire from just above and behind the shoulders, several machine guns of varying size along it`s tail and back and a quad cannon pod on either wrist. After this, there was a quicker, more agile Spinosapper, outfitted with two lasersaws, a machine gun on either side of it`s head and a double impact cannon on it`s stomach. The team was topped off by an oddly modified Rev Raptor with a Wild Weasel unit.

The Ivory Blade Liger on the other hand, hung back, throwing up it`s shield and getting down into sniper mode, even as supercannon shots slammed into it`s defenses, pushing the Zoid back and proving to Kyle that his gamble was a risky one.

With speed and guile, the Fox dove headlong into the action, literally plowing through the full firepower of the Rev Raptor and plastering the enemy Zoid right off of it`s feet with a salvo of pulse lasers intense enough to blow one of the other Zoid`s legs off, sweeping around and opening up with both ranged weapons on the Spinosapper, which ducked out of the way and shot back, lunging forward and delivering close to a dozen quick slashes at the nimble Fox, missing every single one of them in the process.

"I can`t get off any shots with this bastard pummeling me the way he is!" Kyle yelled over the roar of slow happening explosions, each of which shoved the Blade Liger back a little further every time the supercannons made impact, with the shields only barely holding and regenerating fast enough to take the next hits. "I`ll be with you in a minute," Mark finally answered, biting into his cheek and allowing the Shadow Fox to take a fairly cracked sort of action: Headbutting upward. It wasn`t something that seemed that crazy at first, but considering that the cockpit was both in the top of the head and protected only by what amounted to armored optics and some plexiglass, it wasn`t that smart a move.

Either way, it worked. The Spinosapper stumbled back just enough steps for Mark to pull the trigger and nail it squarely in the stomach - right down it`s own double impact cannon barrels - with two highly explosive rounds from the Fox`s chest mounted double impact cannon. In a flash, the Zoid did the rest, zig zagging around the Spinosapper as the chain reaction blew the entire middle-front portion of it`s body open.

The Spinosapper fell onto it`s stomach, and the Shadow Fox continued on, opening fire on the Gojulas with it`s laser vulcan gun in a blistering hail that would`ve easily annihilated most Zoids. To the Gojulas though, as with the Berserk Fury, it only caused several relatively small explosions and some superficial burnmarks, also shifting the towering Zoid`s balance just so that it`s aim was off, missing the Ivory Blade Liger by a good margin and allowing Kyle to take aim safely, dropping his shield and then taking two shots at once.

The Gojulas stumbled again, both shots slamming fiercely into it`s throat, just beneath the very head, but it didn`t go down as the Red Horns had, instead standing strong and shifting onto one foot as the Shadow Fox charged it again.

Fox jumped, the Gojulas swung it`s free leg up and kicked it with the force of a hundred medieval battering rams. The momentum of some 56 tons of Zoid shifted into reverse in less than a tenth of a second, sending the small black-and-gold Zoid flying back at almost twice the speed of it`s jump, tumbling through the air over the wreckage of both the Rev Raptor and the Spinosapper before landing with a violent roll on the ground, kicking up a trail of dust in the process.

"Holy shit," Kyle voiced, throwing his shield back up and glancing over at the downed heap of the Shadow Fox, which didn`t even budge or groan. "Mark! You okay?!"

"Uh... Gimme a minute," Mark muttered, painfully leaning up straight, though it left him hanging sideways in the cockpit, and propping himself up on one arm. Normally he didn`t feel pain unless he chose to, otherwise he could ignore it for a time, but with blood literally pouring out of the side of his head, just fore and above his ear, pain was pretty much all that was keeping him awake. The Shadow Fox was in equally severe condition, it`s combat and command systems both on the verge of freezing up, virtually every safety system - from the automatic shut-off units for the main power generator to the collision detection system to the safeties in place on internal temperature - was completely offline.

"I can keep fighting but there`s no guarantee that I won`t blow myself up doing it," Mark reported drearily, even as he brought the unconcious Shadow Fox up to it`s feet on uneasy, falty seeming legs. That was another thing that differentiated Zoids from purely biological life: They didn`t have to be concious to move around. As long as a Zoid had a pilot and the pilot survived with command and combat systems intact, that Zoid could keep fighting until it was either disabled or outright destroyed, whichever happened first.

"Fucking joy," Kyle growled annoyedly. "I`ve still got too much damage to even depoly one of my blades for melee attack and I can`t really hit the guy at this rate... He`s just gonna freaking push me off the battlefield!"

Mark again checked his systems. The laser vulcan gun`s turreting capacity was virtually blown out, but that didn`t matter with a target the size of a Gojulas. "Capacitator system and the rotator`re both blown out too..." He thought. That was another bad thing, especially so because it meant the barrels wouldn`t rotate, and if they had stopped in a position where none of the barrels rested in place to channel the lasers out like usual then that meant Mark had a bomb on the back of his Zoid. Even if he could open fire, he still couldn`t do so for very long because then he`d melt the barrel.

All in all, the Suicide Team was in fairly dire straits. Kyle was basically immobilized - he couldn`t move well enough to avoid the Gojulas aim and he had to remain stable on all four legs or he`d fly back even worse than before from the Supercannons, while if he dropped the shield for an attack, he`d just be plastered by the Gojulas` other, quicker firing weapons. Mark was almost a bloody mess by now and he couldn`t perform an attack without playing what essentially amounted to Russian Roulette since the only weapon he had that could effectively damage the Gojulas enough to even budge it was the laser vulcan gun. The double impact cannon was out of commission for whatever reason, he couldn`t get the speed to make a Strike Laser Claw effective and he didn`t have an EMP net missile to use.

It looked as if Mark`s luck - and Kyle`s with it - had just run out. Again, the Liger slid back from getting hit by the Supercannons, and again Mark wheezed. Kyle yelled and the Fox`s eyes dimly regained some of their reddish glow. Seconds passed between shots as the horribly busted up Shadow Fox stumbled around the Rev Raptor and the Spinosapper, their pilots climbing out of the cockpits to try and get away from the action before it was too late.

Another pair of enormous explosions, the Ivory Blade Liger slipped back once again, farther than before this time. Far enough that it almost toppled over backwards. The Shadow Fox growled defiantly and lowered it`s gun with a dazed lack of balance, but it fell to Mark to pull the trigger. Slowly though, that`s exactly what he did. Unsure of his aim, equally unsure of the Fox`s ability to even transmit the signal from the trigger to the gun, he took the shot anyway.

The Gojulas rocked as a single shot slammed into it`s right leg at the knee, punching into - and furthermore imploding - the stabilizer it had made impact with. Luck was definately on Harlock`s side, because the Gojulas had been caught in the middle of the recoil from firing it`s Supercannons, knocking the huge Zoid off balance. One leg couldn`t remain upright properly, thus the Zoid had to make a sudden shift onto it`s tail and it`s left leg, but by then, Kyle had gained the time to drop his shield and swiftly take aim.

One second later, it was over with a flash and a bang. The first shot did little but punch an inches-deep pit into the Gojulas` throat armor, but the second shot had finished the job, plowing through what remained of the thin layers of alloy and gouging into triple redundant electronics and mechanics, knocking the Gojulas` completely offline by slipping between reinforced metal rings that served as the proverbial collums surrounding the huge Zoid`s spinal cord, severing it completely and in one vicious instant.

Kyle let out an exhausted laugh and Mark merely flopped his head back with a tired sigh of relief as the Gojulas, deprived of it`s stabilizers and just about everything else, toppled over sideways with a massive thud, smoke leaking out from the lone hole in it`s neck.

"Well done," Leon admitted, visibly impressed at the sight on the television. Nearby, Abbie looked on the verge of going half-insane while Harabec looked to be staring wide eyed at the view of his nephew and Kyle Mazemia`s latest victory. "But their biggest challenge is going to be tomorrow. They both took a lot of damage today, I doubt they can repair it all in just one day and night, maybe half of another if their luck holds out."

- was promptly gulped down before a man in his mid-to-late twenties took out a pair of twenties and laid them on the table, walking out with a swagger to his step more familiar of his father than himself, hands tucked firmly into his jacket pockets.

An old storehouse out in the desert. Where was unimportant aside from the fact that it was within a day and a night`s drive of Farentown. It was off the maps, once owned and later abandoned by the Helic Republic military during those especially dark times when they were at war with the Guylos Empire, who overpowered them by roughly eight to one as far as numbers went, and overpowered them further before geniuses like Doctor D and strategists like General Krueger came into play.

Back then, it had been a storage place for parts and ammunition. It had been operated in cohesion with the labratory that Doctor D had first worked in. Today though, it was unowned as far as most people were concerned, but it still stored one very important thing, along with a few treasures that came with it.

Slowly but surely, the largest door to the huge, square-shaped building slipped open to reveal things not seen by most people in close to twenty years. Personal things, mostly. Things like a shelf of awards and trophies, inventions and a case of patents as big as most people`s beds. A shining red convertible, an old hoverboard passed down through the ages...

But all of these things paled in comparison to just what the genius who now used this place had come for. Numerous pieces of weaponry and equipment, ranging from a simple pistol to the grandest prize in all of the old storehouse.

Doctor Steven Tauros smirked a mirthless smirk, climbing slowly out of his jeep and glancing up at the wonderfully preserved Red Shield Liger. It wasn`t a hard, cold red like the color of his son`s Blade Liger, nor was it the pinkish-red that suited his daughter`s hair color. It was instead a shade of red that was innately soft, dark nonetheless but still very easy on the eye, reflective of light in a strange sort of way. Just like his wife`s hair.

"Never thought I`d be doing this again," he mused in an awestruck tone of voice, slipping his labcoat off and nonchalantly tossing it back into the jeep before flipping the switch that caused the garage-type door to slowly rumble shut over the course of several seconds.

Author`s Note: *Cue dramatic music.* :P Yes folks, Steven and Leyon are finally going to settle their dispute in the only way that offers entertaining violence to you! The reader! And expect even more wanton insanity from Kyle and Mark in the next and final part of the Suicide Days.

EndlessAdventure: Pierce might show up, not sure though. She`s already got one link into the story as is but I won`t say what. And yes, Bit will use the handleblade... But not yet.

Zinou: For some reason, I can see Vega having those qualities about him. Maybe it`s how smug he came off as when he was first shown or how quickly he seemed to go through things but I could easily see him mastering a few martial arts out of sheer boredom until he got the Berserk Fury. As we`ve said in the past: Semi-spoiled eleven year old prodigal warrior + 80 ton war machine = A very bad thing.

ZeonReborn: *Simply takes away Zeon`s caffine. Then the sugar. Watches his supply of insanity fade away. Wins by default.* :P

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New Age

Chapter 23

Let's Push Things Forward