New Age Chapter 24, 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 better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to flow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo!"

2:30 AM, the middle of a desert canyon, and a desert canyon that hardly ever had visitors, be they legit or wandering bandits looking for their next victim. It was typically as empty as an unused glass, but tonight, it was playing host to the variety of sounds that accompanied your average Zoid repair shop, a little less hectic seeming, definately just as loud due to the echoing effects of the canyon itself. A closer look though, showed just how hectic it really was, as two exhausted looking men in their early-to-mid twenties raced around a pair of brutalized Zoids with a frantic pace to their work.

The younger of the two, and the less experienced, was currently hanging by a cord of some sort just in front of a gun with barrels big enough for him to lie down in and have room left over. The double impact cannon of the Shadow Fox had been trashed badly during the battle, but it was nothing a welding torch and a bit of caution couldn`t fix. The curious thing about him was that he also had a phone held lopsided on his shoulder.

"Speak up?!" He yelled into the phone over the roar of the blowtorch and the rumbles of both Zoids, as well as the sound of his partner`s constant switches between jumper cables and a high powered shock rifle that sounded like a crack of thunder everytime it went off. "I said: Will you be careful?!" The voice on the other end of the phoneline repeated.

"I`m always careful!" Mark retorted, though his toes were conveniently crossed at the time. "I mean it, Mark!" Abbie`s voice echoed back, barely audible over the roar of equipment in the background. "I know, hon!" Mark yelled back. The two continued chattering on though, even as Kyle, who was standing at the feet of the busted up Shadow Fox, stepped around on the trailer and grabbed another oversized battery - the type usually used to power military-grade plasma cannons - before plopping it down next to the right forefoot of the Shadow Fox, letting out an exhausted wheeze.

The Ivory Liger was settled on the second trailer, laying on it`s stomach with close to a dozen batteries hooked up to it`s wounded side at various points. Unlike the Fox, most of the damage to the Liger, while severe, was relative easy to fix. The Shadow Fox had taken far more complex damage though, requiring a great deal more work to fix.

A groan and Kyle again grabbed the battery, heaving it onto a lift and then climbing up the opposite side of the rope, which was looped around a stabilizer. The effect was that his weight countered and canceled out that of the battery, lifting it up while he climbed up the Zoid`s leg, stopping at a point of major damage to the shoulder and then tying the rope into place before positioning himself to completely stand on the leg, tiredly undoing the jumper cable from around his waist and then hooking it, the battery and the 'wound' of the Fox together before sliding back down the securely anchored portion of the rope and down to the trailer.

It was going to be a long night. Neither of them were likely to sleep, but that was okay. Exhaustion was rapidly becoming one of the few things keeping them awake. Both were hungry, Kyle`s ears were killing him, his legs and arms felt like putty and Mark still needed to wash the blood off of the side of his face and most of the upper left side of his chest and shoulder. All he had to soothe the injury was an ice pack and some gauze wrapped around his head like a bandanna. Both were in need of food, sleep and bathing, but both were putting that on hold until they could finish repairing the Shadow Fox as best they could.

Morning. At least Kyle thought it was morning. His sense of time hadn`t ever been very great, but at least the Ivory Blade Liger came equipped with a fairly useful alarm clock. Features most military strategists of old tended to condemn as useless on the battlefield had proven extremely useful when actually applied to it. Among these things were alarm clocks, recliner features on cockpit chairs and built in mini-refridgerators capable of storing things like quick use first aid kits with parts that required cold to be stored properly - or in more frequent cases, carbonated drinks with an illegally high level of caffine.

This was why Kyle Mazemia loved the miniature refridgerator in the cockpit of the Blade Liger. Leaning the Zoid`s forward pilot seat back up again, it only took him a few seconds to flip open the small container hidden on the right side of the cockpit floor, just beneath several more important consoles. After that, he removed one can of Moonbay Cola(a 210 year old softdrink company started by the former racing champion/Ultrasaurus pilot/Gustav trucker of the same name). It wasn`t the same as the Jolt Cola he was used to, but it tasted better and didn`t make him hyperventilate so voila.

His partner wasn`t quite as fortunate, but Marcus Harlock had a way with improvisions. His answer to the fact that he still hadn`t slept even after managing to swipe a quick bath in the river near where he and Kyle had spent the entirety of the night(bar Kyle falling asleep for close to an hour and a half), was to dump three cans of chicken soup into an oversized travel cup after heating it to the extent that it steamed whenever he opened the cup. When drowsiness crept close, Mark took a gulp and found that the burning sensation was more than enough to jar him back awake. Far quicker than a caffine overdose but far more damaging given how it was only just cool enough to not give his mouth burn wounds.

"How`s`a Liger?" Mark slurred out tiredly, to which Kyle yawned before downing another sip of his own drink and twitching slightly. "Says most of the damage is fixed aside from a few paint and armor screw-ups," Kyle answered after several seconds.

The Shadow Fox and the Ivory Blade Liger came to a complete halt after almost a minute further. Both Zoids had spent the better half of the past three hours walking at a slow pace from the canyon to the immense flatlands it happened to gouge through, and both Zoids looked far better than they had yesterday. Fox was still dirty, but it was almost back at peak performance once again. Dents and dings were still blatantly visible all over but they were becoming fainter by the minute, while all of it`s internal systems had been completely self-repaired through the tactic of shocking the Zoid`s systems into fixing themselves quicker. The double impact cannon had been repaired - it was concealed within the chest at the moment - while the laser vulcan gun had been shocked into repairing itself. There was another missile in the Zoid`s load-out as well.

The Liger, for the most part, was in better conditions. Less damage to repair and all. It only bore a few token marks from the shots it had taken to the side the day before, though it still looked a good bit grittier than usual for whatever reason.

An explosion in the distance heralded the start of the coming chaos of the day, as dust and debris shot out of the ground around a newly formed impact crater, the flameless blast causing air to warp and distort as heat severe enough to melt a person alive rushed out around the silver-white Judge Capsule, which extended up and flipped open with seconds to spare.

"The area within a five mile radius is a designated Zoid battlefield. This zone is now restricted. Only competitors and combat personnel have authorized entry. Danger! All others must leave the area at once!"

The consistant pounding noise in the background was soon justified as an Iron Kong, accompanied by a Shield Liger, arrived on the battlefield, moving at full speed to come to a skidding halt just across from the exhausted Suicide Team.

Growls and shrieks clashed, but no shots were fired and no attacks made. It was an intense waiting period as the two teams bid their time, allowing the Judge to continue his speech.

"If we`re going down," Kyle thought, "Then I`m at least taking one of them with me."

Both Heckler Zoids growled in unison. Each was painted in camouflage colors matching the desert, and both were obviously packing enough firepower to level any average opponent, yet it was the combination threat they posed that was more dangerous than just their combined firepower. Iron Kongs were big, tough, slow and powerful, Shield Ligers were still among the fastest, most agile, versatile Zoids around. Together, they could cover each other terribly well.

Gunshots rang out, the Suicide Team split and the Heckler Team followed suit, with the Iron Kong doggedly pursuing the Blade Liger while the Shield Liger went after the Shadow Fox with a vengeance, letting off several missile barrages only to dash out of the way when the Fox doubled back and swiped at it. Mark was on his last rope, Kyle wasn`t fairing much better against the Iron Kong.

In an unlikely sort of way, the Blade Liger and the Kong slugged it out with far more speed than would be expect, for even as the huge ape-like Zoid made it`s attacks, the Blade Liger would dive out of the way and try one of it`s own, but neither could seem to gain the advantage over one another. The Kong would swipe out with a fist, the Liger would dive under it and try to get an attack in on the huge Zoid`s vulnerable underbelly only to have to get out of the way fast or get smashed when the Kong drove forward.

The Shadow Fox lunged through the air, but the Shield Liger was ready, throwing up it`s barrier mere fractions of a second before the Fox could finish it`s attack, causing the Strike Laser Claw to jaggedly slash right into a field of energy, holding it back but only just barely, and only for several seconds. When that time passed, the shield shorted out and the attack continued on, but the Liger had just enough time to jump back and try to catch the other Zoid off guard with it`s triple impact cannon.

It missed though. At an impossible moment, the Shadow Fox had taken control and sprang back up off of the ground, spinning out and smashing it`s entire side onto the back of the larger Liger, knocking the Zoid right off it`s feet and slamming it stomach-first into the ground before rolling off.

The Shield Liger rolled away and sprang back up - the Iron Kong crashed face first into the ground, the Blade Liger bounding up off of it and twisting around in mid-air, back booster springing up and shield igniting with a crackle of orange-pink energy. A roar of thrust and the Blade Liger whipped down, twisting like a bullet out of a rifle and slamming into the left shoulder of the Iron Kong as it turned around. It was a particularly fast paced, hard hitting manuever, originally created by Van Fleiheit during a battle with a trio of remote controlled Saber Tigers, but Kyle had put it to use in a different way.

The result was still the same: The Liger`s shield switched off after the Iron Kong flipped over forward onto it`s back exposing it`s vulnerable underbelly to fire from the Blade Liger`s double impact cannon, which tore open massive, gaping holes into the underside of the larger Zoid.

Explosions raged in the distance before the Shadow Fox finally caught the Shield Liger completely off-guard, firing off a pair of high explosive rounds straight into the right missile box of the other Zoid, setting off a chain reaction that blew the Shield Liger right off of the ground and sent it back down with a thunderous crash and a fierce shriek of metal as the support pylon for the other missile box bent and then snapped like a twig, rolling away from the burnt, downed Liger.

"Eat our words, huh?" Kyle asked snidely, resisting the obvious temptation to kick the downed Iron Kong.

Minutes more dragged by as a crew of ZBC-operated Gustavs pulled onto the battlefield and loaded the remains of the angry Heckler Team onto trailers, pulling back out without so much as a word. These were people more accustomed to scraping Zoids and their pilots off the battlefield after mid-battle accidents than anything else, as such, they tended to work with exceptional speed, even if the situation likely didn`t call for it that much.

After they were gone though, a few more minutes passed before the second of the five opposing teams stepped onto the battlefield. The new team was fresh, well prepared and coming to the fight packing the best that they could get their hands on, which meant that of the three Zoids, two were Saber Tigers and the third was a custom Gunbluster, packing four heavy duty gattling guns on it`s back mount, as well as another two six-shot rocket boxes on either side of it`s head, ending the murderous seeming package with a large machine gun on it`s forehead, easily carrying the kind of weaponry that could mutilate most Zoids with terrifying ease.

Kyle and Mark were going to have to somehow defeat this Zoid and the two faster, more agile Zoids that could protect it.

Business was about to pick up, and it was about to pick up in more ways than one...

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

"Dibs on fatso," Mark proclaimed with a twisted grin. "... Oh gee, so I get a 2-fer, huh?" Kyle asked tiredly. "If your big white pile o` crap is half as good as Fox knows he`s not, you will," Mark replied. "... Just for that, I`ll off both of them before you finish the big bastard," Kyle growled ferally. "Is that so, Chinny?" Mark asked. "... Yes, Newb. It is."

"Joke about Abbie and you`ll be in a four-on-one. With my boot flossing your kidneys."

"Will you two shut up and fight already?" The leader of the Hellsinger Team demanded, though the rounds hadn`t started flying. Yet.

"... Will your mom ever stop being a 50 cent slut?" Mark asked, shooting off yet another of the 'your mom' cheap shots that he had seemingly turned into a trademark over the past days. "... You are so dead!" The leader yelled. "I guess that means we should hurry up and trash `em, huh?" Mark asked. "... I just wanna freaking end this so I can sleep..."

The battle began in brutally stylish fashion with an attack that sent both the Fox and the Liger out of the way as bullets the size of trash cans rained down on the ground they`d formerly been standing on, causing both Zoids to trail off in opposite directions, only to be trailed by the two Saber Tigers, who also happened to spread apart from one another, leaving the Gunbluster unprotected but working to keep the Suicide Team from attacking it all the same.

Kyle, the pilot of the Gunbluster figured, wasn`t the most dangerous. Sure, he had what was likely the more powerful Zoid, but Harlock had used people figuring on that arguement at least twice now, and since Kyle and the Liger were only good enough that they could draw fire from the Fox, the Fox was the most dangerous of the combatants. Right?

With the Gunbluster`s attention occupied by the Shadow Fox, Kyle whipped the Ivory Liger around in a frenzy, swinging both blades down and forward. The Saber Tiger pilot, unexpecting of this manuever, was caught completely off guard, getting the Blade Liger`s left blade promptly rammed down his Zoid`s throat, with the attack being followed up by several quick shots from the blaster on that side. The effects were severe, enough that the Saber Tiger`s pilot frantically ejected after having overestimated his chances.

With the damage done both internally and externally, the Blade Liger worked on it`s own to swing it`s booster out of it`s unused position and rotate it completely forward. A quick burst and the Liger rocketed back, withdrawing from the maimed Saber Tiger just as the Zoid turned into an outright fireball.

"Your mom," Mark replied, shrewdly rotating the laser vulcan gun 180 degrees, so that it faced backward. After that, he bid his time, allowing the Saber Tiger pilot to draw into a straight line behind him, still trying to avoid fire from the Gunbluster. After that though? The Saber Tiger found itself on the recieving end of a near-constant stream of pulse lasers, the end result of which was the left shoulder being completely eviscerated, with the hip behind it not fairing too much better.

The Saber Tiger crashed to the ground with a disturbing tumble and a roll, but the machine gun fire came to a complete halt. Mark`s ears quickly registered the sound of an intense, brutal impact in the distance, followed by an equally intense, equally brutal sounding explosion and an equally harsh thud nearby. He didn`t have to look to know what it meant.

"You fucking shield rammed him in the same spot all of his ammo was, didn`t you?"

"And as the Suicide Team drives through it`s second match in the final five, one can already see the toll this has taken on these two young, dedicated warriors. Yesterday brought them one of their finest moments, but today may yet bring them one of their darkest hours. We`ll just have to wait and see how their next match goes," the newswoman stated. Brad flipped channels after that though, he wasn`t very interested in rookies who seemed hellbent on burning themselves out during the early days of their careers - though Kyle Mazemia wasn`t really that much of a rookie. Brad knew enough about him to know that he was actually a fairly decent young veteran, emphasis on 'decent.'

Decent wasn`t going to cut it if the two of them even hoped to try and take on Naomi and Leon, but then came that nagging fluke once again. Not to mention the sting of the Fox seemingly switching sides with perfect willingness. It was more annoying than actually hurtful, but for a man like Brad annoyance could go a fairly long way. In specific, at the moment he was annoyed at how the two were fluking through so much and at the same time, showing skills better suited to Class A-level warriors than anything else.

"What the hell is with those two?" Brad growled to himself, absently running a bare hand over Naomi`s scalp. The two had fallen asleep late in the previous night, studying up on the moves of the two younger pilots in an effort to help her prepare in case they somehow cracked through the final five of their little four day binge of hell. Obviously, Naomi Fluegel slept far more than Brad Hunter ever would, but that was to be expected.

Smugglers and ex-gang members-turned-mercenary tended to work on little, if any sleep.

"They`re both sleep deprived and crazy. Surprised you`re still here," Leon stated. Brad jerked involuntarily, not enough to stir Naomi but enough to be noticeable at least. The door, which Leon had somehow managed to open without Brad`s notice, was then slid shut, and Leon nonchalantly halted before even taking a step.

"I`m guessing I`ll need to cover my eyes, huh?" He asked with a smirk. "Not really," Brad shrugged. At that, there was a plop and Leon was seated in the chair he`d pretty much claimed as his own whenever he was at Naomi`s apartment. "Moving in, I see," he quipped. "Just too lazy and welcomed to go home, actually," Brad corrected, though his voice lacked the tone that Leon`s held. "How`re they managing so far?" The former Blitz Team leader asked, just as the third team stepped out onto the field.

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

Two against two. A Helcat and a Guysack against the Shadow Fox and the Ivory Blade Liger. It was a matter of even numbers yet uneven firepower and uneven ability. It was really a stacked deck against the outgunned, outskilled Vertigo Team, and the match to follow showed this with brutal swiftness.

The Guysack was first. The Shadow Fox held the speed card over even the Blade Liger, proving it in what had become typical fashion over the course of the past few days by slamming headlong into the smaller Guysack before the larger Blade Liger could even finish closing the distance to the Helcat. From there, it was little more than a single hard smack, started by Mark but guided the rest of the way by the Fox itself right into the spot where the Guysack`s head connected to the remainder of it`s body, severing it perfectly and sending the pilot tumbling around inside for several feet.

"I got mine first!" Mark chanted, much to Kyle`s disdain. The Helcat paid a hefty price for the Shadow Fox pilot`s bragging, mainly since Kyle was emboldened just enough to aim a little recklessly. As a result, his first - and only - pass gashed open the cockpit of the Helcat right down through the green glass, perfectly vaporizing it and missing the terrified pilot so slimmly that the man`s jacket singed at the outermost thrreading. From there, the blade continued on, gouging through the Helcat`s neck and then cutting all the way down through the side of it`s body, right out of it`s hind end in a perfectionistic fashion.

That said, the Helcat promptly toppled over and the bell rang for the third time in one day before the Judge spoke.

"... Precision? HAH! I doubt you even know what precision means! Or what a llama is!"

"What the heck happened to you?" Bit asked with a quirked up brow as one disgruntled, utterly annoyed looking Jamie Hameros trudged into the room, a mild twitch showing up on his left eyebrow. "She`s stealing my clothes," he muttered, plopping down across from Bit and staring dejectedly at the table between them. "Stealing your clothes? Who?"

"Leena. She`s stealing my freaking clothes," Jamie answered, emphasising the whole feel of his life at the present by smacking his face into the table a single time. Bit`s cereal shook briefly, but for the most part that was all that happened. The blonde in-field leader of the Blitz Team just stared instead.

"I don`t know. I don`t care either," Jamie answered in a ragged tone, lifting his head back up and smacking it right back into the table. "I just know that it`s almost the straw that broke the camel`s back," he groaned. "What do you mean by that?"

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

"And I thought the Devestators were overcompensating," Mark grumbled in a dull tone of voice as four very heavily armed Iron Kongs lumbered onto the battlefield. Each was practically designed to make up for the failings of the other, there was one with nothing but heavy gattling guns, another with nothing but beam weaponry, another still with nothing but missiles and rockets and the fourth was packing what amounted to exceptionally heavy armor, numerous small thrusters at varying points and only a few guns for short ranged weaponry.

"There`s a mild difference between compensation and outright murder," Kyle replied with the same tone. "... Says your mom."

"I hate you," Kyle groaned out with a dry tone of resignation, even as the Fox and the Liger charged headlong into battle. It was a reckless, suicidal tactic, but then again, they were one of those teams that had an exceptionally bad habit of living up to their team names. "Feeling`s mutual, Chinny."

This time though, the suicidal tactics weren`t cutting it. Both Zoids had made the charge for the Missile Kong, logically reasoning that if they got rid of the best ranged Kong, they`d be able to take a bit of time to rest between attacks. Instead though, they were greeted up close and personally by the Melee Kong, which practically jumped over the other three Zoids and landed right in front of them, smashing it`s exceptionally large, heavily armored fists into the sides of the Fox and the Liger, stopping both attackers dead in their tracks and flinging them back a good ways as a result.

The Liger recovered first, and Kyle quickly sprang the changing tube back up, switching his blasters over to the gattling variants before he`d even gotten his senses back together from the jolt of the Melee Kong decking him. "Eat this!" He yelled, tilting both blades forward and opening fire. The Melee Kong hopped out of the way, and the Beam Kong came into the action, literally shooting down every single one of Kyle`s incoming shots with some sort of interdiction system.

Mark during this time was coaxing the Fox back up to it`s feet as well. A fist-styled dent was obviously visible in the armor on it`s right side, just as there was an equal dent in the left side of the Liger. Unlike the Liger though, the Shadow Fox didn`t have to switch it`s weapons for a gattling-styled attack - but it didn`t use the opening anyway. The look of seeing close to three hundred gattling bolts shot down midway between the Kongs and the Liger wasn`t a very comforting one. Pretty, but still very bad.

"You could always kamikaze them. Then I`ll uh... Heh heh, co-" "Don`t finish that sentence." "Spoil sport."

"We can try and corral the big bastards into one spot. How big`s that net of your`s?"

"Glad to know the feeling`s mutual. As for the net, it`s big enough to knock off one Kong and wrap around it twice, maybe."

"Exactly," Kyle answered with a smirk. "Brilliant idea-" "Yes, yes. I`m glorious, it`s true." "- but you`re still a fucking jack ass."

That said, the Blade Liger stopped it`s attack, swinging it`s blades down and gearing up to throw it`s shield up while the Shadow Fox began to quickly circle around the group of Iron Kongs, spraying shots off at random and trying to herd the Blackwater Team into one tightened space, an action which the Blade Liger soon joined, charging forward with it`s shield at full and circling the quartet in such a close, quick way that even the Melee Kong couldn`t effectively hit it.

"See anything I can jump off of?" Mark asked finally, still taking pot shots at the four Zoids. "Not really," Kyle answered darkly, just then realizing how much their plan had relied on something that the Shadow Fox could jump off of in order to blanket the four of them.

Unfortunately, his brooding also suffered from an interruption of it`s own as the Melee Kong came out of it`s rest, swinging down and nailing the Blade Liger in the back at just the right moment to avoid getting smashed by the shield or skewered by the blades. The Liger roared out in pain and skidded to a halt on it`s stomach, but at the same time, Marcus intervened once more.

The Shadow Fox skidded along to a dead stop, firing off several ordinary rounds into the barreled chest of the huge Kong, causing no real damage but at least shifting attention away from the downed Blade Liger, which was slowly getting back to it`s feet. In near unison, the entire Blackwater Team - bar the Melee Kong - opened fire on the Shadow Fox, hosing down it`s entire general area with enough firepower to shatter the tip of a mountain like nothing.

Luck was the only saving grace of the exhausted rookie. Luck and the sheer speed, skill and reflexes of the Shadow Fox itself. He was too worn down and surprised to even try to move the Zoid, but it made up for that on it`s own, eagerly dodging through every stream of bullets, individual bolt of plasma, laser, missile, rocket, bomb, fireball and anything that passed by in between, until finally, after roughly thirty seconds, the vicious barrage came to a stop, leaving behind only a single enormous ball of flame, shrowded in solid black smoke.

During this time, the Ivory Blade Liger was getting smacked around by the Melee Kong, even though every shot only succeeded in hitting shielding rather than the actual Zoid itself. Kyle was only just barely beginning to get his senses back together but that was still good enough to allow him to make a reasonable effort at mounting a comeback, hitting his thrusters everytime an attack came and slowly wearing down on the Kong`s heavy fists like a pair of hammers striking each other repeatedly.

"Newbie?" Kyle asked finally, glancing sideways over at the enormous fireball on his left, even as the remaining Kongs shifted their attention over to him. There wasn`t any answer either, Mark wasn`t responding. "Crap," Kyle growled to himself, dropping his shield and practically running up the arm of the Iron Kong, just as it`s blades picked up an especially brightened glow, the result of an intense surge of energy.

One pass and it was over for the Melee Kong. The head and cockpit of the Zoid both tumbled free of their admittedly stumpy neck, landing with a roll a small distance from the stiffened body, which promptly toppled over itself as all of it`s stability and balance mechanisms shorted out. The Blade Liger continued on though, springing off of the Kong`s shoulder at full speed before twisting into a barrel roll and swinging it`s blades to point forward. The result was that none of the Kongs were able to draw a specific beed on any particular section of the Liger, able to see only a blur of orange, white, black and gold, though that came to a swift, lethally precise ending as the Liger touched down, blades stabbing through the elbows of the Missile Kong before repeating the process for the knees as the Liger ran forward, passing under the collapsing Iron Kong just quickly enough to avoid being crushed.

"Rotten bastards," Kyle muttered, swinging the Liger around on it`s foreclaws and turning to face the two remaining Iron Kongs, which met him not with a witty retort, but only with gunfire. In a flash, Kyle threw his shield up and made ready to attack, but he never got the chance.

In a blinding split second, the Shadow Fox, wrapped in smoke like a fireball itself, erupted out of the area it had apparently been hiding in, catching both Kongs completely off guard in a single move, severing the arms of the first and outright tearing a hole through the second before skidding to a hard stop on all fours a good distance away. Both of the remaining Blackwater Zoids promptly toppled over at the same time, completely disabled from anymore fighting.

"He hasn`t shown up yet, Obscura. You`re just taking up space and posing a potential risk to our security - now leave," the warden of the prison ordered for the umpteenth time. As he had for the past two or so days, Vega merely ignored him.

Until he heard the sound of several dozen fairly heavy guns - military issue, anti-Zoid level no doubt - locking down on the general position of the Storm Fury. Vega stopped ignoring them, and he wasn`t alone.

"They won`t. They`re too afraid," Vega answered coldly, resolving to play off of what he rightly guessed as fear to make a few quick statement and explanations... And at least one thinly veiled threat.

"I`ve been sitting here for two days for the specific purpose of protecting this place from an enemy who can and happily would slaughter the lot of you pathetic beaurocratic ingrates just for kicks, and you have the outright indecency to point guns at me? Well excuse me!"

"And if you so much as inch that trigger near firing, you won`t have to deal with just Kale, let me and my pal here assure you of that!"

The sounds of guns slowly inching away from being aimed at the Fury filled his ears, and Vega let out a satisfied smirk to himself before leaning back again and closing his eyes. "Told you so," he bragged to the Fury in typical eleven year old fashion. The enormous Zoid only gave a small growl - still loud given the sheer size of the Storm Fury - then quieted down, settling back into the wait and not moving an inch, the same way it had been standing for almost two and a half days now.

That time was only just beginning to take any sort of toll though, Vega hardly even gave enough of a damn to eat more than once a day with infrequent snacks scattered the rest of the way over. He was one of those geniuses who`s eccentricity manifested more in his eating and sleeping habits than in social contact or anything of that nature. That and Vega had an unhealthy infatuation with Zoids for a boy his age, but that was beside the point.

The response to the ring of the bell was an eight fold shockwave of air followed by an even louder explosion as the two members of the Suicide Team dashed back, beating a hasty, almost frantic retreat only to be followed by trails upon trails of high powered machine gun rounds, each of which quadrupled on itself at every single point. There was no respite in the assault, it was continuous, brutal and focused, forcing the two Zoids into a single spot and then smashing the area with eight more massive explosions.

The two Zoids in question were the innumerably outgunned Shadow Fox and Ivory Blade Liger, who`d had trouble with only one Gojulas. At present, it had to deal with four of them, all of which were highly modified variations to the original design, at least one of whom was packing a shield generator and all of whom had their Supercannons on semi-pivoting mounts that allowed them to compensate for the slow movement of their Zoids so long as the enemy was at a range.

To put it bluntly: Marcus and Kyle were screwed. Not in a nice way, but in that way that could make someone go 'AH! DAMN! MAH ASS!' like Cartman on South Park. The last Gojulas they had fought was almost completely basic, it`s only real notable attribute was that it`s paint scheme had been all black. These Gojulas were all modified, and every single one had the same level of endurance as the first one, with at least one bolstering it thanks to a shield generator. All had quad repeater cannons on their arms, all had leg mounted rocket launchers and all had two batteries of light machine guns on their stomaches, each of which could pivot some thirty degrees to either side, independent of one another.

That basically allowed them to put two walls of firepower out and then close them on a line that would then be smashed to burnt out, glassed over dust with the Supercannons.

Against this, Kyle and Mark were only able to rely on a combination of luck, recklessness and a wanton will to actually survive the battle.

"GET BEHIND ME!" Kyle yelled over the roar of eight massive explosions going off yards behind the two Zoids, bringing the Blade Liger around. Mark already knew what the other was going to try, he thought it was nuts and he wasn`t afraid to speak against it. "Can your shield even take that kind of abuse?!" He demanded, even while bringing the Shadow Fox up behind the larger Blade Liger.

"... I honestly doubt it," Kyle said after several seconds, the lulls between Supercannon shots almost over.

"ONWARD, LEST I JAM MY FOOT UP YOUR ASS!" Mark declared, which the Shadow Fox gladly backed with a howl, charging after the newly envigorated - not to mention mildly irate seeming - Ivory Blade Liger.

"You`re all nuts," Kyle muttered, pulling back on the controls and then moving his hands into the appropriate pattern before sending them forward again. In a burning instant, the Ivory Liger`s shield ignited, at the same time as three Supercannon rounds slammed violently into it. It took every ounce of thruster power that the Zoid had, but the force was nullified after several tense fractions of a second, and the two Zoids continued onward at the Liger`s full speed, machine gun rounds blasting away at the pinkish half-dome of plasma in a vane attempt to wear it down.

The two came closer and closer to the four Gojulas, and then the entire Cataclysm Team - a group that was only in Class B because they were one win shy of Class A - opened fire with their Supercannons once more. Again, the Liger was stopped dead in it`s tracks, and this time it`s shield hovered perilously close to giving out, actually blinking after the first four hits took effect, with the other missing by inches and smashing into the ground behind the Fox. The Liger`s shield flashed back to life though, and even if it had been on the verge of skidding back before, it didn`t this time.

Instead it continued on, and just as it was about to shield ram one of the two center Gojulas, the huge Zoid flashed a bright orange and Kyle found himself ground to a hard fought standstill, with the larger Zoid shoved back by only inches from all of the weight and power of the courageous Liger and it`s pilot.

For a second the two shields clashed brightly together and then they canceled each other out completely. Then...

The Shadow Fox came. Like a raptor, it leapt the distance at the shieldless Gojulas, coming up from behind the Blade Liger and making it`s despite, double clawed attack on the huge Zoid`s neck, both foreclaws striking in at the same moment, held ahead of the rest of the smaller Zoid and trying hard to cut the throat of the larger. Several tense seconds passed and -

- the Shadow Fox`s claws slipped, the Zoid slammed hard, shoulder smashing right into the burnt looking, inches-thinner throat of the Gojulas with all of the weight of the smaller Zoid behind it. The enormous black-and-white Zoid tilted back ever further for several seconds as the Shadow Fox fought a desperate battle, standing it`s hind legs on the other Zoid`s actual wrists and clawing futily at the mounts for the Gojulas` Supercannons, even opening fire at point blank with it`s double impact cannons.

"Fall over you big son of a bitch!" Kyle ordered, swinging his blades forward and opening fire. Thankfully, he had left his blasters in the gattling configuration, that meant he was given just enough raw speed to make up for the lack of actual force behind blaster-type weaponry. Seconds more went by as the three remaining members of the Cataclysm Team finally tried to step in, having avoided helping their comrade because of the slow speed of their Zoids. Viciously, the Fox continued though, swinging it`s laser vulcan gun until the barrels rested between the open jaws of the huge Gojulas and then -

- an explosion of pulse lasers ripped through the back of the huge tyrannid Zoid`s head, supressed only by the warping of armor before finally, the entire neck of the Gojulas bulged slightly and turned a hot red. The Fox sprang back and the huge Zoid`s mouth slammed shut while the cockpit practically tore open with a roar of miniature rocketry as the pilot ejected, the bulge in the neck expanding until smoke poured out of the Gojulas` mouth, and then the entire head outright tore into a fireball, sending shrapnel flying as the enormous Zoid toppled over sideways, practically bouncing off of another Gojulas and landing with a twist on it`s stomach.

"One down!" Kyle exclaimed proudly, jumping back as the Liger`s former position tore into a blast of machine gunfire and then opening fire on the machine gun ports of one of the remaining three Gojulas. It was an utterly futile effort, the guns didn`t explode, moving quickly enough to track the movements of the Liger, but then -

- the entire area around the three Zoids became nothing but a black cloud of smoke as the Shadow Fox made use of an often-neglected tool: It`s smoke dispensers. Marcus Harlock`s piloting of the Zoid differed greatly from Brad Hunter in that respect alone, if not in the other blatantly obvious areas. Unlike Brad, Mark used the dispensers with relative frequency, while Brad used them only when he wanted a twisted kick out of battering his opponents when they couldn`t see him.

For Mark, it was a sure sign of desperation - and strategy. If the Gojulas couldn`t see them, that meant they had a few seconds to recover at the least.

"Nice move," Kyle commented drearily, breathing hard and taking one of the few moments they probably had left to try and pop his ears back to normal. The sheer force and sound of the Supercannons going off so close had actually altered the air pressure in the cockpit of the Blade Liger, enough that his ears had popped in a pretty painful sort of way. "Not too shabby yourself," Mark replied finally, satisfied that the cloud of smoke wouldn`t be going anywhere anytime soon.

"What the hell do you think I`m doing?" Mark asked, just as the Shadow Fox padded over to the Liger and turned around, aiming it`s tail into the cloud and then firing it`s net off. In an instant, one of the Gojulas roared and then there was a loud *THUD* as the huge Zoid toppled over, completely disabled.

"Now what?" Harlock asked. "Now we think of something else... Fast," Mazemia answered in an intense tone of voice. "Such as?" Mark asked again, bringing the Fox around with a hop and then waiting. Kyle was silent. Heck, the whole battlefield was silent.

The silence was shattered and the veil of black torn apart as one of the Gojulas fired off it`s Supercannons at random, coming perilously close to annihilating the Judge Capsule as a result. The other followed suit in the opposite direction, and then a sweeping movement of machine guns did the rest, literally plowing the smoke away until it was little more than a light, black fog with two towering, beastly figures standing at the center, both practically staring down at the two smaller Zoids.

As one, the Gojulas roared and fired their Supercannons. In the same moment, Kyle and Mark leapt back, and as they did, the ground their Zoids had been standing on erupting in flames, a fireball rapidly enveloped by a pillar of burning black smoke, which itself was soon torn open by a hail of machine gunfire. Again, Kyle and Mark dodged, and again the two Gojulas split their fire to try and wall the two in. It was a futile effort though, they were moving too fast.

Kyle grimaced, Mark winced and the two Gojulas hit home again, knocking both of the other Zoids off their feet for the briefest of moments before they each touched back down, with the Liger showing a bit more balance and executing a perfect landing on all four feet while the Shadow Fox displayed it`s superior speed and agility, swinging around on all fours and reversing it`s momentum in such a way that it was put on a byline for one of the enormous Cataclysm Zoids, charging in with a recklessness that could only be described as raw inexperience and utter exhaustion.

A quick whir of machinary and the laser vulcan gun churned to life with a speed that defied it`s own mechanical limits, opening fire on the right Gojulas with a hail of pulse lasers, supplemented by as many double impact cannon shots as could be taken during the frenzied rush. The Gojulas barely rumbled, it was designed to withstand the recoil of two Supercannons while firing every other forward weapon in it`s arsenal as it took high impact shots from perhaps dozens of foes.

To put it bluntly, Mark and the Fox could try but the Gojulas and it`s pilot weren`t going to move a single freaking inch.

Four shots, two solid explosive rounds and two lengthy bolts of plasma. The first two slagged outer layers of armor, the third punched a sizable dent into the plated alloys even as the after effects of the first two impacts caused the armoring of the throat to start melting. The fourth shot was the kill shot, punching a two foot wide hole in the throat of the Gojulas and rebounding inside before hitting what amounted to it`s jugular, causing the powerline to literally snap in two before exploding with the same bulging effect that had blown the head off of the first Gojulas.

Mark circled around the falling Zoid, coming up directly behind the survivor and gritting his teeth, his own Zoid already gathering up reserve energy in it`s foreclaws, no longer allowing the laser vulcan gun to fire as it closed in on the remaining Gojulas.

The huge Zoid threw it`s head back and roared in pain as the Shadow Fox gouged it`s claws fiercely into the Gojulas` back, trying desperately to cut through layer upon layer of time tested, quasi-indestructable armoring in vane. "We can`t get through!" He yelled, while Fox finally gave in and raked it`s claws down the spine of the huge Zoid, to the base of it`s tail. A second passed and the Fox executed a sideways corkscrew, repeating several times with several different jumps before coming to a stop and swinging it`s laser vulcan gun around again.

"Then allow me," Kyle finally said, swinging the Ivory Liger`s blades down into the way that they had always been meant to be used, swinging them straight out to either side. The Shadow Fox only growled, both for itself and it`s pilot, before opening fire, trying to distract the Gojulas for at least a few moments as the Ivory Blade Liger came charging in at full speed.

"END O` THE LINE, PAL!" Kyle screamed, swiping the right blade straight into the stomach of the Gojulas, said blade seeming to intensify on impact. But the armored hide of the Gojulas was legendary for it`s durability - it didn`t yield. Seconds passed, and the Blade Liger seemed to hang in space, slicing into the body of a foe who wouldn`t give in even the slightest of ways. It seemed as if the Gojulas was going to puff it`s gut out and just throw the Liger back, but then...

In a blindingly, deafeningly intense clash of gold against gold, energy against energy against armor, the Gojulas virtually snapped straight in half, the upper body flying free for several seconds before slamming down with every ounce of weight that you could expect from it, even as the Blade Liger and the Shadow Fox landed with matching skids in opposite directions of each other, both Zoids roaring and shrieking matching cries of victory audible from miles away.

"This should be interesting," Leon stated to himself with a wide, almost abnormal looking grin. Even Brad was taking notice of the crazed finish the two younger pilots and their Zoids had pulled out of thin air. It was utterly spectacular, and more than a little grating on the ears given how shrill the Shadow Fox`s vocals were. Naomi - who had formerly still been asleep - stirred somewhat, leaning up straight with a yawn that stopped halfway at the sight of Leon actually having an expression that bordered on outright excitement and Brad having a look of morbid amusement blended with actual surprise.

"Good job, Newbie," Kyle stated, swinging the blades back into neutral with a smug grin visible from three miles away.

A brief silence and then, both members of the Suicide Team erupted into fits of outright maniacal, sleep deprived laughter. Of course that didn`t last too long...

"What?" Kyle asked, stopping instantly at the overly pleased tone from his begrudging team mate.

"I won the bet," Mark answered with what amounted to an audible smirk. "Which means you get to pay for dinner... Regardless of how much we eat."

Midnight, roughly thirteen hours, three baths, lots of sleep, more face stuffing than can be rightfully imagined and a good deal of mutual backpatting, insulting and a few formal introductions later, Rev`s Diner, Farentown. Four people gathered in a bar, two connected by blood, two connected by an intimate relationship and three connected by a growing friendship.

Kyle Mazemia and Marcus Harlock sat like kings at a royal banquet, settled at the counter of the resturaunt with one Abigail Summers sitting rather frantically next to Mark, fussing over the semi-dirty gauze taping that was wrapped around his head like a bandana, and one Harabec Davids currently throwing food at the two conquering heroes as fast as he could cook it. The four had been doing nothing but catching up, eating and making up for lost time over the course of the past two hours, but now the conversations were winding down.

"... And then, then he gets all ballsy and goes 'end of the line!'" Mark repeated with a disturbing snicker, though Kyle seemed utterly unphased. He knew why his comrade in arms had picked the place, and it wasn`t just for Mark`s girlfriend and uncle, it was also because Marcus just happened to know that the prices were relatively high compared to a typical fast food joint. That was okay, the food was comparitively better by far, but really...

"That`s real nice an` all, but I think it`s time you three head out," Harabec stated with a light yawn. "Yeah, I wanna get rested up and change this damn bandage," Mark agreed, standing up from his seat with a stretch. Abbie followed suit annoyedly. "You should`ve cleaned it better," she complained with a worried tone, tip-toing along to try and get a better look at his still severe seeming head wound. "It`ll be okay hon, you`re here now, right?" Mark asked with a reassuring tone, sheepishly trying to avoid eye contact when her expression fell serious.

Mark turned to Kyle, who stood up rather nonchalantly and then turned to him with a devilish little smile.

"Mark said he would since he`s trying to be such a good boyfriend to Abbie and all..." He exclaimed cheerfully, watching the green haired waitress`s expression shift from annoyed and concerned to pleasant. "And since he also wanted make a good example that he`s responsible to his uncle and everything..."

Harabec almost burst into laughter. Mark only twitched before letting out a devilish smile of his own and turning to Abbie.

The sound of a stainless steel frying pan warping around the skull of Kyle Mazemia wasn`t too long in coming.

Guardian Force Women`s Maximum Security Prison, the border of the Guylos Empire. Midnight was an especially dark time here, but now it was about to become infinitely darker. Slowly, almost painfully, Vega`s eyes drifted from his lap to the buzzing console at the front of the main screen, watching a distant speck at the very edge of his scanners. A speck that was closing fast.

It was then that he knew. The Fury didn`t have to tell him, Vega already knew who and what it was, he had known hours in advance as it was. The prison alarms were going off the hook, Vega paid them no mind.

"It`s time," he thought with resolution and guile beyond his years, uncrossing his arms from around his chest and taking the controls in hand. Fury rumbled slightly in accord, red eyes lighting up brighter than a blood moon as the Zoid that nobody was supposed to defeat began to walk forward, step by determined step. The prison guards were mobilizing in force, but neither Fury nor Vega cared.

The Geno Saurer was closing in. Fast. Vega could almost hear Kale laughing to himself.

Within a black cavern, glowing eerily with walls lined in near solid, neon blue, something stirred. The cavern was located deep in the heart of the only non-volcanic mountain for miles in all directions, yet outside it was a frigid mixture of hellfire and tainted ice. The mountain was nameless, it hadn`t been touched for decades but like most of the territory deep within the Dark Continent.

The only expeditions to Nyx had been during the frantic last months of the Ancient Zoidians themselves, and again during the days when the Guylos and Helic militaries alike were seeking expansion. The first expedition by the Zoidians had been doomed from the start by the so-called Sea of Witchery, the Daras Triangle. All expeditions after that had simply found the place so inhospitable that it was abhorent to even breathe the foul air, and too dangerous to set up a permanent base or city.

The last who had sought to turn Nyx into anything but an unsafe storehouse for weapons of mass destruction had been the Dark Kaiser`s people, who had converted one of the mountains to an active construction site for almost half of the Kaiser`s forces. They had abandoned it when Gunther Prozen was absorbed by the Death Saurer`s core, which in turn was absorbed by Hilz and the Death Saurer itself.

For close to a hundred and fifty years, the only activity on Nyx had been the night when a funeral had taken place amongst a Zoidian, her companions and her dead lover. A skeleton still sat, buried beneath the spot that It had been hybernating.

But now, activity stirred once again. It could sense it. It could sense others as well. The Old Guard, and new ones. Ones it hadn`t felt since the Great Sleep. It was quasi-immortal, still young by the standards it lived by, but no doubt it was formidable, old enough to know what was going on, and powerful enough to feel the strings of conflict slowly wrapping around the world once more.

The Dark Continent was becoming active again as well, It sensed the movement of another Mind. A Mind dangerously like another that It had dealt with in the past. But It also sensed something else.

The neon blue walls of the cavern flashed purple, and a streak bolted through the sky into low orbit...

Zinou: Yep, Kyle and Marcus are fucking lunatics :D As for Naomi kicking him out for a while... Heck, I doubt he minds too terribly. He did guess that she and Brad will be an item within two weeks, after all... And as you can see, Vega certainly wasn`t disappointed, but this one`s going to have quite an... Adverse effect on how things may continue >_> And please do forward the mail if ya would, and while we`re off the topic of the story: What MP3 is it? @_@?

ZeonReborn: There`s a point when a running gag gets a smidge overdone dude :P And as for cheap shots and insults... Expect them to be missing from most of the next chapter. Kale and Vega aren`t exactly insult-prone after all...

EndlessAdventure: Yeah, Leyon and Steve are gonna end things. I`m actually looking forward to that almost as much as I am to Vega and Kale`s rematch, if only because of how intense it`ll hopefully be. And yeah, it`ll be interesting to see the Suicide Team vs the Fluegel Team... Not sure what to call the chapter though, but 'Suicide Days Revisited' is kinda begging to be used for it :P And you were almost right. I was considering making Leyon`s Saber Tiger blue but now I`m kinda caught between using solid black or dark blue.

And that`s all for now. Expect a few days extra for me to get the next chapter out, but until then: Sh33p out and see ya next time!

New Age by Sh33p

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New Age

Chapter 24

Lose Yourself