Fan Fiction / Zoids Fan Fiction ❯ a tale of (now) three warriors ❯ chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: I own none of the Zoids in this fanfic, but most of the characters are mine. I'll be broke from when the people behind Metroid come after me, so there's no point trying to sue me. That's all.

That night, both teams dined together inside the Hover Cargo. Trey quickly fell into conversation with Bit over the pros and cons of different components, and despite Jamie demanding that he was a guest Robert helped Jamie to cook. It was almost ready when Leena cried out in surprise.

"Leon! What are you doing here?"

"We were just passing by and we noticed the Hover Cargo. So naturally we decided to drop in." the older Toros replied from the door. "I hope were not intruding."

"Of course not!" Doc yelled, running over to bear hug his son.

"By we I suppose you mean that you brought your other half with you." Leena said darkly.

"Oh you mean Naomi?" Leon said, before noticing the redhead pilot enter.

"Of course she means me. Who else?" she said by way of greeting. "Hey Brad." She looked over and winked to the mercenary, who simply nodded back, concealing his inner feelings perfectly as always.

"Food's up!" Robert announced, before seeing the new guests. "Oh. Well, it's a good thing we cooked a little more."

"Great! I'm starving!" Bit yelled out, and took his seat.

Over dinner, there was yet again a variety of conversations flying around the table.

"That Blade Liger of yours looks pretty sleek, but aren't you worried about the cannon jeopardising its manoeuvrability?" Leon asked Robert, while munching happily on a piece of roasted meat.

"I've made the necessary adjustments, but I agree that it's still not quite as manoeuvrable as the Shield Liger was. If I ever need to I can jettison it easily, though." Robert replied, who looked up from where he was busy macerating another chunk of meat.

"Fair enough. Either way it's a good combination between close and medium ranged combat. Pretty effective if you ask me." Leon replied.

At the other end of the table, Bit and Trey were busy again discussing various components.

"Standard power couplings usually do me fine. The fancier ones are usually overpriced, and they do the exact same job." Trey said, layering smoked fish onto a slice of bread.

"Yeah, well, I usually use ATRX couplings for the Liger. They cost a little bit more but Liger won't accept anything less." Bit replied, through a face full of food.

"I can see your point. I've heard some good things about ATRX parts." Trey replied.

Brad and Naomi were getting along quietly as they usually did, exchanging a light pointless conversation. Jamie was more or less involved from the other side of the table. Leena sat near Leon and Robert, listening to what they were saying, and adding a comment here and there. Dr Toros sat near Trey, and eavesdropped on his and Bit's conversation. Over all the dinner went smoothly, and the conversations continued to beyond the dining table, long into the night. However, after dinner no one knew anything of Brad and Naomi.

He found her in the main hangar of the Hover Cargo, gazing at the Shadow Fox. Brad appeared suddenly behind Naomi, and startled her slightly when he approached.

"So what brings you back to the Shadow Fox?" he inquired, just to get any other sort of conversation going.

"I've been thinking about the pros and cons of the Vulcan. It has a superior fire rate to a beam gun like the one on the old Command Wolf, but what it has in speed only just makes up for the sacrifice in power." Naomi said.

"Yeah, I've sorta considered that a few times, but if I were to fit a beam gun onto the Fox's back mount then it would almost be a waste of its versatility. There's no real point being able to fire in a perfect circle if your weapon leaves gaps in the circle." Brad replied, moving closer to the other pilot. He was close enough to smell her perfume.

The hairs on the back of Naomi's neck prickled at the proximity of her secret crush. (heh heh heh. I'm guessing, cos they never said in the show whether Naomi DOES like Brad or not, but it seems fairly obvious. I'll shut up now…) She looked out from the corner of her eye, with no chance of seeing him behind her but not daring to turn her head. Brad never got this close, except when they were under fire from the Sand Stingray gang.

"Your perfume smells nice today." Brad commented, moving his hand to the girl's shoulder. She tensed, and turned her head to look sidelong at the hand resting on her shoulder. Brad pushed lightly, and Naomi involuntarily turned to face the tall man. She opened her mouth to say something, but her voice choked in her voice box, nervousness creating a lump in her throat, letting a soft squeak escape. Brad laid his finger across her lips softly, and noticed that they were quivering.

"You don't know how long I've waited for this moment." Brad whispered.

"I can imagine." Naomi managed to reply, slowly embracing him.

Brad's arms found their way to Naomi's back, his hands finding the clasp for her top. It took a few seconds for Brad to realise that his jacket was no longer in his chest. It took Naomi about that long to realise that her skirt was gone. Before any of them knew it, they were caressing each other in an impromptu embrace of love.

From where he was hiding - behind the rear leg of the Shadow Fox - Dr Toros' jaw hung open and smiled at the same time, as the video camera in his hand recorded everything that he was seeing. (I'm so evil…)

The next morning, Jamie was keeping to himself, cooking breakfast for everybody when Robert walked into the kitchen.

"Need any help?" he asked.

"Nah, I'm not cooking for everyone." Jamie replied, flipping the egg in the pan.

"Why not?"

At that moment, Leena, Leon and Dr Toros walked into the dining room and began pulling various "breakfast" items from different cupboards and dug in.

"Because no-one eats what I cook. Feel free to help yourself." Jamie said as he went over to the table to join the rest of his team.

Trey walked in holding the back of his, looking as if he got drunk last night. Then Bit stumbled in, looking thoroughly pissed.

"Hey, Robert, get two of those hangover cures over this way. Make one of them a little stronger. This weakling needs it more than I do." Trey called over to his partner, plopping heavily in a chair.

"Weakling?" Bit demanded, aiming to sit on a chair and landing on the floor.

"You only had half a bottle of bourbon and look at you. Ok, you had a bit of tequila and a bottle of vodka too, but still. I can tell you that I went through more than that and look at me." Trey shot back, wincing slightly as the metaphorical sledgehammer drummed in the back of his head.

"You're both pissed off your nuts. I hope to whatever supreme deity out there that we haven't got any battles today, or else we'd all be screwed." Robert said as he approached the table, a glass of red liquid in each hand. Everyone noticed that one was a much darker red than the other, and Robert gave this one to Bit and gave the other to Trey.

"Speaking of screwed, what happened to Brad and Naomi?" Dr Toros asked, before realising far too late his mistake.

"Right behind you." Brad's voice said from the doorway. He took a seat and started eating an apple, taking the opportunity to glare at Toros when no one noticed. Naomi took a seat at the table and fixed herself bowl of cereal. It appeared as if no one had realised the significance of Toros' accidental outburst.

"Whoa, what is this stuff?!" Bit cried out, surprisingly sober.

"Tomato juice, cough syrup and soda water." Robert replied, sitting down with a fried egg and two slices of bread. "Works every time. I'm just surprised that there was tomato juice." [mind you, this isn't a REAL hangover cure, but anyone's welcome to try it and see]

"Brad likes his vitamins." Leena said, smiling at the mercenary.

"Yes, yes I do." Brad replied. "Is that a problem?"

"Well, more or less. You see, there was about two glasses left." Robert explained.

"There's four more bottles in my room. Don't sweat it."

After a brief moment of laughter, Leon pushed back his chair and looked around. "Well, it was nice to drop by again, but we gotta go."

Naomi looked up from her almost finished cereal, was full anyway, and stood up too. "Yeah. It was nice to drop by. See you around."

After a series of goodbyes, the Flugal team Gustav rumbled off into the distance. Trey decided soon after that it was time for the Blade Team to be on its way home also, and with that they climbed into their own Gustav and headed for their base.

Atop a nearby escarpment, a trio of dark cloaked figures watched the departure of the Liger and Gunsniper.

"Do we proceed as planned?" one asked, his voice deep.

"Yes. Nothing changes." Replied a second, his voice lighter younger.

The third figure simply smiled and nodded with satisfaction, crossing her arms over her chest. Today was the day.