Fan Fiction / Zoids Fan Fiction ❯ Anizoid interactive ❯ Venom vs X ( Chapter 3 )

Jason's supposedly comfortable bed was starting to feel like a pallet full of tacks. A lot of people say you should leave the past where it is, in the past. But his kept finding its way back into his mind.

He fell into a memory, one of him being pulled by something. That something was a dog that, ten years later, was now his anizoid, Fang. He was being pulled out of his house as it burned to the ground. In the chaos that surrounded him at the time, he saw a yellow flag with two bones crossing, making a simple x. The dog had been injured saving him and had died.

He later found out that his house was caught between two rival gangs, the Cross Bone gang and Twisted Metal (1). His sister's body was never found.

Jason's thoughts were thankfully thrown off course. A voice emitting from the living quarters told him Benji was awake.

"And they say Heero Yuy will save us. I'm not going to stand hear and waaaaait," Benji sang to himself while sitting at the small round table in the company of Finn, the new hired hand, and his sister Juliet. "I'll take his Wing Zero and blow it all awayyyyyy."

He looked towards Juliet, who gave him a warm smile in greeting, one that he returned. Then he looked to Finn, who said nothing. His eyes were simply watchful. Benji shrugged this off and poured himself some cereal.

"You've changed your chain." Juliet said. Benji looked at his right leg before remembering he already knew that. She had caught him by surprise since no one ever talked about his chains. He removed it and handed it to her.

"Uhh...yeah I got a bunch of them," he said reaching for the milk. Jason walked in, rubbing the sleep out of his brown eyes.

"Good morning, Jason!" Juliet said brightly, still holding the chain in her slim fingers. He tilted his head slightly in her direction and took a seat near Benji.

"Isn't Don going to eat with us?" Juliet asked, studying a silver snake trinket.

"...no. He never eats with us," Jason said, still trying to wake up.

"Yeah," Benji said, "He doesn't want us to see how he makes ninja pancakes."

"What?" Juliet asked.

"The battle starts in a couple of hours. Are going to be competing, Benji?" came the wise voice of Don Shizumi. Benji turned his head left to see him standing almost beside him. Dressed in a full ninja gi, with a gold emblem and mask, only his dark hair was visible.

'To the point as usual,' Benji thought, leaning back in his chair and looking out the window, aware that all eyes had fallen on him. Well, he was here, so of course he would be competing. It's not like he ever refused to fight, it was just that he had often "misplaced" time or "forgot," nearly causing his team some battles.

"Of course," he said not taking his eyes off the window.

"Then we should leave now," Don said, in a voice of reasoning, not demand. Finn stood and headed towards the door, stopping only to receive a goodbye wave from his sister, then left. Don soon followed. Jason decided to get ready.

Benji took his chain from Juliet, removed the silver snake, then handed it to her and left the room wordlessly. Juliet blushed with the trinket in her hand.

~~~

"Whew!" Dr. Steven Toros said dropping his full weight onto a lawn chair. He laid there exhausted, waiting for enough strength to open his eyes.

"Hey dad," Leena started, "You think the new guy will help us out with this?"

Leena was kneeling down in front of a black box that had "R.U." on its face in white digital lettering. At the top of each corner was a small triangle. Leena pressed a flat plastic tube of an orange mushy substance into a slot on the face of the box. After a minute, the tube came back out like a rejected dollar from a vending machine, empty.

Each triangle on the box shot streams of green light that met and split many times over, forming the shape of a house cat. The cat yawned and hoped into Leena's lap. A stream of green light attached to its neck ended where the lights from the four triangles met.

"I don't know Leena. Seems like more and more people are hating anizoids every day," the Doc said tiredly.

Leena stood, holding the 3D-hologram cat. She looked over the fenced land around the Blitz Team's base. Every ten feet there was a black box. Most had a green wire frame animal wandering about. Dogs, horses, cats, and many more.

Doc felt a figure come between him and direct sunlight. His eyes fluttered open. Over him stood Jamie. Jamie had gotten taller, he mused. Leena hadn't grown that much since the Royal Cup, and Jamie was catching up.

"Doc, Goji Kaiju is here." Jamie said.

Doc sat up and looked towards the base. In front of the closed door stood a young man in a black leather jacket and tank top. He also had on blue jeans. His face was void of anything one might mistake for emotion.

"Ah, hey there, son," the Doc greeted.

Goji responded with an almost imperceptible nod. The Doc lifted himself to his feet, and both he and Leena were en route towards Goji.

"I'm Doctor Steven Toros, please just call me Doc, and this is my daughter, Leena."

Again, just a nod. It was as if his face was made of glass with red paint for eyes and a Caucasian color for the skin.

"Do you like anizoids, Goji?" Leena asked.

He looked at her then at the sleeping cat in her arms. The slight expression on his face almost looked like disgust, but it was hard to be certain. Leena unconsciously took a step back.

Doc tried to sidestep the dark haired young man's strange attitude and make small talk. "So, ah, how long did it take you to make your Zoid?"

"Most of my life," he answered, with little, if any life in his eyes. "If we're done here, I'd like to see my room. I already took care of my registration as a hired mercenary for this team," he said, outlining things in a direct, to the point, manner.

"Uh sure. Jamie!" Doc called.

'Why me?' Jamie thought.

When Jamie disappeared with Goji, Doc and Leena looked at each other.

"That guy was..." Leena paused, trying to think of a positive word to describe their newest team member.

"Uhh... interesting," Doc contributed to Leena's cause.

"Damn freaky is more like it!" Leena said, apparently recovered for Goji's placid impression.

~~~

Jack sat alone a cheap table outside a tent playing solitaire. The card he held now was an ace. 'Ace,' Jack thought. It was the name of an anizoid Jack had had the displeasure of meeting. At last year's Zoid trials, it had gotten loose and nearly wrecked his Lightning Saix.

The damn thing was crazy! Trying to bite and tear apart its own master with its digital teeth, sometimes using the Zoid it was in. He had heard that the dog, a mixture of Labrador retriever and Doberman pinscher, had been abused, although not by its current owner.

Its owner was a member of the Fluegel team. A 17-year-old they had picked up somewhere who went by the name of Theodore Merc. The guy was a bit cocky and easily excited, sometimes even reckless.

Chris also had an anizoid, a chubby cat, and Jack almost preferred Ace to hers. She had gotten it from Doctor Toros, who had been apparently collecting abandoned anizoids. That thing just didn't like Jack, which had been just fine with Jack until it almost cost him a match. Jack's reaction, an argument with Chris, had only strengthened the bad blood between them.

But there was something else the card reminded him of. 'Class A.' No matter how happy or upset Jack was, he was still in class A. In Bit Cloud's past. The great Jack Sisco a fading memory.

Class A warriors couldn't challenge Class S warriors, but it worked the other way around. Bit hadn't contacted Jack since winning the Royal Cup, and he wasn't about to beg for attention like some miserable child. He had heard the other continents on Zi had their own Royal Cups, and he had considered going to one to get into Class S faster, but the Tasker sisters were happy with their strangle hold on Class A and could wait. The cost of needing people was starting to get to Jack.

If he was strong enough to hold onto Class A alone, he would be able to take on anything on another continent. But he wasn't.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a truck pulling up. The twins, Kelly and Chris Tasker, exited the passenger door. In the driver seat was a 23-year-old they simply called Chaos. This side of his name was only seen in his use of the Trinity Liger he piloted. Otherwise he was nice, very kind, and outgoing.

Jack had considered asking Chaos to leave with him. They both were good, really liked battling and not overly fond of anizoids. He was sure the guy was hung up on Kelly Tasker. Once again the cost of relying on people set boundaries. Boundaries Jack would crush If he -

He opened his right hand and revealed a crushed ace to his eyes. He shook his head and let it fall.

Chaos, in his jungle camo cargo pants and green tank top, set some groceries on the table and took a seat across from Jack. "How's it going Jack?" he asked.

"Hmm..." Jack grunted.

"Oh, that sucks," Chaos said. He had found Jack to be much more approachable than most people thought. That grunt meant he was bored out of his mind and didn't want to hear any of Kelly's shopping stories.

"What does?" Kelly asked, seating herself next to Chaos.

Chaos ran a hand through his short brown hair nervously. This caused Kelly to move in closer, searching for her answers. "Uhh...uh.." Chaos mind-blanked.

"This card deck you bought me." Jack's words sliced between them. Kelly locked Jack in her gaze. Chaos let out a breath then a soundless 'thank you' to Jack.

"Well...I didn't know which one you wanted," she said defensively. You never even come with us any more and there are like 200 different decks in there. Which reminds

me..."

"Yes..?" Jack asked as if he didn't know what was coming.

"You know the electronics store right next to the card shop?" She didn't wait for an answer before continuing her story. "That damn woman in there..."

~~~

Benji's amber eyes stared into a river of his own thoughts. His thoughts just flowed from one to the next. Mostly about what he'd do after the battle, which wasn't much. This was life right now. It didn't seem to make much difference what he did. Eventually the sun would go down and rise again.

"The Venom Team versus the Zero X team. Ready... FIGHT!" the words roped Benji's wandering mind pulling him back to the battlefield.

Someone was shouting out orders. It was Finn! What the hell was that all about, Benji wondered. He missed all of what was said. Benji looked towards the approaching enemy; a white Liger, a D-mantis, a dragon, and a humanoid Zoid. Benji only recognized the wolf and Liger Zoids. Liger Zero, that was!

Don was firing at the D-mantis with his long-range cannon and missing. It was incredibly fast, of course, it would have to be. It was on a Class S team!

Jason was charging and firing at the humanoid Zoid which came closer and closer, all the while eating the shots with its shield.

Finn and his serpent Zoid were nowhere in sight. Benji was standing next to Don with the Liger Zero and dragon Zoids heading straight at him.

"Benji, what are you doing?" Don asked, as if they were all just sitting around the dinner table and not in the middle of battle. He was in the process of blasting at the swift moving D-mantis as he spoke.

"Sorry, what am I suppose to be doing?"

"Charging the dragon Zoid and ignoring the Liger," he answered simply.

"Alright," Benji set out to play his part. But why was he supposed to ignore the Liger? Just as Benji finished his thought, the earth beneath the Liger opened and Finn's serpentine Zoid rammed into it, knocking it off course. This left a small window of opportunity for the dragon Zoid to get a few shots in on the snake Zoid before it submerged again.

"Ha ha! That a boy, Taimat!" a young voice called out from the cockpit of the silver and blue dragon Zoid.

Benji cursed himself while still on course with the dragon Zoid. 'Taimat.'

A shield manifested between the three horns of Benji's Trihorn just before he rammed Taimat head on. The enemy Zoid recoiled only a little before returning the blow with firepower in attendance.

When Jason got within close range of the humanoid Zoid, it withdrew a saber sword. The instincts of the animal within the Zoid took over as Jason's Zaber Fang fell into a low stance that resembled a crouching cat ready to pounce. The sword missed Fang's head. The sword came at a downward angle, and Fang rolled out of the way, then sprang up and lunged at his humanoid opponent. He was kicked for his troubles, but not before grabbing the sword.

"Damn," a young female voice cried. In the cockpit of the humanoid Zoid was a girl with light blue hair and lavender streaks in it. Her shining blue eyes didn't take long to find their next move - taking out a buster gun and firing at the flame colored Zaber Fang.

The Liger Zero ran straight for Don's Command Wolf, which already had its hands full with the speedy Mantis. Bit knew the serpentine Zoid was following him, but his radar couldn't pick it up.

"Strike Laser Claw!" yelled Bit, the claws of his Zoid coming down on Don's Command Wolf. When the attack finished, a command freeze signal entered Bit's cockpit.

"That can't be right," Bit said more to himself as he viewed Don's downed Zoid. "He was using an anizoid. They don't have system freezes."

The Liger reared its head to the left. In its sights was the serpentine Zoid, coiled around the D-mantis. It began to uncoil and Bit let it. It was too late for his partner. The D-mantis fell to the sand, lifeless, as the metallic snake submerged again. Bit in his Liger then ran towards Benji in his Trihorn.

With Jason's incredible skill, he was able to use the sword he took from the humanoid Zoid with the mouth of his own Zoid. He dodged the incoming fire and, moving in closer, he swung the sword, relieving his opponent of her buster gun.

A little frustrated, the blue haired girl charged like a living projectile with hers Zoid's shield in front.

"Give Angel back her sword!" she demanded.

Jason's Zoid began its roll animation, but it wasn't fast enough and took considerable damage. Enough to put Jason and Fang out of the battle.

Benji fired at the approaching Liger with the pivoting galiting gun on the back of his Trihorn while firing his machine guns at the Taimat, the dragon Zoid. Just as the Liger set up to do the Laser Claw attack, the snake rose up behind it, blasting and then sinking its teeth into Liger's right rear leg.

"I didn't know he was that fast!" Bit said aloud.

"Benji, keep that dragon distracted!" Finn ordered.

Benji found this amusing. Benji was the leader of the Venom Team, but only by default. He had set out to make a team, and sought out members on his own instead of joining an existing team. It had just seemed easier at the time. Most of the team's strategies had been to go with the flow and use what they knew. Now this hired gun was giving out orders and he hadn't even spoken a word before this.

By the time Benji charged Taimat, it had already gotten off a few shots that were locked onto Finn's serpent Zoid. The shots hit their target before the serpent delivered a

command system freeze to the other active cockpits, but it wasn't the only one.

"Sorry Bit!" The messy brown haired pilot of Taimat rang through.

"Just finish the battle Kagami." Bit said, a little peeved.

'Damn!' Benji cursed inwardly. 'Twice in one battle. Oh, well, there's always next time.' He charged the dragon full force, knocking it over and unloading with his galiting gun and machine guns. The torrent of bullets stopped when the humanoid Zoid 'Angel' plowed into the Trihorn, causing Benji's anizoid Carla to let out a yelp.

"Thanks, Brinks," Kagami said over the vid link.

"No problem," she replied, holding her Zoid's recovered sword to the neck of Benji's Trihorn.

Kagami then locked all of his remaining weapons onto Benji's Zoid.

"Alright, alright I give. I know when I'm beat," Benji said truthfully.

"The battle is over. The battle is over. The winner is...the Zero X team!" informed the judge from inside his capsule post.

~~~

3 characters introduced. One mentioned. Going to work on chapter 4 now which WILL have more story. And, of course, more characters!

(1) Yes, the name Twisted Metal was taken from the car combat game for Playstation.