Lidiya chose to leave the pit bay a good half hour after Free Practice was declared open by the tournament officials. The morning was steadily growing warmer, and she didn’t feel like keeping her Lightning Saix in a queue of a hundred Zoids waiting to be checked out of the pitlane. Unfortunately, she wasn’t the only one with the same idea, so she nonetheless found herself in a line of Zoids. However, some ten minutes later she and her Saix were on their way to an assigned practice zone out in the dry, rocky, craggy desert to the northeast of the stadium. She was almost at the designated four-by-four kilometer area when the Saix’s sensors picked up a very faint Zoid signature a short distance into the practice zone.
Lidiya aimed an optical sensor toward it and a holo-window appeared inside the cockpit to her eleven o’clock. It showed a medium-sized Zoid colored in dark hues of brown and grey lying in the shade behind a rocky outcropping. Sensing Lidiya’s Saix, the Zoid raised its head and swung it in her direction.
Well, he certainly didn’t waste any time.
The Shadow Fox greeted her with a narrow, toothy smile.
***
Aaron and Deacon sat in the loft overlooking Bay-42 and watched the practice zone on a large wall-screen easily six-feet wide. They’d brought cushions from the apartment suite and put them on the hard, unforgiving plastic chairs. Then they’d sat down at one of two small, round tables. Deacon had a large tablet atop the table and was viewing telemetry from Lidiya’s Saix, while Aaron tried his best to operate the drone that they’d hired from the tournament organizers so that they could watch the practice session from the sparse comfort of the loft. However, neither man was complaining since the loft had climate control and it was already rather warm outside.
“How’s it looking?” Aaron asked.
Deacon looked away from his tablet to the wall-screen showing the Lightning Saix approaching the Shadow Fox resting on its belly in the shadow of a large rock formation several times larger than the sleek Zoid. The drone was circling at an altitude near a hundred meters. That much he knew for certain because there was HUD on display in the bottom left corner of the screen indicating things like speed, direction, altitude, temperature, wind velocity, et cetera.
“Pretty good,” he replied.
Aaron glanced at him. “Thanks, but I meant the Saix?”
“Oh.” Deacon studied the readings again. “So far, most indicators are in the green, but I’ve got a few in yellow.”
“Is it the right rear leg?”
Deacon arched an eyebrow at Aaron. “How’d you know?”
Aaron jutted his chin at the wall-screen. “It’s limping a little.” He shook his head. “Those new parts needed more time to settle in. The Saix’s Core hasn’t accepted them yet. We should have waited a few more hours.”
Deacon regarded the image on display as Aaron flew the drone slowly around the two Zoids. “You can see it limping?”
“Not with every step it takes, but there is a limp.”
“Then…do you want to call her back?”
Aaron made the drone hover on station, and slowly faced Deacon in disbelief. “I am not calling her back. No. Way. I spent two hours listening to her complain last night about everything from the Backdraft, to our father, to this tournament, and to Ronin. And those two out there haven’t spoken to each other in”—Aaron glanced up at the ceiling in thought—“forty hours. So if this helps break the iceberg between them, then I say we let the Saix endure a little pain.”
“That’s being cruel to the Saix.”
Aaron faced the wall-screen and resumed piloting the drone in a slow circle around his teammates’ Zoids. “Lidiya knows her Saix. She won’t let it get hurt. She may be a lot of things but callous to her Saix isn’t one of them.” He shook his head unhappily at the view on display. “But those two need to sort things out today. Not tomorrow. Today. Or we may as well pack up and withdraw from the tournament.”
Deacon inhaled slowly, then gloomily considered the telemetry some more before suggesting, “You should at least tell Ronin about the Saix’s condition.”
***
The Shadow Fox smoothly rose to its feet without facing away from the Lightning Saix.
Lidiya wrinkled her nose at the biomech, then used her right thumb to press a button on her control column’s right joystick. That opened a comm channel on a predefined frequency and encryption method agreed upon by the members of Team Wildcards.
“Did I keep you waiting?” she snarked.
Ronin’s voice came through the Saix’s cockpit speakers. “I’m thinking we should call this off.”
First, Lidiya’s eyes widened in astonishment. Then they narrowed in suspicion. “Care to explain why?”
“Your Saix is limping.”
Lidiya closed her eyes and shook her head. “She’s fine. It’s just some stiffness until her right rear leg warms up.” She couldn’t see Ronin, but through the canopy’s artificial transparency she could damned well see the Shadow Fox was no longer smiling. “If you don’t trust that my brother and Deacon could fix my Saix, then why did you come out here?”
“I was hoping for better news.”
Lidiya clenched her teeth together and seethed. “What did you say?”
“The Saix’s Core needs time to accept the new components. We can try again in a few hours. It may make all the difference.”
Lidiya exhaled sharply, venting some of the irritation building up inside her before it made her say something she’d regret. Feeling a tad calmer, she tersely declared, “I know my Zoid better than you do.” Simultaneously, she worked the foot pedals, sending the Saix into a crouch, then she pitched the left joystick on the control column forward. Milliseconds later, the sixty-five tonne biomech launched itself toward the Shadow Fox with eye tricking speed that pressed Lidiya hard into the g-couch. Instantly, the bladders in her G-suit inflated, working to keep blood from rushing into her head from the sudden acceleration. The ground beneath the Saix’s feet fractured as it leapt, kicking up small clouds of loose sand, dirt, and little rocks that the biomech left behind in a heartbeat as it rushed headlong to the Shadow Fox.
“Here I come!” Lidiya yelled.
The two hundred meters between the Zoids shrunk to nothing in a couple of seconds. Lidiya had her Saix leap the last thirty meters in a high-speed attack with her biomech’s front claws extended. But the Saix came down on empty ground. The Shadow Fox wasn’t there anymore, and Lidiya snapped her head to the right just in time to see the dark Zoid land with its legs spread to keep its balance as it slid across the broken terrain. Its feet caught on something, and the Fox skipped into the air, touching down again milliseconds later.
It's fast on its feet, she thought. Or is that Ronin’s skill?
“What are you doing?” Ronin asked, sounding unexpectedly composed. “This is a training session to put your Zoid through its paces.”
“And that’s exactly what I’m doing.”
Working the foot pedals and the joysticks in tandem, Lidiya turned her Saix toward the Fox, and charged after it. But Ronin reacted just as quickly, and the Fox sidestepped with an agility that was beginning to irk Lidiya. Again, the lighter, smaller biomech landed with its feet wide as it maintained its balance, forcing Lidiya to work her controls hard in order to turn the Saix around once more. As the Zoid turned sharply, she felt a twinge in her right leg. It was the G-suit’s way of telling her the Saix was feeling some discomfort in its limb.
Okay, girl. I get it. You’re not a hundred percent yet.
The Saix chased after the Shadow Fox, which had turned nimbly and run away.
But we’re going to show him what we can do.
She was fired up to a degree she hadn’t felt in a while.
The last match Team Wildcards had fought in had been a desperate one. She’d snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by the barest of margins, and damaged her Saix in the process, putting the team in serious doubt for the next match if it came along. Instead, Ronin had joined them with the promise of victory in a tournament that was now four times bigger than originally organized, landing Lidiya into the fray against her wishes. Yet now that she was back in the cockpit, and her Saix was patched up and repaired better than it had been in weeks, Lidiya’s frustration and irritation toward Ronin had lit her competitive fire anew.
What she felt wasn’t the usual trepidation she experienced before and during a match. It was more the need to justify herself, and not only to Ronin but to her teammates as well. She had something to prove – that she could pilot the Saix and make a difference in the tournament, though it went against what she’d argued in the hangar more than a day ago. That wasn’t to say that she didn’t have her doubts. However, she decided not to run away from them. She was going to face them head on and crush them.
The twinge in her right leg came again, though slightly less sharp than earlier. She needed to be careful. She hadn’t warmed up her Saix at all, except for the slow run to the practice zone. Overstraining the recently repaired leg wasn’t going to do her or the biomech any favors. Lidiya could hear what her brother would say if she damaged the Saix again.
I won’t let it come to that.
A few hundred meters ahead of her, the Shadow Fox loped away at a pace that would carry it to the northeast corner of the practice zone in a little over a minute. Lidiya conceded that the sixteen square kilometer region would suffice to test out the repairs on her Saix but wasn’t nearly enough to let her Zoid stretch its legs. As it was, she was easily keeping up with the Shadow Fox as it ran over the uneven terrain. Tailing the smaller Zoid, Lidiya studied its movements, this being her first time seeing the Shadow Fox at a run. She noticed how light the biomech was on its feet. Its supple, undulating body seemed to be riding waves of air, and its paws barely kicked up any sand or rocks making it appear as though the Shadow Fox was running effortlessly over the desert.
Lidiya put a little more speed into the Saix’s run, beginning to catch up to the Fox. The twinge in her right leg came again, turning into a dull discomfort as the HUD indicated her speed at around 220-kph. Need to go faster, she thought, however this was only a practice run and she needed to see how well the Saix could handle what was supposedly an easy jog for the Zoid.
Her attention was drawn to the map on a floating holo-window in the cockpit. The square border of the practice zone flashed in amber as the two Zoids ran toward the northeast corner. With about a hundred meters to spare, the Shadow Fox angled sharply west and paralleled the northern border of the practice region. The move didn’t catch Lidiya by surprise. It was the sharpness of the turn that made her breath catch. She had to slow down considerably and then ease the Saix onto a new western heading.
How can it change direction like that!
Again, Lidiya chased after the Shadow Fox, opening up the throttle by pushing the left joystick forward to accelerate, then easing back to maintain speed. Ahead of her on the canopy, the HUD displayed the Saix’s speed hovering at around 225-kph – a light jog for the biomech – while terrain LIDAR reported rough ground ahead – a warning that was calibrated for the Saix.
You can handle it, she told herself and her Zoid, though it was soon having to pick its footing on the uneven topography. The ground was littered with irregular slabs of rock deposited for several square kilometers. Some stacked high. Some low. Each of them several feet in thickness. Lidiya wondered what kind of weather had created such a landscape. Had there been a river or lake here in millennia long past? The terrain was far less a curiosity and more of an annoyance as traversing it felt like climbing up and down wide stairs at a run, giving her Saix a workout and making the ache in Lidiya’s right leg coalesce at her thigh.
Damn it, she complained, clenching her jaw against a pang now and then. Can’t keep this pace. In contrast, the Shadow Fox was keeping its distance a couple of hundred meters ahead of the Saix, leaping lightly and nimbly from slab to slab as it followed a gently winding course over the difficult landscape.
Is it showing me the way?
Lidiya rushed a command into a touchscreen panel to her right, leaving it to the Saix to maintain its heading. Seconds later, a course plot appeared on her HUD – a dotted trail showing where the Fox was putting its feet, and Lidiya chose to have the Saix follow in its footsteps. Steering the biomech was at her discretion, but where it decided to put its feet was outside of her control. Yet it wasn’t long before she sensed the Saix was having an easier time negotiating the troublesome landscape. She was mildly disappointed when the rough ground came to a gradual end and the Fox pivoted smartly southward, kicking off an outcropping to help it make the turn without losing too much speed. In seconds, the agile biomech was running alongside the western border of the practice zone.
Reaching down with a hand, Lidiya rubbed her aching right thigh. As much as she regretted admitting it, keeping up with the Fox for much longer was going to do more harm than good. The repairs were only finished during the dark of the morning. More time was needed to integrate the new parts into the Saix’s body. Thumbing a switch on the right control stick, she was about to call Ronin when suddenly the Shadow Fox dropped out of sight.
What the—?
She pulled back hard on the throttle grip, forcing the Saix to nearly dig its heels into the ground in a sudden bid to slow down. Lidiya’s right thigh and left calf muscles ached as the G-suit transmitted discomfort from the Saix to her. Simultaneously, the safety harness tightened around her torso, squeezing her into the g-couch. She eased up on the throttle grip, letting the contoured joystick return to neutral, and that left her Zoid walking fast rather than outright stopping. However, she did slow it down further when she arrived at the area where the Shadow Fox had disappeared.
A ravine? A small canyon?
Lidiya checked her terrain LIDAR, but the scanner had only detected the long tear in the ground when she was almost on top of it. That worried her a lot. The ravine was twenty to thirty meters wide, and thirty to forty meters deep. If she hadn’t seen the Shadow Fox drop from sight, she would have had no warning that the ground was about to disappear under her.
I need to get Aaron and Deacon to check the LIDAR.
“Uh—?”
The Shadow Fox was standing a few hundred meters up the ravine, peering behind it at the Saix on high ground. Maybe Ronin was wondering why the Saix had stopped. However, he was silent on the comms and seconds later the Fox resumed running a jagged course southward along the floor of the narrow, shallow canyon. Lidiya didn’t realize she’d been holding her breath until then. She exhaled in a rush, took a couple of short breaths, and then hurried after the sleek biomech. But she refused to jump down into the ravine. Instead, she followed it by piloting the Saix a few meters from the edge. Reluctantly, she urged her Zoid a little faster than earlier in order to catch up. The HUD’s speed indicator wavered around 235-kph, and the terrain LIDAR described the landscape ahead as being of ‘moderate difficulty’, which made her snort rudely at the report.
Yeah, that tells me a lot.
Pressing a preset button on her right grip control, she summoned a 3D map that was displayed on the cockpit’s wide center screen. It was rendered from data collated from LIDAR readings and map information supplied by the tournament’s organizers. Importantly, it showed the ravine in dark shades of blue and a token indicator for the Saix tracked alongside it. Other sensor data complemented the 3D rendering, which was why she saw another token for the Shadow Fox running down the narrow canyon to its southern end.
But it wasn’t always on screen.
The token for the Fox would intermittently blink, disappear, reappear, then vanish again before making a comeback. Sometimes it turned amber, meaning the sensor suite was guesstimating the location of the Fox because it had lost track of the Zoid. Other times it turned a ghostly green to indicate a partial radar, IR, or EM signature lock. It made for a confusing picture that left Lidiya wondering if she was chasing an actual Zoid or a sensor ghost.
“Is this how you win your fights?” she complained on the team’s comm channel. “Cheater.”
The Fox’s token blinked amber then started to dart nervously inside the ravine’s rendering. On a gut feeling, Lidiya slowed down fast, the Saix having to skip a couple of times to keep its balance as it swiftly decelerated. On the map, she was right next to the amber token jittering within the ravine, but she wasn’t ready for the Shadow Fox running up a rock wall and then leaping gracefully over her Zoid. It landed close behind her and Lidiya hurried to turn her Saix around.
“Gah—!”
She half-shouted in fright when the Shadow Fox bumped noses with the Saix, then it howled and leapt away.
“Urgh!” Feeling embarrassed, Lidiya snapped at Ronin, “Are you mocking me?”
Ronin didn’t answer her. The Fox did. It stopped around two-hundred meters away, and then spun around to howl at her again.
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“Argh! That does it.”
Lidiya flicked the safety off on her right joystick and depressed the trigger for three seconds to bring the pulse laser rifles online. “Laugh at this!” she yelled and fired as soon as the targeting reticules converged on the Shadow Fox.
***
In the hangar loft, Aaron nearly dropped the drone controls in shock when Lidiya opened fire at Ronin’s Zoid, and his voice came out in a broken whisper.
“…what the Hell is she doing…?”
Deacon shook his head, wondering the same thing as he watched the smaller, nimbler of the two Zoids jump around as if its feet were on fire as laser bolts sizzled past it.
***
“You’re not going to beg for mercy?” Lidiya snapped at Ronin, while cursing the targeting system for being too slow to keep up with the Shadow Fox leaping around like a rabbit on hot coals. “Stay still so I can hit you!”
“Are you sure you want to do this now?” Ronin asked, annoying calm and collected. “Target practice was scheduled for the afternoon.”
“I’m upping the schedule.”
“Then how’s the leg?”
“Huh? What?” Lidiya frowned, confused, then remembered the dull ache in her right thigh and left calf muscle. “It—it’s fine. Worry about yourself.”
“Why are you so angry?”
She growled softly. “How can you be so calm?”
“Because in your state, you’ll never land a hit. You need to calm down. Don’t rush your shots. You’re better than this. I know because I’ve watched your matches from past battles.”
That surprised her but not enough to stop her from shooting at the Shadow Fox, its slightly open mouth grinning as if taunting her.
“You…you watched my matches?”
“Of course. How else was I supposed to prepare for today?”
“You watched my matches…?”
“I watched the matches of Team Wildcards with an emphasis on studying how you fight your battles.”
She narrowed her eyes, nearly squinting at the target reticules and the Shadow Fox that kept dodging them as though it could read her mind. “That’s creepy.”
“It’s not creepy. How else am I supposed to prepare having you as my teammate on the battlefield? Besides, you don’t like me using the battle AI, so I had to do my own research. Not that it’s anything new. I told you earlier that I don’t always rely on the AI.”
“Will you stop moving so I can hit you.”
“You’re being unfair to me.”
“Says the cheater and his battle AI.”
“I’m not using it. It’s turned off. Haven’t you heard a word I’ve been telling you?”
“Then why can’t I hit you?” she complained. “Did you hack my targeting system when no one was around?”
“Have you tried calming down? And you’re being obvious with your targeting.”
“What?”
“The muzzles on a Saix’s laser rifles glow for a fraction of a second before they fire. That’s how I’m avoiding them.”
“What—you have like super reflexes?”
“No…not really…I don’t think I do….”
The Shadow Fox leapt sideways, then forward, then pulled off a backwards somersault that for a moment left Lidiya gaping in awe and she forgot about shooting at Ronin. But it was only for a heartbeat. Then she was back to hunting him down with her laser rifles.
Calm down. Even steady breaths. Stay focused.
The next laser bolts she fired pulverized the desert ground at the Fox’s feet, causing the biomech to dart aside before she could correct her aim and shoot again at the spritely Zoid.
“Lidiya—”
“Not now, I’m busy shooting at you.”
“No, seriously. Lidiya, you need to stop—”
“I said, I’m busy—”
“Lidiya, stop! We’re not alone!”
“What?” Surprised as she was, she nevertheless squeezed off one more shot and the Shadow Fox narrowly avoided being swiped by a pair of laser bolts. “Hey! I almost got you—”
“Congratulations. You can keep trying this afternoon. But right now, we’ve got unwelcome company.”
What is he talking about? she wondered, and checked her map on the center screen to see a third Zoid token had entered the practice zone from the west and was moving slowly toward her Saix and Ronin’s Fox. Looking out her cockpit to the right, she searched the scenery for the newcomer, aided by a rectangular window that centered on an area beyond the ravine. Pressing a button on her right joystick allowed her to enlarge the window and the image inside it. What she saw more clearly now made her tilt her head in confusion, questioning why that particular Zoid had trespassed on their practice turf.
“Did you invite him?” she asked.
“Definitely not,” Ronin tersely replied. “Maybe he’s just smitten with you.”
Lidiya made a nauseous face as she turned her Saix westward to face the uninvited Zoid that would soon arrive at the ravine. “I barely spoke a few words to him. He’s got no reason to be smitten with me.”
“So you didn’t kiss him?”
“What—no! I did not kiss him. Why would I kiss that guy?” She gasped loudly. “Do you think I go around kissing guys on a whim?”
“Then why did you kiss me?”
Lidiya blushed and grew anxious. “Wh—why are you asking that now?”
The Shadow Fox came up alongside the Saix, stopping about fifty meters to the left and faced the ravine. “Fine, then I’ll ask you again after this over.”
A small squeak escaped her, and she had to take her trembling hands off the control joysticks for a short while until they were steady again. Or at least steadier. Grabbing the joysticks, she kept the safety off the trigger and the guns active. Then she went further by pressing a button on the left control grip, signaling the booster pack on her Saix to begin warming up.
***
Deacon jumped up from his chair and rushed to the loft’s windows facing the hangar’s interior. He looked through the equipment in the way at Bay-43. It was empty. He then rushed back to his chair by the round table.
“He must have left after Lidiya did,” Deacon said.
“Yeah….” Aaron sat back with stoney expression on his face as he flew the drone a little higher to fit all three Zoids into the picture. “I don’t know what his game is, but there’s something off about that guy….”
***
A white Lightning Saix with black trim walked to within fifty meters of the west side of the ravine and then stopped to face the Shadow Fox and Lidiya’s own Lightning Saix. She wet her lips then swallowed as her comm console blinked a light at her.
“He’s calling us on the standard greeting channel,” she told Ronin.
“Then let’s hear what he has to say.”
Breathing in slowly, deeply, she then tapped the comm console, opening the general channel for communication between Zoid pilots. “Help you with something?” she asked the pilot of the white Saix.
“Greetings and warm salutations, fellow warriors. Fine weather we’re having.”
Lidiya felt a twinge of unease in her abdomen upon hearing the man’s voice again.
Olivier de Laventura was how he’d introduced himself to her last evening. Aaron and Deacon had taken a break after putting in the last of the parts to fix her Lightning Saix’s right rear leg. They’d headed off for dinner at the restaurant located in the pitlane building that also doubled as a cafeteria for the Zoid warriors competing in the tournament. With no work being done on her Saix, Lidiya had loitered in Bay-42, wandering around her Zoid a couple of times before sitting down on a crate to think or at least try anew to sort through her troubles. She’d been avoiding Ronin for most of the day, and he’d probably been doing the same, so there was a lot of unfinished business between them that had weighed heavily on her heart and mind.
Percival had sauntered over to her while she was neck-deep wading through a swamp of her troubles. He’d caught her unawares, unguarded, and vulnerable. Despite his politeness and disarming charm, and the respectful distance he kept from her, Lidiya had nonetheless felt ill at ease in his presence. She couldn’t say why. Couldn’t explain it later to Aaron when she recounted the experience. However, she’d been grateful when Deacon returned to the hangar bay in search of his palm-sized tablet that he’d left behind. At sight of the tall, lanky mechanic, Laventura offered him sincere greetings, made some short idle chatter about the Lightning Saix that Lidiya had been too anxious to follow, and then excused himself with all the regality of a noble.
Lidiya had then joined Aaron and Deacon for dinner, during which she told them about the encounter with their enigmatic neighbor. Talking about it helped dispel much of the unease the man had roused inside her, yet she had trouble falling asleep that night.
Is that why I woke up in a bad mood?
She peeked sidelong at the Shadow Fox.
And then I started taking it out on him?
Lidiya groaned, a heavy sensation growing in the pit of her stomach that made her temporarily forget about the white Saix standing across the ravine from her.
I need to get my head on straight.
Then with a slow, deep breath, she focused on what Laventura was saying.
“…I was out on my morning run when I happened to notice the two of you in the distance having so much fun that I considered joining you.”
“Quite understandable,” Ronin quipped with just a trace of cold sarcasm.
“I’m glad you should say that,” Laventura rejoined.
“Unfortunately, three’s a crowd,” Ronin flatly denied him.
“Don’t you mean, the more the merrier?”
“Not if the reservation is for two…and only two.”
Lidiya frowned as she listened to the back and forth between the two men. What is going on here? Then she noticed Laventura had gone quiet. It made her more anxious and again her hands trembled but for a different reason this time, forcing her to lift her index finger well away from the trigger lest she accidentally fire the pulse lasers that she’d squarely aimed at the white Lightning Saix standing about 110-meters away on the opposite side of the ravine.
After a few seconds of tense silence, Laventura asked, “Am I to understand that I am not welcome?”
“Give the man a cigar.”
The white Lightning Saix raised its head by a few degrees. “How disappointing.”
“I agree. After all, my teammate and I were in the midst of much needed target practice when we were intruded upon. Sincerely disappointing.”
“Now you’re simply being rude,” Laventura said drily.
“There’s a saying. Rudeness begets rudeness.”
“That is unnecessarily harsh. We’re neighbors after all,” Laventura raised the fact. “A certain amount of respect—”
“You came here looking for a confrontation,” Ronin cut him off. “Don’t act offended.”
“On the contrary, I was looking forward to participating in a fruitful practice match between neighbors—”
“You’re not welcome. How many different ways do you need to be told?”
“I must say. I’ve never encountered such uncouth behavior—”
“Leave before I report you to the tournament authority for impeding another team. And in case you’re wondering, that’s in the rule book.”
Lidiya watched and listened nervously to the exchange. Ronin’s tolerance was wearing thin. She could hear the anger underscoring his words. And Laventura was pushing it. The problem was that any unsanctioned fights between teams would land both parties in hot water with the tournament authority. That was indeed in the rule book. Another problem was that they couldn’t get rid of Laventura themselves or they’d end up penalized. And if they chose to leave the practice zone, she was certain the bastard in the white Saix would harass them all the way back. But it wasn’t just Ronin who was growing weary of Laventura. As nervous as she was, Lidiya’s restraint on her anger was also fraying quickly. If anything, she had a far shorter fuse than Ronin did, and Laventura had done his damndest to light it.
“I finally understand,” she said into the comm channel. “I mean get it. I totally get it now.”
The white Saix slowly faced her Zoid. “If it isn’t the lovely Miss Lidiya. I so enjoyed our conversation last evening.”
“You’re obnoxious,” Lidiya declared. “You’re creepy and obnoxious.”
“That’s such a harsh thing to say. And completely untrue.”
“You’re so obnoxious that you just can’t take a hint.”
“Can’t we be friends? After all, the more practice we get the better we’ll be during the tournament.”
“You wanna practice?” Her right index finger settled onto the trigger in the right joystick. “Fine. Here’s something for you to practice—”
A whirring sound stopped her before she could shoot, followed by a rapid thump-thump-thump, and suddenly laser bolts were ripping up the desert around the white Saix causing the Zoid to jump back or lose its feet. But the bolts of light chased it, raking the ground whenever and wherever the Saix landed, tracing patterns in the rocky terrain that trailed after the Zoid as it leapt about. In stunned disbelief, Lidiya watched the white Lightning Saix sprint mere inches ahead of the laser bolts pursuing it. Then she looked to her left to see the Shadow Fox’s Vulcan Gatling firing burst after burst of armor piercing laser bolts that tore up the desert around the fleeing Lightning Saix.
“Ha, ha, ha—now that’s more like it,” Laventura laughed, clearly enjoying himself. The white Saix abruptly angled toward the ravine, engaged its boosters, and leapt across the narrow canyon with astonishing speed, clearing it with a dozen meters to spare. Then he stopped sharply and swung his Zoid around so that it faced Lidiya and the Shadow Fox.
“Now it’s my turn—wait! What?”
Lidiya was surprised too.
The Shadow Fox wasn’t beside her Saix any longer. Instead, it was already sprinting at Laventura’s Saix. Before the annoying cretin could bring his rifles to bear, the Fox speared into the larger biomech, sending both Zoids tumbling across the desert, throwing up clouds of mineral dust, sand, rocks, and even bits of sparse vegetation into the air. Then it became a wrestling match as the two Zoids grappled with each other, rolling over and over, nearly losing their back mounted arsenals in the process.
“I don’t hear you laughing,” Ronin deadpanned. “Aren’t you having fun?”
“Unhand me, you lout,” Laventura complained. “This is hardly a practice match.”
“You want to run some more? I can arrange for that.”
The Fox leapt off the Saix, landing lightly on its feet a couple of dozen meters away. Its Vulcan cannon was already spinning and shooting laser bolts before it touched down, so the first ten or twenty shots where off the mark, yet close enough to have the Lightning Saix dancing on its back as it twisted its body left and right to avoid the incoming laser fire. It disappeared behind a mini desert storm whipped up by the Shadow Fox’s cannon, but it wasn’t able to silence Laventura.
“How dare you scratch my Saix with your rodent!”
“Foxes are dogs, not rats. They’re members of the Canidae family.”
“I’ll report you to the tournament authority for this.”
“Don’t complain. You got what you wanted. Now dance little kitty.”
The Saix had to leap to its feet to avoid the next hundred laser bolts the Fox sent its way. Lidiya watched mouth agape as the white Zoid darted all over the ground to avoid being shot. She didn’t know if Ronin was deliberately missing, but the white Saix was being grazed more and more, leaving scorch marks on its armor that would be hard to remove.
Laventura was incensed. “My armor! Do you have any idea how expensive it was to detail this Zoid!”
Abruptly, the Vulcan Gatling stopped shooting, and the barrels stopped spinning. The cannon then retracted.
“This is boring,” Ronin muttered in a dull voice. “My teammate was a bigger challenge than you are. Go home.”
It was odd to see a Zoid heaving like it was out of breath, but that’s exactly what the white Saix was doing. It looked to be catching its breath as it glared at the Shadow Fox fifty or sixty meters away from it.
“Such insolence will not be tolerated,” Laventura insisted. “I’ll have you know that I once defeated the great Jack Cisco in a one-on-one duel.”
“At what? A card game?”
“It was a Zoid battle!”
“In your dreams,” Ronin retorted lifelessly.
“The record of my victory is a freely available from the Battle Commission.”
“Then Cisco must have eaten something bad that day.”
The rifle/booster on the white Saix’s back telescoped upwards. “Tarnish my honor while you can, little rat!”
“I told you already. Foxes are dogs.”
Laventura responded with rifle fire that Ronin avoided by the slimmest of margins. The Shadow Fox rocked left and right on its feet, before sidestepping to escape a double shot that would have certainly struck its head had it been slow to jump away. However, Laventura wasn’t done. Laughing maniacally, the Saix’s pilot fired shot after shot from his Zoid’s twin rifles.
“Dance, little rat. Dance! Ah, ha, ha, ha!”
The Shadow Fox spun up its Gatling and let rip with a fusillade of laser bolts that churned up the desert ahead of the white Saix, throwing up a curtain of pulverized rock and sand into the air that drifted toward Laventura’s Zoid.
“That won’t stop me,” the man declared. “I can still see you.”
“Yes, but it’ll make your shots less effective.”
The Shadow Fox continued firing at the desert, sending more and more debris skyward, putting a barrier between itself and the White Saix, while at the same time hopping from place to place to avoid getting shot by the degraded rifle blasts. Having to shoot through the dust, stand, and rock curtain meant the Saix’s laser bolts lost some of their energy. However, Laventura was not to be denied so easily. He jumped his Saix high in the air and fired downwards when it descended.
“Fool—feel my wrath.”
“What goes up must come down.”
While avoiding the incoming rifle shots, the Shadow Fox aimed its Vulcan Gatling at the spot where the white Saix would land, blasting the terrain with at least twenty laser bolts per second. That spooked Laventura who triggered his boosters and sent his Zoid rocketing to a new landing spot over fifty meters away. But it was dangerously close to the ravine, and Laventura had to cut his boosters in a rush or they’d carry him into the narrow canyon. Oddly, the Fox had stopped shooting and only watched as its opponent landed and spun around to face it.
“Nice try, you fiend—” Suddenly, the ground under the white Saix fractured, then swiftly crumbled, nearly taking the big Zoid into the ravine. “No—what have you done!”
“Me?” The Fox cocked its head. “I haven’t done anything. Don’t blame that on me.”
Again, Laventura relied on the boosters to get himself out of trouble. “It’ll take more than that to take me down.”
“Then how about this?” Ronin challenged him and shoulder charged the Shadow Fox into the white Saix.
“I won’t fall for that again,” Laventura proclaimed and sidestepped with a timely leap to the right.
“You really should be more mindful of your surroundings.”
He’d avoided it once, but now Laventura had carelessly jumped over the edge of the shallow canyon.
“Nooooo!” he yelled.
“You have a habit of jumping to the right. Why is that?”
For a third time, the white Saix rocketed out of danger by triggering its boosters. It seemed to leap for the desert while in midair. Unfortunately, Ronin had sent the Shadow Fox leaping high at his opponent, its jump boosted by twin thrusters that Lidiya had never noticed on the back of the Gatling cannon.
“You’ve got boosters, too?” Laventura exclaimed.
“All the better to crash into you,” Ronin replied.
The two Zoids collided tremendously and rebounded off each other, with the Fox falling to the desert on Lidiya’s side of the ravine while the Saix was knocked back over it.
“You scoundrel—!” Falling out of sight, Laventura was cut off by the sounds of a loud crash and a pained cry from his Zoid.
“Good riddance,” Ronin snarked as the Shadow Fox retreated from the ravine’s steep edge.
Lidiya had watched it all with incredulity and her mouth agape. In the aftermath, her mind had some trouble catching up with events. She stared suspiciously at the Fox as she asked Ronin, “How did you know he would do that?”
“Do what?”
“Jump over the ravine to avoid you.”
“I didn’t. It was dumb luck that he jumped that way.”
“But you told him he had a habit of jumping to the right.”
“He jumped a few more times to the right than the left. That’s all.” The Shadow Fox suddenly hurried back to the narrow canyon and looked down over edge. “There you are. Are you ready to give up and leave us alone?”
First one clawed foot, then the other appeared, and finally the white Saix’s head came into view as the Zoid hauled itself up the steep, rock wall. “You…will…pay…for this….”
The Shadow Fox retreated about ten or twelve meters from the edge. “All right then. Back down you go.” It fired its Vulcan Gatling at the ground, tearing up the rock that the white Saix was holding onto it. As the ground crumbled and broke apart, the Saix again disappeared into the ravine. “Feel free to lodge a complaint. I’ll be doing the same.”
After hearing another loud crash, Lidiya listened to the sound of labored breathing on the general comm channel.
“I will show thee…no mercy…when our time…on the battlefield…is met.”
Ronin exhaled loudly. “You know, I can’t say it’s been fun because it hasn’t. But I won’t be going this easy on you the next time we meet.” The Shadow Fox turned its head and looked over at Lidiya’s Saix. “I say we head back. We’re not going to get much practice with this guy lurking around.”
Lidiya raised her hands, feeling at a complete loss after what she’d witnessed. “Fine. Whatever. We’ll pick it up in the afternoon.”
“Good call.”
The Shadow Fox began walking quickly southward. Shaking her head in dismay, Lidiya steered her Saix to follow Ronin’s Zoid back to the pit building some forty kilometers to the southwest. Closing her end of the general comm channel, she then switched over to the team channel to complain, “You shot at him before I could. I’m not going to forgive you for that.”
“I didn’t shoot at him. I shot at the ground. Not once did I aim for him.” The Fox looked back at her. “If you’d fired at him directly, it wouldn’t have gone well with the tournament officials.”
“Huh? Oh…yeah, you’re right.” She grimaced as she looked at the 3D map on her center screen. “You think he’s going to complain.”
“Definitely. We’ll do the same. If we get slapped with a fine, I want to make sure he gets one as well.”
“If only he wasn’t our neighbor….”
“Agreed. And we haven’t heard the last from him. Let’s hope he loses in the first round. That would save us a lot of trouble.”
Thinking over how Ronin had fought Laventura, Lidiya felt the need to confirm her suspicion. “Have you fought a Lightning Saix before?”
“A few times.”
Indeed, she’d expected that to be the case. “You ever lose against one?”
“Not yet.”
She huffed at his laconic reply. “Is that because you cheated with your battle AI?”
“Seriously? How long are you going to keep that up?”
“Well? Did you?”
The Shadow Fox started running, leaving Lidiya behind in her Saix. “I didn’t need to. Just like I didn’t need the AI to deal with our interfering neighbor.”
Lidiya accelerated her Saix, chasing after him while feeling the ache return to her legs, and she wondered if maybe she ought to sit out the afternoon practice hours and save her Zoid for the first tournament round tomorrow. However, what she ended up admitting was, “Well, it was kinda cool how you put him to shame.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah, you can be cool when you want to be.” She paused, then added with a smirk, “When you’re not trying to make me angry.”