CHAPTER THREE
UPRISING
"OK, listen up.", said Jamie, meter stick in his right hand as he pointed to a large screen. It was five in morning, and the Biltz team was in the large meeting room were they discussed tactics. Bit was passed out, his head over the back of the chair and his mouth hanging open. Brad was holding a cup of coffee while he had his usual I-Dont-Care look. Leena was brushing a tangle out of her hair and Doc was trying to fix his decapitated Brachios model. The only one who was paying any attention to Jamie was Kali. She studied the small monitor which diplayed data on the Chaplin team. "The Great Sabre's jumping ability comes from the Flight Pack.", Jamie continued, "So while this increases it's speed, it still lacks the mobility of the Jager or Shadow Fox. The main threats here are the Snipe Masters, which can easily hide themselves from radar." Jamie slapped the screen with the stick. "So Brad and Kali will concentrate on the Sabres, while Bit and the Jager will try to take out the Masters as soon as possible." "Hmmm," murmured Doc, giving up on his Brachios after breaking off the leg. "It's a good plan, but battlemode 0982 requires that each team uses the same number of Zoids, and they have four." "Yeah," Jamie sighed, "I know, but my Raynos is useless since the battlefield is on a mountain range, and Leena's Gun Sniper still needs repairs." Well," came a sly voice from the doorway, "what about me?" In the shadow of the doorway leaned a tall woman, hand on hip, her features hidden by lack of light in the room. Giving her red hair a toss, the woman casually sauntered in, the automatic door hissing shut behind her. With cat-lke grace she took the empty seat between Brad and Kali. "Naomi!", Jamie happily shouted, "Perfect timing. We're up against..." Naomi cut him short. "The Chaplin team, I heard all about it. Some wannabe big shots who think that they're at the top of the league just because they own a couple of advanced sniper Zoids." She ended with a snort of disgust. "Uhh, right." Jamie added with some confusion. "We're near the battlefield, so we best prepare the Zoids." As everyone rose(even Bit after a punch to the head from Leena) to leave, a sudden scream rattled around the Hover Cargo. But no one looked twice as they stepped over Doc, who was sprawled on the floor weeping on the two halves that were once a single Stealth Viper.
"Battlefield set up!" The judge annouced to the opposing teams. Judges had changed since the fall of the Backdraft Organization. Their capsules were now protected by force shield generators, advanced tracking radar, and the judges themselves had a anti-Zoid rifle equipped to their right shoulder. Kali took the few seconds of humdrum verbal confirmation the judge produced to scan the battlefield. Jamie was right, she thought, the Raynos would be no use here. It looked as though a massive mountain was hit by a equally massive hammer. Giant chunks of rock stuck out of the desert sand in odd angles, and towards the center of the ruined mountain jagged cliffs and spires jutted towards the sky. In all, the split mountain took up an area of twenty miles. Scanning her memory, Kali remembered from one of Jamie's boring ramblings that this used to be the largest mountain on the continent, a symbol of peace and hope for the people that lived here. But during the Old Wars, the site was used as a target for a new type of tactical nuke. A macabre monument to man's power. Kali pushed the thought out of her head and concentrated on the opposing team. Two Great Sabers in the middle, and the two Snipe Masters on the side ready to bolt for the nearest hiding spot. The Judge was still going through the preliminaries, so Kali decided to check out the AAZ 70mm Hyper Laser Cannon. The cannon was light weight, sleek in design, and very expensive. It sat on Konig's back much like a single barrel 80mm cannon, but tapering off the sides into two small generators that supplied it's power. Finished in a white paint matching Konig's and stablizer wings, it looked like it had come right out of a science fiction novel. Kali eyed a switch on top of the cannon's trigger. The switch had "Dense" on the top, and "Disperse" on the bottom. Being her curious self, Kali flipped the switch to disperse. The cockpit beeped, and several targets formed over the Chaplin team's Zoids before fading. Before she could ponder the switch longer, the Judge raised both arms and shouted "FIGHT". Kali jumped at the sound of the gong and hit the cannon's trigger. The barrel shone a bright red before launching four streaks of energy. The Chaplin team hadn't even had time to move a step from their starting postion when all four Zoids collapsed to the ground, red energy flashing across their armor. The Judge gave the signal. "Battle over, Battle over. The winner is...the Blitz team!" Not even a second into the battle and Kali herself had dropped all four Zoids of the "invicible" Chaplin team. Everyone on the battle field shared Kali's dumbfounded look, except for Bit. He was too busy laughing.
A couple of hours later, back at the Tauros Base, the members of the Biltz team were having a party. Everybody was laughing and carrying on with such remarks as "Kali could be blindfolded in a cave under the ocean and she would still find a light switch.", or "Good thing this isn't a tv series, or we'd be canceled for two second long shows." Kali stayed with her family, as she came to know the Biltz team, for awhile, but being one for some quiet after a stressing day, she retreated to her bedroom. After a hot shower and a change into her night clothes, Kali stretched out on her bed and turned on the tv. The night news was on and Kali stared at the wall behind the tv, until her named was mentioned. She sat straight up and watched the newscaster. The woman in an overy-flashy dress read off a script on her desk. "Today, the newest member of the Blitz team, Kali Cloud, follows in her father's foot steps as she took out the Chaplin team right after the battle gong sounded with no help from her team mates. According to the Judge's relay memory, the total battle time was 1.52 seconds, the shortest in history. Kali will be entered into the Zoid Battle Commission's Hall of Fame as of this week." Kali couldn't help but laugh. "What have I done now?", she asked herself as she gave her pink hair a flip with her hand. "In other news", the newscaster continued, "the space station Zero G has entered it's final phases of completion. It is expected to be fully operational by..." The newscaster never fnished the sentence, as the screen went black. The blank screen was promptly replaced by the image of a man with straight black hair and a face that looked like he was in his late twenties. The laughter died on Kali's lips as she was taken by surprise by this sudden change. She was even more surprised when the image begain to speak. "Kali Cloud, it is my best interest that you recieve this message. Your feats today have truely intrigued me. Therefore I, Vega Obscura, challange you and you only to a one on one Zoid battle against me. Winning will earn you six times the average Class S prize money. Losing will result in nothing more then the burden of defeat. If you accept, meet me at the training grounds twenty miles south of your present location within the next hour. Decline, and this message will never appear again." Kali was shocked. Although the name Vega Obscura didn't ring a bell, the thought of him hacking into her television to deliver this message sent shivers through her spine. Was he watching her now? She quickly closed the curtains over her window. The message repeated itself over and over again until she clicked off the tv. When she turned it back on, the image of the newscaster reappeared. Kali's thoughts all said one thing. "Should I?" All that prize money was tempting, and something about this man also piqued in interest in her, although she couldn't pinpoint what. "If it were a trap," she said to herself, "I would have Konig with me." That decided it. In a matter of minutes, she was dressed and sneaking to the Zoid hanger.
It was nearly two in the morning when Kali reached the training grounds. The night was moonless with a few fiant stars to give light to the bleak desert, but Kali was thanking her luck that Jamie had decided to restock the Zoids tonight. Konig slowed to a walk as it crossed the field, and then to a halt when it saw the black outline of another Zoid. And a monser of a Zoid it was. It resembled a great dragon, and from the distance Kali could feel the Zoid's awesome power. She would have turned around and ran if a man hadn't stepped out from the shadows. He jumped into the dragon's open cockpit, and as soon as the canopy was shut the dragon unleashed a mighty roar. Konig's comlink beeped, and Vega's imaged appeared on the canopy. "Glad you could make it.", he greeted warmly. "Form the look on your face I can tell you don't know who I am?" Kali sook her head. "I battled your father many years ago, and defeated me without a second thought. He may have mentioned my Zoid here, the Berserk Fury." Kali paled at the words Berserk Fury. Every school child knew the legend of the demon dragon that would have conquered the world had it not been for her father. Bit and Leena both would tell her and her friends of the unparalled destruction the Berserk Fury could bring. And now the apocalypse dragon was her opponet. Kali wished she had just stayed home. "So you heard of him.", Vega chuckled. "Bu...But the Berserk Fury I know of has three Charged Particle Cannons and two tri-bladed swords that can cut Zi in half. Yours doesn't have any of those features." Vega cocked in eye at her. "Observent, aren't you. No, I replaced the CPGs with twin Buster Swords and the tri-blades with Electromagnetic Crusher Scissors. The Fury's oringal power has doubled...no, tripled! I call it the Berserk Fury S-type." Before he could continue, both Zoids growled and turned to the left. A low flying squadron of airborne Zoids were rapidly approaching from over the mountains. Kali wondered what they were when Vega shouted over the comlink, "Zabats?! What the hell are they doing here?" Zabats, Kali thought, weren't they Back Draft Zoids? A voice crackled over the comlink. "Vega, so you have decided to reappear. We searched for years for you and Sarah." "Count." Vega growled in response. "So you remember me after all these years?" "Hard to belive that an old bonebag like you is still around. I know what you want and the answer is no." "But it was I who approved your use of the Fury. Can't you at least return the favor by helping us restart the Back Draft." Restart the Back Draft, thought Kali, is he mad? Vega was hot now. "I ALREADY SAID NO! I'm done dealing with the likes of you!" "Too bad.", the Count cooed in mock disappointment, "Looks like you won't change your mind. Annihilate them both!" The Zabats opened their bomb bay hatches. The explosions rocked Konig and the Fury both. A blast from behind threw Konig to the dirt. Kali slammed her head hard against the control panel. As her vision faded, she watched as a group of Zabats exploded into fireballs. Lookig for the source of the attack, Kali saw another dragon standing protectively over Konig. Before she lost conscious, Kali noted that this dragon was green with long spines, and it had a strangely familiar feeling about it.
