Fangs of a Zaber

[Crimson]

Chapter 16 – End of the Road

Jason and Keith now stood in their respective Zoids facing one another for their fateful faceoff. Keith licked his lips with excitement knowing that he was final going to kill his brother for what he has done to him all those years ago. Jason wasn’t nearly as eager as Keith to go through with this fight, but he knew he had to do it to save his father from his vengeful brother. It was quite the lose-lose situation, but Jason readied himself and his Liger Zero X and went to action.

“Let’s get this shit on the road, Keith.”

“Ain’t gotta tell me twice brother.” Keith said as he flipped the DSR on the Konig Wolf and fire two consecutive shots at Jason. The shots screamed through the air en route to Jason. As soon as Keith fired the shots, Keith activated his boosters and followed behind his shots.

Jason saw the shots coming and quickly jumped to his right, Keith’s left, to avoid the fire. Jason slid to a stop and flipped the blades onto the head to prepare the Electron Driver. When he looked up for Keith, he was surprised to see that he was heading straight for him.

“I knew you would dodge over to this side brother, you are so predictable.” Keith said as he made a pass at Jason with his claw extended.

“Oh shit…” Jason managed to get out before Keith’s claw struck the Zero X in the shoulder. The shoulder armor exploded from the impact, and the Zero X fell to the ground. Luckily the shoulder armor was sturdy enough to protect the shoulder of the Zero X itself so Jason would still be able to maneuver freely. If he took another hit of that magnitude there, the shoulder wouldn’t be to handle it.

“Don’t think you are getting off that easy Jason! I am sticking to your ass like glue bitch!” Keith said as he circled back around after his recent attack and followed up on it with a barrage of missiles. The missiles screeched through the air as they made their way towards Jason.

“Ok, that really sucked, but let’s get that ass in gear Jason.” Jason said to himself aloud as he saw the missile barrage coming perpendicular to him. He would have activated the Blades to disrupt their targeting, but with him on the ground that wouldn’t be possible. Jason, instead, activated the boosters and ran straight ahead. The missiles flew into the ground, and Jason performed a slide turn to face Keith with Electron Driver ready. Jason fired off a quick shot at Keith’s left flank. The speed of the shot grazed Keith since Jason didn’t fully aim before hand.

“Holy…good thing that wasn’t dead on, or I would be in deep shit.”

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“OH! So close! Aim better next time Jason!” Rachel said as she was looking on in the command room along with Jason’s father and those in the laboratory. Her, and everyone else’s for that matter, eyes were glued with great intent on the outcome of this battle. Brad and Naomi were out of commission, and having heavily invested time into the Liger Zero X, no other Zoids were available to use in the case that Jason loses.

Rachel watched as the battle continued. Jason and Keith were currently locked into each other with their fangs and claws rolling around on the desert ground. Metal from both Zoids started to litter the ground as both Zoids continued to tear into each other. Rachel was in awe at the ferocity they were displaying in this battle. As long as she was with Naomi and her Fleugel team, she has never seen two people going at it like Jason and Keith were right now.

“Wooow…those two just aren’t stopping are they? I am worried for Jason right now.” Rachel said to Professor Robinson.

“Yea, me too. He is in quite the pickle right now. Someone he loves will die as a result of this battle.”

“You sound very calm for someone who could possible die in the next few minutes.” Rachel stated to him.

“I know I do, but should I die today, having seen my greatest work in action is enough for me to die at least content.”

“I see, well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like dying today.” Rachel said as she turned back to the screen. “C’mon Jason, kick his ass!”

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After tussling on the ground for a while, the two combatants were back on their feet facing each other. Both Jason and Keith were breathing heavily inside their respective cockpits. Perspiration accumulated on Jason’s brow. The heat of the desert plus these two machines of destruction fighting with such fervor caused the cockpit to heat up to a great degree. Jason wiped the sweat from his brow and focused back on Keith. Jason kept moving, dodging fire as he worked on a strategy to eliminate Keith as fast as possible

“Let’s see hear…let’s fire off a shot from my Electron Driver. If I fire it while I am flanking him, he will most likely jump into the air to dodge. Given the velocity of the shot, that is his best option to dodge it. When he does that, I will activate my boosters and move in with my blades down, time my jump, and catch in on his descent. That will basically put him out of commission. Alright, it’s at least worth a try…”

Having thought everything through, Jason began to put his plan into action. Jason flipped the Electron Driver onto the head and let it accumulate with energy. Jason found his opportunity to fire at Keith’s flank and took it. The shot screamed towards Keith. Just as expected, Keith jumped into the air and dodged the shot, and Jason went on the offensive with Blades down and booster flaring. The moment he saw Keith come down, he jumped. The Liger Zero X soared through the air at his airborne target.

“Heh, I told you you were predictable. I have seen you use this plan of attack in one of your previous battles. You can’t beat me like this, so I will have to beat you.” Keith said as he activated his own boosters and using the initial thrust to propel him a little high, giving him time to adjust the body of the Konig Wolf so that he could strike Jason with a claw attack. Keith began his descent on Jason, claws poised for attack, striking to disable.

“That extra thrust caused me to be just out of your line of flight. You can’t win now.” Keith said exuding with confidence.

“Like hell you will!” ”Dammit I hope this works! Jason said as he pushed the boosters to full and pulled the controls hard to the left. The result of this action caused the Zero X to being spinning like a propeller. Jason hung on for dear life in the cockpit and hoped for the best.

“What the fuck Jason?!...” Keith managed to get out before getting swiped by the Blades of the Zero X and plummeting to the ground.

Jason continued to spin out of control and crashed to the ground while still spinning, sliding to a grinding halt. The blades broke clean off and the majority of the remaining armor tore off, leaving practically a bare Liger Zero. Jason thrashed about inside the cockpit due to the hard landing. His head barely missed hitting the control panel, but the whiplash definitely hurt him. Keith wasn’t much better off. The spinning Zero X hit flush on the underbelly and left side of the Konig Wolf, causing a deep gash there and piercing the core. Keith’s Zoid was out of commission.

“*huff* Bet you didn’t see *huff* that one coming did you?” Jason said breathing hard as he struggled to regain composure of himself and his Zoid.

“How the fuck could I lose?! I’m not supposed to lose to you! I was supposed to kill you then kill dad…SHIT!” Keith was beside himself. He couldn’t fathom the idea of losing to Jason in a straight up battle.

Jason managed to get the now bare Liger Zero X up to its feet and made way to Keith’s Konig Wolf. Even though Jason didn’t want to do it, he knew he had to kill Keith, or else he would return to try and kill him and their dad again. It had the potential to be a very vicious circle. Jason placed the foot on his Liger Zero on the head of the Konig Wolf and applied pressure.


The gears on the feet began to turn as Jason put more and more weight on the head of the Konig Wolf. Yelps of pain were audible from the Konig Wolf as the foot pressed down harder and harder.

“I hate to do this, but you are better off gone than here.” Jason said over the comm. with tears welling up in his tear ducts because he knew what he was doing had to be done.

“Fuck off. I don’t deserve to be here if I can’t even beat you. Go ahead and crush the goddamn head and be done with it.” Keith said with a nasty tongue and no remorse back at Jason.

Crunching metal could be heard as the Konig Wolf’s head sunk lower and lower to the ground. Not wanting to endure this any longer, Jason applied more pressure until the head final gave way and broke. Jason broke down with tears streamed down his face.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself Jason. You went into this battle knowing that if you won, this would be the end result. It was either you and your father and I, or him. And you know Keith wouldn’t have hesitated to kill us given the opportunity.” Rachel said trying to cheer him up.

“You’re right and all, but just hate it was done. I’ll be alright.” Jason said as he removed the foot from the now scrapped head to see a splatter of blood there. Knowing he couldn’t handle the sight, he swept sand over it and returned to the laboratory with battered Zoid, and a heavy heart, but also to where he knew things would be better.