Fangs of a Zaber

[Crimson]

Chapter 5 – Unexpected Interruption

Jason woke up the next morning with a good yawn and a big stretch; he was ready to get the day under way. Jason got out of bed and headed to the bathroom where he used the bathroom, washed his face, and brushed his teeth. Jason got out the bathroom and left his room and went downstairs to the kitchen. When he got to the bathroom, he saw Rachel down there drinking coffee at the table.

Rachel was wearing white pajamas with Teddy Bears on it. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and it was a little messy. It was easy to tell she got up not too much sooner than Jason did. She was also wearing glasses, giving evidence that she usually wore contacts. Jason thought she looked as beautiful as ever. Jason decided to talk to her a bit before getting his breakfast.

“Hey Rachel, you are looking good this morning.” Jason said looking at Rachel. Rachel looked at Jason and turned a slight red color.

“Haha, why are you blushing?” Jason asked as he noticed her expression.

“Umm..well…you see…” Rachel stammered and just gave up trying to talk and just pointed towards Jason.

Jason looked down and noticed he was shirtless and put the parts together. Jason quickly puts his hands over his chest and nervously headed back to his room and quickly found a shirt to put on. Jason headed back to the kitchen and got a bowl of cereal and sat at the table beside Rachel. Jason tried to initiate conversation with Rachel while eating his cereal.

“So how are you doing this fine morning?”

“Well…umm…shooo.” Rachel stopped herself to prevent further embarrassment and collected herself. After a few deep breathes to suppress her nervous tensions, she continued. “I am doing fine Jason, how are you?”

“Haha, seems I got her all flustered.” Jason thought to himself before answering her question. “I am doing well. Thank you again for spending time with me last night while I repaired my Zaber Fang.”

“It was no problem really. I had fun with you.”

That made Jason smile because he was starting to develop feelings for Rachel and he was hoping she was developing feelings for him as well. Jason continued to eat his cereal and finished it quickly. As he got to the sink to rinse it out saw that Brad and Naomi were sleepily walking into the kitchen.

“Good God, ya’ll look out of it.” Jason told the couple as they walked in. “It is pretty evident what they did while me and Rachel were in the hanger last night.” Jason said to himself chuckling a bit. He didn’t want to mention it though.

“Yea, tell me about it. Naomi is wild…agh!” Brad started before taking a shot to the ribs from Naomi.

“Will you shut up? They don’t want to hear about it!”

“Calm down wills ya? We are all adults hear. It is okay, right Jason?”

“I am okay with it…as long as you stay away from being overly descriptive. You get my drift?”

“I hear ya on that. Let’s just say the night was tiring. Oh, how did the repairs on your Zaber Fang go last night?”

“Yea, everything went well. Time flew by because when I finished it was close to midnight, but it was all good because Rachel was there with me.” Jason said as he motioned towards Rachel. Naomi looked at Rachel and noticed she was blushing. Naomi simply smiled.

“So you are good to go in case we have a battle later today right?” Naomi questioned.

“Yup, we are good to go.” Jason said giving Naomi the thumbs up.

“Alright good, well I am awful hungry now so…Imma get me something to eat.” Brad said as he made his way to the refrigerator. Brad ended up having toast with jelly and some juice.

Soon after everyone was finished with their respective breakfasts, everyone was sitting around the table tending to their own matters. The silence was getting to Naomi because with four people in the house, things shouldn’t be this silent. After some pondering on her own part, she decided to propose her question.

“Hey guys, how about we have lunch together?”

“Why the hell are we talking about lunch at nine in the morning?” Brad asked in protest?

“It is called planning ahead. Not everyone functions off of being spontaneous like you do Brad.” Naomi threw back at him.

“I am all for it, where do you want to go Naomi?” Jason asked.

“I am thinking of going to Zalo’s. They have a good Zoid pilot scene over there, so it will be good to see of any potential battles in case one doesn’t come our way.”

“Sounds good, Brad, Rachel what do ya’ll think? Jason asked for Naomi.

“Eh…I guess it is okay.” Brad said as he sat back and folded his arms across his chest.

“Yes, I am okay with it Jason.” Rachel said looking at Jason.

“Good, now that we are all in agreement, let’s see what is on the TV.” Naomi said as she turned around towards the TV and turned it on.

“We have breaking news in the world of Zoids. Before it was mere speculation, but now it is official. We have news that the Crimson Fang has joined with Naomi Fleugel and her Fleugel Team. You all may know the Crimson Fang as the pilot who shot his way through the ranks to Class A just by fighting in 1-on-1 battles. He is recognized by his red Zaber Fang with black shoulder plates. With someone of his caliber on their team, the Fleugel Team sure is a force to be reckoned with. Naomi Fleugel in her Gun Sniper, Brad Hunter in his newly reconfigured Fire Fox, and now the Crimson Fang in his Zaber Fang, teams look out!

This is Trisha Rayne reporting”

“God, news travels fast doesn’t it?” Jason said with a laugh

“Yea, it does doesn’t it? Brad said back.

“Eh, I don’t mind really. This kind of stuff happens all the time.”

“Do you still feel comfortable going to Zalo’s for lunch?” Rachel asked nervously as she looked at Jason.

“Huh? Yea, I am cool with it. It is no big deal really.” Jason said to reassure her and everyone else. “Well, I am going to back to bed. I am really tired still.”

“Alright Jason, sleep well. Should I come wake you when we are getting ready?” Rachel asked.

“Yea, that sounds good.” Jason said with a smile.

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The night was young and everything was silent. A clock could be seen and it read 10’o clock. A man could be scene in appeared to be a laboratory working on something. He held up the item in a light to inspect it. The item in question was small in size, but looked very high tech. It was clear the part was for a Zoid. It seemed like it was a component to help the overall performance of the Zoid it was equipped on.

“Honey, can you get me the wrench? I got to tighten this bolt.” The man asked.

“Yea, sure be right there!”

The man continued to inspect the component when a woman came in with a wrench in hand.

“Here you go.”

“Thanks babe, how are the kids doing?” The man said as he turned back to tighten the bolt on the component he was holding.

“You know I don’t like it when you call me babe, but the kids are sound asleep.”

“Heh, I know. I did it to get a rise out of you. And…there. I think this should do it. Are you ready to test it out?” The man said as he finished with the bolt.

“Yea, let’s put it into the core and see how it goes. Hand me the plug and I will put it into the core, you head over to the control panel and get set up. Okay?” The woman said suddenly taking charge.

“Well now, who told woke up and made you the man in this family?”

“Haha, just do it.”

“Yes ma’am”

The man headed over to the control panel as his wife put the plug into the core and prepared for activation. The core was a Zoid core that they found from the remains of a destroyed Zoid out in the desert.

“Alright, the plug is ready, are you ready?”

“Yup, now get back here.”

The man pushed a button on the panel to activate the core. The core flickered with light than began to get brighter and brighter with each passing second. The core was now fully activated and everything was going good so far. Now that the initial phase was done it was time to initiate the plug to see it was fully functional as well.

“Alright, here goes nothing.”

A button was pushed was on the control panel and the plug was successfully activated. There were gauges on the control panel that monitored the stability levels of energy of the core. The gauges start to flutter as the plug activated and the core began to glow a more brilliant white. Pressure continued to rise on the core and the laboratory start to rumble.

“I think we should cut it off, this is making me nervous.” The woman said.

“Just a bit more, if this is successful, we will revolutionize the Zoids world!”

With that said, the laboratory continued to rumble and the core continued to glow. Suddenly a fuselage close to the core ruptured and burst. The fuselage fluttered around on the ground with uncontrollably and started to crash into other experimental equipment stationed around the laboratory.

“CUT IT OFF NOW!” The woman exclaimed as loud as she could, but it was too late. The damage had already been done.

“I can’t cut it off, it is going to blow!”

The couple immediately ran out of the laboratory and it exploded.

“NOOOOO!”

=====================================================

“No, mom, dad, someone help them! HELP THEM!” Jason said as he shot up in a cold sweat. Huffing, Jason looked around to see what it going on. He noticed Rachel sitting at his bed side looking at him in a worried manner.

“You were having a bad dream…a pretty bad dream.” Rachel told Jason as she tried to calm him down. She went into his bathroom and got him a towel and wiped him off.

“I came in to tell you it was time to get up, but I guess you were in the middle of your dream and wasn’t waking up. It looked pretty bad and I was worried, so I waited until you woke up.” Rachel continued as she wiped him down.

“Thanks a lot. I guess I will go ahead and get dressed then.” Jason smiled and got out of bed.

“I will see you guys downstairs shortly.”

“Umm…alright. See you soon.” With that, Rachel walked out the room and Jason got dressed. He put on his black sweatpants, black shirt, and red hoody. He put his Du-rag on his head and put a black toboggan on top. This is what he typically wore when going out. With his clothes on, he met up with everyone downstairs and they departed for Zalo’s.

The group got to Zalo’s and entered. The second they entered, the entire place went quiet. It was evident who they were. They were just in the news and they were still the hot button topic going around. The mummers could be heard going around about them and their new team acquisition. The group didn’t feel too comfortable being there because they felt they wouldn’t get a moment’s peace with all the people in there.

“Yea…let’s leave. There has to be a smaller, lesser known place to eat.” Brad said.

“Yea, I agree…let’s get out of here.” Jason said in agreement.

The group left Zalo’s about as fast as they got there, and began to look for another place to eat. After about ten minutes of searching, they found a place that fit their needs. The place was called Ritory’s. Right before they entered, someone yelled out to them.

“Eh Crimson! Looks like you finally found a team that met your expectations.”

“Marcus?! Nice seeing you here. You brought Axel and Robert with you.”

“Like he would leave us behind…HA!” Axel yelled out.

“Yea, I did find a good team to join. Let me introduce you to each other. Naomi, Brad, Rachel, this is Marcus, Axel, and Robert. They are the Desert Wolves. This was the team I was facing when the Fierce Zaber Fangs attacked me.”

“About that, if I knew you were in that much trouble, I would have come back to help. Or Robert and Axel would have because my Command Wolf was nearly out of commission.”

“Don’t worry about it. If ya’ll have come back, I wouldn’t have been able to get together with Naomi and her team. So don’t beat yourself up about it.” Jason laughed.

“Yea, true. So how about that battle? You said we would battle again when you found a team.” Robert said almost anxious.

“Okay, how about today? We are about to go eat, so you set up everything with ZBC, and we will meet you on the battle field, say three this afternoon?” Jason asked. “Are you guys okay with that?” Jason motioned towards Brad and Naomi.

“As long as I get my cut of the money.” Brad said in true mercenary fashion.

“Yea, I am okay with it.” Naomi said.

“Alright, looks like everyone is in agreement Crimson. Have a good lunch, and see you on the battlefield.”

“Alright Marcus, see you then.”

With that, the two groups split to take care of things before their engagement later in the afternoon.