“Here comes the judge!” shouted Zane. He could barely contain the excitement in his voice, a characteristic trait of his young teenaged enthusiasm.

The judge’s landing pod make a loud impact, the crash could be heard and felt from miles around throughout the area. When the dirt had settled and cleared, a deep massive crater could be seen, but strangely, the pod itself appeared to be unscratched by its violent landing. Alert lights started to flash and the sound of warning sirens fill the air as the pod’s hatch slowly opened, revealing a slim robotic figure. Its somewhat cylinder shaped head with a black visor scanned the landscape, taking in account of who were present as if taking roll call. It spoke in a computerized yet authoritarian voice, almost human but not quite.

“Area…scanned. Battle field…set up.”

“And so, it begins.” Orisha thought to herself. She gripped the controls, tensing but trying to relax at the same time, trying to put her troubled mind at ease for the upcoming battle.

Her oldest brother, Orixas, heard his younger sister’s sharp intake of breath over the battle net, sensing her uneasiness. As much as he hated that mercenary Jack Sisco, he could relate to her anxiety of facing a friend on the battlefield and he didn’t like his sister having to suffer because of it. Orisha wouldn’t be in this situation if Cam’ron didn’t attack the judge during their last battle, that crazy fool. What the hell was he thinking? Orixas snorted in disgust at the memory of it. Well, it was Cam’ron’s fault, he did an illegal move and when the judge called him on it, he went ballistic. Cursing out the judge is one thing, but attacking him with your zoid is another. Clearly, his brother was not using common sense and because of it, he was suspended for six months. Luckily, Cam’ron wasn’t expelled from the Zoid Battle Registry altogether but because he was the son of Dr. Estus, he received the suspension instead.

A holoscreen popped up in Orisha’s cockpit, displaying an image of Orixas. “Hey, you okay sis?”

She knew he worried about her, playing the role of protective older brother. “I’m okay.” She signed. “Just a little nervous, that’s all.”

He smiled at her, long thick braids framing his handsome face. “Its understandable, tho. It’s naturally to feel anxiety in your first battle. I know facing the Lightning Team is gonna be a true test of courage under fire but stick to the battle plan and you’ll do just fine.”

Orisha nodded. “Okay, J.” She had called him by his nickname, short for ‘Junior’, to reassure him she could handle the situation.

She thought about the debriefing they had the previous night, studying battle strategies for hours on end, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of their competition’s zoid, the Lightning Saix. It has proved to be the fastest zoid in the Battle League and with Jack Sisco joining up with the beautiful Tasker sisters, they have been kicking ass and taking names all over the sector. More than likely, they will use the same technique on them that they used to defeat the Blitz Team a few days ago. The Stealth Wolf, an upgraded more heavily armored model of the Command Wolf, was clearly no match for the Lightning Saix when it came to speed but it had other advantages. Along with a powerful double barreled shock cannon on its back, it had a special feature few zoids had, a cloaking device that rendered the zoid completely undetectable by most scanning devices. But due to the massive power output, it couldn’t fire its shock cannon while cloaked so that was one of its few drawbacks.

Meanwhile, Dr. Estus and the rest of his staff watched in the massive cargo transport that had bought Orixas’ team to the battle site. A tall bald man wearing glasses and a beard, he served as the group’s advisor as well as the creator of the team’s zoids. One of the young techs sitting at the transport’s tactical computer confirmed incoming information. Their team had already taken their positions and coming into view were the opposition, the Lightning Team. The Saix moved into position, with the sheer grace of a cheetah, the animal it was modeled after.

Kelly Tasker frowned. “Hey, I only see two of them. I thought we would be fighting three?”

“We are.” Her sister Kris Tasker confirmed. “One of them could be cloaked, as we predicted.”

A holoscreen of Jack Sisco’s image appeared in their cockpits. “Yes, and more than likely the cloaked Zoid is gonna be that of Dr. Estus’ daughter, Orisha. She is a replacement for Cam’ron and is the least experienced on the team.” Jack had seen the Zoid Battle Registry and saw her name listed as an official member of the Stealth Team.

Kelly smirked. “Least experienced, huh? I saw her at the trials and that girl couldn’t handle her zoid very well!”

Kris chuckled in agreement. “Yeah, the way she went around those corners was laughable! She crashed into the walls a couple of  times which was funny! She needs to go back to driving school!” The girls’ snickering could be heard over the battle net.

Jack frowned at his teammates. “Knock off, you two. She may not be the best in the league when it comes to maneuvering but she had one of the highest marksmanship scores, out ranking us in that area.”

The girls got eerily quiet when he mentioned that. The sisters knew Jack was having a tough time as it is, facing this woman known as Orisha Estus in battle, so mad mouthing his friend wasn’t going to make matters any better. They couldn’t tell if he was apprehensive about facing her in battle, he was doing a good job of hiding it if he did feel that way. He always had a knack for hiding his true feelings, making him a hard person to figure out most of the time.

“We need to figure out the third Stealth Wolf’s position.” Kelly said, her voice showing no hint of what had happened moments before. “That appears to be the Stealth Team’s main advantage, right now.”

“I studied the schematics of the Stealth Wolf.” Kris said. “Even tho, our scanners can’t detected the zoid while in cloak mode, it can’t use its weapons either so that should even the odds a little.” She turned her attention to her male teammate. “Jack, any suggestions?”

“You two keep the team leader and his brother occupied.” he replied. “I’ll deal with finding the cloaked member of the team.” The sisters nodded in approval.

Jack narrowed his eyes, a slight smirk came over his handsome features.

“Orisha, I know you’re out there and I will find you. Friendship or not, the victors of this battle shall be that of the Lightning Team so prepare to be defeated!”