Trying To Find Her

Chapter 1: A Call To Stoller

'I'll hold onto this until I find you, lady from the Backdraft Group!' Bit thought as he looked at the bracelet she had left behind at the resort.

"Bit, we're ready to leave!" Yelled Leena.

"Coming!" Bit called back to her. He put the bracelet in his pocket and tried to catch up with the rest of the team. Bit was out of breath by the time he had caught up to them.

"Hey Bit, what took you?" Brad said.

"Ah, I was just thinking of someone."

"Oh yeah? Who were you thinking of?"

"Just that woman from the Backdraft Group."

"Am, Bit, I'm not sure who you're talking about."

"You know, the woman with the green hair and green eyes? She piloted one of the Storm Sworders."

"Oh, now I remember! She was the one you went head to head with, right?"

"Yeah Brad, that's right."

"Well, why are you thinking about her?"

"Because, I didn't get a chance to give this back to her." Bit put his hand in his pocket and pulled out her bracelet.

"Whoa Bit, where'd you get that?!"

"She left it behind, must've forgot about it."

"Do you think she left it there for a reason?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, do you think that she left it there so that you would come and find her?"

"I don't know, Brad. But I'm definitely going to find out. Besides that, I never asked for her name."

"Well, good luck with that, Bit. Although, that thing looks like gold. You'd probably get a good payout for it."

"Yeah, but this might be my only chance to track her down. The question is, where do I start looking? I mean, there are hundreds of zoid battles going on each day! How am I going to find her out of so many people?!"

"Well, you could start by heading to the Zoid Battle Commission's Headquarters. All zoid warriors are in their records."

"That's just it! As I said, I don't even know her name! And even if I did, she's with the Backdraft! There aren't any Backdraft warriors in their records! They wouldn't know where she is!"

"Well, you could always ask Stoller. Even though he's gone legit now, he was with the Backdraft for a long time. He should know where she is."

"You know, you might be right! I'll track down Stoller first, and then I'll ask him where she is. He shouldn't be hard to find. Thanks Brad!"

"No biggie. Though I think we should head inside. We're probably going to be leaving soon."

"Yeah, well when we head in, I'm going to give Stoller a video-call. If he doesn't answer, I'll go to the commission's headquarters and have them look him up. It shouldn't be too hard to find him."

"Yeah, well good luck with that Bit. I'm going to go get some coffee."

"Wait, a Brad, don't tell the rest of the team about this, all right? Especially Leena, because if she finds out that I'm trying to find a woman, she'll probably make jokes about it, you know?"

"Sure thing, no problem Bit."

"Okay, well I'll see you around, Brad."

With that, Bit and Brad went their separate ways. Brad went toward the kitchen in order to get his coffee, while Bit made his way toward the main conference room to make his call to Stoller.

Leena walked into the kitchen to get some cookies out of her stash. She was so focused on getting to them that she didn't even see Brad going the same way.

"Leena, watch-", Brad never got to finish his sentence as they collided, Brad's coffee spilling all over him in the process.

"Ouch! Leena, watch where you're going! That coffee was hot!"

"Oops, sorry about that, Brad! I didn't see you there."

'Ah, same old Leena.' Brad thought.

"Hey Brad, where's Bit gone off to?"

"Bit? Oh, he's giving Stoller a video-call."

"Why's he calling Stoller?"

"Don't know. Probably just to catch up. You know how Bit is with his friends and rivals."

"Hmm", was all Brad got for a response.

'I bet my cookie stash that there's something that Brad isn't telling me! I know! I'll go to the conference room! If I "accidently" overhear what Bit and Stoller are talking about, I'll find out what Bit's up to!'

Meanwhile, Brad was snapping his fingers in front of Leena, trying to get her attention.

"Leena, hey, anyone there? Earth to Leena!" Leena finally snapped out of her trance and said to Brad,

"Oh, sorry about that Brad! Well, I'm just going to roam the base for awhile. I'll see you around, Brad." All Brad gave was a nod in response. With that, Leena left the kitchen to roam the base, but in reality she was actually headed for the conference room.

'Wait a sec, Leena's probably headed for the conference room! I should do something to stop her, but there's coffee all over me. Let me hurry and get myself clean, then I'll see what I can do.'

Bit stepped into the conference room to make his video-call, though he didn't want to be too loud, as he wanted no one else to find out what he was doing. He silently crept toward the machine, and then began to scroll down the list of numbers to find Stoller's video-call number. As he was scrolling through, he came across a mysterious number.

'Hmm, I wonder who this is. It says here that he or she called just a few minutes ago.' Bit then came to a realization,

'Oh no! What if that was Stoller trying to call and I just missed him! Well, I could still try to call him, though I hope that he's still awake, as it's after midnight right now.' Bit then found Stoller's number and touched the screen where the numbers were, and then waited as there was static, followed by a couple of rings and then Stoller appeared on the screen.

"Oh, Bit Cloud, why have you contacted me so late in the evening? Is there something that you need?"

"Yeah, but I can't talk about it here. Can we meet at a restaurant or someplace where we can talk?"

"Yes, come to my Whale King tomorrow. This must be important for you to contact one of your rivals."

Bit rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Yeah, well, it is important, that's all I can say right now. So, I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"Yes, I'll send the coordinates to the Liger Zero so that you can find the Whale King. I must go, Bit Cloud. Until tomorrow. I'll be waiting here. I trust you'll come?"

Bit nodded.

"You can count on it! By the way, Stoller, did you just try to call a few minutes ago?"

"No I did not, Bit Cloud. Why do you ask?"

"No reason, just curious. I'll see you tomorrow, Stoller!"

"I will see you tomorrow as well, Bit Cloud. Goodnight."

With that, Stoller disappeared from the screen, and after it went dark, Bit then got up and headed to his bedroom in order to get some much needed sleep. However, what he didn't know was that Leena had heard everything, and the mysterious video-call number still went unchecked, though Bit was too tired to care at this point.

'Well, you're meeting with Stoller, huh Bit? Well, you can't keep any secrets from me, Bit Cloud! I'll have to follow the Liger at a distance tomorrow to see where Stoller's Whale King is.'

Bit had reached his room and lied down on his bed, but forgot to change out of his dark blue sweater and red pants. Bit had taken the bracelet out of his pocket and began to stare at it, deep in thought.

'I'll find you, lady from the Backdraft Group, and give this back to you, no matter what it takes!'