It Hit the Fan

Eighteen year old Malik Bendict turned his blue eyes towards his two teammates. Elliot was sipping a small glass of wine as he looked at a report. Pete Inkapilia, a thirty-one year old man with brown hair and black eyes framed with glasses, was trying to read some of his research notes. "Hey, did Leehalt leave for his date already? I wanted to ask him something about this program he worked on."

"About an hour ago," Elliot stated, "While I was just waking Jet up and making his breakfast, Leehalt stopped by and asked to borrow my best suit. I heard he actually is wearing cologne today, got it off of Duran. And he's doing Melody's programming for a whole week in order to take one of her new bottles of perfume as a gift for the girl. It'll be awhile before he returns, if he's this serious."

"That moron, when I get my hands on him he's gonna regret that he was ever born!" a voice boomed from down the hall. Then, Leehalt stormed into the room and, once satisfied that the person who was the source of his rage wasn't in there, left to continue his search, slamming the door behind him.

Pete muttered, "You were saying, Elliot. He certainly wasn't gone for that long. Wonder what happened to cause him to go off the deep end this time. Duran's cologne give her an allergic reaction?"

Elliot shrugged. But, of course, he knew what was going on. 'Looks like he's just found out that Werner's the one she's interested in. He'd better stick to the plan, or he can always skip town for awhile. Although, knowing Leehalt, he'll just go and dig up his hiding place in order to get to him.'

* * *

"Maxwell!" Leehalt yelled, "Come on out here! I've got a bone to pick with you. You thought you could get away with double crossing me, well think again. You'll pay for this one."

Werner was hiding in his room, pretending to be immersed in some scientific magazines. He paid no heed to Leehalt's tirade, hoping that he would just skip the whole room. But even in his most enraged moments, Leehalt thought clearly enough to know where his rival would be hiding. So it wasn't long before he had busted his way in, and was glaring angrily at Werner from across the room.

"Well hello Leehalt. You're home early today. How was your date? Let me guess, Duran's cologne gave her an allergic reaction. Or Elliot accidentally gave you the suit he'd spilt wine on that time we went out to the fancy restaurant to celebrate our accomplishments. Oh no, don't tell me you spilt the perfume that Melody gave you to use as a gift," he said, sounding completely innocent.

Leehalt saw thorough the act. He told him, "Don't play dumb with me. I know what you did. You stole my girl from me. I knew I shouldn't have trusted you to write that letter for me. But I just had to tell myself that I should get over my grudge and give you a chance. You're going to pay for double crossing me, and then setting me up on a date so I can be rejected all over again by the woman I loved."

Werner ran Elliot's excuse through his head. "Well, you told me you were embarrassed, so I signed the letter anonymously. She must have confused my reason for bringing her the letter, and thought that I was her secret admirer, and not just the delivery boy. And the fact that I saved Halle, and she was looking at me all the time when we first met might have had something to do with this incident as well. It wasn't my fault Leehalt, I'd never do something like that. I'm not that kind of person."

"Nice try Maxwell," Leehalt stated, "But I know exactly what happened. You did this on purpose just to annoy me. Just to make me let my guard down so you could take her all for yourself."

~ ~ ~ ~

"So what brings you here today Leehalt? You're all dressed up like you're going on a date. The suit looks real good on you. It's nice to hear from you again though. You know, next time you should bring Werner and Melody along, the three of us can go have lunch," Ekatrina requested.

Leehalt asked, "What surprise? I told you I was coming this week. You know, I wrote you a letter and everything. I was under the impression that I'd take you out to a nice dinner in this."

She looked confused. "What letter? The only one I received was from Werner Maxwell. He was going to come this week, but he pushed it back a few days while he was here running errands. We had a romantic dinner accompanied by candlelight, and we walked under the stars for awhile afterwards. He's such a nice guy, I already made plans to go out with him again tomorrow night."

"Show me," demanded Leehalt, his blood already boiling, "I want to see what he wrote to you. He told me that you'd received the letter that I had written to you the day after we'd met."

She got out the poem that Elliot had written, and handed it to him. He saw that it was on the letterhead used at the laboratory, and that the paper was definitely dated the day after Werner had saved her dog. The poetry was on a level that only could be achieved by either Werner or Elliot. And at the bottom of the letter, with a heart drawn next to it with pen, was the name Werner Maxwell.

~ ~ ~ ~

"How can you deny that you double crossed me now Maxwell?" Leehalt asked.

Werner stated, "Listen, it's not what you think. I asked Elliot to write the letter for me, and then he got drunk. He must have confused my request while he was out of it. Ask him if you don't believe me."

Leehalt turned around, keeping his back towards his rival. "Elliot was probably in on the whole thing. I know that the two of you are such good friends. But this isn't over by a long shot. One of these days I'll get my revenge. You will pay for taking my girl from me. And Ekatrina is going to wish that she had chosen me, and not you." Then, he left, slamming the door behind him.

'How did I escape his wrath?' wondered Werner, 'But the battle lines are all drawn now. One day the two of us are going to find ourselves on opposite sides of the battlefield. We're going to be locked in combat over something or other. It may be as silly as this, or it might just be something much bigger. But I know that there will come a time when my gun will be pointed at a man I once called my colleague.'

- - - -

Teefa's Last Words…

Now we all know where they turned from a simple rivalry to all out war. Well, let's thank the people who helped with the fic. First, to Media Vision for the game. Second, to the variety sites for getting me into Wild ARMs. Third, to the creators of Zoids for the idea of how the whole love triangle thing might have went. Fourth, for my friend Dan who got me into Zoids. And finally, for everyone at the Ruins of Filgaia message board, where I found out exactly who was who in the picture of the Council of Seven, and got a little insight into how the characters might have acted.