Ray, Gabe, and Allie Rode on the backs of their creatures as fast as they could go across the nature civilization's countryside. They had gotten wind of the Choten doing something big. They all had thought him dealt with after stopping his plans to take over the world and resealing the veil, but he proved to be very much still a problem. A few months after there were rumors of creatures seeing him in the kaiju realm.

The latest word was he'd been planning something and had built a large machine in the heart of the nature civilization. A stalker sphere had confirmed everyone's worst fear; he was back and up to something. The kids were the first ones out, Ray and Allie itching to fight him. The masters and everyone else were sure to follow soon.

"We're going to get a bird's eye view!" Ray called to his friends from Tatsurion's back. They each gave him a thumbs up from the backs of their respective creatures.

"Be careful!" Gabe shouted. Ray nodded in response. Tatsurion Spread his wings and took off into the air, quickly raising. In the distance, the two could see a large machine. It's Giant 'O' shape was probably big enough for Earthstomp giant to wear. Ray gripped the link on Tatsurion's tighter as they dived a little to gain speed.

As they got closer, Ray could see the Choten as he summoned something. Whatever it was had rockets and attempted to shoot them out of the sky. Luckily they were quicker and wove through the barrage of explosives. They landed not far from them, Tatsurion immediately let loose his own wrist rockets. The other creature took the blast head on but remained as the smoke cleared. They were moving even before it shoot at the once again.

"Ah, Raiden, how nice to see you again. I see your creature is still under the effects of my EVO-syrum." The Choten said smugly. With a wave of his hand, gloved in a tach gauntlet, his creature unleashed another attack. Ray noted that not only was he in possession a tech gauntlet, but also somehow as well dressed as was usual. He must still have lackeys in the creature realm. "It's too bad I haven't seen humonculon lately." He said, obviously hoping to taunt Ray.

It seemed that the Choten wasn't aware that Ray had cured his father after saving the world. Ray would have smiled in anticipation of the man's face when a non-mutant Ken Okamoto showed up to fight, had he not been so focused on the present battle.

"What are you up too Choten?" Ray spat as something flew by his head. He put up his mana shield as Tatsurion sent a wave of spikes to deflect a debris attack. He spun to send a second wave as Ray fought to keep eye contact with his number one enemy.

"Just trying to get home is all, dear boy." The Choten said simply.

"Like we'd believe that with that threatening piece of junk you built!" Allie called breaking through the tree line. Bats flew out of Squeaky's mouth, blinding the creature attacking Ray and Tatsurion, who then went to tackle it. Tatsurion lifted it off the ground high into the sky.

"Ah well, It certainly is a way home for me." The Choten said. He summoned two more creatures with his tech gauntlet to battle the new comers. "This device is one to open the Veil. However, open might not be the right word. Destroy seems much more accurate." He punctuated the sentence with a maniacal grin.

"Uh, not good. The Choten's gone from lawful evil to chaotic evil." Gabe lamented.

From above, Tatsurion released his hold on the Choten's creature and let it fall to the earth. As it fell flailing, they made a dive for the ex-duel master himself. He summoned yet another creature and it intercepted them. While all three were embroiled in fighting, the Choten ran over to the machine and began flipping switches and pulling leavers. The machine began to whirr to life.

"With the amount of power this machine possesses, not even a hundred duel masters could repair the veil!" He laughed. Gabe wondered where he was getting all this power from.

"Then we'll just have to stop you from using it then." Came Jaha's voice. The duel masters, and Ken, had finally arrived. The Chotens face flashed confusion and anger before returning to his self-assured smile.

"Easier said than done dear Jaha." The Choten summoned two large creatures. "Raiden, boy, look, when you have this much power you don't need something as frivolous as friendship to control this many creatures!"

It took all the masters and Ray's father to keep the two giants at bay as the kids fought their own opponents and the machine powered up. Ray could see the strain on the Choten's face as he struggled to control the five creatures. If he could just get rid of this opponent and distract the duelst. Thinking quickly, he made a plan and moved to talk into Tatsurion's ear.

"I'm positive if you tackle it and light yourself on fire it'll vanish." He shared. Tatsurion grunted in acknowledgement and sprang into action. He sent chains to encircle his opponent and draw it closer. It struggled in his grip and shrieked at the fire until it vanished. Ray urged Tatsurion towards the Choten, it was time to end this.

The portal made a sound as it was fully powered up. The Choten turned to look at his completed work but caught sight of Ray and Tatsurion headed his way. In a panic, he tried to move one of the giant creature's limbs to bat them away. The limb struck Ray, knocking him off his friend and directly into the portal. The limb continued it's path and knocked the portal over, breaking it.

"No!" Came several voices. First was the Chotens, spoken in frustration at yet another failed plan, right before Tatsurion knocked him into a tree. Next came Ken, Ray's father shouted the word in concern. Last was Nadia's, in concern that the Choten's plan might have worked, her fears were soon assuaged as nothing more seemed to happen. Tatsurion quickly realized his friend was no longer on his back and went to look for him.

Without the Choten's control, the creatures he summoned were soon banished. But when everyone went to converge on him, he was gone. The slippery bastard had escaped again. Allie kicked a tree in frustration, then cradled her injured foot.

"I can't find Ray." Tatsurion said, worry tinging his voice.

"He was flung through the portal." Ken said in equal concern.

"Well, it was a portal across the veil, so he should be there." Gabe reasoned. Even though the portal hadn't done what it was supposed to.

"Ken and I shall look for him. The rest of you should head home and recuperate." Master Chavez said. He brought a comforting hand up to Ken's shoulder. Allie and Gabe were about to object but a glance from Jaha made them think twice. The creatures were banished and the two groups left.

Ray had seen the limb coming and brought his left arm up to try and futilely block it. Unfortunately, it was the same size as him, if not bigger, and hit him like a hummer. His grip was wrenched painfully from the ring on Tatsurion's back, and he was sent flying. He didn't even have time to register going through the portal before he hit a tree trunk sideways and painfully fell to the ground.

He laid there in pain, vision swimming, for long time. He eventually rolled over and got up, groaning the whole way. He braced himself against the tree he had hit and looked around. Ray found that he was no longer in the nature civilization, but in an unfamiliar park. He thought that the portal had brought him across the veil, but luckily hadn't destroyed it. A look to the sky told him that he probably wasn't in San Campion, or southern California at all really. The weather cast hadn't called for a muddy looking overcast. He should probably find a phonebooth and call someone to come get him.

Ray stumbled to the edge of the park and idly thought about how strange it was that no one was around. None of the businesses looked occupied, and no cars were on the streets. A place like this should be at least a little busy on a Saturday.

To his right he heard the sound of a collapsing building. Looking over he saw a creature that would look out of place even in the Kaiju realm. It was some bulbous mixture of insect and mammal that raised the hair on the back of his neck. Seeing him, it made a loud and shrill sound that forced Ray to cover his ears. When it ended, more creatures, different creatures, began to peak over the buildings to the sides of the first one. Ray turned and began to sprint in the opposite direction, but stop at the sight of more creatures. He was surrounded, and the creatures were closing in. None of them looked friendly.

Seeing no other option, Ray preformed the kata he had done so much it was entirely muscle memory now and summoned Tatsurion the unchained. The half dragon looked relived to see him until one of the creatures jumped on his back. He immediately threw it off and grabbed Ray protectively.

"Fight now, talk later." Ray instructed, climbing onto his back.

Rex eagerly jumped out of the military vehicle he had been riding in. He was more than happy to stretch his legs and dive into action. The ride here had been long and he had been bored all week. Kicking a mob of EVO butt was just what the doctor ordered. (Holiday was very happy to have him out of her lab.)

"So, what's the mission this time?" He asked as Six exited the vehicle.

"A large group of EVOs recently popped up and have been causing problems and mayhem. We've isolated them here in Valley Spring City and evacuated the residents. That doesn't mean you should just let loose though. The less damage the better." Six stated adjusting his glasses.

"So go in there and do your thing kid." The Gruff voice of Bobo said. He made a shooing gesture. Rex rolled his eyes, formed his Boogie pack, and flew off.

From the air, he could easily the layout of the city. Lucky for him, it seemed like the EVOs were all in relatively the same area. But as he got closer, he noticed something was off. There was a fight going on. And there seemed to be someone right in the middle of it.

Closer still and he could see what was going on, a boy not much younger than him was on the back of an EVO who was fighting off the other EVOs. Hadn't Six said everyone had been evacuated?

Before he could get even closer to find out a few of the beasts had broken off from the group to attack him. They sprouted wings to meet him, and he sprouted a big fat sword to bat them away with. The more he beat down, the more turned away from the middle to fight him, until he was battling around half the swarm. He had also made his way closer to that other two.

Eventually the three had knocked every EVO out or otherwise incapacitated them. Leaving Rex, Ray and Tatsurion to face each other across the empty park. Neither party knew what make of the other. Ray and Tatsurion had never seen anyone like Rex, and Rex wasn't sure if the other two were friendly. Rex could see Ray's gauntlet from here, and mentally marked him as an EVO.

Eventually Bob got fed up of staring each other down and broke the tension by firing wrist missiles at Rex. The two took to the sky and began to fight. Rex quickly put them on the defensive. This was Tatsurion third battle in a row, both he and Ray were growing tired. Ray did his best to block Rex's blows, but his mana eventually ran out.

Tatsurion made a low swoop to try and distance himself and his duelist from the opponent. Rex easily kept up and with a wide swing hit Bob directly. Without Ray's mana shield, the creature vanished in a fiery aura. Ray tumbled harshly to the ground.

Rex landed and cautiously approached the other teen. He jumped when Ray's gauntlet deactivated, returning to a simple glove on his hand. When nothing more happened he finally moved closer. The smaller teen was definitely unconscious.

Thoughts and questions swirled through Rex's head. Who was this kid? What happened to the EVO he was riding? And what about his hand? Did Van Kliess have something to do with any of this? On a whim, he crouched and laid a hand on the other's collarbone. He didn't feel anything like nanites that needed to be cured. That fact that he wasn't an EVO raised more questions.

Rex knew one thing for sure, Holiday would want to know about this. He picked the other teen up and took off back to Six and Bobo. He glanced down to the teen in his arms. 'Kinda cute…' he mused.

A.N.

So this is really sloppy but I've been awake for a long time trying to fix my sleep cycle. I'll fix it all later. There are a few headcanons at work here too that I'll explain later. Sorry if anyone is ooc, I am really tired.

Edit: Sweet gods what was that? Everything was all html-y. I hope it's fixed now...