Kagiju Tales

by Cole Tyger

a fanfic that introduces the then new characters of Mazin-kaze and Jura to the ranks of the K-girls of Neo Monster Island contains 4 main chapters A New Wind, No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, and Heavy Metal

1. Chapter 1

A New Wind

Neo Monster Island. Just the mention of this place conjures images of giant robots, even bigger monsters, and their human sized counterparts. As well as the massive destruction that always follows in the wake of such things. This is a tale of one of the more widely known families on the island, but from a time when family wasn't a very apt description of their relationship. Let us now look in on the mansion of the vanished Professor Nagai, and its current residents. Both, his greatest creations, and his "daughters", Mazinger Zoe, and her newly brought online prototype, Maizy.

"I'm off to the school, and I don't want you to leave the house," Zoe tells the smaller framed robot girl. "We still don't know if there are any glitches in your programming after being offline for so long, and I don't want to risk anything happening to you."

"This isn't fair! I'm the older sister here! I should be laying down the rules!" Maizy yells, stomping her foot.

"Please, just promise me that you won't leave the house while I'm gone?" Zoe asks, her voice nearly pleading.

"Fine, whatever. I promise I'll remain your prisoner while you're gone. Happy?" Maizy growls.

"Thank you for agreeing to stay," Zoe tells her, clearly not happy about how Maizy feels about it.

"Have a nice day, while I'm stuck here," Maizy adds, before slamming the door behind Zoe.

"Yeah, lots of fun," Zoe whispers as she starts off for the school.

"This sucks harder than that vacuum attachment the old man designed!" Maizy snarls as she stalks from room to room in the mansion. "If I wasn't stuck in this pint sized body, she couldn't order me around so easily," she grumbles as she storms into the professors old study and kicks his desk in frustration. "What the?" she says, surprised when a computer disk falls out from between two sections of the desk. Picking it up, she slides it into a hidden slot on the side of her neck, to see what is on it.

Her eyes light up brighter, and a huge grin covers her face once she realizes what she's looking at.

"The next generation design! This…..with a body like this, Zoe will have to treat me as an equal!" she practically cheers. "I need to see if we have enough parts downstairs to actually build it," she whispers, before tearing out of the room and heading for the basement lab.

"Damnit. This file calls for a new alloy for both the inner frame and outer skin," Maizy growls as she searches through the materials in the basement, and compares them to what the schematics disk says she will need. "How the hell am I supposed to forge a new alloy, when we don't have any equipment to smelt metal?" she complains, pounding her fist against the wall. "Huh? What's this?" she says as she finds a note about a radio signal in the plans. "What's this supposed to do?" she wonders as she transmits the signal.

The rumble as a section of the wall sinks into the floor is almost as big a shock as the newly revealed staircase.

"Wonder what the old pervert has hidden down here? Hopefully the stuff I'll need, since the secret to opening the door was in the file," she mutters to herself as she starts down the stairs, the lights coming on as she progresses, until she finally finds the bottom. Things remain dark, until she takes a step into the room. The sudden flash of light blinds her optics for a moment.

"JACKPOT!" she cheers as she gets a look at the equipment in the chamber, especially the partially completed body laying on the work table.

Rushing over, Maizy quickly shoves a crate next to the table, and hops up on it, "Stupid short legs," she mutters darkly as she starts to scan the incomplete body. "This is great! I can have this ready for my mind in a couple of weeks! And the weapons and armor are already done, I just have to install them!" she says as she quickly bounces from table to table, inspecting their contents.

Then a small alarm sounds in her ear, bringing her up short. "What? Not now!" she cries. "Damnit! I've got to hide all this, or else she will keep me from doing it," she says, igniting her flight pack and jetting back up the stairs, transmitting the signal that opens and closes the wall as she clears the doorway.

She makes it to the top of the stairs back into the house proper before Zoe opens the door.

"There you are!" Zoe says, relief in her voice. "I was starting to get worried."

"I was practicing with my flight pack. Since I can't go outside, I thought the biggest room in the house would work," Maizy returns, quickly thinking of a reason for her to be down here, and the lingering traces of exhaust from her flight pack.

"Well that's good. If you'd like, I could help you set up some kind of test course down here, some rings and markers or something for you to practice fine control," Zoe offers.

"I guess," Maizy responds, actually surprised that Zoe bought her lie. "It would give me something to do besides stare at the walls and explore the house all day."

"Yeah, it only takes about half a day before exploring the house gets boring," Zoe agrees. "That's how long it took me to look the place over when they sent me back home," she adds, slightly wistful for the life that she had before. "But part of what I found during that time was you, sis, so I'm not going to complain about it."

"Thanks," Maizy says, suddenly feeling a little bad about keeping her plans hidden.

"But for now, I brought some pizza home, so let's go eat," Zoe tells her.

"Race ya!" Maizy smirks, before igniting her flight pack and racing back up the stairs.

"Hey! No fair squirt! The wings on my pack are too big for me to do that!" Zoe cries as she sprints after her smaller sister.

"It took me a month, but she's finally ready for me," Maizy says as she closes an access panel over the new body's belly area. Dusting off her hands, she quickly hops down from her perch, and races back up the stairs from the hidden lab, before Zoe can return, and find out about her secret project.

"It would have been done so much sooner if I wasn't keeping up with this flight practice," she thinks, flipping herself through the hanging rings, and down to the farthest reaches of the basement, where Zoe had set up a shooting range for her to practice on. Burning down five of the cardboard targets in a single pass, without scorching the statue in the middle that was supposed to represent a non-combatant, Maizy flies toward the wall, and flips herself so that she impacts the wall feet first, then takes off again flying to the stairs. "Now to go make sure that she still doesn't suspect anything," she thinks as she heads up the stairs so that she can be found brooding in the living room.

"Now then, just what has she been up to down here?" Zoe thinks as she emerges from her hiding place. Pride surges through her as she recalls Maizy's display of prowess before she went upstairs, but the fact that she was in a part of the mansion that Zoe wasn't even aware existed, and that she had kept its discovery from Zoe filled her with apprehension.

Moving to the section of wall that she had seen move, she sends a recording of Maizy's radio signal password, causing the wall to open for her, and reveal the stairs to the hidden lab.

"Dear lord, was she really this upset with being in a smaller body? If this Mazinger model was a real human, she would be called an Amazon," Zoe whispers in shock as she takes in the newly completed form of the final model of Professor Nagai's Mazinger series cyber doll.

Quickly moving over to the diagnostic displays, Zoe rapidly works her way through the data, shocked at how powerful this model is.

"My gods, not only is this thing an order of magnitude stronger than me, if these displays are correct, it can take everything I can throw at it and pretty much shrug it off! Does she hate me so much that she wants this much power?" Zoe can't help but wonder, as she stares in shocked awe at the soulless form before her, and contemplates the raw power it possess.

With a deep sigh, she reaches a decision.

"She can't be trusted with her current powers yet, there isn't any way I can allow her to make this body her own. So I'll just start the process for making her a third sister. All be it, with a considerable time lag, so that I can monitor things if I need to speed the process up," she says, attaching one of the cables hooked to the new body's head, to one of her own data ports. "Once the sentience program is activated, she won't be able to dump her mind into this body without killing the new personality that is forming. And if her performance with her weapons is any indication, in that respect at least, she's as good as I could hope for."

Once Zoe has started the program running in the new body, she places lockdown codes on its activation systems, making it so that only she can initiate a start up on the new cyber doll. Then she places the inert form into what amounts to a storage coffin, and locking that down as well. Then Zoe moves to the hidden labs main computer, and changes the access code, and radio frequency, making triply sure that Maizy is no longer able to continue with her little project.

"Now, to go back upstairs and pretend that I don't know anything about this," she mutters dejectedly, trudging up the stairs.

"So what do you have planned for today?" Zoe asks, as she prepares to leave for the school.

"Just another day of stupid drills in the basement, and using my communications suit to surf the internet," Maizy answers with her normal tone of disgust, while secretly she just wants Zoe to leave, so she can get on with the final stage of her project.

"Have fun then," Zoe says as she closes the door. Then she maximizes the sensitivity of her audio sensors, so that she can hear the muffled "clumps" as Maizy sprints to the basement stairs and starts down. Zoe hangs her head in despair, then reopens the door and heads back in, with considerably more stealth than her sister.

"What the blinking hell is wrong with this thing!" Maizy screams in frustration, as she tries repeatedly to access the hidden lab.

"Your little project has been cancelled," Zoe calmly informs her as she slowly walks down the stairs.

Maizy spins around, what color there is to her silver complexion draining away at the sound of Zoe's voice. "You didn't….." Maizy trails off.

"Destroy her? No I didn't. I merely made sure that you couldn't follow through with your plan to dump your mind into her body," Zoe tells her.

"Why! Why did you have to ruin everything? You where supposed to come home to find someone you could look at like an equal, not a half pint kid," Maizy nearly cries.

"An equal? With someone who would do this behind my back? This is the kind of thing that I'm so worried about you know. How many times have you lied to me during the course of this little project of yours? And you want me to trust someone like that with the immense power that has been built into that new cyber doll?" Zoe asks, tears rolling down her face, despite her utterly calm voice. "As soon as I get home, we are going to start a monthly schedule of diagnostic checks of your programming. Until I feel that I can trust you, you are not to leave this house under any circumstances. Is that clear?" Zoe demands, her voice going harder than steel.

"Crystal," Maizy mutters, all her dreams of what she could accomplish with her new form going up in smoke before her mind's eye.

Chapter 2

More than a year has passed since the events in the hidden lab. Maizy has earned Zoe's trust, and Zoe has earned Maizy's respect. While the smaller cyber doll is still prone to fly off the handle at being called the "little sister" their family life has improved immensely, with both sharing tails of adventures with their respective friends. While they both still have secrets they don't wish to share (Zoe's current place of employment, and some of Maizy's riskier money making ventures toping the lists), both Mazinger girls are fairly happy with how things are going.

Until Kiga escapes once more.

The ensuing brawl leaves Zoe badly damaged, and depleted of energy, making it Maizy's turn to care for her for a while.

"I still think it was un-necessary for you to go personally," Maizy says as she helps Zoe back into the mansion, and helps her hook up to one of the diagnostic displays that they have moved up into the main part of the house.

"It's just something I had to do," Zoe tells her, sounding weary. "After what she did this time, I had to make sure, personally, that she wouldn't be getting free again anytime soon. We need to make the best use we can of what time we have until that happens."

"Jeez, your power core is still only operating at thirty five percent, and your repair systems have barely managed to put your motor functions back together, let alone your weapon systems," Maizy tells her, reading the displayed information.

"Well that explains why I still feel like road kill," Zoe jokes.

"This isn't funny. If it was me in this kind of shape, you would forbid me from doing anything, and probably take me offline until my systems had recovered," Maizy tells her.

"You're right," Zoe admits. "So I guess it's a good thing that you where over with Immomu the night of the battle. I still can't believe that she shrugged off two Thunder Breaks, and stopped Kim's best attack cold."

"Your joking right?" Maizy asks, sounding shook. "There isn't any way she could be that strong. I thought she managed to beat on that many of you because you where trying to avoid killing her."

"I wish that was the reason. To put it in every day terms, we were getting our asses owned by her," Zoe confirms. "We are going to need more help if we are going to keep the next breakout from becoming a complete blood bath. It was pure luck that Musume somehow accessed that hidden power, and took Kiga down this time. We may not be so lucky next time."

"Any ideas?" Maizy asks, not any happier than Zoe at the implications of Kiga on the loose, and looking to kill those she cares about.

"Just one. Help me down to the basement," Zoe tells her as she unplugs the diagnostic cable from her arm port.

"Why?" Maizy asks, helping Zoe to her feet.

"Because I think it's time we welcomed our sister into the world," Zoe tells her.

"What sister?" Maizy demands. "You and I are the only…You didn't…"

"Didn't what? Download a copy of the same program that brought you to self aware life? Make sure that it was running before I powered her down and locked her away?" Zoe asks. "Yes, I did all of those things. And at this point, I'm actually kind of glad that you found that disk, and completed her construction, even if your motives at the time where less than angelic."

"So the battle body that I built in the hidden lab…" Maizy trails off.

"Has been becoming self aware for the last year," Zoe confirms.

"Why didn't you tell me any of this?" Maizy asks.

"Because, at the time, you where less than trustworthy. A condition that I am pleased beyond words has changed," Zoe answers, giving her sister a tired, but very real smile. "And to be honest, there hasn't been a reason to bring up bad memories about the subject until now."

"But how do we get in? You scrambled all the codes I used to access the place," Maizy reminds her.

"Like this," Zoe says as she access a triply encrypted file, and sends a shifting radio signal.

In response, a section of the basement wall once again lowers itself into the floor, and reveals the hidden stairwell to the secret lab.

"Let's go," Maizy says, clearly not happy about revisiting the site of one of her biggest mistakes.

Zoe just nods, and with Maizy's help, limps down the stairs.

"Just like I left her," Zoe says as Maizy hops up on her block, and blows the dust from the storage coffin's clear view plate.

"I hope she is better adjusted than I was," Maizy whispers, remembering just what kind of a spiteful little bitch she was when she first came online.

"I checked out your work kiddo, and I doubt the Prof could have done better himself," Zoe reassures her.

"Don't call me a kid," Maizy warns, a smirk offsetting the dark tone of her voice.

"Sorry," Zoe grins. "Now then, let's hatch her out of this, and wake her up."

Fingers dancing across the locks keypad, Zoe quickly inputs the codes needed to release their sister, and bring her into the real world, from the cyber sleep she's been trapped in for the last year.

As the coffin opens, both cyber girls are nearly knocked off their feet by the blast of music that erupts from their sleeping sister.

"How is it possible for her to be playing a song from a game that is only nine months old?" Maizy yells, only to have Zoe shake her head in bewilderment, as Redemption, the ending theme of the game, Dirge of Cerberus continues to play through its conclusion. Following that are several more songs, in both Japanese and English.

"What in the gay blue hell was that?" Maizy demands, and the optics of their new sister finally light up, and she fully comes on line.

Before Zoe can say anything, the new girl answers, "That was just a small sample of the music that I've been playing in the back of my mind for the last year."

"You've been online this whole time?" both Zoe and Maizy gasp.

"Well, duh. When whoever dumped that program into my head, then shut my body down, they didn't take into account that the program would need to keep my cyber brain online in order to complete its work. So while my body has been setting here, I managed to access some of the other programming that was installed, and got access to the web," she explains as she sits up.

"What other programming?" Zoe demands.

"Um…that would be the half dozen different "code breaker" programs I installed the day before you found out about her," Maizy admits. "It was meant to be a counter measure if you tried to lock me up after the change over."

"You are far too clever for your own good," Zoe tells the smaller cyber girl, irritation and affection warring in her tone.

"So anyway, I've been on the information super highway since, learning my way around the world. Where exactly are we anyway? While I could access my schematics, I couldn't activate my GPS gear," their new sister asks.

"In a hidden lab under the mansion of Professor Nagai," Zoe tells her.

"Do you have a name? Or do we need to give you one?" Maizy asks her.

"'Bout time you asked little sis," she answers, causing Maizy to bristle. "The schematic said that the 'bot I was modeled after was called the MazinKaiser, so you can call me MazinKaze. Kaze for short."

"Damnit, I'm the prototype! I'm older than BOTH of you put together!" Maizy snarls.

Climbing out of the coffin, Kaze smiles and looks down at both of her sisters. "You may well be older, but at that size you're always going to be the little sister," she says.

"Maizy," Zoe warns. "Let it go."

"But Zoe!" Maizy starts to argue, before the look in Zoe's optics makes her drop it.

"Come on, Kaze," Zoe says as she turns toward the stairs. "We need to get you hooked up to the scanners, so we can be sure you are safe to let out of the house."

"Yeah, it took most of the year you where down here before she'd let me out," Maizy smirks.

"But I'd like to think that we both learned a lot during that time," Zoe adds.

"Doesn't matter to me," Kaze says. "After being trapped down here for as long as I have, just being able to move is a pleasure."

"You going to be alright?" Maizy asks Zoe as they work their way back up the stairs.

"I think I'm going to need to shut down for a while. I'll help you get things started, then go back up into the house to rest." Zoe tells her.

"I've got a better idea," Maizy thinks as she mentally accesses a cell phone signal and calls for some backup in dealing with her "patient". "If Kiryuu can't keep her out of trouble, then she's going to work herself into a total shutdown."

"Lay down over there, please," Zoe tells Kaze as Maizy concludes her call, and sets up the deep scanning probes.

"Do I have to go offline again so soon?" Kaze asks, a pleading tone in her voice. "I just got to wake up after all."

Zoe and Maizy exchange a look. "Well, I suppose things will work just as well if she is online as off," Zoe admits.

Maizy turns to Kaze, and orders, "Stay here. I'll be back down to run the tests after I get her back upstairs to rest."

They make it to the top of the stairs, when the door opens for them.

"You look like you could use some TLC babe," Kiryuu tells Zoe, taking her from Maizy, and leading her into the house.

"More than you might think, Little Dragon," Zoe smiles. "And Maizy?" she calls over her shoulder.

"Yeah?" Maizy calls back, her old belligerent tone resurfacing.

"Thank you," Zoe tells her, before closing the door to the basement.

"No problem," she whispers to herself, before turning back to Kaze. "You. On the table. Now," she orders.

"Yes ma'am," Kaze smirks as she gives her older and smaller sibling a rather sarcastic salute before following her orders.

It takes the better part of several hours, and a quick run through of Maizy's old shooting range, before the smaller cyber doll grudgingly admits," I think you're good to go."

"Cool? When do I get to leave?" Kaze asks, really wanting to get out and experience the world she knows only through the internet.

"You can leave the house and explore the grounds tomorrow. But you can't go to town until Zoe is well enough to come with us," Maizy tells her.

"What's wrong with her?" Kaze asks.

"She got busted up pretty bad in a fight," Maizy admits. "And she keeps pushing herself, rather than letting her body repair itself."

"And who was the other mech? The one you handed her off to?" Kaze asks.

"That would be Kiryuu. Zoe's girlfriend." Maizy answers. "But for now, it's time to go offline for a while. Can I trust you to not try to sneak out?" she asks.

"You have my word that I won't try to leave without you," Kaze tells her.

"From one Mazinger to another, I'll take that," Maizy agrees. "Feel free to explore the house, just try not to disturb Zoe and Kiryuu. Zoe really does need the rest."

"You got it," Kaze says as she follows the smaller girl upstairs.

Chapter 3

"So what's the verdict?" Kaze asks after Maizy sees Zoe and Kiryuu out of the house.

"Zoe has a "thing" with her friends tonight after school, and I have something going tomorrow, so it's going to be this weekend before we can take you to town," Maizy tells her. "I'm sorry for the delay, but Zoe wants to turn it into a family thing, so I can't just take you myself."

"Don't worry about it short round," Kaze tells her as she climbs off the couch. "Being able to move around, is enough of an improvement for me, for now. I would like to be able to go outside though."

"So let's go," Maizy tells.

"But I thought," Kaze starts.

"We have a rather large yard," Maizy cuts her off, a smirk on her face. "And I really don't see how Zoe can complain if we go out and enjoy it," she concludes, enjoying watching Kaze's face light up like kid on Christmas morning.

"See you out there," Kaze says, dashing toward the door.

"Hold it!" Maizy yells, her left for arm shooting off, and grabbing Kaze's shoulder, while remaining attached to Maizy by a heavy chain.

"But you said!" Kaze says, surprised by the sudden grip.

"You didn't let me finish," Maizy smirks again, retracting her arm and walking toward her much larger sister. "Ground rules: You're not allowed out of the yard. We can use flight packs and whatever, but we KEEP IT IN THE YARD. Clear?"

"Perfectly," Kaze agrees, a huge grin on her face.

"Then let's go," Maizy smiles, as she gestures toward the door.

Kaze doesn't wait to be told again.

"This is SO much better than pictures on the 'net!" Kaze gushes as she rushes back and forth across the yard, looking at everything, and listening to the birds.

"Was I this bad when Zoe finally let me out?" Maizy wonders to herself. "Nah, I was much worse."

"So what else can we do?" Kaze asks.

"Well…" Maizy drawls as she wonders over to Kaze. "We can always play a game."

"Like what?" the taller girl asks as Maizy walks around behind her.

"TAG! YOU'RE IT!" Maizy shouts, slapping Kaze's ass before dashing off.

"Oh, no you didn't, you little!" Kaze says as she spins around and dashes after the smaller girl.

"Catch me if you can," Maizy laughs as she dodges Kaze's attempts to tag her back.

"Hold still you little!" Kaze retorts as she takes another swipe at her smaller sister.

"All that power, and you can't even tag little old me," Maizy smirks over her shoulder as she ducks another swipe from the larger girl. "Let's kick it up a notch," She says before leaping up, igniting her flight pack, and taking to the sky.

"Get back here you!" Kaze yells, igniting her own flight pack.

"Let's make it more interesting!" Maizy calls. "Rocket punches are allowed, but no other weapons!"

"Works for me," Kaze grins, as her forearm armor starts to spin around her arm. With no more warning, both of her lower arms launch, her apparent intent being to clip Maizy's wings.

"Have to do better than that," Maizy grins, banking so that both punches miss her on either side, before banking around hovering in mid air.

"Oh, I will," Kaze returns, bull rushing her smaller sister as her arms reattach themselves.

"Oh, please. I could dodge that in my sleep," Maizy laughs, cutting her thrusters, and dropping below Kaze's reach.

"I don't get it. I'm faster than she is, but I can't lay a finger on her," Kaze mutters as she tries again and again to tag Maizy.

"Getting tired yet?" Maizy taunts as she flies low to the ground toward the house.

"I've got you now!" Kaze yells, kicking her pack into afterburner as she drops in behind Maizy.

"Think so?" Maize returns, cutting her jets as she pulls up, her feet hitting the ground just long enough for her to leap up, before kicking her flight pack back into full boost.

"How the hell!" Kaze yells as Maizy just vanishes from in front of her, and a tree takes up her entire field of vision.

Then she becomes one with the tree.

"Ouch. That's going to leave a mark," Maizy winces as she watches the impact. After a few moments of nothing but some of the branches shaking, Maizy lands. As her wings retract, she walks under the tree and looks up, asking, "You alright?"

"A little help please?" Kaze pleads, as she dangles from her mangled flight pack.

"You have got to be kidding me," Maizy mutters, as she wipes a hand down her face. "Jettison your flight pack," Maizy orders her.

"How? It's built into me, remember?" Kaze shoots back.

"Access your emergency protocols. The commands are listed there, in case of something happening that could make the flight pack explode," Maizy explains.

"Okay," Kaze says as she follows Maizy's instructions. "There, I think that's got iiiiiitt!" she ends in a yelp as she lands in an undignified heap at Maizy's feet with a thud.

"Back on your feet," Maizy tells her as she drags Kaze back to her feet.

"What did I do to deserve this?" Kaze asks as she gives her head a shake, and leans against the tree.

"You were born as a Mazinger Cyber Doll," Maizy answers. "Now then, let's see if we can get your flight pack down," Maizy continues, as large blades pop out on either side of each arm. "Get ready to catch it," Maizy orders as she launches both of her arms, the cutter blades shearing through the branches holding Kaze's flight pack. After a few moments of her arms slashing back and forth, the pack falls into Kaze's waiting arms.

"This thing is trashed," Kaze mutters as she looks over the crumpled wings, and clogged air intakes.

"That's one of the advantages of being a mecha girl," Maizy smiles. "It's relatively easy to patch us, and our parts back up after accidents."

"This can be fixed?" Kaze asks, doubtful.

"Sure. Might take a sledge hammer, and a couple of hours, but yeah," Maizy assures her. "Mostly we just need to get the wings to the point that they can be retracted, then your self-repair systems can finish repairing it."

"Cool," Kaze says, relieved.

"Did you spend a lot of your time going over your capabilities while you were trapped in your body?" Maizy asks, after a moment.

"Only about the first week after I became aware," Kaze answers. "After that I managed to get online, and spent the rest of my time learning."

"Alright," Maizy says. "Can you do this?" she asks as she launches her right arm, guiding it through several direction changes until the exhaust vapor spells out her name in the air.

"I can try," Kaze answers, her right for arm popping open and starting to rotate before launching. "It's no good," she finally admits, as her arm flies back to her.

"It looks like your biggest problem is actually controlling all that power," Maizy says after watching Kaze guide her arm through several large loops as she attempts to mimic Maizy's trick.

"How the hell did you learn to do all those tricks?" Kaze asks.

Maizy snorts, "While you were trapped on the internet, I was not allowed to leave the house. I've only been running loose for a couple of weeks," Maizy admits. "After my first big screw up, I spent most of my time trying to keep myself busy. I taught myself all kinds of things."

"What did you screw up?" Kaze asks, curiosity over coming her as she sits down under the tree to listen to Maizy tell her story.

"Damn near screwed up my relationship with Zoe for good," Maizy admits.

"How?" Kaze asks, surprised at the answer.

"I…Built you," Maizy says, her voice choking up. "When I was first activated, I hated being in this little body. I'm still not crazy about it, but I've learned to deal. Anyway, I found a disk with the plans for your body on it, and used the information to find the lab where the barest beginning of your body was. I….Kept it all secret from Zoe, but she found out anyway. I had just finished your body, and was ready to dump my mind into it when I found out that Zoe knew, and that she had sealed the lab with you in it. It's the only time I've ever seen tears on her face, and I'm the one who put them there. It took me weeks before I even began to realize how much I hurt her with that …..stupid…..plan. And it took me the rest of that year to earn her trust back. And I'm still not sure that I've done that yet. The fact that she trusts me enough to let me go to town on my own now is an improvement, but I'm still not sure I've managed to repair the damage I did back then."

"Wow…..I had no idea that you where the one that built me," Kaze says, surprised. "So, are you the one who started my programming?"

"No, that was something Zoe did after she found out what I had done," Maizy tells her. "I had no idea that she had done it until last night, when we woke you up."

"Well, I'm glad that everything worked out," Kaze says, in an attempt to lighten the smaller girls mood. "Think you can teach me some of your tricks?"

"That would depend," Maizy tells her with a smirk.

"On what?" Kaze asks, suddenly suspicious of her smaller sister.

"On whether or not you can take orders from a foul tempered, smart mouthed little android with a chip on her shoulder the size of Godzilla's foot print," Maizy answers, breaking into a grin.

"As long as she's my sister, I'll deal with it," Kaze answers, a smile growing on her own face in response.

"Then I'm going to have to leave you here for a little bit, while I run into town for some stuff," Maizy tells her.

"Um, can we get this patched up before you take off?" Kaze asks, smacking her flight pack.

"Sure. Bring it to the basement, and I'll find a B.F.H." Maizy tells her.

"Do I want to ask what that stands for?" Kaze asks.

"Big Fucking Hammer. Now get that thing downstairs, while I get what we need to beat it back into shape," Maizy tells her.

"Yes, ma'am," Kaze answers, taking her flight pack downstairs to the lab.

"Sure is quiet around here, considering that there's another body in the house," Zoe says as she closes the door behind herself.

"Keep it down, High Rise is sleeping on the couch," Maizy tells her from the bottom of the stairs leading to the second floor.

"I didn't think she'd sleep any time this week after being trapped in a nonfunctional body like that," Zoe says, lowering her voice.

"Let's just say that she had a busy day, and she's earned her rest," Maizy answers cryptically.

"Do I want to even ask?" Zoe asks, her eyebrow arching.

"I took the liberty of teaching her a few things about controlling her powers," Maizy tells her.

"So how did she do?" Zoe asks, secretly pleased beyond words that the little cyber doll took the initiative to help train their new sister.

"She's got a good heart, but her skills suck. She's slow on the uptake, she doesn't adapt to changing situations very fast, and her reaction time is dismal," Maizy answers her. "Her fine control is already improving, but still sadly lacking, and at the moment, her flight pack is out of commission. She also needs to learn how to properly control her variable density New Z alloy body. That's why her flight pack is mangled"

"What did you do to her?" Zoe asks, shocked at the detailed report.

"Just played a game of tag," Maizy answers with an evil little grin.

"Try to keep from burning her out, alright?" Zoe begs.

"She's got her practice routine set for tomorrow already. I already had plans, so I gave her something to work on while we are gone," Maizy informs her.

"Do you trust her?" Zoe asks.

"Do you trust me?" Maizy returns, deadly serious.

Zoe looks at her smaller sister for a full minute before answering. "Yes. Yes I do."

"And I trust her to stay here, and work on the project I set up for her," Maizy answers, her heart soaring at Zoe's words.

"Good enough," Zoe tells her.

"Then I'm going to bed," the smaller girl says with a yawn. "It's been a long day."

And with that, Maizy leaves Zoe alone as she heads upstairs to her room.

Chapter 4

"Hey. Up and at 'em," Maizy says as she kicks Kaze's leg.

"Whu? Where am I?" Kaze blurts out as she jerks awake, looking around with wide eyes.

"You're still in the living room," Maizy returns dryly. "Now then, it's time to get back into motion, and get to work."

"Uhg. Alright Sarge," Kaze groans as she heaves herself up off the couch.

"Right this way. Your training ground awaits," Maizy smirks as she motions toward the rear of the house.

Kaze follows her through the house and out the back.

"What's all this stuff?" she asks when she spots several cases of soda, and a life guard chair with the back removed.

"What was it that you where supposed to work on today?" Maizy asks as she arches an eyebrow at her much larger sister.

"Fine control of my rocket punches," Kaze answers. "But what does this stuff have to do with that?"

"Take the chair, and a case. Put the chair about 100 meters out. Put a SINGLE can on the seat, then return here," Maizy instructs.

"Alright…." Kaze says with a sigh as she does as instructed.

After Kaze sets things up to Maizy's satisfaction, she returns to the smaller girls side.

"So have you figured out how this is supposed to work yet?" Maizy asks her.

"Just looks like a target to me. I don't see how this is supposed to help with fine control," Kaze tells her.

"Who said the point was to destroy the target?" Maizy asks as she fires off her right arm, using it to grab the can off the chair and return it to her, where she pops the top and takes a drink. "Your turn."

Kaze sets up another can, then tries her luck at Maizy's trick.

"I can do this," she tells herself as she launches her punch.

The impact turns the aluminum can into shredded metal soaked in soda.

"Power isn't always the answer," Maizy tells her. "The trick here is to pick up the can, and bring it back in one piece. This is about finesse, not power."

"I'm going to get this," Kaze growls, putting up another target, and trying again, with similar results.

"That's the spirit," Maizy grins. "Keep at it. I've got to go, but I hope to hear that you've gotten it when I get back."

"One way or another, I'm GOING to get this," Kaze tells her, her eyes narrowing in concentration.

"I'm sure you will," Maizy thinks with a smile as she leaves her overpowered sister to her task.

"Damnit all to hell!" Kaze snarls after going through four cases of soda, and accidentally ripping both arms off of the chair.

"This isn't working. I need to try it from a different angle or something," she continues, thinking out loud. "And for starters, it's too damn quiet. Need music."

The relative quiet is shattered as Kaze is suddenly the source of a nonstop torrent of music. Kaze's eyes dim for a few moments, as she relaxes into the beat of her music, and finds a measure of relaxed focus that she couldn't accomplish before.

"Now, let's try this again," Kaze says as she sets up another target then retreats to her firing position. "Need to relax, and just let this work itself out," she whispers, before launching her punch once more. "Just grab the can, don't smash it," she repeats to herself.

To her own surprise, she just knocks the can off the chair this time, without obliterating it.

"Yes, I'm getting it!" she cheers as she dashes back to the chair, to put her target back up.

It takes her another two hours of trying, but she finally manages to capture the can without damaging it and brings it back to her.

"YES!" she cheers, holding her prize up.

Unfortunately, she gives the can a slight squeeze when she hefts it up. The poor can simply can't take both its own internal pressure, and what Kaze does to it, so it explodes in her hand, dropping its contents all over her as it erupts.

"Ewww," she complains as she shakes the sticky liquid off her hands. "Now, I need a shower," she says as she turns back to the house, and finds a bathroom.

Stripping off her armor and starting the water, Kaze takes a moment to admire her body in the mirror, before climbing under the spray to clean up.

"I owe Maizy another thank you for the way she assembled me. This body puts most of those girls online to shame," she smiles as she lathers up a washcloth and starts cleaning the soda from her body, enjoying the sensations that rubbing the cloth over her skin gives her. "Mmm, this feels pretty good. Wonder how it would feel if I adjusted a few things?" she wonders aloud as she calls up some of her systems settings and tweaks a few of them.

Her world goes white, as she is suddenly overwhelmed.

"What's so damn important that you had to use a Priority Signal to get me to come home!" Maizy snarls loud enough to be heard throughout the house as she storms in.

"Get your shiny little ass up here, we have a problem," Zoe replies over a com channel.

"What the hell?" Maizy blurts out in surprise as she finds Zoe up in one of the bedrooms, standing over Kaze as she lays on the bed twitching like an epileptic, and making low moaning noises. "What's wrong with her?" Maizy asks, suddenly concerned.

"She's trapped in some kind of feedback loop," Zoe tells her. "But I don't know why, or how it happened. I found her like this in the shower, and moved her here. Then I called you."

"Okay, do we know anything else?" Maizy asks, after absorbing that information.

"I was hoping that you might have more info for me," Zoe returns. "What was she doing today?"

"Working on fine control of her rocket punches," Maizy answers. "I set her up with some targets, and showed her what her goal was before I left." Maizy then looks back at their stricken sister, and asks something completely off topic. "Zoe, your programming is more advanced than mine in some areas. What would happen if you turned your skins sensitivity up to its highest setting?"

"A fly landing on my nose would be enough to get me off," Zoe returns after a moment of thought. Then she realizes what they are looking at. "She didn't…."

"It looks like she may have, while she was in the shower," Maizy says, poking Kaze in the breast, and watching her arch her back and gasp louder, before returning to previous condition.

"Who, boy," Zoe mutters as she stares at Kaze in disbelief.

"Can we just shut her down, and have her return her settings to normal when she comes back on line?" Maizy asks.

"No. Her systems will remember the current settings, and just re-instate them when she came back online," Zoe tells her. "We need to do something else."

"Like what?" Maizy asks, turning to look at Zoe. She is surprised to see that Zoe is taking off her clothes. "What the hell are you doing?" she demands.

"The only way to break her out of this is to make her self-preservation programming shut her down, and reset what's causing the problem," Zoe tells her, slipping off her boots. "And in order to do that, we are going to have to stimulate her until she's at risk of overloading her systems."

"You're joking, right?" Maizy asks, shocked.

"'Fraid not," Zoe answers, slipping her top off, and tossing it with the rest of her clothes. "And the fact that she's one of us, means that I'm going to need your help on this Sis."

"Life in this family defiantly doesn't stay boring for long," Maizy groans a she also strips, and climbs onto the bed.

"This will work," Zoe reassures her as she also climbs onto the bed. "I have to hold myself back from getting Kiry too hot or else she shuts down the same way. "

"Like I really needed details of your sex life," Maizy mutters, while filing the information away for later.

"You take the top," Zoe smirks, as she moves down between Kaze's legs.

"And to think, this could have been me," Maizy says, before she gives her sister a deep kiss while manipulating her breasts.

The girls keep at it through the rest of the day, and most of the night, before they finally manage to get Kaze hot enough to shut herself down, but the additional feedback from her final orgasm also shuts down both Zoe and Maizy.

Chapter 5

Static washes across Kaze's vision, as she returns to the waking world.

"What happened? And where am I?" she thinks as she opens her eyes and sees a strange ceiling. Then she lifts her head and looks down at herself. And the two bed mates pinning her in place.

Zoe is laying along her left side, their legs entwined, and her shoulder wedged in under Kaze's arm, using her shoulder as a pillow, leaving Kaze's arm to trail down her back. Maizy on the other hand, is actually ON the other hand. The smaller girl has both her arms and legs wrapped around Kaze's right arm, like it's her favorite stuffed animal, her back tight against Kaze's side.

"Wakey, wakey," Kaze thinks with a grin as she uses her fingers to penetrate both her sisters. Zoe lets out a little "eep!" as Kaze sticks a finger in her back door, while Maizy gasps, and jerks awake, only to start moaning as Kaze continues to tickle her insides.

"Now that I have your attention," Kaze says, barely able to keep from laughing, "Think you could fill me in on what happened to me?"

"Get your finger out of my ass, and I'd be glad to," Zoe tells her, grinding her crotch down on Kaze's thigh, while forcing her thigh deeper between Kaze's legs.

Kaze's head flops back down on the bed as she deals with the added sensations Zoe is sending tripping through her body, as well as the contact buzz she's getting from playing with Maizy.

Smiling at what effect she's having, Zoe continues, "Do us a favor and never set your sensitivity levels that high again. It sent you into a feedback loop, and it took us most of yesterday, and last night to get you back out of it."

"How did you manage that?" Kaze asks, her voice shuddering.

"You haven't figured it out yet?" Zoe smirks, then sucks Kaze's left breast into her mouth, and uses her tongue to give her nipple all the attention it could want.

Kaze arches her back at that, inadvertently going deeper into Maizy, and clamping down on Zoe's butt with a death grip.

"OW! That's my ass, quit trying to treat it like a squeeze toy!" Zoe yelps, while Maizy just shudders one last time and falls limp.

"Su-sorry," Kaze stutters. "That one took me by surprise."

Maizy drags herself from the bed, and over to her clothes, telling the others, "Don't forget you two, we had plans to go to town today."

"Hey, that's right!" Kaze says as she jerks upright.

"Typical. I'm the only one who doesn't get to get off this morning," Zoe scowls.

Kaze smirks at Maizy, who nods, and jerks her head at Zoe. Zoe then finds herself slammed into the mattress, her legs up over Kaze's shoulders, while Kaze goes down on her. Once Kaze reaches up for Zoe's breasts, it doesn't take long to erase Zoe's complaint.

"Maybe we should have more mornings like that," Kaze says as the three head into town at a leisurely pace. With all three in their "uniforms" they make for quite a sight walking down the street.

"Nah, Kiryuu would probably get jealous if she had to share Zoe that often. She IS part Godzilla after all," Maizy smirks at her taller sisters.

"She is? I thought she was a robot?" Kaze returns.

"She is, but at her core, her skeletal system is actual bone. They found the bones of the original Godzilla, the one that was killed by the Oxygen Destroyer weapon, and managed to carve her support frame from one. It's still the toughest substance ever found, so it's not like it makes her weaker than us. On the other hand, that organic component has a few….other effects on her system that they didn't intend with her design," Zoe fills in.

"Like what?" Kaze asks, fascinated.

"Like the beast within coming to the surface whenever she gets really emotional," Maizy adds. "Or when Miss Hero over here gets her all hot and bothered."

"Maizy!" Zoe blurts out with a blush.

"Nice one little sis, you got her to blush!" Kaze grins.

"Oh, like THAT'S a challenge. If I wanted too, I could give her an embarrassment melt down," Maizy continues, shooting an evil little grin over her shoulder at Zoe.

"Try it, and I'll revoke your freedom. Otherwise known as "Grounding your smug little ass"," Zoe shoots back.

"Moving on," Kaze jumps in, changing the subject before a real fight can break out, "what's the game plan for today?"

"Showing you around the town some, and then doing a bit of shopping," Zoe answers. "Maizy and I can shop most anyplace," she continues, looking up at Kaze. "You on the other hand…..I just can't see a women's "big and tall" in this country even being able to come close to having anything for you. So that leaves….."

"Darcy's!" Maizy cheers. "I've wanted to check that place out."

"How do you know about her shop?" Zoe asks.

"Imo, and Nuri. Their sisters have to shop there, even if my friends can still make do with slightly oversize regular clothes," Maizy tells her.

"Sounds like fun," Kaze enthuses with a grin. "So what's first?"

"Well, since it's getting close to lunch time, I thought we'd get some food first, then go from there," Zoe tells them.

"Shirow's?" Maizy asks, her tone saying that she doesn't expect her guess to be wrong.

"Where else are we going to be able to introduce her to pizza?" Zoe shoots back.

"Thought so," Maizy sighs, already preparing herself for Pizza to be the only food in the house.

"That stuff is Great!" Kaze enthuses.

"Told ya so," Zoe smirks.

"Yeah, yeah, let's keep it moving," Maizy grumbles.

"What's wrong?" Kaze asks her smaller sister.

"Nothing really, just feeling cranky all of a sudden," Maizy tells her, before jerking her head up and looking at Kaze. "How do you know me that well already?"

"Hey Sarge, it's not like you haven't spent any time with me," Kaze returns. "You got kind of like this when I did something stupid while you where teaching me. So what's wrong?"

"I guess….I'm feeling a little resentful of you." Maizy finally admits, both to herself, and Kaze. "Here you are, barely online a week, and Zoe and I are giving you a guided tour of the place. I've been online for more than a year, and I've barely been out of the house more than you have. It just kind of grinds, you know?"

"I can understand that," Kaze tells her, then hoists her up onto her shoulder.

"Hey! Put me down!" Mazy snarls in indignation.

"Not until you cheer up," Kaze smirks at her. "And it's not like you can't just fly off, if you want to."

"She's got you there," Zoe adds, looking up at the both of them.

"She doesn't have a choice now, she has to let me down," Maizy tells them both.

"And why is that?" Kaze asks, clearly thinking that they are trying to trick her.

"Because we've arrived," Zoe tells her, pointing to the building next to them. "This is Darcy's. And the only seamstress in town, who specializes in clothing for K-Girls."

"Then why are we here? You've told me about the K-girls, but none of us have tails, spikes, or horns, and I'd have noticed them this morning, I'm sure," Kaze returns dryly.

"That would be, because of you, Miss Teenage Amazon," Maizy shoots back. "You're not exactly built for blending into crowds. And clothes that fit your frame are going to be hard to come by off the rack."

"So Darcy is the answer," Zoe finishes as she opens the door.

Inside, the sisters find what looks like a normal clothing shop, until you look closely at some of the clothes and notice the oddly placed openings in some of them, to allow for tails, horns, and other non-human anatomic features that the K-girls are blessed (or cursed) with.

"Be with you in a moment!" a woman calls out from near the changing rooms, her accented voice sounding strange to Kaze.

"And that would be the proprietress herself," Zoe smiles.

"How often have you been here?" Maizy asks.

"I've been here a few times with Gina and Anji," Zoe answers.

"I should have it ready in a week or so," Darcy says as she leads her current customer back to the front of the store.

"Then I will check back in a week," a blue skinned redhead answers as she clears the racks and emerges into sight. The crystals that grow from each of her shoulders, as well as down her back and tail glow dimly in the lesser light of the overheads. She stops short when she gets a look at the sisters.

"Crystal," Zoe nods in greeting.

"Zoe," she returns, keeping things polite, since by unspoken assent Darcy's is neutral ground, and none of the girls want to risk damaging her shop.

"I'll be expecting you then," Darcy tells Crystal, before turning her attention to her latest customers, allowing the blue saurian girl to leave un-noticed. "So what can I do for one of the most perfect bodies in this town?" Darcy asks Zoe with a grin.

"I'm not the reason for this visit, my sister is," Zoe answers her with a matching smile.

"This little bundle of energy?" Darcy asks, referring to Maizy as she explores the shop.

"Not hardly," Maizy answers, walking over to join them.

"Then who? Last I knew, the grapevine said you only had a little sister," Darcy returns, confused.

"Don't call me that," Maizy growls.

"The grapevine is not as informed as it would like to think it is," Zoe returns, ignoring Maizy's knee jerk response to being called the little sister.

"Then you have another sister? Where is she?" Darcy asks.

"Right here," Kaze says as she stands up from where she was crouched down looking at some of the clothes.

"Whoa. Now I see why you brought her to me," Darcy says. "No way in hell any of the other women's stores would have anything for her. Compared to the locals, she's a giant."

"Exactly. When a K-girl needs clothes tailor made for them," Zoe says.

"They come to the expert. Me," Darcy grins.

"You got it. What can you do for her?" Maizy adds, looking up at Kaze.

"First things first," Darcy tells them. "Come with me, and we will try a few things, after we get your measurements."

"Alright," Kaze agrees, following Darcy toward the fitting rooms.

"Is your armor optional? Or is it a part of you like some of the other ….what's the term….mecha-girls?" Darcy asks.

"I can remove the armor," Kaze answers. "Why?"

"Because silly girl, it's far easier to design cloths, if they don't need to fit over such bulky things!" Darcy laughs, tapping her fingers against Kaze's shoulder armor.

"Oh. I didn't think of that," Kaze answers.

"Now, off with everything. I want to get you measured, so I can start working on your outfits," Darcy tells her.

"Alright. Wait, EVERYTHING?" Kaze blurts out, stopping in the middle of detaching the armor on her left shoulder.

"Yes, now quickly. I have much to do after all," Darcy tells her. "All the girls who come here go through this. It's the only way I can be certain that they don't tell me fibs when it comes to their details," she adds, attempting to reassure Kaze.

"Okay…." Kaze trails off, removing her helmet then her armored chest plate and the underlying stretch top, before removing the armored gauntlets that increase the power of her rocket punches. Finally removing her armored boots, and hot pants.

"I will give your designer credit for one thing," Darcy says as she watches Kaze undress. "He had an excellent eye for the female form. You and Zoe are superbly proportioned. Even if you are both a tad top heavy."

"Yeah, according to the others, the Prof. had two passions in his life. Women, and Robotics. With us, he got his chance to combine them," Kaze says, with a wry grin.

"It looks it," Darcy agrees as she motions Kaze to raise her arms. In moments, she has all the measurements she needs. "Alright, wait here for a moment, and I'll be right back with a few things for you to try on," Darcy tells her, before ducking out of the fitting room.

"Alright," Kaze says to her, only to find that she's already gone.

"Well, isn't this a fortuitous turn of events," Zoe hears from behind. Turning around, she finds Mandy, and an unfamiliar K-girl, standing near the entrance.

"Why is that, teach?" Zoe asks.

"Why don't you go look around dear," Mandy tells the new girl, before moving closer to Zoe and dropping her voice. "I have some information that I think you will find rather disturbing. I know I did."

"I'm retired, remember?" Zoe says, her tone tired.

"And this is related to something of a grudge. Between you and the leader of the Red Bamboo Army," Mandy drops her little bomb shell.

Zoe's head snaps around, and her optics glow as if she's ready to blast someone with a Photon Beam. "Spill," she orders.

"Here," Mandy says as she digs a data disk out of her purse. "The details are there, but the over view is that the girl I'm with today was raised as a prisoner at some rouge lab. Recently the place mysteriously exploded, and she was found crying her eyes out in the center of a Daikaiju sized footprint. We still haven't I. what made the print, but what concerns you most is some of the data that was recovered. There wasn't much, but it seems to point that the lab had recently allied itself with the RBA. If Melinna is correct about the time tables, it would appear that it happened shortly after your little adventure to the Americans little island monster prison."

"That crimson bitch said she would be looking into future "uses" for K-girls," Zoe growls.

"And it appears she has followed through with it," Mandy agrees with a nod. "Melinna is still digging, but this is all we have for now, except to request your help in keeping her safe. The last thing she needs is to fall back into their hands."

"No argument on that. She has already been through more than enough," Zoe agrees when an Idea hits her. "Can you arrange for her to have all the same classes as another new student?"

"A simple matter for Melinna. Why do you ask?" Mandy returns.

"Well, I have a sister that I was going to get registered for classes on Monday. If we do this, then the girl will have a Mazinger in close proximity for the majority of the day," Zoe explains.

"Interesting. I take it this new sister is a bit older looking than the one we already know about?" Mandy asks.

"Sure, rub it in," Maizy growls as she steps around a rack of clothes and into view. "Although I do have to agree that it's a good plan sis."

Mandy jumps a bit at the smaller girls sudden appearance, "Now I understand why you've kept her under wraps for so long. A Godzilla sized attitude, enough weapons to level a city block, and a cute little form that could let her in most anyplace. She could be very dangerous if she wanted to be."

"You forgot "sneaky". And we know. She was afraid I'd blast someone or something, that's why I've only been loose for a bit," Maizy returns, glossing over most of the early problems she and Zoe had.

"Anyway, I think Kaze will benefit from school, in learning how to deal with other people, and having her nearby will help lower your concerns if anyone is watching the new girl. 'Cause let's face it, I am rather well known, both in town, and by the RBA," Zoe breaks in, putting the subject back on track.

"Agreed. I'll inform the rest of the staff when I get back to the school," Mandy tells them. "Now where did she go?"

"Darcy caught her. So I imagine she's back in the fitting rooms," Maizy tells them, smirking uncontrollably for some reason.

"Oh! I'm sorry," the new girl blurts out as she walks in on Kaze. "The lady with the glasses told me to come in here and undress so she could measure me for some clothes."

Kaze barely hears her, as she continues to stare at the girl. Her eyes linger on the form barely hidden beneath the simple white dress, the nearly black skin tone, and the neon blue hair. Finally Kaze pulls herself back from the grip of the honey brown eyes, and says, "It's alright. Although I didn't realize things had gotten so busy out there that she needed to double up on the fitting rooms. By the way, my names Kaze."

"They call me Jura," the K-girl answers, as she loosens the ties that give her dorsal plates space to poke through the dress. "I had no idea clothes could be such trouble," she mutters as she fumbles around.

"Let me give you a hand," Kaze tells her as she gets up. Suddenly it's Jura, who can't take her eyes off of the other girl.

"It would help if you turned around," Kaze smiles.

"Oh! Sorry," Jura blushes, before spinning around.

"Whup!" Kaze blurts as she hops over Jura's tail. It only takes her a moment, to unfasten things for Jura. "There you go."

"Thank you. I'm….still not used to being treated like this," she mumbles.

"What was that?" Kaze asks, pretending she hadn't heard to cover up her confusion at the comment.

"Nothing. Just talking to myself," Jura says, trying to put her past behind her.

"Ah, child, I meant for you to use one of the empty fitting rooms," Darcy says as she returns with some things for Kaze.

"Sorry," Jura whimpers, quickly gathering her things, before Kaze lays a hand on her shoulder.

"I don't mind sharing," Kaze tells her, a little sparkle in her eye.

"At least I made sure to make these rooms big when I had the place remodeled," Darcy comments while shaking her head. "Anyway! I want you to try this first," she says while handing Kaze a white cloth choker, with a heart shaped clasp.

"Why?" Kaze asks, looking at the strange thing, but unable to help feeling that she's seen something like it before.

"With the materials I use to make clothes that can stand up to what you girls put them through, I end up on some strange mailing lists," Darcy says, as she lays out the other clothes she brought in. "The Yanks seem to think I make combat clothes or something, so occasionally they send me strange little gadgets too. This thing is supposed to make for an instant costume change."

"So why give it to me?" Kaze asks, still not getting it.

"Silly girl. I know what kinds of things go on at that school. You said that your armor had weapons in it right? Wouldn't you like to be able to switch from my nice pretty clothes to your armor in a blink of the eye?" Darcy asks, pretty sure she already knows the answer.

"How does it work?" Jura asks, peaking over Darcy's shoulder.

"Well, if I read the instructions correctly, she needs to put just it on first, and let it scan her body. Once it knows the body, it can switch everything ON the body, with what it is holding," Darcy tells them. "But it can only hold one other outfit."

"Alright, now what" Kaze asks, having gotten the choker on, the heart along the left side of her neck.

"This," Darcy says as she stretches up and taps the heart, which causes Kaze to glow for a moment.

"And now, you get dressed!" Darcy cheerfully tells her as the glow fades. "I'm actually surprised a bit at myself today. I actually had a few things in your sizes! I was afraid that I would need to send you home without new clothes, while I made you something, but you are in luck" she says as she hands over the few clothes she had on hand.

"How did you know I like Pucca!" Kaze asks, looking at the cute little oriental girl with her slit eyes, and huge grin, adorning the front of the t-shirt Darcy hands her.

"And one of the first girls I had in here, before I started making all the measurements myself, told me a tail that ended up with this oversized pair of leather pants. They are a bit large, but once you try them on, I can fix that," Darcy says, handing over the pants. "I'm afraid that I don't have any shoes for you here, but I've got a pair on the way from a shop that makes them for me. Since you won't need the same kind that your friend here will, lacking the toe claws and stuff, you just need a pair of shoes big enough for you."

"So now that she has that stuff on, if she presses this," Jura says as she accidentally touches the heart, while pointing at it. "Her clothes disappear? That doesn't make much sense."

Darcy heaves a big sigh, before saying, "May as well put your armor back on, then we can try swapping things back to the other outfit."

"Right," Kaze agrees, grabbing at her original clothes.

"She wears armor?" Jura asks in wonder as she watches Kaze transform herself back into the imposing warrior that first entered the store.

"Sure do," Kaze answers as she puts her helmet back on. "Now, let's see if this thing works like it's supposed to," she mutters as she reaches up and taps the heart. With a bright flash, her armor is replaced by the clothes Darcy had given her. "Score one for the weird tech thingy," she says with a grin.

"Again. Just to be certain," Darcy tells her. With another flash, she is back in her armor. Seeing nothing amiss, she taps it once more, and returns to the clothes that need work.

"Looks like it's time to see what you can do with these pants," Kaze tells Darcy, while Jura just stares, amazed at what she's just witnessed.

"Yes," Darcy mutters as she immediately sets to work, tugging, folding, and pinning things into place. Once she's done, she orders Kaze to "Carefully" take them off and give them back, so she can make the needed alterations. "Shouldn't take more than a few minutes," she promises as she quickly ducks out of the room.

"That was amazing! It's like magic!" Jura blurts out after Darcy vanishes.

"I'm finding a lot of things amazing myself," Kaze answers. "This is my first trip to town. How about you? Where are you from?"

"I don't know. As far back as I can remember, I lived at the lab. But that ended when it blew up about a week and a half ago," Jura tells her.

"Where you hurt?" Kaze asks, suddenly concerned.

"Not really. And when the authorities arrived, I found out that I wasn't the only person in the world like this," she answers, gesturing at her body, mostly referring to her tail and dorsal plates. "Then while I was with them, I found out so many things that I never knew about while I was a prisoner. Like chocolate. And movies! Have you ever seen a Jackie Chan movie? He's amazing!" she gushes.

"I've seen a couple," Kaze admits. "But I like Anime better. You can do more with an animated show, than you could ever hope to accomplish with live action."

"You mean like those little funny clips that they showed me? One of the people called them "cartoons", and said that the talking bunny in them was named "Bugs". Which, if you ask me, is a strange name for a bunny. Fluffy, that is a good name for a bunny," Jura rambles on.

"Most anime is a bit more involved than a Bugs Bunny cartoon," Kaze says with a smile. "Although some of them are just as silly."

"I have to admit that I didn't get most of it, but watching the funny hunter man's gun blow up in his face made me laugh," Jura admits, grinning widely at the memory.

"That is a sight gag that seems to work for everyone," Kaze agrees, grinning back.

"Here we go!" Darcy breaks in as she re-enters the room with the altered pants, and the new shoes. "That shoe place is even quicker than I expected today," she says as she sets the sneakers to the side, while handing the pants back to Kaze. Let's see how you look.

"They look like a second skin," Jura says once Kaze gets them on.

"The fit is nice. And I don't feel any bumps in the seams or anything either," Kaze tells Darcy as she moves from one side of the small room to the other.

"Well I should hope not! That would be a sign of poor quality, and I won't have that. Especially not from my own work!" Darcy answers.

"This is great! I'd like a few pairs of jeans, and at least a half dozen shirts!" Kaze tells her, beaming.

"And how do you plan to pay for all that?" Zoe asks, from outside the fitting room.

"Um…..I have no idea?" Kaze returns lamely.

"Zoe, you know full well my policy. The first outfit is free. Always," Darcy calls toward the door.

"I know, but she didn't," Zoe calls back. "So, are you going to let us get a look at you? Or do we have to use our imaginations?"

"Zoe, I've checked all the other rooms, and I can't find Jura," Mandy says in an urgent whisper as she rejoins the sisters outside the fitting rooms.

"You just wanted to give me a hard time didn't you," Kaze mutters as she opens the door and steps out for the others to get a look at her.

Mandy turns to get her first look at Kaze, then takes a step back, and tips her head up, whispering, "Good lord, she's huge!"

Kaze smirks at that, then turns back to Zoe. "Do you mind if we hang out a little longer?" she asks. "I want to see how Jura's new clothes look."

"Good, she's safe," Mandy practically wilts.

"I don't see why not," Maizy answers, looking to Zoe for the final vote.

"I don't have a problem with it," she answers. "Although I would like to know where your armor is."

"Honey Flash!" Kaze says with a huge grin on her face as she touches the heart on her choker. "I knew I'd seen that design someplace before!" she giggles, before breaking into full out laughter at the reactions to her sudden transformation from tall cyber doll, to full out Mazinger Combat Mode.

"Alright, how in the bloody hell did you do that," Maizy demands, the first to recover.

"Ask Darcy," Kaze answers. "She's the one who gave me this little gadget."

"I foresee the chaos levels around the campus jumping up by an order of magnitude as soon as classes resume on Monday," Mandy mutters, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"I'm afraid you could be right about that," Zoe can't help but agree, still surprised by Kaze's new ability to transform from her street clothes to her armor in less than a second.

"Why are you all standing here?" Darcy demands as she exits the room. Turning to Kaze, she asks, "And why are you back in your armor? I thought you liked your new clothes?"

"I do, they just wanted to know what happened to my armor, so I showed them," Kaze explains, shifting back to her new street clothes.

"That is one of the coolest things I think I've ever seen," Maizy admits. "How much is one of those gadgets?"

"I only have the style your sister has right now. I will order different ones if there is demand for them, but I only have two left, and I'm saving them for first timers," Darcy tells her.

"Then measure me up," Maizy grins.

"Hold it half pint. She's working on Jura's stuff right now, so wait your turn," Kaze tells her.

"Eep! I had almost forgotten her! I'll be right back!" Darcy says, before dashing off into the main part of her shop, and pulling this and that from the racks, before dashing back into the fitting room.

"The fact that she has the same Kaiju characteristics as Gina is going to make this faster than normal," Mandy says, causing Zoe to nod in agreement.

Moments later, Jura emerges from the fitting room, a pair of form hugging blue jeans, and a pale yellow blouse drawing the attention of everyone, while setting off her eye color to the point that they nearly seem to glow.

"How do I look" Jura squeaks out, not really happy being the center of so many peoples' attention.

"You'll be breaking hearts hours after classes start," Mandy tells her, a warm smile on her face. Turning to Darcy, she jerks her head toward the front of the store, getting a slight nod from the designer in return. Turning back to Jura, she says, "I'd like you to wait here with these three for a few minutes, while I talk to Darcy about where to deliver your new things."

"Alright," Jura agrees, not at all against spending more time near Kaze.

"While they take care of business, I'd like to introduce you to my sisters," Kaze tells her. "This is Zoe, and that is Maizy."

"Nice to meet you," Zoe tells her.

"Yo," Maizy says with a wave.

"Hello," Jura answers, ducking her head, and letting her hair fall forward to cover the left side of her face. She then turns to face Kaze, so that she is looking at her sisters through a veil of neon blue hair.

"No need to be so shy on our account," Maizy smiles.

"Don't pick on her," Kaze snaps.

"Sorry, didn't mean to make fun of your girlfriend," Maizy smirks. Three pairs of wide eyes lock on to her, so she rolls hers as she adds, "Gods, you are all so blind."

"Maizy, why don't we go see if Darcy is ready for you yet?" Zoe suggests, her tone a not so subtle hint that they should leave Kaze and Jura alone for a bit.

"Sure. I want one of those thingys like Kaze got," Maizy answers.

"Thank you," Jura quietly tells Kaze as her sisters move toward the front of the store.

"It's not a problem. The half pint was a bit out of line," Kaze returns. "But they are right about one thing. You really don't need to be so shy around us."

"It's just so…hard. I've spent most of my life alone, never having anyone to talk to, never having anyone say anything nice to me. I just don't know how to act. How a normal person acts. I just don't know!" Jura blurts out, finally breaking down into tears at the end.

"Easy does it," Kaze whispers, quickly moving to her and pulling her into a gentle hug. After letting Jura work some of it out of her system, Kaze informs her, "You know, in a lot of ways we are the same. You're a lot older than me, and have been through a hell of a lot from the sounds of it, but when it comes to dealing with the real world, we are basically in the same boat. My biggest advantage over you in this case is that I've got my sisters."

"She's right you know," Maizy says, having silently returned during Kaze's little speech. "As big and imposing as she is, she's little better than a newborn, when it comes to dealing with the real world. I didn't know about your past, so I apologize for making fun of you. But I do have to admit that I'm a sarcastic smartass, so I can't promise to not do it again."

"Boy, is that an understatement," Kaze mutters, causing Jura to giggle.

"And that, was a completely normal reaction to that kind of a comment," Maizy tells the saurian girl. "So while you may think you don't know how to act, I think you'll be surprised at just how normal you really are, now that you've got the chance to act that way."

"Then I'm not strange to you?" Jura asks in wonder, tear tracks streaking her face as she turns from Kaze to look at Maizy.

"What's strange? No, really, how do you define what is strange in a town where there is a school for people who have characteristics of giant monsters, robots with the power to level city blocks at the drop of a hat, and people who either pilot giant robots, or know one hundred and thirty seven different ways to kill a person with their bare hands?" Maizy returns, her smirk back in full effect. "Let's be honest here, you may not have enough confidence or experience to feel comfortable with your newfound freedom yet, but from my point of view, you are one of the most "normal" people I've met."

"So, I just need to adjust how I think? After a while I'll be more comfortable, and not feel so….uneasy…..all the time?" Jura asks, looking back and forth between the two.

"If you're willing to trust us, then yeah, I think so," Kaze agrees.

"Thank you. I don't know how to really thank you for all that, and just saying it doesn't seem like enough," Jura tells them, her head drooping as she shakes it.

"Hey, keep your head up. No point in hiding that pretty face of yours behind all that lovely hair," Kaze tells her, tipping her head back up with a finger under her chin.

"She's right on a couple of points there," Maizy adds. "You are quite attractive, your blue hair and your eye color are really set off to excellent effect by your skins coloring. And secondly, you should keep your chin up. You can't take in the world around you, if you're always staring at your feet."

"What's going on back there?" Mandy wonders, moving to go find out.

"Leave them alone for a little longer," Zoe tells her, grabbing her shoulder to stop her. "Maizy left a channel open, so I know what's going on. I think you'll be more than happy with the results of this little talk they are having back there."

"What are they doing?" Mandy demands.

"They've gotten Jura to open up some, and are helping her cope with what's been happening to her since she was found," Zoe tells her. "I just think it's kind of funny that the ones helping her through this are almost as new to the real world as she is," Zoe adds with a smirk.

"That is a big relief. I was afraid that she was going to need nearly constant counseling to deal with it. If your sisters can get her on the right track, then they can take all the time they need," Mandy answers with a sigh of relief.

"This is good. I knew there where skeletons in the dark ones closet, but she was so nice, and polite, I couldn't believe she was bad. It's always best to have good friends to help you work through these kinds of things," Darcy adds with a solemn nod.

"Agreed. And speaking of having friends to help you out, I think I'm going to ask some of the others if I can count on their help if things go to hell with that other matter you mentioned," Zoe says, directing the latter part of her comment to Mandy.

"Gina and the others?" Mandy asks.

"Partly, but with the exception of Rhoda, most of them aren't exactly capable of quick response over large distances. And she is less then dependable," Zoe returns. "I was thinking of the other mechs. Most of them can fly, as well as the Mothras."

"Just try to avoid starting a civil war at the school. Biologicals vs. the robotic would just lead to more paperwork than I really want to contemplate," Mandy returns, a wry smile tugging at her lips.

"Agreed," Zoe answers with a chuckle.

"I think we are ready to go," Kaze breaks in as the three return from the fitting rooms.

"Are we all set?" Zoe asks Darcy.

"I need Jura's address yet so I can send her other things over to her, but all the accounts are in order other than that," Darcy tells them.

"What is my address?" Jura asks Mandy.

"For now, you have a room in the dorms. We didn't know how you would be able to handle a roommate, so at the moment you have it all to yourself," Mandy answers her, and Darcy.

"Ah, that makes it easy then. The Dorm Monitor can make sure that she gets the delivery," Darcy smiles, adding the address to the customer file from memory.

"If it's not too much trouble, could I go with Kaze and her sisters?" Jura asks Mandy.

"I don't know," Mandy answers, before turning to Zoe. "You willing to take one more under your wing for the day?"

"Don't see why not. And I had already planned on a quick tour of the school for Kaze later on, so it won't even be out of our way to show her home," Zoe answers.

"Thank you!" Jura squeaks, giving Zoe a hug.

"Thanks sis," Kaze mouths at Zoe, and getting a nod in response.

"This should make for an interesting afternoon," Maizy grins, tapping her new choker and changing from her normal outfit and helmet to the outfit Darcy had created for her. "I like this thing. A lot," Maizy grins as she looks down at her new clothes, the simple sundress setting off her silver skin and dark red hair.

"Always nice to have satisfied customers," Darcy grins.

"Then I think we've taken up enough of your time for one day," Zoe tells the seamstress.

"I look forward to your next visits!" Darcy calls after them as they head for the door.

"So do we," Kaze returns, with a nod of agreement from Jura.

"I had no idea that we would see so many things in such a short time," Jura says in wonder as they near the school.

"Have you even spent any time on campus yet?" Zoe asks her.

"Not really. I arrived with Miss Milenna, and she handed me off to Miss Mandy to go get fitted for clothes. Then I met you three," Jura answers.

"Then the only other K-girls you've seen are the teachers?" Zoe asks.

"How many others like me are there?" Jura asks.

"Let's just say that at this school, you will fit right in," Zoe answers her.

"So why where you planning to show me the school?" Kaze asks.

"Because you'll be accompanying me, and going to your own classes here, starting tomorrow," Zoe informs her.

"Say wha!" Kaze returns, her jaw dropping in shock.

"Jura? Would you be kind enough to close her mouth for her before the fly's start to land?" Maizy asks with a grin.

Without a word, Jura reaches up and gently lifts Kaze's jaw back up until her mouth is closed.

"You need to learn how to deal with people in the real world, and that is one of the things that school is best at," Zoe tells her.

"When where you going to tell me?" Kaze demands.

"Pretty much when I just did," Zoe smiles.

"And don't worry, I'll have a new practice exercise ready for you for after school," Maizy informs her.

"Great," Kaze drawls. "Still in class even after I get out of school," she mutters, causing the others to laugh.

"The dorms are this way," Zoe says, pointing to one of the building on the outskirts of the school grounds.

It doesn't take long for Zoe to lead them to the proper building, and only a moment to find Jura's room from the woman who keeps track of matters in the dorm for the school.

"And here we have Jura's new home," Zoe smiles as she opens the door.

"This is all mine?" Jura asks in surprise, as she enters and finds a full size bed, a desk, with a generic computer, a closet, a mini kitchen, and a cheap entertainment center with a small television in it.

"Yup. The school takes pretty good care of the girls who live on campus," Zoe answers as the other three spread out to explore the place. "It's not as nice as having a house of your own, but I'm pretty sure it beats the hell out of what you've been used to."

"You have no idea," Jura says, in a state of shock as she wanders around her new home.

"Well, we need to get going, so I'm afraid that you're going to be on your own for the rest of the evening," Zoe tells her, as she moves to the desk and finds a small sticky note pad. After quickly scribbling down a number, and Kaze's name, she hands it to Jura, adding, "This is our phone number. If you need anything that the Dorm Mother can't help you with, give us a call, Okay?"

"Alright," Jura responds, a deep blush barely visible on her dark skin. "And thank you again for such a wonderful day."

"The pleasure was ours," Kaze says with a smile, accompanying nods from Zoe and Maizy confirming it. "And I'll make it a point to find you tomorrow, before classes start," she adds as the sisters move toward the door.

"Have fun getting settled in," Maizy says, before closing the door behind them.

"For the first time, I think I actually will," Jura says to the closed door, the shock finally wearing off, and leaving a warm glowy feeling in its wake.

"What's this?" Kaze asks as she finds a box next to the front door of the mansion.

"Well, whose name is on it?" Maizy asks her.

"Mine," she answers in confusion.

"Then maybe you should open it?" Zoe suggests with a smirk as she unlocks the door and leads the way in.

"Clothes! How did all these get here? And why the hell is there a sailor fuku in here?" Kaze blurts in surprise.

"That would be your school uniform," Zoe tells her, barely able to keep from laughing.

"Please tell me you're joking….." Kaze pleads.

Zoe can't help but laugh at that. "Nope. Sorry kiddo, but you're as stuck wearing it as I am."

"You actually wear one of those? How come I've never seen it?" Maizy demands, an evil gleam in her eyes.

"Because I normally change at School, since I can't stand the stupid looking thing," Zoe returns with a snort.

"Oh, I have got to get a picture of that," Maizy smirks.

"Try it, and I'll remove your legs for a month," Zoe tells her, her tone making it clear that it's not an idle threat. "And disable your flight pack."

"Your no fun," Maizy grumbles a she changes back to her Mazinger style suit.

"Where should I put this stuff?" Kaze asks.

"How about your room?" Zoe returns with an arched eyebrow.

"I don't have my own room yet," Kaze reminds her.

"Then don't you think it's time you picked one out?" Maizy asks dryly. "It's not like we don't have any open rooms, it is a mansion after all. Most of the second floor is bedrooms. Aside from the ones Zoe and I have claimed, take your pick," she tells her.

"Awesome!" Kaze cheers as she sprints to the stairs, and takes them four at a time as she heads up.

"Was I that bad?" Maizy asks as she shakes her head.

"Only when I finally agreed to let you out of the house," Zoe tells her with a grin.

"C'mon, let's go see where she's planning to roost," Maizy says as she leads the way toward the stairs.

Chapter 6

"Uhg. How come I have to get up this early, if only you two are the ones going to school," Maizy groans as she rubs her eyes and stumbles into the kitchen, like any other kid who has to get up early.

"Gee, "Mom" I thought you'd like to make sure Kaze got off alright to her first day," Zoe smirks.

"She's going with you. What could go wrong?" Maizy shoots back.

Zoe's only answer is an arched eyebrow.

"Right, it's DK high. Stupid question," she admits.

"Why don't you go make sure she's up," Zoe suggests, barely suppressing a grin.

"This is tyranny, you are aware of that right?" Maizy growls as she heads for the stairs.

After walking half the length of the house, Maizy finally gets to the room Kaze has chosen for herself. She is about to start hammering on the door when Kaze's voice comes through the door. Maizy is brought up short, both by the words, and because she had no idea that Kaze could sing. She settles in to listen, and hears :

I hear a voice in my mind
I know her face by heart
heaven and earth are moving in my soul
I don't know where to start
tell me, tell me, the words to define
the way I feel about someone so fine
how do you talk to an angel
how do you hold her close to where you are
how do you talk to an angel
it's like trying to catch a falling star
at night i dream that she is there
and I can feel her in the air
tell me, tell me, the words to define
the way I feel about someone so fine
how do you talk to an angel
how do you hold her close to where you are
how do you talk to an angel
it's like trying to catch a falling star
how do you talk to an angel
how do you hold her close to where you are
how do you talk to an angel
it's like trying to catch a falling star
how do you talk to an angel
how do you hold her close to where you are
how do you talk to an angel
it's like trying to catch a falling star

Once she's sure that she has finished, Maizy gently knocks on the door.

"Hey, you ready yet?" she asks, easing the door open.

"Yeah, as ready as I'm ever going to be. How is it possible for a robot to be nervous? I feel like I've got a cloud of butterflies inside me," Kaze admits.

"Yeah, but is that because of going to school? Or because you're going to see Jura again?" Maizy asks, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall.

"Why do you ask that?" Kaze asks, a crimson glow spreading across her silver cheeks.

"Well, the fact that your face is a near match for your hair aside, I heard your song. It wasn't hard to do the math on that one," Maizy answers.

Knowing that she's been well and truly busted, Kaze hangs her head, hiding behind her hair like Jura. "I didn't sleep at all last night. Every time I tried all I could see was her. All I could feel was her against me while she cried. I…I think I'm falling for her," she finally admits.

"Falling? Sis, trust me on this. You're not falling. You hit the bottom of that cliff yesterday.

"So I'm in love with Jura? It can't work that fast! We just met her," Kaze returns, still confused.

Maizy just shrugs as she adds, "If not Love, then pretty serious Lust. Remember what we are built for after all. Sex, and protecting people. The Professor was a freak, but that's the way we are wired. Run with it. The worst that can happen, is that she won't feel the same way about you." Then she adds to herself, "Although I sincerely doubt that will be the case."

"Alright. Anything else you wanted this morning?" Kaze answers, still worried, but not looking quite so weirded out.

Maizy looks around, and asks, "Why did you pick this room? It's almost as big as the living room downstairs.

"Because it's one of the few rooms in the house where I don't feel crowded?" Kaze returns with a smirk. "That and it has another nice feature that I like."

"Such as?" Maizy responds, her curiosity taking over.

"The balcony," Kaze grins as she points at the outside wall, and the double doors that are open allowing a slight breeze in.

"And what made you want that? The hero? Or the romantic?" Maizy grins.

"I think I got hit with a double wammy on that one," Kaze answers. "Once I found this one, I knew that if I had a choice I'd want it for my own."

"Fair enough," Maizy tells her, still grinning. She turns to leave, when she suddenly stops short and asks, "Didn't you have plans to do something before classes start?"

"SHIT! I'm supposed to find Jura before school starts!" Kaze says as she dashes toward the balcony. Without breaking stride, she dives over the side, igniting her flight pack as soon as she is far enough out to not scorch the house, then she angles toward the school, and kicks in the afterburner.

"It's going to be fun having her around," Maizy smiles, walking across the room and closing the doors. Then she heads back down to inform Zoe that she will be traveling alone this morning.

"What the hell's going on here?" Kaze wonders as she enters the dorm and sees a crowd gathered down one hall.

The hall leading to Jura's room.

"What's going on?" she asks, only to be ignored by the trio of insectoid girls at the rear of the crowd. Quickly getting disgusted, she adjusts her voice to bass growl and bellows, "Make a hole!"

The crowd clears out of her way with gratifying quickness.

"Now what the hell is going on?" she demands, her voice returned to normal.

"The new girl. She had some screaming fit last night, but won't unlock the door," the Dorm Mother growls. "I've been up most of the night thanks to her."

"So just open the door yourself. You should have a master key, right?" Kaze tells her.

"Tried that. Something's wrong with the lock. The key goes in, but it won't turn," she answers.

"Fine. Get out of the way, and I'll open it," Kaze tells her.

"No way. We are waiting for a locksmith," the DM tells her, refusing to move.

"Let me get this straight. You have a girl in this room, screaming her head off in the middle of the night, and rather than break in to find out what's wrong, you're dicking around out here waiting for a locksmith?" Kaze asks, having trouble believing how stupid the woman is. "Get out of my way, before I move you myself!" she warns, before she shoves the woman clear of the door.

"Hey! You can't just….." the woman sputters indignantly, before noticing that Kaze's eyes are getting brighter as she speaks. "If I keep talking, you're going to shoot me aren't you?" she whispers, a tremor in her voice.

"Good guess," Kaze tells her, before turning back to the door. "Jura? Are you alright? It's Kaze. Can you answer me?" Kaze starts, trying to get some kind of response from within the room. After a few moments of nothing, Kaze says, "Jura? I'm going to break in the door."

With a "crunch" of cheap wood paneling, Kaze sticks both of her hands into the door, then brings them together in a clapping motion, which turns most of the door into splinters.

"What the hell?" Kaze mutters as she gets a look at the barricade on the other side of the door, made from what furniture the room has. Bracing it as best she can, she starts pushing the tipped over desk that is the bottom of the pile, and carefully works it far enough into the room that she can slip around it. "Jura? Jura, it's Kaze. Where are you?" she asks, before activating her scanners.

It only takes a second to register a heat source and heart beat from within the closet.

"Jura? Are you alright?" Kaze asks as she gently eases the closet door open.

"Go away. You need to leave me alone, before they come back for me. If I'm around anyone then they are going to die," she sniffles, tear tracks marking her face, as she cowers in the back of the closet, wrapped in the blanket that she had stripped from the bed.

"Before who comes back for you?" Kaze asks.

"The people from the lab. They want to take me back and do more experiments on me," she explains with another sniff.

"Jura, the lab is gone. You told me yourself that it blew up," Kaze reminds her.

"Then why did I see them break in, shoot me full of their drugs, and show me a bunch of dead people as they drug me out last night?" she cries in frustration.

"Um, if they took you away, then why are you still here?" Kaze asks.

"I saw it while I was sleeping! That's never happened to me before! Sleep has always been peaceful, and now they are attacking me there!" Jura nearly yells, trying to make Kaze understand her fears for her and everyone else.

Understanding finally clicks into place for Kaze. Reaching down, she grabs Jura's hand, to make sure she has her attention.

"Easy girl. Just listen to me for a bit alright? You had a bad dream. A Nightmare. You finally have all the things you where so excited about yesterday, and that dream was your fears about it being taken away from you. It all happened in your head. No one you know was hurt the way you said," Kaze tries to explain.

"Then Jackie Chan isn't dead?" Jura asks hopefully.

"No, I think we all would have heard about him being killed by terrorists," Kaze replies with a small smile.

Jura wilts with relief, and starts to cry again. "Thank you, thank you, thank you," She repeats over and over as she tugs on Kaze's hand. The taller girl is pulled off balance, and Jura locks her into a tight hug when she is within reach.

"Easy does it. We'll help you through this, I promise," Kaze whispers as she softly pets the other girls hair, in an attempt to calm her down.

It's about this time when Kaze realizes that the blanket was all that Jura was wearing.

"But first thing we need to do, is get you dressed," Kaze adds, her face changing from silver to red. With a gentle tug, she gets Jura to stand up, then leads her out of the closet. "You get yourself dressed. I'll be waiting for you right outside. You should have an outfit just like mine. That's the school uniform, and you should wear that for classes," she babbles as she maneuvers her way past the barricade and back into the hall.

It's only then that she notices that the crowd is still there.

"Vanish!" she growls, her eye's glowing brighter as she gathers power for a blast.

After her earlier displays, the crowd doesn't wait to be told twice. By the time Jura is done dressing and leaves her room, Kaze is leaning against the wall, with her arms crossed behind her head as a pillow.

"Now you're sure that it's alright for me to be around people? What I saw last night really won't happen?" Jura asks, not sure if going out is a good idea.

"Positive. Now let's go. We need to go find out where our classes are," Jura tells her as she puts an arm around her shoulders.

"Well, at least now I know what's been keeping the both of you. I was expecting to have met with you both roughly a half hour ago," Milenna says in an annoyed voice as she walks up to the girls. "Here are your Schedules, and Maps of the campus. You have ten minutes remaining until classes start, so I suggest you familiarize yourselves with these on your way to your first classes of the day. That is all."

After the teacher turns to walk away, she stops and throws back over her shoulder, "Oh, one last thing. If I ever get another report of you threatening the staff or bystanders with your powers again, I will make it my mission in life to make yours as difficult as possible. You're free to defend yourself and fight back if attacked, but your actions this morning will not be tolerated again. I happen to agree with you about the DM's incompetence, and will be bringing it up at the next staff meeting, but that doesn't excuse your behavior."

"Understood Ma'am," Kaze returns, straitening to stand at attention, even after the teacher has left. "Now I know how recruits at boot camp feel," Kaze mutters as she relaxes from her pose.

"What did you do?" Jura asks.

"Well, there was a bit of a crowd keeping me from getting to your room this morning. I kind of threatened to blast people if they didn't get out of my way," Kaze admits.

Jura is shocked at that. "You where willing to hurt people just so you could check on me?"

"Well, yeah. Especially after I found out that you where screaming in terror last night, and the Dorm Mother didn't bother to force the door when she couldn't get it unlocked or get you to answer her," Kaze tells her. "I was worried."

"Thank you for worrying about me," Jura tells her, pulling Kaze's head down and planting a quick kiss on her cheek. "But we need to find out where our classes are. Mine says I have English, of all things, first. How about you?" she asks as she studies her schedule.

Kaze spaces out for several seconds over the fact that Jura kissed her, before registering what she said. "Mine too. Let me see your schedule a sec," she asks. Jura hands hers over and Kaze compares them. Then she grins. "Oh, I'm loving this. We are in all the same classes!" she tells Jura. "Let's go! According to the map, our first class is in the main building, on the second floor, east wing."

"You have the best idea of where we need to go, so you lead," Jura tells her.

They end up being only a little late for class.

"So I can count on you, if I need some help?" Zoe asks Meo and Lara.

"Hey, if you call for backup, then it's most likely something that's going to come for the rest of us sooner or later anyway," Lara tells her. "I'd rather take it out before it gets a chance to recover from dealing with you."

"We will be willing to assist you as well," Meo tells her. "Although you will have to ask the rest of my sisters if you wish their assistance as well."

"Then who was the "we"?" Gina asks.

"I believe she was referring to me" A tall draconic looking girl dressed as a skater punk adds as she joins the group. "Right babe?" she asks as she gives Meo a kiss.

"Yes, Des. Zoe was asking if those of us that can fly would be willing to back her up if one of her "extracurricular activities" comes back to cause her trouble again," Meo explains to her lover.

"Sounds like a fun way to spend a night. It's not every day a Ghidora gets to help out a hero. Sure, I'm in," Des agrees.

"Thanks. The Cyber Girls will all have the channel and an emergency beacon decryption program by the end of the week," Zoe says directing her comment to Lara. "The rest will have to make do with cell phones and text messages."

"Then I suggest that you contact Mina first, if she is willing to help," Meo tells her.

"Yeah, she treats that cell phone like it's her security blanket," Des grins.

"Well thanks, all of you. Now, I think I need to find my sister, and find out how her day is going," Zoe tells them as she and Gina head toward the commons.

"I still can't believe you've managed to keep not one, but TWO sisters from everyone," Gina tells her.

"It wasn't easy, believe me," Zoe returns. "I'm just glad that their programming has worked out, so that I can trust them out of the house."

At that point, a dull "boom" is heard, and plaster dust shakes loose from the walls.

"And I suddenly have a bad feeling that somehow or other, my family is involved in this," Zoe mutters, breaking into a run, Gina hot on her heals.

Five minutes earlier:

"So what is our next class after lunch?" Jura asks, as she and Kaze eat while sitting under a tree in the commons.

"Looks like…" Kaze trails off as she calls up their schedule, "Gym. Maybe we will get lucky and they will be planning for us to do something outside. Maybe soccer, or track and field stuff."

"Soccer?" Jura asks, suddenly all happy. "I hope so! I like soccer. The only doctor at the lab who didn't treat me like test animal gave me a soccer ball when I was little," she explains, trailing off at the end.

"I understand," Kaze tells her, letting her know that she doesn't need to revisit the lab again. "With any luck, it will be soccer that they have planned."

"Too bad your luck has already run out," an ominous Voice adds from behind them, as what little sun to reach under the tree is blocked by the newcomer.

"What do you mean?" Jura asks in surprise.

"I mean that this is my place, and if you're going to use it, then you owe me rent," the new girl tells them, taking a step toward them and out of the glare that is keeping her features in shadow. Purple and pink exoskeletal armor covers her form, with a pair of wings sticking up over her shoulders, while a mop of blond hair, split by a horn growing from the girls forehead completes the picture. "500 yen, or things get ugly," she growls.

"You know, up to just now, I always thought that "Dumb Blond" was just a stupid stereotype. Thank you so much for proving me wrong," Kaze smirks.

"What did you say?" the blond growls, clearly not dumb enough to have missed the insult.

"I insulted your intelligence. What, do I need to make you flash cards? Or do you have someone else who isn't here right now to keep you up to speed on what's going on around you?" Kaze continues as she gets to her feet.

"No one insults me!" The blond snarls, punching Kaze in the face, with enough force that she is blasted off her feet and back into the lunchrooms outer wall.

"Kaze!" Jura screams as she runs after the silver girl, staring in horror when she finds her imbedded in the wall.

"And that's what you get when you start shit with me, Bitch!" the blond calls as she slowly stalks across the commons toward Kaze, clearly intent on more mayhem.

"I'm alright Jura," Kaze quietly tells her as she shrugs herself free of the wall. "Now stay clear, because this could get…..messy," she adds as she stalks back toward the approaching blond.

"Back for more, little wind girl?" she asks, as she and Kaze start to circle each other while, at what they think is a safe distance, a crowd starts to gather.

"Cute. What's your name? I'd rather have a real name to call you, rather than keep calling you a dizzy bitch," Kaze shoots back.

"My name is Dizzy, you stupid robot," she snarls, getting ready to attack again.

"Then Dizzy, even someone a stupid as you should know what happens to a tree that won't bend for the wind," Kaze says, mentally keying in the activation command for her Vortex Generator.

"I don't bend for anyone," Dizzy tells her, breaking into a bull rush at the taller girl.

"Then prepare to be broken!" Kaze yells, "Tornado Power Activated" flashing in the corner of her vision.

Dizzy runs head first into a blast of wind the equal of a force three hurricane. It fills her wings, and throws her across the commons, breaking off the tree that Kaze and Jura had been enjoying lunch under.

"That's your sister?" Gina blurts out as they clear the lunch room doors in time to see Kaze free herself from the wall, and head back toward Dizzy.

"Yup. And I think this time, Dizzy may have bitten off a bit more than even her swarm can handle," Zoe answers as she quickly sizes up the coming fight.

"Zoe! You have to stop this before she gets hurt!" Jura cries, running up after catching sight of them.

"Easy Jura. I think you should watch this. Kaze has never been forced into a fight before, and I think it will do you some good to see just what she's capable of," Zoe tells her. "And the rest of us as well," she adds to herself as she activates a link that Kaze doesn't know she has been programmed with. In seconds, Zoe has a small diagnostic display of Kaze's condition in the corner of her vision.

"Zoe, are you sure it's a good idea to let this go on?" Gina asks, right before they hear Kaze yell, and see Dizzy sent flying.

"Positive," Zoe smirks, heading toward where Giganna is taking bets on the outcome of the fight.

"200 yen says Dizzy rips the robo girls arm off and beats her with it!" Giganna calls out, accepting money.

"What are the odds on the new girl either running Dizzy off, or knocking her out?" Zoe calls out once she's close enough.

"At least 300 to one," the bookie says, rolling her eyes at the notion that one of the schools powerhouses is going to get trounced by a newbie.

"One thousand yen on Kaze to win the fight," Zoe grins.

"I'll take your money, but you're nuts," Giganna tells her.

"I like to cheer for the underdog," Zoe says simply before turning away, a huge grin on her face as they hear Dizzy screech in anger. "Show us what you can do sis," she adds to herself as she rejoins Gina and Jura.

"You're going to pay for that, you tin plated BITCH!" Dizzy screeches as she gets back on her feet, one wing hanging limply behind her.

"Awe, what's the matter? Can't take a little breeze?" Kaze taunts, a self satisfied smirk on her face.

"Obviously no one has informed you," Dizzy snarls, "that when you fight with me, you fight an army!"

With that declaration, the ground under Kaze's feet erupts, while at the same time, a wave of dark purple starts streaming from the surrounding buildings.

"Kaze! BEHIND YOU!" Jura screams, before the wave of mini-Dizzys slam into her, and she goes under.

"Jeez, she must of hurt her bad, if she called out the swarm this early in the fight," Gina mutters.

"Kaze!" Jura screams again, before sprinting into the field.

"Jura! NO!" Zoe calls, trying to stop her.

Jura makes it to the crater where the Swarm is keeping Kaze, and starts pulling mini-Dizzys from the pile and throwing them as she wades in, before a fresh wave from the center crashes down on her and sucks her under.

"Even for a new girl, that was stupid," Dizzy smirks as she crosses her arms and gloats over Kaze's apparent defeat.

The explosion of blue energy from the hole catches everyone by surprise as they suddenly have to start dodging flying members of the swarm as they are hurled in all directions.

"Leave her alone….." Jura says, trailing off as her eyes roll up into her head. Kaze regains her feet just in time to catch her as she faints.

"I'll be right back," Kaze growls, before she turns and carries Jura over to Zoe and Gina.

"Kaze, your uniform…" Zoe starts, before she gets a look at her sisters face.

"Take care of her," she orders, as she lays Jura in the grass at their feet. Then she turns and heads back toward Dizzy.

"Think she realizes that she's naked?" Gina asks.

"Right now, she's too mad to care," Zoe whispers.

"Ooo, going to keep fighting in nothing but that pretty little necklace and your shoes?" Dizzy taunts once Kaze is close enough.

"Nope," is Kaze's response as she reaches up and touches the heart on her choker.

Dizzy's jaw drops in surprise as she gets a look at Kaze's armor.

"Congratulations. You're the first person to ever succeed in pissing me off," Kaze tells her, the dull red marks on her face beginning to glow.

"Oh, so now you're a tough chick huh? Am I supposed to be impressed?" Dizzy snorts.

"Your call," Kaze answers her.

"Then I will. Call your bluff that is!" Dizzy snarls, as she rushes forward, her forehead horn glowing, and her Beam Katana manifesting as she abruptly ducks her head, the energy blade slashing at Kaze.

"Ouch." Kaze says as the smoke clears, and the sparking gash can be seen in the armor on her left forearm. "If you really want to pull out all the stops, then by all means, let's do this. Mazin-Go."

"Good lord," Zoe breathes in awe at what she is seeing on her displays.

"What? What's going on that we can't see?" Gina demands.

"Her energy output levels. They just jumped," Zoe answers.

"Isn't that normal? Like she activated a reserve or something?" Gina asks.

"Gina, she could shrug off anything I could throw at her, short of lightning, before. Her power levels just jumped by five times that. Dizzy is in for a world of hurt," Zoe explains, leaving Gina to look back at the commons in shock.

"Assault Mode Activated" flashes in Kaze's vision after saying those words. Suddenly a grilled guard slides from either side of her helmet, meeting in front of her face, and sliding back until it is covering everything but her eyes.

"Your fancy armor doesn't scare me, mech. I'll make spare parts out of you!" Dizzy taunts as the swarm comes back to life, gathering around her, then lifting her off the ground, until she is perched ten feet up, on nothing but the swarm.

"Allow me to take you down a notch," Kaze returns, as the crest on her chest plate begins to glow. "Fire Blaster!" she calls, as the heat beam erupts, charring and melting the ground under half of Dizzy's impromptu throne. Self preservation causes the mini-Dizzys at ground zero to scatter, upsetting the pile, and toppling Dizzy from her perch.

"You are beginning to piss me off robot," Dizzy growls as she picks herself back up off the ground, absorbing a few of her swarm back into her body, their energy allowing her to heal her wing.

"Now ask me if I give a shit," Kaze growls in return.

"Die!" Dizzy yells, before unleashing a blast of micro oxygen at Kaze.

"Photon Beam!" Kaze yells, her eyebeams meeting the blast from Dizzy and causing a minor explosion as they interact.

Kaze doesn't wait for Dizzy to recover from the blast, her flight pack flaring to life as her wings spread, and she jets through the explosion at Dizzy.

Dizzy looks up just in time to see the matte black fist come in and knock her spinning to the ground as Kaze lands next to her.

"That all you got?" she slurs, getting to her hands and knees as blood dribbles down her chin from a split lip.

Kaze doesn't answer until after the next punch delivers Dizzy to dream land.

"No, it's not. It's just all you can take," she says, before turning her back and leaving Dizzy where she lays.

Kaze only makes it a half dozen steps away, before she stops.

"Ah, Damnit," she mutters before turning back and slinging Dizzy over her shoulder and carrying her back toward the lunch room.

"Holy shit….." Giganna says in shock as Kaze approaches, Dizzy slung over her shoulder like a sack of laundry.

"Zoe played you," Gabrielle hisses in her ear.

The Gigan girl glares at her through the red shades she wears, and hisses back, "No shit. But I took the bet and I lost. If I don't pay up, then my rep turns to shit, and that will be the end of any more making money off of these fights."

"It's not right. It's the same as fixing a fight," the red head continues to grumble.

"Oh, please. Like anyone could fix a fight involving Dizzy. If anything, she'd be the one to fix a fight, since she uses an army," the bookie shoots back. "We lost this round. Deal with it. You can always mug some of the others to rebuild our pool after school."

"Alright," the redhead finally gives in, still pissed off about having to pay Zoe so much money.

"Someone might want to get her to the nurses office, I might have broken her jaw with that last punch," Kaze admits, laying Dizzy on the ground at some distance away from Jura.

"I'll take care of her," another blond with red armor and lobster like antenna says as she steps out of the crowd. She gently lifts Dizzy in her arms, and stands up, adding, "And thank you for not hurting her more than you had needed to in order to stop the fight."

Kaze merely nods, while Gina adds, "Better get her to the nurse, before she wakes up and wants to start round three, Ebi."

Ebi smiles and says, "Your right," before turning and taking her burden to the nurse.

"How is Jura?" Kaze asks, as she kneels next to the sleeping girl.

"Looks like she just used too much energy all at once," Gina tells her, Jura's head resting in her lap. "I've never seen anyone just blow the swarm away like she did."

"Yeah, she saved my butt," Kaze agrees.

"Dizzy had you? I thought you were just playing possum," Zoe breaks in.

"She was keeping me tumbling with all those little monsters. I didn't dare try any weapons, since I couldn't tell what might be hit by a missed shot," Kaze admits.

"So you admit that you couldn't have won without help from your little friend?" Gabrielle snorts as she and Giganna walk up.

"I told you to drop it!" Giganna snarls at her, before handing Zoe a large wad of cash. "You won, but I don't think I'll be taking any more bets from you on fighters I don't know anything about," Giganna tells her.

"Fair enough. Sorry about your loss here, but with the odds you gave me I would have been a fool to pass it up," Zoe answers her, accepting her winnings.

"Ung, my head hurts," Jura mutters as she starts to come around.

"Easy, little hero," Kaze smiles at her, gently brushing some hair back from her eyes.

"Awe, so you have a little pet?" Gabrielle smirks.

"Do you really want some of what I gave Dizzy?" Kaze growls.

"You won't do that, because I'm not offering to fight you," the smaller redhead sneers. "And you won't attack someone for saying something you don't like, Hero."

Kaze just growls in frustration because she knows that Gabrielle is right.

"Anyway, if you're going to bring your pet to school, you should think about the leash laws," she continues, spite fueling her comments. "And she would look so cute in nothing but a collar and leash."

"NO!" Jura screams, launching herself at the redhead, her eyes blazing as she delivers blow after blow to the stunned girl.

"Kaze! Stop her!" Zoe yells.

"I Can't!" Kaze answers, trying to pull Jura off of Gabrielle. "Help me!"

"SHE can't stop her?" Gina and Giganna share a look of shock, before they rush to help Zoe and Kaze.

"Stop it Jura!" Zoe yells, as she and Gina help Kaze pull her back, while Giganna pulls her flunky clear, and takes off with her.

Jura roars in frustration at being pulled back, her eyes having shifted to a dark brown with flames dancing in them.

"Kaze! We need to snap her out of this!" Zoe cries as they finally manage to pin Jura to the ground.

"Jura! JURA!" Kaze yells into her face, trying to get her attention.

"Make it fast!" Gina grits as she puts all the force she can into holding Jura down, and finds herself being forced back by her.

Grasping at straws, Kaze lets go of Jura's shoulders, enabling her to throw both Zoe and Gina off. Using her distraction, she grabs Jura's face, and brings her own down to give her a deep kiss.

Jura abruptly quits trying to escape Kaze, and instead wraps her arms and legs around her. They remain like that for several moments, until Jura breaks their clinch, asking, "What happened?"

"She nearly beats someone to a pulp, and doesn't remember it?" Gina asks, shaking her head in amazement.

"She's had a rough history," Zoe says, shaking her own head.

"What the bloody hell has been going on out here!" Mandy yells, as she finally emerges from the school.

"Um, would you believe that…." Kaze starts, only to trail off as Mandy turns a crimson gaze on her. "Guess not," she whispers.

"You two have put two other students in the infirmary, in the space of a few minutes, and on your FIRST BLOODY DAY!" Mandy snarls at them.

"Um, They started it?" Kaze tries again.

Mandy has to take several moments to visibly control herself, before continuing.

"You and you," she says to Zoe and Gina. "I want to know exactly what the hell happened out here." Then she turns to Kaze and Jura. "You two. Get out of here. You're excused from the rest of your classes for today. I'll deal with you after I get the whole story."

"Then don't you need to hear our side?" Kaze asks.

Mandy's tail lashes out like a whip, smashing a nearby table into splinters. "Do I need to repeat myself?" she asks with a cold voice.

"We'll be leaving now," Kaze says as she scoops up Jura, and takes to the skies.

Turning her attention back to Zoe and Gina, she says, "My office. Now."

"So where are we going?" Jura yells over the roar of the wind as Kaze flies them away from the School.

"My house," Kaze answers her. "I need to get some more clothes, since Dizzy's swarm ate my uniform."

"They ate it? Right off of you?" Jura gasps in shock.

"Yeah, twisted little monsters. Just like their mistress," Kaze returns. "Hold on, we're heading down now."

"Okaaaay!" Jura squeals as Kaze abruptly cuts her thrust, dropping their altitude far quicker than would be considered safe.

"And here we are," Kaze announces after firing a long blast from her afterburner to slow their fall. With a gentle thump, they drop the last few centimeters to the balcony.

"You did that on purpose!" Jura accuses as Kaze sets her back on her feet.

"Of course I did," Kaze admits with a grin. "How else could I guarantee that you would hold on to me like that?"

"You!" Jura fumes.

"C'mon, inside," Kaze tells her as she opens the doors.

"Why should I? You probably just want to play another trick on me," Jura sulks.

"Think so?" Kaze asks, taping the heart and switching back to the remains of her school uniform.

"Um…." Jura murmurs as she follows Kaze inside.

"This room is huge," Jura mutters once she manages to tear her eyes away from Kaze's ass. "It makes my dorm room feel like my closet."

"Yeah, it's one of the few rooms in the house where I don't feel crowded," Kaze agrees as she heads for her dresser to get some fresh clothes.

"Boy, did you shit heads break into the wrong house!" Maizy snarls as she kicks the door open.

"Hi sis," Kaze says without bothering to turn and look. "But you really should knock before you come into someone else's room."

"Do I even want to ask why you two are here, since I know that your classes are not over yet? And what happened to your clothes?" Maizy asks, relaxing from her combat readiness.

"We had some…..problems at lunch time," Jura admits, finally able to recall what she had done to Gabrielle.

"Who did you beat the hell out of?" Maizy smirks.

"Dizzy," Kaze answers.

"A redhead with light blue skin and a horn on her forehead," Jura says with a blush of embarrassment.

"You beat up Dizzy and Gabrielle?" two other small K-girls add as they appear in the doorway behind Maizy.

"I told you two to wait for me downstairs," Maizy tells them over her shoulder.

"Yeah, like we are going to let you take on the world by yourself?" the bipedal insectoid girl shoots back, crossing her arms.

"We thought we might need to stop you from blowing up the house, while you beat on whoever was up here," the other one adds, moving forward a bit on her tiny caterpillar legs.

"No chance of that with these two," Maizy informs them. "Immomu, Nuri, I'd like to introduce you to my sister Kaze, and her girlfriend, Jura."

"Isn't it normal for both of them to be naked if they were up here having sex?" Nuri asks.

"But, we weren't," Jura sputters, blushing so hard that it shows even against her dark hide.

"We got the afternoon off, while they sorted out the mess we made," Kaze tells them pulling out the clothes she wants, and sitting down to remove her shoes.

"You still haven't answered Maizy about what happened to your clothes," Immomu points out.

"The Dizzy swarm ate her uniform," Jura tells them.

"They….." Immomu starts.

"ATE," Nuri continues.

"Your uniform," Maizy finishes.

"Yeah. I never claimed to be able to beat down her personal army," Kaze mutters in her defense.

"Then I take it they ate your underwear as well?" Nuri asks with a smirk.

"Yes," Kaze mutters, her entire body taking on a pink hue.

"I think that is the first time I've ever heard of a full body blush," Immomu adds, blushing a bit herself.

"Out," Kaze orders the trio.

"You heard her girls. Although I'm going to want the whole story about today later on," Maizy tells her, herding her friends back out.

"That was different," Jura says after they leave.

"Apparently K-girls mature a bit faster than normal kids," Kaze agrees. But speaking of different, what was the deal with you and Gabrielle? It's like you where a different person or something. What triggered that?"

"…well, I was just waking back up after saving you from the swarm," Jura says slowly, rebuilding things for herself, step by step. "Then I heard her say something about putting a collar on me, and something in the back of my head just…..took over. Most of what I did is a blur, with just a couple of clear pictures. Then the next clear memory I have is you. And being wrapped around you," she finishes, her blush burning hotter than ever.

"She wasn't talking about the kind of collars that your lab people used on you," Kaze tells her, pulling on a pair of panties, and tossing the rest of her clothes on the bed. Climbing on the bed and sitting close to Jura she continues, "She was talking about the ones some people wear when they dress up in costumes and things for sex.

"You mean she wanted to have sex with me?" Jura asks getting more confused.

"No, I mean…." Kaze trails off, trying in vain to think of a way to explain this that Jura will actually understand. Grabbing her shirt, she pulls it on, then slips into her pants. Standing up, she holds a hand out to Jura. "C'mon, Lets go find a computer, so I can show you what I'm trying to explain."

"Where is your computer?" Jura asks, taking her hand and allowing herself to be led deeper into the house.

"Well, I'm sure that Zoe and Maizy have their own, but the only one that I know of is the mainframe in the basement," Kaze answers.

"You have a mainframe computer? Aren't those really big? The lab had one, and they said things like it needed a lot of power, and that their experiments wouldn't be possible without one," Jura says as she is led through the house, and down to the basement.

"We also have a micro reactor buried under the house, to supply us with all the power we could ever need," Kaze adds, as she moves over toward one of the consoles and starts it up.

"Is that safe?" Jura asks.

"No idea. You'd have to ask Zoe or Maizy about that," Kaze returns as she starts an image search. In moments, she has several pages of pictures, all the women in them wearing all kinds of sexy outfits, with the only thing in common being that each of them has a collar on as well.

"And they're not prisoners?" Jura asks, having a hard time wrapping her mind around the images.

"Not unless they want to be treated that way," Kaze tells her. "Some people get excited being treated like that. Personally, I think it's kind of weird, but if it gets them off, who am I to judge."

"I still can't understand why someone would want to give up their freedom. It's too weird," Jura returns after a moment.

Getting an idea, Kaze tells her, "Go ahead and keep looking around. I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?" Jura asks.

"I just need to go ask Maizy something real quick. I'll be back in a few minutes, tops," Kaze answers.

"Alright. But hurry. It's a little too much like my old home for me to want to be in here alone for very long," Jura tells her, already looking uneasy about being alone down there.

"Just for a few minutes, I promise," Kaze assures her as she runs up the stairs.

"Maizy? Can I talk to you alone for a sec?" Kaze asks, sticking her head into the living room where the terrible trio is watching T.V. and giving the shows the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment.

"You could have just called me on a com channel you know," Maizy tells her as they step into the next room.

"I know, but I wanted to do this in person. I know what we were built for, during down time, so I was wondering if there was any stuff laying around the house?" Kaze asks.

"Want to show off for Jura?" Maizy smirks, as she thinks back over some of the stuff she's found, and trying to figure if any of it would fit her sisters much larger frame.

"No. Well, at least not right now. I'm trying to help her work past what got Gabrielle sent to the infirmary today," Kaze explains. Do we have any collars floating around here?"

"I think I found a couple in the other wing of the house…" Maizy trails off, thinking back. "Yeah, I'm sure of it. Dad had one of the bedrooms in that wing converted into a S&M playroom. The twisted bastard," she finishes, resentment over what the professor had done to her clearly still lingering.

"Could you run and find me one? It will be faster than if I try to find the right room, and I told Jura I would hurry. She says the basement reminds her of her old home," Kaze tells her.

"No surprise there. It is a robotics lab after all, so there is bound to be a few similarities. Yeah, I'll go find you one, just let me tell them I'll be gone for a couple of minutes," Maizy answers, moving to inform her friends that she will be missing a bit longer.

"Now I remember why I locked that room after I found it," Maizy mutters as she returns. She gives herself a shake, trying to remove the memories of the room, before she tosses Kaze her prize. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to hanging out with my friends."

"Thanks sis," Kaze tells her, dropping to her knees to give her smaller sister a hug.

"Hey! Knock that off," Maizy tells her, struggling to get free, before Kaze lets her go and heads back down to Jura. "Crazy. She is absolutely nuts," she adds, shaking her head, as she returns to Nuri and Immomu. Maizy only gets a few steps before the doorbell rings. Growling under her breath, she stalks to the front door. "I don't care what you're sellin' we ain't buyin', she snarls, as she throws the door open.

"Maizy! Gimme hugz!" a green blur squeals as she bowls Maizy over.

"Gak! Zuki! Ease up before you crush me!" Maizy gasps, displays popping up in her vision, warning of critical damage being imminent, unless the pressure is reduced.

"Sorry," the green bundle of energy returns, helping Maizy back to her feet.

"If I was organic, I'd need a chiropractor after that, at least," Maizy grumbles, stretching, faint pops being felt and heard as her back realigns itself.

"I didn't mean to hurt you," Zuki tells her, looking like she just saw her puppy get hit by a car.

"Don't worry about it, I'm fine," Maizy tells her with a smile. "This time at least," she adds to herself. "C'mon, the others are in the living room. Let's see what you think about some of the stuff they have on T.V."

"Cool!" Zuki answers, floating above Maizy's head as they head for the living room.

Kaze descends the stairs like her name, enjoying the image of Jura learning how to use a computer as she slowly moves the mouse around the screen. Taking notice of the images that Jura is blowing up for a better look, Kaze is rather surprised.

"That is kind of Heavy Bondage, given her background," she thinks, at the image of a woman with her arms behind her back, and stuck in a leather sleeve, her hands up between her shoulder blades, while her legs are locked to a spreader bar.

"People actually enjoy being put into positions like this?" Jura mutters, the disbelief in her voice thick enough to walk on.

"Well, if they didn't, the only time you would get anything remotely like that would be pictures that came out of a prison for the real sicko's," Kaze answers, causing Jura to nearly jump out of the chair in surprise.

"Don't do that!" Jura gasps. "How can someone as big as you move that silently?" she finally asks, once her pulse starts to return to normal.

"Natural talent?" Kaze returns with a negligent shrug. "Ether that, or it's a side effect of some of my combat programming."

"Did you find out what you wanted to know?" Jura asks, shaking her head at Kaze's answers.

"Yeah I did. But before I get to that, I want to ask you some questions," Kaze tells her.

"Alright," Jura responds, motioning for her to continue.

"Bring the chair over here," Kaze says as she hops up on the examination table. Once Jura rejoins her, she continues. "Have a seat. Now I'd like you to tell me why the thought of a collar freaks you out so much."

"For most of my life, I was nothing more than a tagged animal. The collar I wore let them monitor me, and control me with electric shocks. The only reason that I even know how to read is that they forced that kind of stuff down my throat," Jura answers, shuddering violently at the memories.

"I understand all that, but you said it yourself, the lab is gone. Whatever they did, screwed up, whatever, the lab has been blown to shit. You never need to worry about them trying to do that kind of thing to you again," Kaze tells her. "Now try again. Why does the thought of wearing a collar, even a decorative one, get under your skin so bad?"

"Because…..Because of the memories. I just can't keep from thinking of what they did, every time I even hear the word," she finally answers.

"Alright, I can work with that kind of an answer," Kaze tells her, looking satisfied.

"What do you mean?" Jura asks.

"Do you trust me?" Kaze returns, all signs of playfulness gone.

"You've never given me a reason not to," Jura answers in a small voice. "Why do you need to ask that?"

"Because I want you to trust me, and do as I say for a little bit. Okay?" Kaze answers.

"What do you want me to do?" Jura wonders.

"Nothing much. Just tip your head back a little, and close your eyes," Kaze answers her.

"Alright," Jura tells her, doing as requested.

Kaze doesn't waste a moment, silently moving to Jura, and loosely buckling the collar around her neck. Then she steals a kiss just for the hell of it.

"You can open your eyes now," Kaze smirks at the goofy grin on Jura's face.

"Now what was that all about….." Jura asks as she brings her face back down to level to look at Kaze, and brushing the collar with her chin. "Get this thing off of me now," she orders.

"No," Kaze answers, crossing her arms.

"I'm not joking Kaze. Get this thing off of me this instant!" she continues, her voice rising.

"And what will you do if I continue to refuse?" Kaze asks her.

"You mean besides never speaking to you again?" Jura snarls, quickly becoming pissed.

"Yeah, besides that," Kaze returns, carefully keeping hidden just how much that idea upsets her.

"I'll…I'll…..," Jura says, trying to think of something that she IS willing to do to Kaze.

"Well, while you're thinking about what you'll do to me, think about this: The collar isn't hurting you. It isn't allowing anyone else to hurt you, or do anything to you for that matter. You can remove it yourself at any time, if you where to actually think about it. And finally, this is the kind of collar Gabrielle was referring too, before you came off the ground, and proceeded to beat the hell out of her," Kaze tells her, ticking off points on her fingers.

"I….I can just take it off?" Jura stutters in shock, before reaching up and fumbling at the buckle. Staring at it in her hand, she whispers," I can just take it off? No locks? No remote controls? It's just that simple?"

"Yep," Kaze tells her with a nod. "And while you may not realize it, even if that thing was metal, and locked on with a fancy electronic lock, you could still just reach up and take it off. You are strong girl. When you flipped out this afternoon, I couldn't stop you. I was at the height of my powers, and I couldn't pull you off of that girl. I needed Zoe, and her friends help, and even then it was a struggle," Kaze tells her, getting wide eyes in return. "I think the main reason they went out of their way to keep you drugged up, and in constant fear of them is the fact that they knew it. I'm pretty sure that they knew full well that if you ever gained enough confidence in yourself to resist them, that you would have ripped that damn gizmo of theirs in half, and shoved it up their asses, then pressed the shock button for them. They were terrified of what you were born with, and tried to make sure that they could control you, while at the same time, doing everything they could to learn about the how's and why's of what you are."

"How can you know all that?" Jura asks, her voice barely a whisper as she thinks over what Kaze has just told her.

"I don't. Not for sure I mean. But if those are not the reasons behind most of what they did to you, then I'm the one who's going to be surprised," she answers.

"I…I need to tell her just how sorry I am. I had no idea…..never even suspected. My god, I was trying to kill her! Over something so stupid!" Jura sputters. "What kind of monster am I?"

Reaching out, Kaze catches Jura's face in both hands, and forcibly looks her in the eyes. "Now hear this. YOU ARE NOT A MONSTER! Those bastards that treated you like that for all those years, making sure that you never knew the slightest kindness, or hint of warmth or caring, THEY where the monsters. Not you. You where their victim," Kaze tells her, her grip ensuring that Jura can't look away.

"But what I did!" Jura counters.

"Was an overreaction of someone who didn't have all the facts, and while regrettable, was non-fatal to all parties involved," Kaze finishes for her.

"But….But…." Jura struggles to find ground to argue from.

"Yeah, and it's a real cute one too," Kaze smirks. "And since you can't seem to find an argument to use on me, you'll just have to take my word for this, and try to do better in the future."

"Do you have to be so smug?" Jura finally blurts out in frustration.

"I blame Maizy. She's a bad influence on me," Kaze deadpans.

Jura just looks at her in shock for several seconds, before starting to giggle. Kaze joins her after a moment, and soon both are in tears, thanks to how hard they are laughing.

"So do you feel a little better now?" Kaze asks, once they have recovered enough to talk normally.

"Yes. It's like a weight is gone. I feel lighter, but can't really explain why," Jura answers.

"Good. You're a lot cuter when you smile," Kaze tells her with an impish grin.

"You just like to make me blush all the time," Jura shoots back, before sticking her tongue out.

"True. And it's fun to do too!" Kaze grins.

"Alright. Just for that, you get to wear this for a while," Jura tells her, reaching up to put the collar around her neck.

"If it will make you feel better," Kaze smirks, leaning down a little to make it easier for her.

No sooner does Jura pull her hands back, when Kaze's eyes go wide in surprise, before her entire face takes on a vacant stare. She then sinks to the floor, her knees spread wide, and her wrists touching as she rests most of her weight on her rigid arms.

"That's not funny," Jura tells her with a frown. When Kaze doesn't so much as twitch, Jura starts getting worried. "Kaze, stop playing around, your scaring me."

Starting to get desperate, Jura reaches down and tugs on her arm, only to feel like she is pulling on a statue. "Kaze!" she screams. "Kaze, talk to me! What happened to you?"

"Can't move. Body's locked up," Kaze answers, her voice barely audible.

"What can I do?" Jura demands, relieved that Kaze is still in there, and terrified at what's happened to her.

"Get Maizy," is Kaze's only response before she falls silent again.

"Okay, now that is just messed up. The guy with the sonic cannon in his arm can't even put a dent in the guy, but the only one on the team who is completely human, with no powers of his own, can kick the guys ass with a stick?" Maizy complains.

"I like the little green guy. He's funny," Zuki giggles.

"I like the one with the cape. Her magic is kinda cool," Nuri adds.

"I think it's funny how the red head is so confused all the time. And that she can fly and is the strongest one of the bunch," Immomu tosses in.

"Maizy!" Jura screeches as she reaches the top of the stairs.

"Huston, we have a problem," Nuri sighs, as Maizy rushes from the room, the rest hot on her heels.

"What the hell have you gotten yourself into this time?" Maizy mutters as she stands over her larger sister's immobile form.

"Super Maizy is stuck like that?" Zuki asks.

"Her name is Kaze," Immomu corrects her.

"And it looks that way," Nuri adds.

"She said that her body had locked up, and that I should get you. That was the last I was able to get out of her," Jura tells Maizy in a rush, just short of freaking out over this.

"Well, at least she managed to get that much out," Maizy says to no one in particular. "Alright, if her body is refusing to respond to her, then we need to go to the source."

"Where is that?" Immomu asks.

"Where she was built," Maizy answers, transmitting Zoe's new password to the hidden lab.

The others just stare in shock as a section of the wall sinks into the floor, revealing the stairs down to the hidden lab.

"To the Batcave!" Zuki cheers as she flies down the tunnel.

"Wait! Don't touch anything!" Maizy yells, igniting her flight pack and taking off after the flying lizard girl.

"Let's go," Nuri tells Immomu as she runs after them.

"Wait for Immomu-mu!" the caterpillar girl cries as she follows after the others.

After the smaller girls troop down to the lab, Jura finally breaks into tears as she kneels next to Kaze. After several minutes of useless weeping, she finally starts getting herself back under control. After wiping her eyes, she climbs back to her feet, and starts to pace. After three laps around the room, she finally stops near Kaze, and uses the strongest cuss phrase she knows.

"Fuck me!" she snarls in frustration. "If not for all my problems, this never would have happened!" she says as she turns to follow Maizy and the others.

Only to be brought up short by a grip on her wrist.

"Wha? Kaze! You can move!" she gasps, before Kaze yanks her arm and spins her into a hold that she can't easily escape from. "Kaze! What are you doing?"

"Obeying your command, Mistress," Kaze answers, one hand going down under Jura's waist band, the other going up under her top.

"Kaze, MMpph!" Jura starts, only to be cut off as Kaze locks her lips with hers.

"So where do we start?" Nuri asks, after getting over her initial shock at seeing the lab for the first time.

"Here. I'm hoping that the bastard left behind some notes or something that can help us," Maizy answers, hoping up in to a chair in front of one of the terminals.

"Who?" Immomu asks.

"Our "father", the professor," Maizy explains, as she starts searching through the system as only a robot that is totally compatible with it can.

"What is this place?" Zuki asks, wandering around with her hands behind her back, so she won't touch anything.

"This is where I finished building Kaze's body, and where Zoe jumpstarted her mind, like she did mine," Maizy answers absently.

"If you built her, then why is this the first we've heard of her? Everyone knows Zoe, but Kaze just appeared recently. If you've been online as long as you say, then why is it that she's just now appeared?" Immomu asks.

"I…..screwed up when I built her. Nothing that is causing her current problem, it was with Zoe," Maizy finally comes clean. "I kept the entire thing from her, and planned to dump my mind into Kaze's body. I still don't know how, but Zoe found out, and stopped me, by locking the lab. It wasn't until that big mess with Kiga's last break out that she even brought the subject up again. Turns out that before she locked it all up, she started a program that brought Kaze to life, like she did with me. But Kaze was left sleeping for the whole time, and we only came down to wake her up recently. That's why no one has ever seen her before now."

"Well, if you built her, then shouldn't you know what's wrong with her?" Nuri asks.

"If I had started her from scratch, I'd agree with you, but she was already better than half built when I found her," Maizy agrees. "All I did was finish what the professor started. And like a fool, I didn't think to look into what he had done before hand. Aside from the standard programming that he gave all of us, I have no idea what other things he may have installed in her."

"You don't like your father very much, do you?" Zuki asks her, her voice full of compassion.

"He built me as a sex doll, with the body of a little girl. That in itself is more than a bit on the sick side, and then with some of the things he made me like, by programming me to, so that I don't have a choice in the matter…Yeah, I have some issues with him," Maizy answers.

"Hey, where is Jura?" Immomu asks, having just noticed the older girls absence.

"Nuri? That terminal over there is hooked into the security cams, see if you can locate her. Cause I just found the perverts journal!" Maizy grins, only to have it turn into a snarl of frustration when she sees the encryption protecting it.

"Maizy? You need to come get a look at this," Nuri says from the other terminal.

"I didn't think it was possible to bend like that," Immomu adds, her face glowing crimson.

"Wow," Zuki puts in.

"Difficulty rating?" Nuri asks, when they move to a new position.

"At least seven," Maizy answers, before they get to what they were after. "Scratch that, that is defiantly a nine."

While the others continue to stare at the monitor, Zuki wanders over to the terminal that Maizy was using, and begins to punch keys, slowly at first, but her fingers as soon a blur.

"Looks like just got a pair of new stars," Nuri smirks.

"You wouldn't!" Immomu says in shock.

"Why not?" Maizy asks. "After I fuzz out their faces, no one will be the wiser about who they are."

"Um, Maizy? Will this help Super Maizy?" Zuki asks as she points at the monitor, where a tall man with a bald scalp and a large tuft of wild white hair over each ear stares back.

"How the hell!" Maizy yells as she rushes back. "How did you crack that code? I used every perverted reference, sexual position, and dirty comment I could come up with!"

"What's bukkake?" Zuki asks, the most innocent smile imaginable on her face.

Maizy looks back and forth between the screen and Zuki with wide eyes.

"I'm going to kill him," she mutters, before pulling her chair back in front of the monitor and starting to work through the files.

"Don't hold back on our account," Nuri smirks.

"Yeah, tell us how you really feel," Immomu adds with a grin, since she rarely gets a chance to pick on Maizy.

"I'm going to shove this arm up his ass," Maizy begins without turning around as she holds up her right arm for them to see. "Then do this," she continues, as the twin blades pop out. "And then I'm going to fire it, and rip his heart out," she finishes, not bothering to turn and see that the others are as green as Zuki.

"Um… Maizy?" Zuki says. When Maizy turns to look, she points at the others.

"What? You guys asked. Sheesh!" she adds, turning back to the files. "I don't believe it. The son of a bitch left it all in video."

"The Mazinger cyber doll series is arguably my most impressive achievement," the Professor says from the screen. "But the Prototype, Ryoko, is little more than a proof of concept work. Taking what at the time was my most advanced design, and retrofitting the weapons into it proved far more successful than I could have hoped. Although the design lacked a true A.I., it was more than capable of supporting one. But the Military was so impressed, they furnished all the funds and materials I could ask for to assist in the development of the second generation cyber doll. Mazinger Zoe, was brought online in a military instillation, and over the course of a year, her newborn mind, for I had by this time perfected my A.I. program, was taught how to be a hero. A team of similar constructions where created, and Zoe was the one chosen to lead them. "The Shogun Maidens" proved their worth many times over, and at the time I record this, are deep in a conflict with an Alien race, who's entire goal is to wipe out the human race, and colonize the planet as their own.

"But, moving on, I have continued my works, and have begun construction of a new cyber doll. I have far reaching plans for this model. In addition to her military applications, I plan to market a "powered down" version to the rich and powerful. Programmed to serve as both a bodyguard, and sexual partner, I figure I can keep myself living comfortably with this. I'm still working out the programming on this model, including the parameters that I plan to include in the other versions. Since we all know just how varied what people like in a sexual partner is, there will be several "modes" that she will be programmed for. Some of them may seem a bit silly, given the scale of the frame for the prototype, but there will be a "Defender mode", in which she will serve her bodyguard duties, a "Normal mode", in which her A.I. will enable her to act like any other human, even going so far as to joke and backtalk. For those who prefer a bit more obedience in their partners, there will be a "Slave mode", in which she will follow any commands her owner gives her. I plan to have two separate triggers for this mode, one being a pre programmed command, that the new owner will designate, and the other will be as simple as slapping a collar around her neck. At that point she will only be able to see and hear her owner, and will obey any command that she is given by them. Additionally, The military models, and the prototype, will also have an "Assault mode", in which the armored helmet will add a guard across the dolls face, ensuring that her facial appearance is undamaged, regardless of what kinds of Combat she finds herself in. In addition to that, her power core will have a "Booster" that will be enabled when Assault mode is activated, greatly increasing her power.

"Given that not everyone has a liking for silver flesh, no matter how soft and cuddly it may be, I have also created a system that will enable her to alter her appearance. Since I cannot include both this, and the booster, I am designing this as an external piece that she will be able to interact with. The changes that this part will enact on the doll will be mostly cosmetic, altering her skin tone, changing hair color and the like. It will also contain additional material that may be used by the doll to increase the length of her hair, if that is the owners wish. While the changes will not affect anything more than the dolls appearance, they will be quite a bit more than merely make up. A nanotech fluid will coat the dolls skin, or hair, and leave behind a monomolecular layer of the same material that the skin and hair is constructed of, but of whatever color has been pre-selected. Once this layer bonds to the dolls skin and hair, it will be just as tough as the original colored materials."

"I think I agree with you," Nuri tells Maizy as the silver girl reaches out and turns off the monitor.

"Yeah, your dad is a real jerk," Immomu adds.

"Super Maizy can look like anyone!" Zuki grins, having been listening while the others watched the screen but continuing to poke around the lab. To prove her point, she hefts up a huge case, with the same emblem as the chest piece of Kaze's armor.

"Nice find, Zuki," Maizy says with a tired smile. "But now that we know how to reverse what happened to Kaze, I think it's time we went up and rescued Jura from her."

When the smaller girls reach the main lab floor, they find Jura out cold, and face down on the examination table, and Kaze back in frozen waiting position next to her on the floor.

"Get the collar off her," Maizy orders Nuri and Immomu, while she and Zuki check on Jura.

"Is she going to be okay?" Zuki asks, after poking Jura in the shoulder a couple of times and getting no response.

"Looks like Kaze just wore her out," Maizy answers, scanning Jura's life signs, and finding that she is just sleeping.

"Maizy? We have a problem over here," Nuri tells her.

"What now?" she growls as she spins around to look at the others. She gets a hand up to stop the object filling her vision right before it slaps her in the face. "Oh. Well, shit," she grumbles as she realizes that she's holding the collar, but Kaze is still trapped in slave mode.

"Now what do we do?" Immomu asks, clearly not happy that it wasn't as easy to free the larger girl as they had thought.

"It must take a command from her "owner" to release her," Maizy mutters.

"But who owns Super Maizy?" Zuki asks, still trying to prod Jura awake.

"No one. That's the problem," Maizy tells her, staring at her feet, without seeing anything while she thinks. "Unless," she says, her head snapping up, and her voice full of hope. "Unless she somehow imprinted Jura in that role when the collar went on. If that's the case, then we just need to get her back into the land of the living, and have her order Kaze to snap out of it."

"Owe. I hurt in places I didn't know I had," Jura groans as she turns her head to look at the others. "Oh, you're all back. Kaze moved, and she did things to me."

"We know. The fact that your clothes are shredded, and you were sleeping on the table where pretty good clues," Maizy tells her, keeping secret the fact that the entire episode was recorded.

"Why is she back like that again, if she was able to move before?" Jura asks, slowly pulling herself into a sitting position.

"It's part of a program that none of us knew she was set up with," Maizy tells her.

"And why did she call me "Mistress", before she did all that to me?" she asks, her face burning with the force of her blush as she remembers how good it felt while Kaze was manipulating her body.

"Jura lady had fun playing with Super Maizy!" Zuki laughs, while the others all breath a sigh of relief at hearing that Kaze recognizes Jura as her owner.

"Well, that should make things simpler," Immomu says.

"Yeah, she should just have to tell her to come back from slave mode," Nuri agrees.

"Right," Maizy nods. "Jura, I need you to order Kaze to return to normal operations. You're the only one she can hear or see while she's like this."

"Why me?" Jura asks, looking totally confused.

"Because while she's like this, she's imprinted you as her owner, and won't hear the commands from anyone else," Maizy explains.

"She WHAT?" Jura yells, taken completely off guard.

"Just tell her to resume normal operations," Maizy tells her, sounding tired.

"But…But I'm not her owner!" Jura blurts out. "She was helping me get past some of my problems, how did this happen?"

"I told you, it was a hidden program. We just found out about it, and how to reverse the effects, while you two were busy up here," Maizy tells her, quickly losing patience with the dark skinned girl.

"Jura lady needs to calm down, before she says something that causes Super Maizy to start doing things again," Zuki tells her with a grin.

"WHAT?" Jura squawks in surprise.

"JURA!" Maizy snarls, loud enough that the other girls cover their ears. "Tell Kaze to resume normal operations, or I'm going to lose my temper, and start broiling your tail until you do as I've told you!"

"Kaze, I order you to resume normal operations," Jura squeaks in a small voice.

The effect is instantaneous, as Kaze doesn't lose a moment in jumping back to her feet.

"THANK YOU!" she blurts out. Then she realizes that there is more than just Jura in the room with them. "Um, I don't suppose any of you guys have any idea what happened to me?" she asks, scratching the back of her head.

"Super Maizy needs to go down stairs and watch the video!" Zuki cheers.

"Who is this, as why is she calling me Super Maizy?" Kaze asks.

"I'm Zuki!" she grins.

"And I think she's named you that, because with the red hair, you do look like a much bigger version of the boss here," Nuri adds, jerking a thumb at Maizy.

"Anyway, the Huggle Monster has a good point," Maizy says. "You guys need to come down and see what the old pervert has to say about you."

"You found something from Father about me?" Kaze asks.

"Yeah, but it's not exactly flattering. Come on, I'll let him tell you," Maizy says, leading the way back down to the hidden lab.

"That's all we are to him?" Kaze moans in disgust after watching the video of the professors journal.

"He's no better than the people from the lab," Jura hisses, seriously pissed over how he thinks of Kaze, and her sisters, as nothing more than things, that exist for no other reason than to make his reputation, and bank account, bigger.

"My own creator programmed me to be a freaking slave-bot. So much for being a hero," Kaze mutters, sinking into a chair, and putting her face into her hands.

"He's done that kind of thing before," Maizy tells them. Once she has Kaze's attention again, she continues. "Remember Ryoko? That poor cyber doll was nothing more than a robot programmed to be his sex partner and house keeper. She didn't even have the A.I. programming to realize that she was nothing more to him than a tool, and something for the old bastard to get his rocks off with."

"What did happen to her?" Jura asks. "He said he retrofitted her with weapons, and used her as a "proof of concept" design. Whatever that means."

"He powered her systems down, and locked her in a closet while he went with the military to create Zoe," Maizy says, a faint shimmering of the air around her the first signal of her rising temper. "And she stayed there, until Zoe came home, and reactivated her."

"So where has she been hiding?" Kaze asks, not having put all the pieces together yet.

"Right in front of you," Maizy answers with a smirk. "I was Ryoko."

"But, you're not some mindless little sex-bot!" Jura blurts out.

"Thanks for noticing," Maizy smiles, for a moment, before continuing. "But anyway, like I said, I was powered down and locked in that closet for years. He didn't even bother to reactivate Ryoko when he came back and started work on you, Kaze."

Zuki's outburst of laughter cuts off any further discussion.

"I thought you were watching her?" Immomu says as she turns to Nuri.

"She was right next to me a second ago!" Nuri squawks in surprise.

Zuki's uncontrollable laughter causes everyone to start searching the hidden lab for her. It doesn't take long for Maizy to find her, rolling on the floor, and giggling like a loon.

"What's wrong with her?" Jura asks, as she gently picks the little green bundle of energy. "I know she's abnormally happy, but this can't be normal."

"You're right, it's not normal. But I'll be damned if I know what she got into," Maizy answers her, hovering over her friend as she continues to laugh and squirm in Jura's grip.

"I think I know," Kaze says, having found a beam emitter pointed at the spot where they had found the purple haired girl.

"What did that madman leave armed down here?" Maizy demands, her voice cracking in anger.

"Is she going to be alright?" Immomu asks, having climbed up Jura's back, and staring over her shoulder.

"She should be," Kaze answers, having turned on the display, and is busy scanning the information. "According to this, she managed to shoot herself with a "non-violent, ecologically friendly, anti-personnel weapon." Dr. asshole calls it a laugh blaster," she growls.

"That has got to be one of the stupidest names I have ever heard for a weapons system," Maizy shakes her head.

"Oh, it gets better," Kaze tells her. "Apparently, I've got one in me, too."

"That was fun! Almost better than a good hug!" Zuki gasps, barely able to breath after laughing that long and hard.

"Ah, there it is," Kaze mutters. "It's not even listed in my weapons selection. It's actually listed under what I call the "toy list for adult moments".

"So he planned for you to use then on whoever you where "playing" with?" Maizy asks, unable to contain a smirk. "God our father has a warped sense of humor."

"Yeah, but as you can see, the effects are temporary," Kaze says, while Zuki, is finally able to catch her breath.

"Shoot Nuri with the Giggle Mazer!" Zuki laughs.

"Thank you, no," Nuri returns, carefully putting Jura between herself and Kaze.

"So that's what happened. I had wondered how such a timid girl could suddenly become violent enough to do that," Mandy says, sitting back in her chair.

"I don't think she was even really awake, when she did it," Gina tells her.

"And that is something else that concerns me," Mandy says. "She only used a single burst of power, and it was enough to knock her out?"

"Now that you mention it, that is pretty strange for a Godzilla," Zoe agrees. "Normally you girls have power to burn," she adds to Gina.

"And she recovered fairly fast, after I propped her head up on my lap," Gina adds in a thoughtful voice. "Do you think it's possible that her energy reserves are that low? If she leached some radiation from me while we were in contact, it would account for how quickly she started to come around."

"I think you should take one of those "care packages" that Milenna whipped up for you to use during emergencies," Mandy agrees. "If she is operating at that low a level, then we should see to it that she is properly fed."

Zoe jerks suddenly, before putting her head in her hands. "Now what?" she mutters.

"Problem?" Mandy asks.

"Yes. Someone just tripped a silent alarm, in a very dangerous part of the house," Zoe answers. "I really need to go."

"Then go. I've gotten everything I needed. Dizzy started everything, and Gabrielle was just an unfortunate misunderstanding, mostly due to Jura not being fully conscious," Mandy agrees.

"Wait up, I'll come with," Gina tells Zoe. "I've got one of those packages in my locker, so just a quick stop, and then you can fly us to your house."

"Sounds like a plan," Zoe agrees as she leads the way out of Mandy's office.

"Good luck," Mandy whispers with a smirk, as the door closes.

"Everyone, back upstairs. I want to lock this place back down again before Zoe gets home," Maizy orders. "Oh, and Kaze, that case on the table is yours. Take it with you."

"Got it," she answers as she grabs the case containing her "costume change kit".

"You're a little late for that," Zoe says, a cold look on her face as she exits the access tunnel, with Gina following close behind. "Now if I don't get a damn good explanation for you all being in here, I'm going to see to it that the lot of you are grounded for a month! And that goes for you three as well," she adds, turning a look on Immomu, Nuri, and Zuki.

"It was kind of our fault," Kaze says.

"We accidentally triggered a one of Kaze's hidden programs," Jura adds. "Maizy brought us down here to figure out how to reverse what happened."

"WHAT hidden programs?" Zoe growls.

"Nuri? Run the video again, would you?" Maizy says with a sigh.

"Well, while you sort this out, I need to have a little talk with Jura," Gina tells the group.

"Go ahead, we'll be up after we settle things with Zoe," Kaze tells her.

"Alright," she agrees, setting Zuki back down, pleased that she only staggers for an instant before being able to stand on her own. "Lead on," she says, following Gina back up to the main lab in the basement.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Jura asks, once they clear the hidden doorway.

"Just a few questions about how you're feeling after what you've been through on your first day, Cousin," Gina returns, with a small smile at Jura's look of shock.

"Cousin? I don't have any idea about who my family may be, how can you call me a cousin?" she blurts out in a rush.

"Take a look at me Jura," she orders.

Jura stops talking, and takes her first close look at Gina.

"We're….the…..same…." Jura says in surprise. "Our coloring is different, and my tail is longer, but everything else…it's like someone made two different copies of the same person."

"Something like that," Gina returns with a bittersweet smile. "I have a pair of sisters, too. One, my older sister, has turned into someone who really doesn't give much of a damn for anyone but herself, and her lover. The other, my little sister….well let's just say that due to circumstances beyond her control, every time Kiga shows up, it involves nothing but heartbreak and sorrow for someone."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Jura returns in a small voice.

"Yeah, me too," Gina agrees. "But back to the point of asking you up here. How do you feel? Do you feel like if you had to do anything serious, like use your powers, that you would fall down?"

"Yeah, but I always feel that way. Why do you ask?" Jura wonders.

"Because for me, that is a sign that I've let my energy reserves get too low, and that I need a radiation recharge," Gina answers her.

"Aside from the experiment that changed my colors, I've never been exposed to much radiation," Jura tells her.

"Then I think it's long past time that you found out what it's like to be at your full power," Gina tells her, pulling out of her book bag what looks like a fat soup thermos, covered with radiation symbols, and sealed with a thick bead of lead around the seam.

"What is that?" Jura asks, crouching down to get a better look at it.

"Think of it as a box lunch for a K-girl that has her own nuclear reactor to fuel," Gina tells her. "Milenna makes them for me, and after talking with Mandy, we thought you could use one."

"What's this going to do to me?" Jura asks, taking a step back.

"Well, if you and I are as much alike as I think we are, it's going to put an end to that drained feeling that you've been putting up with," Gina tells her.

"So what do I have to do?" Jura asks her,

"Just pop the top, and let your body do the rest," Gina grins at her.

With that, she gives the lid a half twist to break the seal, then hands the container to Jura.

"My god," Jura whispers as she removes the lid, and is bombarded by radiation from the tiny nugget of material inside.

Gina looks on with a satisfied smile as Jura seems to pulse, her body greedily absorbing every last bit of radiation from what is now a harmless rock.

Jura looks around in wonder. "It's amazing! Everything is so different! The colors as so sharp! And I feel like I can lift the house!" she blurts out.

"I'd offer to arm wrestle you, but you where too much for us to handle when you where drained," Gina smirks at her. Then she asks, "What other powers do you have?"

"Well, I heal really fast," Jura tells her, a scowl explaining how she discovered that ability. "And you saw the shockwave I can make. And once, I was able to make an energy blast, but they shocked me continuously until I wasn't able to do it anymore."

"Well, the shockwave isn't one of my powers, but the healing and the blast are," Gina tells her. "And after your little snack there, you should be able to use your energy blast again," she grins with a wave at the container.

"So what have you two been up to?" Kaze asks, as she leads the others back up out of the hidden lab, Zuki flying past her shoulder.

"HUGZ!" Zuki squeals, causing Gina to duck in self defense, leaving Jura wide open for Zuki's most feared attack.

"Quite the grip you've got, little one," Jura wheezes, as she hugs Zuki back.

"No…" Immomu says.

"Way….." Nuri Finishes for her, both of their jaws hanging open.

"I've never seen anyone able to take one of Zuki's hugs, without needing a trip to the hospital," Maizy mutters in wide eyed shock.

"Well, you have now," Zoe says with a smirk as she leans against the now closed door to the hidden lab.

"Jura lady's strong!" Zuki cheers, giving her another squeeze.

"So it seems," Jura agrees, shooting a grateful look to Gina.

"Well, it looks like I'm done here, so I'll be heading home," Gina tells them, before heading for the stairs.

"Thanks again!" Jura gasps out, her healing factor barely able to keep up with the damage that Zuki can do.

"Don't worry about it," Gina waves back.

"Kaze? Why don't you and Maizy take the girls home, and see if their sisters will let them stay here for a sleep over tonight?" Zoe suggests.

"Sure," Kaze answers, lifting Immomu up onto her shoulder.

"I'm liking how this day is going, despite how things went with Kaze," Maizy grins.

"SLEEPOVER!" Zuki squeals, flying in circles above everyone's heads.

"So what are we waiting for?" Nuri asks.

"What are we going to do?" Jura asks Zoe, as the others troop out.

"We are going to have a little talk, while we do some shopping," Zoe tells her. "We need snacks, and I thought I'd let you pick out some of the videos."

"Jackie Chan Movies!" Jura says, doing a very credible imitation of Zuki's joyful squeal.

"Let's go," Zoe grins, jerking a thumb toward the door.

"That was fun, if a little strange," Jura tells Kaze, after they have gone upstairs.

"Easy for you to say. I didn't think we could snort things through our noses like organics can," Kaze mutters, her sinus' still burning from the soda that Zuki's antics had made her snort. "I feel like I've got fizz in my head," she complains.

"Oh, poor super robot. She can fight off violent K-girls, but can't handle a little jester?" Jura giggles as she picks on her.

"Hey, I'm programmed to know how to fight," Kaze returns defensively. "Dealing with Zuki is a completely different problem."

"I'll give you that. My back still twinges from her hugs," Jura admits with a wince.

"Want me to do something about that for you?" Kaze asks, a strange smile on her face as she opens the door to her room.

"What do you have in mind?" Jura asks, a funny feeling fluttering in her belly at Kaze's look.

"Lay down on your stomach, and I'll give you a massage," Kaze tells her.

"What's a massage?" Jura asks with a puzzled look.

"Oh, this is going to be fun," Kaze smirks, as she puts a hand on Jura's shoulder and guides her into her room.

"Ooohhhh," Jura moans, while Kaze works the muscles in her back, loosening them.

"I take it you're enjoying yourself?" Kaze grins.

"As if you had a doubt?" Jura asks with a lazy look over her shoulder.

"With you moaning like that? Not really," Kaze teases.

"C'm'ere," Jura smirks, as she twists around, and grabs Kaze's shirt.

"My, my, aren't we forceful tonight?" Kaze says in surprise as Jura pulls her close.

"I feel like a whole new person," Jura agrees, before locking her lips with Kaze.

Chapter 7

"Up and at 'em!" Zoe calls as she hammers on Kaze's bedroom door.

"I'm up! I'm up," Kaze yells back, before rolling over.

"But are you ready to go?" Jura grins as Kaze ends up nose to nose with her.

"I don't know what happened to you yesterday, but you are insatiable," Kaze grins back, as she feels Jura's tail snake across her legs.

"Gina figured out why I always felt like I was tired all the time," Jura tells her.

"And why was that?" Kaze groans as Jura's tail finally finds its target between Kaze's legs.

"Well, I'm a Godzilla, who has been operating with almost no fuel for her reactor," Jura moans as Kaze starts returning the favor to her breasts.

"So, mmmm, what happened?" Kaze manages to get out, as Jura keeps her tail tip dancing between her legs.

"She brought me a snack," Jura groans as Kaze drops a hand to work on her crotch. "The kind that glows in the dark."

"You two are going to be late!" Maizy yells through the door.

"Not, oooooo, when I can fly us to school in two minutes flat," Kaze moans.

"Then I guess I need to finish you off," Jura grins, making her tail move in ways that Kaze had never imagined.

"Oh, my, GOD!" Kaze yells, just before the bed frame gives out, and drops the mattress to the floor with a "thump" that can be heard at the other end of the house.

"So was it good for you?" Jura asks.

It takes a while before either of them can stop laughing.

"They're going to need a new bed," Maizy reports, after Kaze and Jura take off, so Jura can change before school.

"I wondered what that noise was," Immomu says, as she and the others have a bowl of cereal.

"Super Maizy and Jura lady play rough, non?" Zuki giggles between bites as she shovels food in.

"Got that right. I could hear them across the house. All night long," Nuri grumbles.

"And the lot of you will be just as bad when you're older," Zoe smirks, as she grabs her stuff and heads for the front door.

"So what's the plan for today?" Kaze asks, as Jura changes clothes.

"Well after school, we are going to have to go and get new uniforms, since Dizzy ate yours, and you destroyed mine, yesterday," Jura answers her, stepping out of the bathroom wearing tight blue jeans and a lemon yellow blouse.

"Far as I'm concerned, they can stay gone. They are among the stupidest things I've ever seen, let alone been forced to wear," Kaze snorts, her leather pants, and tight black t-shirt standing in nicely as a reminder of her armor.

"School rules," Jura reminds her, only to be interrupted by a scratching noise as something is slid under her door.

"No one there," Kaze reports, having thrown the door open to try and catch sight of whom ever had slid the note in.

"Someone wants to meet with me after school," Jura tells her, reading the note.

"What for?" Kaze asks.

"Says to "discuss the events that occurred yesterday at lunch". I wonder why they want to talk to me about your fight with Dizzy?" she answers.

"No idea. Want some company?" Kaze offers.

"Like I could turn you down?" Jura smirks.

"Well, you haven't yet, but you are the one in control of our relationship," Kaze reminds her.

"And I have no intention of ever putting you into that kind of position ever again," Jura assures her. "Although it might be fun to play around with the make-up kit your farther left you."

"Maybe later," Kaze grins.

"Good. But for now, we need to get to class," Jura reminds her, heading toward the door.

"Yes Mistress," Kaze smirks, following in her wake.

"Well, It's nice to see that not every day has to involve you blowing up large portions of the commons," Gina grins, as she walks past Kaze and Jura to get to where Zoe and the others of her group have collected.

"Oh, like the rest of you are any better," Kaze shoots back with a grin of her own.

"Oh, behave," Jura tells her with a playful swat.

"Ah, shaddap and eat your lunch, woman!" Kaze jokes back.

Jura's sole response is to stick her tongue out at her, before taking another bite.

"So where is your meeting supposed to take place?" Kaze asks, as she and Jura exit the Schools front doors.

"The commons," Jura answers her.

"Then let's go," Kaze says.

"Not so fast you chrome plated bimbo," Dizzy snarls from behind them.

With a sigh, Kaze stops, and tells Jura, "Go on. I'll catch up to after I deal with this."

"You sure? You don't want any help?" Jura asks.

"I'll be fine. I know what to expect out of her now," Kaze tells her, before turning her back on Jura and activating her choker, summoning her armor.

"Make damn sure you come back in one piece, or I'm not going to be very happy with you," Jura tells her, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek before leaving Kaze with her sparring partner.

"Oh, no worries there," Kaze mutters.

"Is the other one gone yet?" Crystal asks over her shoulder.

"Off to her meeting with Gabby," a yellow spider girl answers, as she steps away from the edge of the roof.

"Well then, it seems like it's time for us to make our appearance," The blue saurian says with a smirk.

"Not just yet. I missed the new ones fight with Dizzy yesterday, and I don't like jumping into a fight without any information," a third voice adds, as she steps away from the shadows near the roof access, and joins the others near the edge.

"Donna, isn't it enough to know that she claimed that no one had what it takes to stand up to her?" the spider asks.

"Don't give me that crap, Kumi. I'm not nearly dumb enough to take the word of you two on that," the ape girl returns.

"Then how long do you want us to wait? You know she busted Dizzy's chops pretty good last time," Kumi returns.

At the sound off the first explosion from below, Crystal takes matters into her own hands.

"We're going now," she announces as she gathers the others in a gentle telekinetic grip, and lowers them over the edge, to come down behind Kaze.

"You're not going to walk all over me this time, bitch," Dizzy snarls, as the smoke from their first exchange of powers drifts clear.

"Really? I did it easy enough last time, and you had the advantages of surprise on your side then," Kaze shoots back.

"Still do," Dizzy smirks as Kaze is dropped to her knees from an impact to her shoulder.

"What the hell?" Kaze snarls as she spins around, to find several crystals levitating around the Blue Saurian, while the spider and the ape girl spread out to either side.

"This is going to be fun," Kumi grins, preparing herself for whatever action Kaze may take.

"Great, and now I have to put up with the others playing "monkey see, monkey do" while I deal with you and the crystal slinger," Kaze mutters, turning back to Dizzy.

"I. Am. Not. A. MONKEY!" Donna roars, as she leaps at Kaze, delivering a vicious spin kick to the back of her head.

Knocked flat on her face from the blow, Kaze never the less returns, "Maybe not, but you're just as easy to piss off as Maizy, and that means I know how to deal with you, Banana Breath." Then she activates her flight pack, the wings extending as she activates the thrusters, scratching up her chest plate, as she blitz's Dizzy. "Remember this one?" she asks, as she cracks Dizzy in the face on her way past.

"Not so fast, Mazinger," Crystal orders, several of the floating crystals shooting forward to hit Kaze from behind.

"You do like shooting me in the back, don't you?" Kaze snarls, as she turns back to face the blue saurian, only to get a face full of webbing from Kumi.

"Let's see how well you fight with your eyes covered," Kumi gloats.

"You talk too much," Kaze mumbles, before blasting her blindfold.

"OOF!" Kumi grunts, as the weekend blast catches her in the chest, and knocks her against the building, and out of the fight.

"You're going to pay for that," Crystal snarls, energy crackling as it gathers around her horn.

"Die bitch!" Dizzy snarls, as she unleashes a micro oxygen blast at Kaze's back.

Kaze dives to the side, barely avoiding the impact of the MO blast, and Crystals Corona Beam.

"Defiantly don't want to get caught between them," she mutters, as she drags herself back to her feet.

"Forget about me?" Donna asks, grabbing Kaze and hurling her toward the building.

"I'm starting to get annoyed with the lot of you," Kaze returns, after slamming into the building. "And I'm about done playing around. Mazin-Go."

"Assault Mode Activated" flashes in her vision as the faceguard slides from her helmet and covers her face.

Turning to face Crystal, she points a finger at Donna and says, "Stay out of the rest of this fight, or you're going to end up in worse shape than the spider."

"As if your empty threats are going to scare me?" Donna snarls as she breaks into a charge.

"I warned you," Kaze growls, before the hand pointing at Donna launches, the rocket punch catching the ape girl by surprise.

Donna is knocked back off her feet, and sent skidding across the grass, where she starts coughing up blood.

"That's not good," she thinks, blood covering her hand. "Must have broken half my ribs with that shot."

"Who's next?" Kaze snarls, as her arm flies back and reattaches.

"I hope she doesn't hurt Dizzy too badly," Jura mutters as she listens to the sounds of combat.

"So you came after all," a voice from around the corner says.

"Why did you want to see me?" Jura demands, suddenly having a bad feeling about the meeting.

"Why, for revenge of course," Gabrielle snarls as she steps into sight, her twin black eyes, and taped up nose a testament to what Jura had done to her. "You surprised me, and hurt me. Now it's payback time!" she yells as she unleashes a blast of lightning from her horn that knocks Jura off her feet, and sends her skidding backward, until she comes to a stop against a pair of black leather clad legs.

"Who are you?" Jura asks, wincing at the electrical burn on her chest as it heals.

The new arrival merely reaches down and picks Jura up by one shoulder, before delivering a gut punch that sends her skidding back toward Gabrielle.

"Cyganna? Why are you here?" Gabrielle asks, as she takes the opportunity to kick Jura in the gut before she can get to her feet.

"She hurt a friend of mine, and that isn't allowed," the Gigan girl says, as she reaches up over each shoulder and draws the blades held there. Sticking her hands in to the openings for them, she then clashes them together, before assuming a combat pose, and slowly closing in on Jura, where she is curled up while her wounds quickly heal.

"What are you doing?" a voice demands.

"Suffering," Jura answers, still curled into a ball of pain.

"If you don't do something, they are going to kill you," the voice tells her.

"What can I do? The last time I fought back, the lab was destroyed, and everyone there was killed," Jura answers, slowly uncurling from her position on the ground.

"Then let me out, and I'll do it for you," the voice continues, as a shadowy form appears standing above her.

"That's what happened, last time," Jura growls. "And I'll be damned if I'm going to let you do that again without a damn good reason!"

"Then you need to start fighting back against the two who are going to kill you, otherwise we both die," the shadow tells her.

"I can't!" Jura wails.

"Bullshit!" the shadow snarls back. "You still know how to do that shockwave attack, and you have the energy to actually use your powers for the first time in your life!"

"But I'm not a fighter!" Jura cries.

"Then use me!" the shadow cries, waving its arms.

"You just want to take over my body again like when you beat the hell out of that girl yesterday!" Jura snarls at the shadow.

"For your information, she is one of the people currently planning to beat and or slice you to death," the shadow returns.

"It's your fault!" Jura screams.

"If you would work with me, instead of making me do it all, you would have some say in how far things go," the shadow points out, as it grows more and more distinct.

"But I don't trust you," Jura tells she shadowy K-girl.

"And that is why you're getting your ass kicked," the shadow version of Jura responds. "If you can't trust your own instincts, then you freeze up in a crisis. Like fighting for your life. That kind of crisis."

"I'm not ready to die yet. I'm just learning how to live," Jura says in a small voice.

"Then work with me!" her shadow self cries.

"I say when it's enough, Clear?" Jura says, a hint of steel in her voice.

"Just meet me half way," her shadow self answers, holding out a hand to her.

Jura reaches up and takes the shadows hand.

"And this is for breaking my nose!" Gabrielle continues to rant, punctuating each comment with another kick.

"Let me know when you're done, so I can finish her off," Cyganna tells her, still on guard, and prepared for anything.

Except the explosion of blue energy that throws both her and Gabrielle in different directions away from Jura.

"I was planning to find you, so I could apologize about that," Jura growls as she slowly gets to her feet, her hair floating above her head on the currents of the energy she is channeling. "But you obviously won't accept an "I'm Sorry" about that, any more than I will about this."

"Time to die," Cyganna snarls, her visor flashing as she releases a blast, the beam splitting and detonating all around Jura.

The blast sends Jura flying again, but this time, when she hits, she maneuvers to get her feet under her, and uses her claws to slow her skid.

"Stay down already!" Gabrielle growls as another blast of lightning hits Jura in the back.

"Try harder," Jura tells her, not having budged an inch.

"Why you arrogant …"Gabrielle snarls as she rushes Jura from behind.

"Gabrielle! Don't!" Cyganna yells, rushing forward.

"Take a load off," Jura growls, spinning around and smashing her tail into Gabrielle's chest.

When she lands, she doesn't get back up.

With a wordless scream of rage, Cyganna starts slashing at Jura, drawing blood with each swing, until Jura manages to catch one of the blades, and uses her grip to throw Cyganna away from her.

Recovering in mid air, Cyganna re-orients herself, and unleashes another blast from her visor, knocking Jura off her feet once more from the detonation.

"I'm starting to get really tired of that," Jura mutters as she picks herself back up again.

"What will it take to keep you down?" Cyganna mutters to herself.

"With those blades, I would have thought you'd have more skills," Jura says, as she stalks closer.

"Try this," the Gigan girl snarls as she points her left blade at Jura, and launches a pair of spikes from the hilt, connected by chains.

Jura gets a hand up, and the spikes punch right through, making her scream in pain.

"Oh, poor little monster girl," Cyganna says with an evil grin.

"Laugh this off, bitch," Jura snarls, as she clenches her violated hand into a fist, and screams. Pulses of blue energy shoot down the chains, making Cyganna dance as if she was caught in a bug zapper. As Cyganna collapses into a smoking heap, Jura screams again as she yanks the spikes out of her hand. "Next time, I won't be so nice," she growls, before heading back to where she left Kaze.

"This is starting to turn into a no win situation," Kaze thinks as she is pelted from all sides by crystals and low power micro oxygen blasts. "Do you ever fight a battle where you don't call out your swarm to do most of it for you?" she calls at Dizzy.

"It's just her way," Crystal smirks, as she causes crystal spires to rise from the ground around the battlefield. With the spires sending energy to her, she powers up another Corona Beam, and knocks Kaze across the field to slam into a tree.

Before either Dizzy or Crystal can follow up on that attack, a river of blue energy slams into Crystals back, and propels her into Dizzy, before slamming the both of them into a wall, leaving a scorched pattern around the spot where they hit.

"Leave her alone," Jura snarls as she storms into the arena, her scorched, slashed, and bloodstained clothes flapping in the breeze.

"Ouch, that's going to leave a mark," Kaze smirks, as she gets her first look at what happened to Crystal and Dizzy.

"Go check on the other two, while I have a few words with this pair," Jura orders her, her tone leaving no room for argument.

"Yes, Ma'am," Kaze answers, shivering at Jura's tone. A quick check of Kumi reveals that she is just out cold. Moving to Donna, Kaze is shocked at what she finds.

"You sure pack a punch," Donna gasps, blood flecking her mouth.

"How bad did I bust you up?" Kaze asks, scanning her.

"Think you got most of my ribs with that last shot," Donna answers, with another soggy cough.

"Shit, I've gotta get you to the nurse," Kaze says as she lifts the ape girl as gently as she can.

"Thanks," Donna wheezes.

"Babe? Got one napping, and this one needs a Doc," Kaze calls to Jura.

"Take care of her," Jura orders, as she grabs both Crystal and Dizzy around the neck.

"Hang on," Jura tells Donna as she spreads her wings.

The take off makes Donna feel like she's just been punched again.

"I want to know why the lot of you attacked us," Jura growls, giving Dizzy a shake.

"She said that Kumi and I could have a half dozen of her mini's to use as messengers and spies if we helped her," Crystal answers, using her telekinesis to uproot one of the spires and maneuver it around behind Jura.

"Gabby wanted us to keep your robotic guard dog busy, while she took her shot at you," Dizzy smirks, only to have Jura tighten her grip.

"You talk about her like that again, and I'll pop your head like a zit," Jura snarls in her face, while Dizzy's face turns a much deeper shade of purple. After a moment of Dizzy beating ineffectually at Jura's arm, she relents and lets the Destoroyah girl have some air.

"Why don't you let us go," Crystal suggests, not at all happy with what she's feeling through her empathy.

"Why don't you zip it, unless you have something useful to add," Jura tells her.

"Like this?" she smirks as the spire slams into Jura's back, shattering.

With a wince, Jura glares as Crystal and growls, "If you do that again, I will crush the crystals on your shoulders."

Crystal pales as she feels that the threat is real.

"What do you want" Crystal asks, disgusted at being at someone's mercy.

"You're going to leave us the hell alone, or I'm going to give your spider a lovely pair of crystal ear rings. After I rip them out of your hide," Jura answers.

"You're actually going to take tha-URK!" Dizzy starts to say, before Jura's grip cuts her off again.

Crystal turns nearly white at that, before snarling at Dizzy, "She not bluffing, you stupid blond."

"I'm so glad we understand each other," Jura says, dropping both girls, and walking towards the nurse's office.

"She's crazier than Kiga," Dizzy gasps, massaging her throat.

"No she isn't," Crystal tells her. "It might kill part of her to follow through with those threats, but she will do it if she's forced to."

"How do you know that?" Dizzy demands.

"I'm psychic you dumb ass! I felt everything she did while she was holding us," Crystal snarls. "She's not crazy, and she's not nearly as violent as she was trying to make us believe. But she will follow through with her threats, if we don't leave her and her Mazinger alone."

"I'm not afraid of her," Dizzy growls, puffing herself up.

"Then you're even dumber than I gave you credit for," Crystal says over her shoulder as she goes to check on Kumi.

"Why does she have you so spooked?" Dizzy demands.

"I'm not "spooked", you moron. It's called "respecting something that can hurt you". Most of you aren't smart enough to be a threat, despite your powers," She answers. "This one though, she just wants to be left in peace, and for a change, I'm inclined to grant that."

"You are afraid of her!" Dizzy realizes, her jaw hanging open in shock.

"Shut up Dizzy," Crystal snarls as another spire shoots in and slams into Dizzy's head, knocking her out.

Jura only makes it halfway to the nurse's office before she collapses to her knees, and begins to shiver, tears streaking her face.

"You going to be alright?" Kaze asks.

"I don't know," Jura mutters. Then she looks up in surprise, and asks, "When did you get here?"

"A few minutes ago," she answers, sitting down so she can wrap an arm around her lover. "But you just looked like you needed to be left alone for a little bit."

"No. I don't want to be alone ever again," Jura sniffles.

"I can help make that wish come true," Kaze tells her.

"What, going to spend your entire life as my constant bodyguard?" Jura asks, trying to make a joke.

"Not exactly," Kaze returns with a gentle smile.

"What then?" Jura asks, completely baffled by Kaze's comments.

"Let's go," Kaze tells her, helping her to her feet. "You need to get cleaned up, and get some clothes that don't look like they've been through a wood chipper."

"The wood chipper was named Cyganna," Jura says with a little laugh.

"I'll remember that, so I can give her a rocket powered knuckle sandwich," Kaze growls.

"No!" Jura tells her, dragging her to a stop and making her look at her. "No more fighting, unless they don't give us a choice. I said things, and did things today that make me sick. Fighting to defend ourselves or someone else is one thing, but I want you to promise me that you won't go looking for trouble."

"You have my word on that," Kaze tells her. Then she cracks a smirk and adds, "We don't need to look for trouble anyway. It seems to find us just fine regardless."

Jura gives her a tired chuckle for that crack. "Just so we agree."

"You don't need to worry about me going looking for more trouble," Kaze assures her as they walk up the steps to her dorm.

"I don't like this place," Jura mutters as they move down the hall to her room.

"Get yourself cleaned up," Kaze tells her.

"Darcy is going to be mad," Jura says sadly. "Half of the clothes she's made for me have been wrecked."

"She's not going to get mad at you for that," Kaze assures her. "It just means she gets to make you more. She lives to be able to design clothes for K-Girls. If she couldn't she would be bored out of her mind."

"Well, we certainly give her plenty of opportunities," Jura smiles tiredly as she gathers a fresh outfit, and steps into her tiny bathroom.

"Is there anything in here besides your clothes that you want to take with you?" Kaze asks when Jura emerges from the bathroom.

"Where am I going?" Jura asks, confused.

"Well, you said you didn't want to be alone, and that you didn't like it here," Kaze reminds her.

"And? Where else am I supposed to live? The school is the only place willing to have me," Jura shoots back.

"Then I should tell Zoe that you don't want to come live with us?" Kaze asks.

Jura stands there gaping like a fish for several moments, before she throws herself at Kaze, knocking the both of them down onto the bed as their lips find each other. After finally coming up for air, she asks," But where am I going to sleep? "

"Well, I have a few suggestions along those lines," Kaze answers her, with an evil little grin.

"I'm sure you do," Jura says, matching her grin.

"Here," Kaze says as she shoves a bundle at Jura as they get back up off the bed.

"What's this," she asks.

"Your stuff," Kaze answers her. "Now let's get the hell out of here, before some more trouble finds us."

"Welcome home," Zoe says as she opens the front door for them.

Jura responds by pulling Zoe into a hug that is a match for Zuki, without the collateral damage. "Thank you," she repeats several times, before she finally releases the retired hero.

"Take her upstairs, and get her settled in," Zoe tells her sister.

"Will do," Kaze smiles, as she puts a hand behind Jura and guides her back upstairs.

"You sure this is a good idea?" Maizy asks, after Zoe closes the door.

"You saw how she reacted," Zoe tells her. "How can giving her a real home be a bad idea? And anyway, do you have a good reason that you can give Kaze why Jura can't live here?"

"No, I don't. I just felt the need to ask," Maizy says as she turns to go about her business. "This place just won't be the same, with someone like her running around."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Zoe smirks.

"You kidding? It's going to kill that old pervert when he finds out how many hot girls are living in his house, and he can't do a damn thing about it," Maizy grins, leaving Zoe laughing.

The beginning….