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

3. Chapter 3

Alright kiddys, this one is going to fill in some of the blanks from "No Good Deed", mainly starting with the story of Pyra and Lyrai, and coving some of the aftermath in the wake of the Red Bamboo assault. With all the new characters I've got simmering on the back burners, you know that I'm not nearly done with my K-verse stories yet.

So without further ado….ON WITH THE SHOW!

"Urk! Owe. Anyone get the I.D. of the Kaiju that stepped on me?" Zoe groans as her systems begin coming back online.

Kaze is by her side in an instant, quickly drawing her into a hug.

"Thank whatever gods you want to name, I am so glad that you're finally back!" Kaze tells her.

"Last thing I can remember…Geisha has my weapons! We have to find her and stop her!" Zoe blurts out, as the final moments before she was knocked offline come back to her in a rush.

"Easy! Take it easy, and listen," Kaze tells her, forcibly making her lay back down on the table. "First off, you are in no shape to go out picking a fight with anyone, let alone the bitch that blasted you out of the sky with your own trademark attack," Kaze continues, smirking as she adds, "And anyway, I cut her fucking head off, and slagged her with my fire blaster."

"Good," Zoe grins.

"Of course, then she somehow came back, this time in a giant body. Smacked me around like a tennis ball," Kaze continues, enjoying watching Zoe's eyes widen in shock.

"Please tell me that she is gone, and that body was destroyed. And be honest while doing it," Zoe begs.

"Jura blew her head off, then slagged the remains," Kaze grins.

"Jura? How did our little wall flower get the power to take down something the size of a super robot?" Zoe asks.

"Well, the jury is still out on the how she does it, but it seems that Jura has the ability to grow to full Daikaiju size," Milenna tells her, leaving Megan to keep working on Maizy. "Unfortunately, her mind seems to devolve as her size increases. After she defeated her opponent, she was about to go on the standard Kaiju rampage through town, when this nutcase, and her two friends got in the way. I'm still not sure about everything that happened, but it's too much of a coincidence that Jura reverted to normal, right after Kaze punched her between her eyes."

"I didn't punch her," Kaze whispers. "I just reminded her of who she really is."

"As long as everyone is alright, I'm not going to worry about the details of how it all played out. At least not for a while," Zoe tells them. "How are the kids?"

"Nuri and Immomu are fine, and none the worse for wear from being snatched like that," Milenna tells her.

"And Maizy?" Zoe demands, Milenna's avoidance of mentioning her not having gone unnoticed.

"You strong enough to get up now?" Kaze asks in response.

"How bad is she?" Zoe demands, sitting up and unplugging herself from the monitors.

"You'll need to see for yourself," Kaze tells her.

"How long do you two plan to keep us here?" Pyra growls at Giganna and Gabby.

"We aren't keeping you here at all," Giganna retorts. "Gina asked that you stay until Milenna or Mandy could come and talk to you."

"And Gina thought it might be a good idea if someone kept an eye on the both of you, since none of us knows anything about either of you," Gabby adds in her most surly tone. "Aside from you obviously being Mothras."

"Pyra, Calm down. You know full well that you would do the same things in their place," Lyrai tells her.

"Doesn't make it any easier to deal with," Pyra grumbles, before returning to sit on the bed with her sister.

"Giganna, do you mind if I steal Gabby for a while?" Cyganna butts in, leaning around the partially open door.

"YOU!" Pyra snarls, leaping back to her feet, as flames cover both of her arms.

"Um, did I say something offensive?" Cyganna asks, confused about Pyra's reaction.

"I destroyed you once, monster, and I'm damn sure I can do it again!" the fiery Mothra declares, as she begins advancing across the room toward the cybernetic monster girl.

"I don't know what the bloody hell you're talking about buggy, but I never back down from a fight! Bring it!" Cyganna calls back, reaching over her shoulder for her blades.

"Oh, shit," Giganna mutters, quickly hitting the speed dial on her cell phone.

Megan absently answers her phone, "I'm a little busy right now, could you call back in a few hours?" She suddenly gives the little hunk of plastic and circuitry her full attention as Giganna quickly tells her what's going on. "Crap, crap, crap," she mutters as she quickly moves away from Maizy, and toward the room where Zoe is recovering.

"Is she really that bad?" Zoe asks, near tears as she opens the door.

"Problem upstairs!" Megan blurts out when the door opens in front of her. "The new Mothra's are picking a fight with Cyganna!"

"What new Mothra's?" Zoe demands.

"On it," Kaze says, immediately contacting the twins over the radio.

"She's so cute when she's asleep like that," Kera grins, as she and her sister stand together watching Jura.

"Yes she is," Sera agrees.

Both sisters jerk in surprise as Kaze contacts them with news of what's going on.

"Move!" Sera hisses urgently, pushing her sister ahead of her as they rush out the door, while trying to avoid waking Jura.

"You talk a good fight, for a moth. Do you really think you can take me?" Cyganna taunts, clashing her blades together as she and Pyra circle each other.

"Can't you stop her?" Gabby demands of Lyrai.

"I'm the little sister. She barely listens to me when she's calm, no way in hell she's going to listen to me right now," Lyrai answers.

"This is not going to make Zoe very happy when she wakes up," Giganna mutters, shaking her head in disgust.

Then the door is ripped off of it's hinges by the twins arrival, grabbing everyone's attention.

"I strongly suggest that the both of you calm the fuck down, and behave," Kera tells them both.

"Yeah like she's going to listen to a mech over me? Please," Lyrai smirks, as the flames on Pyra's arms grow more intense.

"I've been challenged, and I'm not going to back down until she's bleeding on the carpet!" Cyganna growls, not taking her eyes from her opponent.

The twins give each other a brief nod, before blasting both of the girls with their head beams. When both Cyganna and Pyra give them a look that clearly demands, "What did you do that for?" Sera tells them coldly, "We asked you politely to behave. You refused, so we had to insist. If you continue to try and wreck this house, we will be forced to take more…forceful…measures to keep the peace."

"That won't be necessary, ladies," Kaze growls as she enters the room behind them, towering over everyone there. "Because if they don't knock this shit off right this second, I'm going to use their skulls for maracas!" she snarls, managing to keep her voice to a level that is clearly heard in the room, but doesn't bother any of the others currently recovering in the house.

"Who do you think you are?" Pyra demands, getting back to her feet, and stomping up to Kaze. Then backing up several steps so she can look her in the eyes without twisting her neck so badly.

"Me? I'm no one special, really," Kaze tells her. "But since I live here, My family got busted up pretty badly last night and are just now starting to recover, my girlfriend is in a room a few doors down, also recovering from saving all our asses, and you where invited along at my request, I suggest you show a little respect. Before I kick your ass out….Through the wall," she finishes, leaning down until her face is level with Pyra's.

Pyra takes a good look into those steadily brightening eyes, and nods, "I can do that." Then she turns on her heal and moves over to the bed, resuming her seat.

"You going to give me any lip?" Kaze demands as Cyganna picks herself up.

"She backed down, that's enough for me," Cyganna answers, removing her blades and storing them in her harness. "This time."

"Make a note," Kaze tells her as she turns her back on the group. "While you are a guest here, there will be nofighting. I don't care if you want to go out to the back corner of the property and kick the shit out of each other, but the first one to pick a fight under this roof is going to answer to me. And I won't be playing nice."

And with that last word on the matter, Kaze leaves them alone once more.

"C'mon, before you get into any more trouble today," Gabby smirks, grabbing Cyganna's arm and dragging her out of the room.

"Wow. That was different," Lyrai says into the sudden silence.

"Get everything sorted out?" Zoe asks.

"Yeah, and the only damage was to the door to that room. I'm calling it a win," Kaze answers. "Oh, and I really think you should go talk with those two as soon as possible," she adds to Milenna.

"I'll get right on that," the gel like alien responds, her sarcasm missed by no one.

"Actually, go ahead and get it out of the way," Zoe tells her. "We can start working up alternatives, while you deal with whatever it is, and then we can work out the details when you return."

"Alright. If you would lead the way?" she says to Kaze, who merely nods, and leads her back up to the room with Pyra and Lyrai.

"So you two are the new ones, eh?" Milenna asks as she stops in the smashed doorway, and gives each of the girls within a searching look.

"So who the hell are you?" the older Mothra girl with the flame patterned wings shoots back.

"She always so belligerent?" Milenna asks the younger Mothra girl.

"Not always, but often enough for it to stop bothering me all the time," she answers.

"Alright. Care to tell me your names?" Milenna asks her, ignoring her sister for the time being.

"I'm Lyrai. They combined "Light" and the first part of "Rainbow" for it," the brilliantly colored girl answers.

"And I'm Pyra," her sister answers, stepping into the center of the room. Her wings suddenly burst into flame as she adds, "I'm sure you can understand how I got the name."

"Quite," Milenna smirks. "I am Milenna, one of the teachers at the school that the K-girls go to.

"Ah, so you're the one they wanted us to wait for," Lyrai says.

"'Bout time," Pyra mutters. "So what did you want to talk to us about?"

"Just some general background information," Milenna tells them. "Like where you are from, the kinds of things you like, why you've chosen now to show up, that kind of thing."

"We're from the future," Pyra tells her, making Milenna's jaw drop open in surprise (and trust me, that takes some doing). We came back in time to warn you all about the Crimson Empress, and what it will mean for all of you, not to mention the world itself, if she succeeds in building her Machine Empire."

"Whoa, slow it down there kids," Milenna orders. "Back up and start from the beginning. I'm going to need to hear the whole story on this I think."

"For us, this all started more than a hundred and fifty years ago," Lyrai tells her, slowly working her hands through several finger twisting forms. When she finishes, she whispers, "Mothra, please help me explain what she will need to know."

Milenna is surprised once more as a shimmering hole appears next to Lyrai.

"It began, long before now. Back when Mazinger Zoe was still part of the military unit known as the Shogun Maidens," Pyra begins the tale, images of what she is speaking about appearing in the shimmering field next to Lyrai.

"I'm aware of Zoe's past. I've also taken the liberty of retrieving all the military records pertaining to the Shogun Maidens," Milenna tells them, holding up a hand.

"Then you are already aware that the mastermind behind the battle last night was the Shogun Maiden known as Red Geisha?" Lyrai asks.

"It was kind of hard to miss, since Zoe informed us about it after the kids where taken," Milenna informs them.

"Ah. Then lets move on," Pyra answers. "In the near future, she will try again. Only this time she will have the assistance of some of your students."

"Not possible," Milenna declares, as images of Bai Xiong and Kazira appear in the viewing portal.

"Unfortunately, it is," Lyrai answers. "The most powerful of the Ghidora's willingly betrays her own clan, in order to bring them into line with what she thinks they should be."

"And the other does it simply for more power," Pyra adds.

"How?" Milenna demands.

"She utilizes "control chips" to modify the girls behavior. Once she has them implanted, they willingly obey her commands," Lyrai answers in a subdued voice.

"And what happened to the betrayers?" Milenna asks.

"The same thing that happened to the betrayed," Pyra tells her. "The Empress is a backstabbing bitch."

"And you're positive that events are going to unfold the way your history has them?" Milenna demands, still not sure she's buying the entire tale yet.

The mothra's exchange a look, before Lyrai answers, "No. Not completely. At least not any more."

At Milenna's questioning look, Pyra adds, "Things have already started to drift away from what we have been told was the way things unfolded."

"Such as?" Milenna asks.

"Well, that big Mazinger for one," Pyra answers. "We've never even heard of her before."

"And the fact that the Crimson Bitch was using her "Titan" class battle body. To the best of our knowledge, she didn't unveil that until well into her plans," Lyrai adds.

"And finally, the girl that finally defeated her," Pyra concludes. "In our time, she was the Empress' most powerful weapon. The mechanicals would sneak her into an area, and then start a battle where they would appear to be at a disadvantage. When the resistance committed additional forces to ensure that we won, they would activate her. She has single handedly wiped out more than half the combatants we've ever been able to claim."

"Jura? Our Jura, who doesn't even like to fight? She is Geisha's most powerful weapon?" Milenna sputters is surprise.

"She was never even heard of, until she appeared at the Empress' side in an early battle, where she was being held off by the mecha girls that she had yet to subvert, and the ones known as Gina and Crystal," Lyrai adds. Then she quietly adds, "That was also the battle where the resistance lost Mazinger Zoe and the Mecha unit known as Kiryuu."

"Things went downhill from there," Pyra adds. "She also found and reprogrammed all her other old team mates from the Maidens. With those skills, abilities, experience, we didn't have much of a chance after that. The K-morphs quickly became a slave race, with the Empress breeding them in a controlled environment."

"How? The K-girls are incapable of breeding with humans," Milenna states.

"There is a way. After she had captured and implanted the girls, she harvested them," Lyrai answers with a shudder. "And there is a bridge between the K's and the humans."

"Kim…." Milenna mutters. "So she used him, and managed to increase the girls numbers?"

"Yes. The first batch included both Male and Female offspring, and they where completely compatible with human physiology," Pyra tells her.

"And all of them took after their "mothers" in what kind of K-morph they where," Lyrai continues. "After that, it was a just a matter of the Empress instigating a controlled breeding system to ensure that their numbers increased as she saw fit."

"At least until our grandmother and a few of the others where freed," Pyra smirks. "That threw a big wrench into her plans."

"Alright. I'm going to want to hear more on this, but you've given me enough to work on for now. "If it's not too much to ask, I'd like for the both of you to remain here for tonight, and I will see to getting you moved to the school dorms tomorrow," Milenna tells them as she stands up. "I will also see to it that you are set up with some clothes more fitting to this time period," she adds, giving the few clothes that the girls have with them a critical look.

"When can we expect you to return?" Lyrai asks, clearly eager to escape the mansion. "It's not that we're ungrateful or anything for them allowing us to stay, but they are machines. And as I'm sure you can understand, we don't have a very deep love of Mecha."

"Understandable. Either I or Mandy will be here by nine o'clock tomorrow morning," Milenna informs them, before turning and walking out.

"Do you really think we can keep it all from happening again?" Pyra asks her little sister.

"Things are already different from the history we were taught. With us added to the mix, I think we may just be able to keep things from following the same path," Lyrai answers her.

"I hope so, Rai. I really do," Pyra adds, leaning back on the bed, and staring at the ceiling, deep in thought.

2

"You've done well, child," Mothra tells Jura in the dream realm, clad in her human seeming.

"Couldn't have swatted that tin bitch better myself," Gojira adds, with a wide grin on his human seeming's face.

"I still lost control," Jura admits in shame. "If not for Kaze, I'd probably still be rampaging around."

"Love is more powerful than anything else in existence," Mothra tells her. "And all she did was remind you of your ability to choose how you wish to face your destiny."

"I'm just sorry we lost your gift in the process," Jura apologizes.

"You didn't loose it kiddo. It's right here," Gojira tells her, lightly tapping her forehead.

"He speaks the truth. The amulet is now a part of you child," Mothra confirms with a gentle smile.

"It's in my head?" Jura blurts out in shock. "That thing is just too big to be inside my head!"

Gojira laughs at her, while Mothra explains, "It was forced into your flesh while you where in your giant size. At that size, it's not much more than a grain of sand to you. And the proportion of things remained the same when you reverted to your true size. You do carry the amulet within you, but it is so small right now that there is no way at all that it can cause you harm."

"And with any luck, having that thing in your head will help you keep things under control if you need to use that ability again," Goji tells her.

"So have I managed to change how things are going to turn out? Or is that horrid future still coming," Jura asks, hugging herself and shivering.

The two spirits of the ancient monsters share a glance, before Mothra tells her, "Things have changed, this is true, but as a whole your battle to prevent that fate has just begun. You needn't despair though, for that fate has also sent you some much needed assistance."

"What could that horrid future have to offer us in the here and now?" Jura demands in surprise.

"Two of my children have made the trek back through time, in order to try and prevent the very future you are fighting from coming to pass. They are currently staying in your home, at least for the time being," Mothra informs her.

Staring off into nothing, Goji adds, "You should go now, little one. Your loved ones have seen to it that you should have just about recovered your strength, and there are things that you still need to find out about in the waking world."

"Good journey child, and please tell my children from the future that they don't need to maintain their normal combat readiness all the time, but that they shouldn't become too lax either. I will leave it to you, and your friends, to teach them the proper balance," Mothra adds.

"Alright. If they've come this far to help us, the least I can do is treat them as a friend," Jura nods in agreement, before she begins to fade from the dream realm, and the presence of the spirits of the two Great Monsters.

"She's come a long way, but do you think she can really change things for the better?" Gojira asks, all pretence of joviality gone from his tone. "This damn magic that is keeping us confined is really beginning to piss me off. If we had our freedom, then there is no way that this damn ro-bitch would ever have a chance of bringing this future into being."

"Alone, she wouldn't have a chance," Mothra concedes, a weariness in her tone. "But thankfully for all of us, she's hardly alone in her battle. With those that have thrown their love and support behind her, she has a better then even chance of achieving the goal we have set for her."

"I still don't like leaving the fate of it all in the hands of someone else, but I suppose we could do much worse than the little one and her adopted family and friends," Gojira admits.

"Quite true. And with us offering her guidance from here, she has an advantage that her opponents can't duplicate," the Guardian Spirit of the Earth reminds him.

"Very true. As much as I hate the plan, I guess all we can do is wait and see," The spirit of the earths Will to Survive admits, flames dancing in his golden eyes.

"Uhg. Why is waking up always such a pain?" Jura groans, as she slowly sits up in bed. Looking around, she is slightly surprised to find that she is alone. Then she sees that someone has left her a present, in the form of two of the highly radioactive "care packages" laying open on the table next to the bed. "Well, that explains why no one else is in here with me," she smirks to herself. Climbing out of bed, she is pleased to note that the only reason she seems to be sore is from a lack of activity.

Silently moving through the house, she heads for the kitchen.

"Radioactivity may keep my body going, but it sure doesn't fill my belly," she grins as her gut rumbles in agreement. Moving to the fridge, she quickly grabs a few things, and throws together a quick sandwich. As she puts the unused food back in the fridge, she notices a note stuck to the door with her name on it.

"What's this?" Jura wonders as she holds the sandwich in her mouth, freeing her hands to open the note.

While the contents depresses her slightly, she is glad to know that her friend hasn't been lost.

Putting the note down, and staring off into space, she thinks, "Good luck Leona. Until things draw you back into our realm, be well, and stay safe."

Finishing her sandwich, Jura prowls the house for a bit, until she finds Kaze sprawled out on a couch. With a smug little smile, she slips in under her, leaving the mecha girls head pillowed on her lap. With a loving smile, Jura slips off to sleep once more.

3

"Jeez, am I the only one that can hear the damn doorbell?" Zoe growls as she comes up out of the basement and moves to open the front door. "Like I don't have enough to do with helping get Maizy back together…" she mutters as she whips the door open.

"Is this a bad time to collect the new girls?" Mandy asks with a arched eyebrow.

"Sorry," Zoe tells her, forcing herself to calm down. "Come on in. I'll kick some of the others into motion."

"Don't go to any trouble on my account," Mandy tells her as she follows along behind. "Just point me in the right direction, and I'll let you get back to your business. I'm sure you would rather be working on getting the little one back in operation than leading me around."

"I would," Zoe agrees. "But I think I can spare a few moments to lead you to your new charges."

"What happened here?" Mandy asks when they get to a room with the door smashed off it's hinges.

"I'm told the twins got a little rough with the door when they got called to keep one of the new girls and Cyganna from starting a K-Brawl in here," Zoe tells her.

"Yeah, those two knocked both Pyra and the cyber-witch for a loop yesterday," Lyrai adds once they step through the doorway.

"You don't need to sound so smug about it," Pyra mutters.

"I'll leave the three of you to get acquainted then," Zoe says, before leaving them alone.

"So you are the new girls. I'm Mandy. In addition to teaching History at the school, I also seem to end up with most of the orientation duties for you newer students," she says, giving them both a small bow of greeting.

"Pyra, and my little sister, Lyrai," the flame winged girl answers.

"Nice to meet you," Lyrai adds, bowing in imitation of Mandy.

"Well, if there is nothing keeping you here, shall we go?" Mandy asks. "Darcy will be wanting to see you two as soon as possible, so she can get you outfitted."

"Who's Darcy?" Pyra demands.

"The seamstress who specializes in making clothes for those of us who are a bit too far from basic human to wear normal clothes," Mandy answers as she leads them down the hall.

"And afterward?" Lyrai asks.

"I'll take you both to the school, and get you settled into the dorms. Later on, I hope to introduce you to the rest of the mothras," Mandy answers.

"Huh. I wonder how many things it will change if meet our ancestors like that," Pyra mutters under her breath.

"What was that?" Mandy asks as they leave the mansion.

"Nothing much, just thinking out loud," Pyra tells her.

"Later this afternoon, Milenna would like for you to continue your story. She is very interested in hearing more about the proposed timeline you have told her about," Mandy finishes as they head down the street toward town.

"Here we are," Mandy tells the pair as they stop on the sidewalk.

"Where?" Pyra asks.

"The clothes shop," Lyrai answers her, while looking to Mandy for confirmation.

"Right. Darcy should be able to set you both up fairly quickly with new clothes, considering all the other moth girls she takes care of," Mandy adds.

"How many others are there?" Lyrai asks as they enter the shop.

"Lets see…." Mandy trails off as she thinks for a moment. "There is Mina, Meo, Armorra, Beatra, and Eina. But Eina left the Island some time ago after some trouble with the school board."

"There are five other Mothra girls here?" Pyra asks in wonder, their grandmother being the only other moth girl they have ever met.

"Actually, only three," Mandy corrects. "As I said, Eina is gone for the time being, and Beatra isn't a Mothra. She's a Battra. Then there are Immomu and Battamei."

"Who are they?" Lyrai asks as they begin to look around the shop at all the strangely tailored, yet still very nice clothes.

"The little sisters," Mandy answers with a smile. "They are still caterpillar girls though, which is why I didn't count them with the others."

"If the names are any clue, then I'm betting that one of them at least is a little Battra," Pyra smirks as she pulls out a brilliantly white patterned blouse from the racks and looks closely at the pattern of straps on the back. "And if I had to guess at what type of K-girl this was for-" she begins.

"It would be fore one of you lovely moths, of course," Darcy grins as she just sort of "appears" behind the girl.

"AH!" Pyra gasps, jumping and spinning around as she drops the blouse, her hands covered with flames as she brings them up into a defensive stance.

"No!" Lyrai shouts as she quickly puts herself between Pyra and the human.

"I've warned you before that it's not a good idea to scare the crap out of the girls all the time," Mandy mutters, shaking her head with a smirk.

"What are you, brain damaged? I almost incinerated you!" Pyra yells, as shaken by what she had almost done as by the fact that Darcy managed to get the drop on her.

"That would have been unfortunate," Darcy remarks dryly. Turning to Mandy, she asks, "New girls I take it? I'll be needing names and an address to send the clothes. You should know the drill by now Mandy, you bring enough of them here for their first time."

"They will be staying at the school dorms," Mandy answers, while Pyra quenches her flames.

"Please don't do that again. She can sometimes react faster than she can think. It would be bad if she set off a fire blast before she could realize she didn't want to BBQ you," Lyrai tells Darcy.

"I'll try to keep that in mind when I deal with her. But it can be damn hard to break such a fun habit," Darcy answers her with a slight grin.

"You do that to everyone who comes in here?" Pyra demands, still ticked off that Darcy managed to scare the crap out of her.

"You girls, as a rule, can bench press a Buick. I have to get my digs in when I can," Darcy returns. "But for now, come along. I'll show you two to the changing rooms, and I'll get your measurements, before seeing to getting you some clothes that don't look like something out of a "Mad Max" movie."

"Why do I get the feeling that we've just been insulted," Lyrai asks, following along behind Darcy.

"Oh, she didn't insult you," Mandy calls after them as she leans against the counter. "Just your clothes."

"Oh, that's so much better," Lyrai smirks over her shoulder at the dragon woman.

Moments after the three vanish toward the back of the store, Milenna, and another woman enter the store.

"Well, I see you're a bit ahead of schedule," Milenna smirks at Mandy, the light from outside shining through her semi transparent body.

"And I see that you've collected your shadow for the day as well," Mandy returns with a grin. "Are you planning to introduce us, or just wait to see how long we can stare at each other?"

"Hmm…..Three seconds. I actually expected you to last at least half a minute. Oh well," Milenna returns. "Mandy, I would like to introduce you Tina. Tina, this is our History teacher, Miss Mandy," Milenna says, several tendrils of her hair moving back and forth like others would use their hands when making introductions.

"Pleased to meet you," Mandy says, bringing her hands together and bowing.

"As am I. My full name is Vol-Tina, just so you know," the silver skinned woman answers.

Mandy starts as something pokes her in the back. When she turns around, she finds a miniature Robotic Lion standing on the counter behind her.

"Black! I told you to wait outside with the others!" Tina scolds.

Even though it's face can't express it, the lion gives a very credible impression of a look that says, "And? What's your point?"

"Don't you get lippy with me!" Tina growls at the lion. The lion merely shakes its head, before hopping off the counter, and letting itself out the door.

"Well that was certainly different," Mandy says, still surprised by the exchange.

"Sorry about that. Black is a bit of a mother hen, and can't stand the thought of me being out of sight of at least one of them," Tina explains.

"There are more of those?" Mandy asks.

"There are a total of five of those lion drones," Milenna breaks in. "With her background, I was hoping to sponsor her as a teacher. Preferably for the younger girls. I'll be damned if we'll let another incident like the last one happen again."

"Speaking of which, how go the repairs?" Mandy asks.

"We have a lot of redesign work ahead of us," Milenna tells her. "Being the prototype, most of her systems are one of a kind."

"Well, that's going to add to the repair time," Mandy mutters.

"Tell me about it," Milenna agrees.

"So where is this seamstress that you wanted to introduce me to?" Tina asks.

"She is currently in the back with my charges for the day," Mandy answers her. "I expect her to return in a short time."

"So what are your powers? Anything I should be aware of as I make your clothes?" Darcy asks Lyrai as she loops her measuring tape around her chest.

"You'll probably want to take this into account," she answers as Darcy steps back from her.

As the seamstress watches, Lyrai's body changes, her wings shifting from their large round shape, to a more streamlined triangular one. Her white fur shortens, until it is only a few millimeters above her skin, and her antenna change from being forward facing and feathery, to sloped back away from her face and appearing more like flexible golden rods.

"That's a new one," Darcy says, as she walks around the newly transformed Lyrai. "So what did that do, other than make you look like your ready to step into a wind tunnel?" she asks, making a note of the white frill that now covers most of the moth girls head.

"It enables me to use some of my other powers," Lyrai answers, by whispering in Darcy's ear from behind, having vanished from in front of her in the space between heartbeats, and reappearing behind her.

"AH!" Darcy gasps as she spins around, only to find that the girl is no longer there.

"Looking for me?" Lyrai asks, again from behind the seamstress.

"Now I know how you girls feel when I just pop up behind them," Darcy mutters, one hand pressed against her chest so she can feel just how hard her heart is pounding. "So this … transformation… lets you teleport or something?" she asks, trying to focus on business.

"No, I can't teleport. But I can understand how you would make that mistake," Lyrai answers.

Without seeming to move, she is suddenly holding all the clothes she had when she came in.

"Are you magic or something?" Darcy asks in awe, having never seen anything like this girls powers before.

"Nope," Lyrai answers with a grin. "Just fast."

"Super speed!" Darcy exclaims, finally understanding. "You're like the Flash, or one of those other comic book characters! You can move so fast, that my eyes can't track your movements."

"Now you've got it. So what do you have in mind for my clothes?" Lyrai asks.

"Well, first, I'll need to measure you in this form as well. I think your wings shifted from your other one," Darcy tells her, quickly re-measuring the girl. "And now that I know about this," she adds afterward, "I have something in mind that I think you will like."

"I have to admit, I never really expected you to be the one to end up dressed like that," Mandy smirks as Darcy leads the pair back out front.

"Which one of us is she talking to?" the sisters ask each other.

"The one in all the skintight latex," Mandy clarifies. "But I should add that I really didn't expect you see you, and your rather fiery temperament, in such soft shades of blue either," she directs to Pyra.

"True, but they both work well with the girls colorings, don't they?" Darcy asks, proudly gazing at her latest fashion victims.

"The glossy black sets off all those brilliant colors in her wings. It's actually quite amazing," Tina adds.

"Thank you," Lyrai grins. "I really like this stuff. I like the snug feel of how it fits too. I never knew that there where clothes like this."

"Oh? Where are you from?" Darcy asks, surprised by that last comment.

"From someplace where clothes are only made for durability and functionality, not for looks," Pyra answers her.

"Bah, who says that you have to give up looking nice? Almost all the clothes I make here are tough enough to take all but the roughest attacks you girls can dish out without being more than a little dirtied. Such lovely girls dressed in sack cloth. Bleh," Darcy mutters.

"Oh, I think you can rest assured, that once we are done with what we where sent here for, we will make sure that things change where we come from," Lyrai tells the clearly annoyed seamstress.

"Morning, sleepyhead," Jura smiles down at Kaze as her eyes open.

"Morning yourself," Kaze smirks back, while Jura plays with her hair.

"So how are you doing?" Jura asks her robotic lover.

"I'm fine. And I'm going to assume that you've recovered since your out of bed," Kaze answers.

"Last night actually. I'll need to thank whoever left those "snacks" in my room for me," Jura admits.

"Oh, I'm sure I can think of some way for you to repay me," Kaze grins, reaching up and dragging Jura down for a kiss.

"Sounds like Kaze's up," Zoe smirks at the sound of at least one body hitting the floor overhead.

"What makes you say that?" Megan asks, looking up at the ceiling, before turning her attention back to rebuilding the interlink that allows Maizy's arm to reattach after she fires off a rocket punch.

"Placement. That came from the living room, and she was the only one in there, sleeping on the couch," Zoe answers, going back to the design program on the screen in front of her, where she is in the process of working out how to incorporate several tools into Maizy's new arm.

"That makes sense," Megan admits, as she brings over Maizy's arm to test the interlock. "I… I did it? I did it!" she cheers as the arm nearly jumps free of her grip to attach itself to the rest of Maizy's body.

"Sure looks like you did," Zoe grins at her, reaching down to test the interlock for herself. "Nice work," Zoe tells her after a moment, before surprising the bug girl with a hug. "Now to start on the next little bit of her."

"My part on that will have to wait," Megan answers her through a long yawn. "As much as I want to keep going, if I don't go get some sleep, I'm going to fall over."

"You want to crash here? Or head back to your dorm?" Zoe asks.

"Dorm. I need to grab a couple of things and change clothes. I've been wearing these since we all rushed to the docks to help," Megan answers.

"I would suggest adding a shower to your list of things to get while your gone, then, " Zoe smirks, as she leads Megan back up to the main floor.

"I'll take that under advisement," Megan smirks back as they reach the main floor.

After showing Megan out, Zoe goes to check on some of the others before returning to the basement.

"Well, I see our little titan is feeling frisky this morning," Zoe smirks as she leans against the doorway to the living room, where Jura and Kaze are currently wrapped around each other.

"Oh. Um….Morning?" Jura sputters, as she untangles herself from Kaze.

"Morning sis," Kaze grins from the floor, cranking her head back at a nearly impossible angle to look at Zoe.

"Well, if you're going to continue with what I interrupted, I suggest returning to your room," Zoe grins at them. "Otherwise, get yourselves cleaned up. I'd like you to make the rounds and check on everyone who is still here."

"Are the twins still here?" Jura asks as she gets to her feet.

"No, they took "escort duty" with making sure that the others who didn't want to stay last night made it back to the dorms, just incase there was another attack," Kaze answers.

"Who all is still here? I've been downstairs pretty much since I came back online last night," Zoe asks. "The only ones who I know for a fact are gone are Megan, who I just showed out, and the new Mothra girls, who left with Mandy earlier."

"Then it should be down to Meo, Des, Gina, Angi, Titanna, Crystal, and Kumi," Kaze answers.

At the mention of the last pair, Jura snaps to attention and demands, "Was Meo able to do anything for her?"

"What wasn't I told about? Kumi and Crystal weren't at the battle, so how did they get busted up enough to need Meo's help?" Zoe asks, moving into the room and taking a seat facing the pair.

Returning to the couch, Jura and Kaze take turns filling Zoe in on the details of the rescue mission.

"Kumi was pretty much comatose when we got to her, and that took all the starch out of Crystal," Jura tells her.

"I didn't think there was anything short of Kiga that could knock Crystal off her game like that," Zoe says, surprised.

"Well, she will never admit it, but the fact that she was taken just as easily must be eating her up inside as well. Her self image as the baddest bitch at the school took a severe beating while she was a guest of the Red Bamboo Army," Kaze adds.

"She doesn't care about that," Jura argues. "She got a measure of revenge, but her main concern from the time she blew the door off her cell was finding Kumi."

"Crystal is one of the more complex girls at the school. Just when you think you have some idea about how she will behave, you find yet another layer to her," Zoe says thoughtfully.

"Stop, you'll make me blush," Crystal smirks as she and Kumi float down the stairs.

"I'm glad to see that you're feeling better," Jura says to Kumi.

Kumi just returns a small smile, while Crystal adds, "We hear that we missed a hell of a party down at the docks while I was bringing the kids and Kumi back here."

"You could say that," Zoe returns with a wry grin.

"Hey, what happened to that crystal thing you had around your neck?" Crystal asks Jura, noticing that her amulet is missing.

"It was lost, when we had to get a little drastic about bringing her back to herself after she burnt Geisha's head off," Kaze says, glossing over most of the problems Jura had after going Godzilla size.

"Then let us give you something to replace it," Kumi tells Jura. "In thanks for helping to rescue me."

"And I have just the thing in mind," Crystal grins, plucking a speck from the tip of the crystal at the end of her tail. Turning to Jura she says, "I need you to drip some blood onto this before I start," as she places the lightly glowing seed crystal in the palm of her hand.

"Why?" Kaze demands.

"Because if I'm right, then mingling her blood with my powers will result in the crystal being far stronger than my normal ones. And given what I have in mind, that will be a good thing," Crystal answers.

"Relax. I trust her," Jura tells Kaze. Turning her attention back to Crystal, she smirks and adds, "At least until we are back at school, and things are back to normal."

"Glad that I won't have to completely give up my rep as a hard case," Crystal smirks back.

Shaking her head, Zoe watches with rapt attention as Jura rakes a claw across own palm, squeezing some blood out onto Crystal's hand before the wound closes and vanishes back into her flesh.

"There's the blood, so now what?" Kaze demands.

"Now, this!" Crystal snarls, forcing her will into the seed crystal, and guiding it's growth into a shape of her choosing.

"I wasn't expecting the crystal to change colors," Kumi says, as she weaves some of her finest silk into a cord while they watch Crystal work.

"Neither was I, but this is the first time I've tried this with someone else. Normally it's just me when I do this," Crystal returns, as she holds up a translucent blue crystal saber.

"My turn," Kumi says as she brings the hilt toward herself, and begins wrapping the cord around it.

In a matter of moments, they are done, and Crystal floats the new blade to Jura.

"We owe you, and this is just a down payment on it," Crystal tells them. "I just ask that you keep this quiet. My rep has taken enough of a beating lately, and I'd hate for them to think I've gone soft on top of everything else."

"It's beautiful," Jura whispers as she grasps the hilt. She jerks as there is a spark that jumps between her hand and the sword. "It's weird though. It's like I can feel it with more than just my hand."

"We will have to get a scabbard made for it. It's never a good idea to keep a blade naked all the time," Zoe tells her.

"Let me see it again, and I'll take care of that," Crystal tells them as she holds her hand out for the blade. Dropping another seed crystal onto it, she forces that crystal to wrap around the sword, leaving just enough space between the inner surfaces and the blade so that it can be drawn.

Kumi then takes it from her, and proceeds to wrap the scabbard in silk, the same way she had the hilt. "And now, it is protected," she adds, as Crystal floats the package out of her hands, and back to it's new owner.

"Now I just need someone to teach me how to use it," Jura smirks.

"There are several people at the school who you could ask," Zoe tells her. "Half of the human students use weapons in their fighting. I'm sure you could find one of the sword swingers who would just love to teach a cute K-girl how to handle a sword."

"I just bet they would," Kaze mutters darkly, making Kumi grin.

"Do I detect jealousy in that comment?" she asks, slowly warming up to the group, and becoming more like her old self.

"Yes, you do," Kaze informs her. "I'll teach her. I've got all of Zoe's training up here, so it shouldn't be that hard to teach her if she's really willing."

"The Professor used a copy of my sword training to program you?" Zoe blurts out. "It took me months to learn those skills the hard way!"

"Sorry you feel like he cheated, but they where there when I woke up. I didn't have any say in the matter," Kaze answers her.

"Anyway, we are going to return to the dorms," Crystal breaks in.

"We need to see about getting a new room," Kumi mutters.

"Until next time," Crystal tells them, lifting the both of them up and floating them out the front door.

"Things just keep getting stranger around here," Zoe smirks, as she gets back to her feet, and turns toward the basement. "Why don't you guys go check on the others. I'm going back to work."

"Alright," Jura answers, as she and Kaze also get up and head for the stairs to the second floor.

"So? What did they have to say?" Mandy asks as she sticks her head into Milenna's office.

Milenna looks up from her desk, and gives a long suffering sigh, before saying, "They agreed completely. Starting next month, the younger girls will have their own classes here on the campus. They are going to get a much smaller building just for themselves, since for the time being there are so few of them, and only one teacher willing to take them on."

"So they went for allowing Tina to join the faculty?" Mandy asks, entering and taking a seat.

"A combat android with her capabilities, and programmed to protect her charges at all costs? And willing, eager even, to take on the smaller girls? It took them all of two seconds to agree, when I informed them that she would have complete access to the larger school for whatever she needed to get brought up to speed," Milenna answers.

"Then why are you acting like it was a major battle to make them see reason? It sounds more like you laid the cards on the table and they folded," Mandy returns.

"Because of what was waiting for me afterward," the alien teacher explains. "The self defense forces actually woke up long enough to take notice of what happened down at the docks. Given what was used, and the fact that it was nothing more than dumb luck that we came out the winners, they have decided to re-activate one of their old contingency plans."

"Why is it so troubling to you? It will be nice to have someone else take the brunt of the conflict for a change," Mandy returns.

"It's Phoenix Rising," Milenna deadpans.

Mandy is speechless at that, her expression a little "o" of surprise.

"Yes, my reaction wasn't all that dissimilar," Milenna smirks.

"So they plan to reactivate the old defenders. Does Zoe know?" Mandy asks.

"Oh, it's more than that. And much worse. They are planning to reactivate the originals. And they can't seem to find the remaining Maidens. I don't think that the Geisha is truly gone, and I have a sick feeling that she has recruited the rest of her old team to assist her," Milenna tells her.

"Well, that explains why they came to you. They want you to help bring the big boys back online, don't they?" Mandy asks.

"And design a way to move the lot of them, all at once. A ship capable of that is going to be…..what is the word the girls use…Ginormous. It's also going to have to be able to defend itself, as well," Milenna agrees.

"When do they want you to start?" Mandy asks her.

"I'll be getting called in when they hit snags in the process. Until then I still need to assist in putting the little Mazinger back together, and everything else that was already on my plate," Milenna says.

A knock at the door interrupts them, and Mandy smirks, "Speaking of your projects, I do believe yet another of them has arrived. Feel free to give me a call if there is anything I can assist on."

"You may regret that offer," Milenna shoots back as the dragon woman gets up and moves to the door.

When she opens it, the newest mothra sisters are on the other side.

"Milenna will see you two now," Mandy tells them, as she takes her leave.

"Come on in you two," Milenna calls, watching the red tuft of fur at the end of Mandy's long tail vanish through the door.

"Did we interrupt something important?" Lyrai asks as they enter the office.

"Just bringing a fellow teacher up to date on some of the things that have been going on while she was giving you two the grand tour," Milenna tells them, dismissing the whole exchange.

"Who was that mech you where with earlier? We didn't recognize her," Pyra asks, working very hard on reigning in her habitual hatred of mechanical life forms.

"She was a recent arrival on earth. She was a body guard to the royal family on a distant world. During a diplomatic mission they where attacked, and she managed to hold them off until reinforcements could arrive, but she was lost when one of the destroyed ships hyper drives misfired in it's death throws and created a momentary wormhole that sucked her in, and dumped her at the edge of this solar system. After floating through space for years, she finally made it deep enough to get caught in the earth's gravity well. She actually crashed in Canada, but after they realized that she wasn't a threat if you treated her like a normal person, it was decided to send her here, where she would fit in better. We'd love to be able to send her home, but she doesn't have any idea just how far she may have come, or where we are in relation to her home system. Since she can't go home, we plan to make use of her programming, and install her as a teacher. Specifically for the younger girls. Given recent events, her combat training will be a plus, should anyone try for the children again," Milenna tells them.

"Another new player that we've never heard of before. Things are getting farther and farther from the history we know," Lyrai says.

"Speaking of which, I think it's time for more of your story," Milenna tells them, resting her elbows on her desk, and her chin on her joined hands. "And you needn't bother with the "magic window". I've got a good grasp on visualization."

"As you wish," Lyrai answers her.

"To begin with, I'd like to know more about what happened to some of our more powerful students. You have already mentioned the fates of Zoe and Kiryuu, and Bai and Kazira. What happened to Crystal?"

The sisters share a troubled look, before Pyra explains, "Crystal…..was a special case among the girls. Her physiology made it impossible for the control chips to work on her, and she was simply too strong willed to be broken. Eventually, the Empress had a prison constructed on the moon. She had Crystal moved to this prison, and placed the Ghidorah's there as guards."

"They also sent along the one known as Kumi. Since she was implanted, she was meant to keep Crystal in line. Unfortunately, with the chips keeping the girls from reigning in their more base instincts, the more violent minded ones regularly gave her beatings, and subjected her to some of the most humiliating things she had ever been forced to endure," Lyrai adds.

"Eventually, it became too much for her. She finally lashed out in rage, and ruptured the outer hull of the prison dome. Suddenly infused with pure cosmic radiation, Crystal went berserk. The only ones to survive her initial series of blasts where the ghidorah girls. Everyone else died as her corona beams ruptured bulkheads and blast doors, exposing everyone in the prison to hard vacuum. After she …. disposed…of the others who survived the initial attack, she finally came back to herself. When she found the remains of the spider…. She…she ran. She must have covered half of the sea of tranquility on foot, before she fell into a crater that opened into a cavern system at the bottom. She instinctively seeded her route with crystals, so even though she had retreated into her own mind, her body was able to maintain itself. After several years, her body took steps to protect her. A protective crystal grew around her, eventually leaving her sealed within one of her own spires, with several feet of diamond hard transparent material between her and the rest of the universe. She also birthed a race of defenders for herself," Pyra continues.

"She what?" Milenna blurts out.

"The Shard. It was nearly one hundred years from the time she destroyed that prison to the time she was heard from again. In that time, they went from simply being guards, to being a race of their own. The Shard possess a hive mind, and their only purpose is to serve what they call "The Mother Crystal". Things would have remained that way indefinitely, except Crystal woke up. Resigning herself to her new state, she began to live through the telepathic abilities of the hive. Unfortunately, they took Crystals desire to know what had happened as orders to go to earth and find out for her," Lyrai takes over.

"That was the beginning of the end for all of us," Pyra adds. "The Machine Empire destroyed the first few of them to make it to the surface. You know how the Crystal of this time reacts to threats, so you can imagine what this caused for us."

"The Shard placed crystal satellites into orbit, and they proceeded to use that power to devastate the empire. The resistance got added to the hit list, when one of them freaked out when one of the Shard got too close. Shooting one was the same as declaring war on all of them," Lyrai adds.

"So you mean to tell me Crystal destroyed the world?" Milenna blurts out in shock.

"Not directly, but the Shard wiped out everyone higher on the evolutionary ladder than a gorilla. We where with the last group, when they found us. Our leader ordered us to escape, and the only way we had, was for me to try the time jump," Lyrai explains.

"What a mess. Well, you will have all our support in helping to keep this disaster from coming to pass," Milenna tells them. "Yesterday, you mentioned that Red Geisha collected and reprogrammed the members of her old unit as part of her plans to take over, correct?"

"Yes, that was one of the first things she did, so she could be certain that she would have loyal generals," Pyra confirms.

"I was afraid of that," Milenna mutters. "Keep this to yourselves, but recently the government wanted to get in touch with the Maidens. Only to discover that they are nowhere to be found."

"She's preparing for her big attack. Looks like the last one was just a warm up," Pyra growls.

"That seems to be the conclusion everyone is coming to," Milenna agrees. "And they don't have the benefit of your knowledge of how things could go."

"At least we won't have to deal with the Shard. They are demons in a fight. How do you fight an army of k-girls who can read your mind and counter your moves before you make them?" Pyra growls.

"Yes, that would make things far more difficult," Milenna mutters distractedly, suddenly remembering the automated lab unit that was launched into orbit last week at her request, and tissue samples of certain K-girls that where on board it for testing. "Let's hope I didn't inadvertently start something by including Crystal's samples in that," she thinks.

"See you guys at school tomorrow?" Gina asks as the last of the sleepover gang head out.

"Some of us at least," Jura answers. "I'm not sure Zoe is going to go back at all before Maizy is back in action."

"I can understand that," Gina tells her, her voice gone quiet as she thinks of her own little sister, and her inability to put things right with her.

"Come on, we all need to go get cleaned up and ready for school tomorrow," Anji says, giving Gina's arm a little tug.

"Thanks for putting up with all of us," Titanna adds with a wave, following after her friends.

"Catch you guys later!" Kaze calls after them, before the both of them return to the house. "So, are you ready for your first lesson?" she asks as they move back toward the living room.

"Huh? What lesson?" Jura asks in confusion.

"On guard!" Kaze smirks, tossing her new saber to her.

"Now? But shouldn't we be doing something to help with Maizy?" Jura blurts out.

"Her condition is beyond what I've got any ability to alter right now," Kaze answers her.

"But," Jura starts.

"I've told you before that I think it's cute, but it's time for class," Kaze grins, leading the way outside. "This will be good for both of us. I still need some practice with restraining my full power."

"So I get to be your practice dummy?" Jura asks, her face serious, but her tone taking the sting out of the comment.

"And I yours," Kaze agrees with a smile as she finds a pair of sturdy sticks. "These will do for now," she grins as she tosses one to Jura.

"Now what?" Jura asks, putting her present from Crystal off to the side, and awkwardly holding the stick.

"You pretend that it's a sword, and you attack me. I want to see what you think would be the best way to swing, attack, and block. I want to find out just where we need to spend the most time, so we can get you some skills worth the name as quickly as we can," Kaze answers.

"Then lets see what I know," Jura grins, bringing both hands to grip her "sword" and swinging a blow aimed to catch Kaze in the gut.

"Not too shabby," Kaze grins, catching the stick with her own, and forcing it back. But are you fast enough to deal with this?"

"Eep!" Jura squeaks, catching the first three blows Kaze rains on her, before the forth slips past and smacks her in the butt.

"Not too bad at all. We'll need to work on your reaction times, but you've got an excellent grasp on how to fight like this. Must be all the movies," Kaze smirks.

"You might be the teacher, but payback is still a bitch," Jura grits, startling Kaze as she suddenly goes on the offensive, raining blows of her own on Kaze.

"You can't hope to beat me like this," Kaze tells her, calmly blocking every swing, and parrying every lunge Jura dishes out to her.

Then Jura's tail slams her feet together and knocks her on her ass.

"You where saying?" Jura grins, as she offers Kaze a hand up.

"I was saying, that I needed the training as much as you do," Kaze returns lamely, accepting the hand up.

"Again?" Jura asks, bringing her weapon up.

"You've been watching more than just Jackie Chan movies, haven't you?" Kaze demands, Jura's last comment ringing bells in that context.

"I might have seen a couple that I didn't tell you about," Jura grins.

"Like what?" Kaze asks, moving in with a diagonal slash from upper right to lower left.

Jura spins out of the way of the slash, and lunges, actually tagging Kaze. When her stick makes contact, she quickly jerks it into a zigzag pattern.

Looking down at the faint "Z" on her shirt, Kaze can't help but smirk.

"Well, that certainly answers that. And makes it a little easier, since that is the same style of sword that you've been given," She tells her. "But just remember, that there is a big difference between playing, and fighting," Kaze tells her, suddenly attacking for real, snapping Jura's stick off just above her hands when she tries to block. "But I've got enough for now to work out exactly what we will need to start working on. I'll see about getting some wooden swords from the martial arts club after school, so we can work with something a bit tougher than dead wood."

"I'm glad you're not mad at me, cause that really stung," Jura mutters, rubbing her chest where the snapped stick hit her.

"Better get used to it," Kaze tells her. "There's going to be a lot of that kind of stuff happening before we are done.

"This is going to take forever," Zoe mutters, giving Maizy's body one last look, before she heads up to her room for the night. "Spiteful bitch. There was no reason to do that to the poor kid," she seethes as she moves through the house. "I just wish I could believe she was actually gone. But the fact that she came back with that giant body, after Kaze supposedly destroyed her…she has some way of keeping her mind alive, even after her body is destroyed," she muses as she strips out of her clothes and gets ready for bed. "This isn't the end. Knowing her, this was just the first round. And after the bloody nose Kaze and Jura gave her, she's going to pull out all the stops next time she shows her face," she mutters as she slips into bed.

The remainder of the weekend passes without anything of note happening.

"So do you two have any idea why Mandy wanted to talk to us before classes today?" Armorra asks, as the three Mothra sisters work their way to the dragon lady's office.

"No. She was most mysterious," Mina answers.

"There isn't much point in speculating, when the answers are only a few more feet away," Meo tells them, before knocking on the door.

"Come in," Mandy calls.

"You wanted to see us?" Mina asks as they enter.

"I'd like to introduce you to some distant relatives of yours," Mandy explains, as the girls close the door behind themselves.

"Oh? Where are they from?" Meo asks, as another knock sounds from the door.

"Come in," Mandy calls once more.

When the door opens once more, Pyra smirks, and asks, "Is there enough room for all of our wings in here?"

"You will only be here for a moment," Mandy informs them. "Girls, the one with the red orange fur is Pyra, and her younger sister, Lyrai. I'm sure you two can figure out which one is Armorra, and the one with the green hair is Meo. Leaving Mina, the oldest of them. And this concludes today's introductions."

As the five moth girls file out of the office, Lyrai asks, "Is she always so abrupt?"

"Only when she has a lot to take care of," Mina answers.

"So, where are you two from?" Armorra asks.

"From a long ways away," Pyra answers with a sad look.

"Home sick?" Meo asks.

"More like wishing we still had a home to go back to, and a way to get there," Lyrai mutters.

Any further comments are cut off by Mina's cell phone ringing.

"Yes? Their what? Yes. Yes I understand, and I will tell them. No, it will not go any further than us. Yes, I agree, Immomu doesn't need to know about this yet, if ever. Thank you. Farewell," is what the others hear as Mina takes the call.

"So that's what a cell phone is. I've wondered about them since we got here," Pyra says.

"Yes, I imagine that in the time you where born that toys like these didn't exist anymore, since your enemies could trace you through them," Mina answers her.

"What did you just say?" Armorra demands, while Meo just looks surprised. As do Pyra and Lyrai.

"We need to find someplace private to continue this chat," Mina orders, cutting off any further questions until they are alone.

"Hey you two!" Jura yells, waving at the twins.

"Sorry we didn't call you guys yesterday," Kera says as the foursome assembles.

"We kind of got roped into some official stuff, since the government keeps tabs on us still," Sera adds.

"In that case, we'll cut you some slack," Kaze smirks, before the group turns toward their first class of the week.

"I still can't believe that their story is real," Armorra mutters as she gets her lunch.

"It is the truth. The sooner you accept it, the better," Mina returns.

"Payback time, you cyber bitch!" Rings through the lunch room, before the loud crash of a body slamming through one of the large windows that open on the commons.

"Cyganna! You're going to pay for that bug eyes!" Gabby snarls, before yelping in pain.

"Keep your hands to yourself," Pyra snarls over her shoulder, as Gabrelle carefully holds her badly burnt hands before her. Then she leaps out the smashed window after Cyganna.

"This will not end well," Mina mutters.

"Des, hold her still," Meo orders, as she carefully takes Gabby's hands, and begins to chant over them.

Gabrelle hisses in pain, and attempts to jerk her hands free, but Des moves in from behind and locks a firm but gentle grip around her forearms. "Easy, Gabby. I know it hurts, but let her work," Des tries to sooth the redhead as Meo works on healing her charred hands.

"We better get outside, and see how bad this is going to get," Kaze says, as the sound of explosions and shouts filter back into the lunch room.

"We should have expected this," Sera mutters as they rise and start to move through the crowd toward the outer doors.

"Yeah, after their almost dust up back at the house, we really should have seen this one coming," Kera agrees.

"Let's go," Jura adds, bringing up the rear.

"No mechs to hide behind this time out, cy-bitch!" Pyra snarls, flames dancing along the surface of her wings, and forearms.

"Buggy, I don't know what kind of stuff you've been sniffin' but it's got your brain scrambled good, if you think you can take me," Cyganna retorts, quickly locking her blades into place, and preparing for Pyra's next assault.

"Still more talk than anything else," Pyra smirks, before launching fireballs at Cyganna.

"That all you've got?" Cyganna sneers, slapping the balls away with her blades.

"Oh, hardly," Pyra smirks, snapping her wings forward and sending a virtual wall of fireballs at the gigan-morph.

"Now, that's more like it," Cyganna grins, firing her cluster beam, and detonating the center of the swarm. She then rushes through the conflagration, firing cluster beams in Pyra's general direction, hoping to keep her distracted so she can close in enough to use her blades.

"Your aim sucks," Pyra tells her, causing pillars of flame to erupt from the ground, forcing Cyganna to take to the air.

"Yours isn't much better," Cyganna returns, launching her left hand set of chains at the flaming moth. "Get over here!" she snarls with a malicious grin as the chains catch Pyra by surprise, and trap her right arm against her body as they wrap around her.

"You fell for that last time, too," Pyra grins as Cyganna pulls her within reach. Suddenly the chains are glowing, from the amount of heat Pyra is generating. They melt at a point between the pair, and Pyra quickly shrugs herself free.

"Now, I'm going to gut you," Cyganna snarls in anger.

"I don't think so," Pyra retorts, grabbing both arm blades, and channeling her flames into them.

"AAHH!" Cyganna screams, as the flesh of her hands starts to char. She quickly releases the blades, holding her steaming hands in front of herself as Pyra smirks.

"Too hot for you to handle?" she gloats.

"Tag. Your it!" Cyganna snarls, as sections of her shoulder armor shift, releasing a pair of guided razor disks.

"Not this time," Pyra answers, throwing Cyganna's arm blades at the disks, causing them to explode. Stealing a move from Cyganna, Pyra flies through the explosion, and grabs the other girls tail.

"Hey! Le' go!" Cyganna yells as Pyra starts to spin her.

"If you insist," Pyra grins, releasing her when she is lined up with one of the school buildings.

Cyganna is caught in a tumble, and can't recover in time to prevent her crash through the roof.

"Too easy," Pyra grins to herself.

The sound of heavy electric motors and the humming of saw blades cut's her self-congratulations short.

"Payback time!" Cyganna snarls as she explodes back up into the air, her hands covered with her double chainsaw weapons.

"What did I do, knock her into her weapons locker?" Pyra mutters in disgust at seeing her opponent armed once more, and more heavily than before.

Cyganna doesn't bother to keep up the banter, unleashing several cluster blasts before shooting another pair of razor disks into the conflagration.

"Haven't you figured out yet that I'm not bothered in the least when these blasts go off?" Pyra gloats.

Then the disks rip through her wings.

"I have had just about enough of this," Mina informs everyone near her in disgust.

"Want our help to break it up?" Kaze asks, swapping out her uniform for her armor.

"No, we will handle it. But thank you for the offer," Mina returns with a smile, before turning her attention back to the aerial battle with a scowl. "Armorra? I would like you to stop Cyganna. Lyrai? You will be responsible for keeping your sister from making this worse."

"How do you plan to break them up long enough for us to get in there?" Armorra asks, her battle visor dropping into place over the upper part of her face.

"Like this," Mina calmly answers as a M-32 multi shot grenade launcher appears in her hand. Quickly pointing it at a spot between the airborne pair, she pulls the trigger, before taking to the air herself.

"Where in the name of Mothra did you get that?" Armorra demands, quickly catching up to her eldest sister.

"You act as if you have never seen me use my magic before," Mina returns as the flash/bang round goes off between the combatants.

"Remind me to stay on her good side," Lyrai mutters as she quickly flies toward her stunned sister and gets in her way, much as Armorra is with Cyganna.

"Sorry, but we need to call this fight, on account of Mina needing to yell at your sparring partner," Armorra smirks as Cyganna regains her vision and catches sight of the silver armored moth.

"Like Hell! She attacked me for no reason! I'm going to take it out of her orange furred ass!" Cyganna snarls.

"Think about this for a second, before you do something stupid," Armorra tries again. "Mina is quite possibly the calmest, most level headed person in this school. And SHE is pissed off at Pyra right now. So much so that she is using her powers to conjure weapons like the grenade launcher she used to break you two up. Wouldn't you rather sit back and see what happens, rather than ending up fighting all of us?"

Cyganna struggles with the logic, before finally lowering her weapons. "This better be worth it, or else I'm going to rip into her again anyway," she growls as she floats up into Armorra's face.

"I think we are all about to see a side of Mina that no one has ever suspected she has," the silver moth returns.

"Rai, get out of my way! I need to finish that bitch off! I'm not sure how much longer I can keep this up with these holes in my wings," Pyra snarls at her sister.

"Can't do that sis. Someone wants a word with you, and she's not going to take "no" for an answer," Lyrai returns.

"Quite right," Mina says as she floats up behind Lyrai, causing the rainbow hued girl to move to the side. Focusing her attention on Pyra, she demands, "And just what do you think you are doing?"

"I would have thought it obvious to all. I was in the process of destroying a monster. One that killed countless innocent people before she met her end, at my hands," Pyra returns.

"You need to pull your head out of that hole you normally sit on, and start thinking with it, rather than using it as a blunt instrument," Mina returns tartly. "The crimes you plan to execute her for have yet to occur! She is not the slave of the one you had fought for your entire life, but here and now, she is just as you are. Another innocent who is in danger of having her life and freedom taken away by someone who has a problem with humans and seeks to use us as the best way to kill them all!"

"She is still dangerous, and more likely than not to stab us in the back!" Pyra retorts, only to have Mina slap her in the face when she tries to force her way past to continue her brawl.

"I truly don't know how hard your life was, but you need to be set straight on something. We are Mothra's. We don't pick fights. We don't go out of our way to get involved in them! We are defenders! We are healers! Yes, we fight when we must, to defend others, and ourselves, but never just for the hell of it!" Mina hisses into Pyra face from inches away.

"You will never understand what we have been through-" Pyra growls back, only to be cut off by Mina's cell ringing with the same tone as right after their meeting with Mandy.

Opening the phone with a practiced flip of her wrist, Mina listens for a moment, before her eyes narrow at Pyra. "It's for you," she says with a strange look in her eye, as she hands the phone over to her distant relative.

"Yes?" Pyra says, after figuring out how to hold it properly. It takes a few moments, but most of the color suddenly drains from her features, and Mina and Lyrai have to grab her shoulders as she starts to sink toward the ground.

"Who the hell is on the other end of that phone? I've never seen a scrapper like her fold up like that before," Cyganna says in shock as she and Armorra watch events unfold.

"To be honest, that is the first time I have ever seen Mina hand that phone off to anyone when that ring tone sounds. We have our suspicions, but Mina won't confirm or deny anything," Armorra answers, as she and Cyganna follow the others down at a safe distance.

When the group lands once more, Meo, Des, and Gabriele are waiting for them, with the other students farther back. Pyra no sooner hands the phone back to Mina and turns away, when she is confronted with Meo. The healer of the group gives her fiery relative yet another tongue-lashing before turning her back on her and stalking off toward her lover.

"Are you alright?" Gabby blurts out as she runs up to Cyganna.

"I'm fine. Little singed around the edges, but it's nothing to worry about," the Gigan morph answers.

"How are your hands, Gabby? Meo manage to fix you up?" Armorra asks.

"Yes. And next time you can rest assured that I'll hit her with a chair before I try to grab her," she answers, scowling over her shoulder at the flame hued mothra.

The three watch expectantly as Pyra slowly walks toward them, with the other Mothra's at a respectful distance behind her.

"I think I'll go stand with my sisters," Armorra tells the pair, before walking around Pyra.

"I want to apologize. My actions were out of line, and drawn from bad information. I hope that you can forgive me, and we can both put these incidents behind us," Pyra says, the entire speech obviously not her idea. Her deep bow at the end was obviously ordered by Mina, who gives a slight nod afterward.

"I oughtta…." Gabby growls, drawing a fist back, before Cyganna grabs her arm. With a single slow shake of her head, she orders her friend to drop it. At least for the time being.

"I don't like you. And I will most likely hold this against you for longer than is healthy for either of us. But since something scared the crap out of you, during that phone call, and your entire family ganged up on you to put an end to this, I'm willing to call this one a draw. But mark me on this. If you start ANYTHING again with me, or my friends, you are going to be lucky if I leave enough of you in one piece for greenie over there to put back together!" Cyganna snarls, referring to Meo. "Oh, one last thing," she adds getting up close with Pyra. One blindingly fast uppercut later, Pyra is on her butt with a split lip, while Cyganna rubs her knuckles in a satisfied manner. "There. Now we're even."

And with that as the last word, she and Gabby turn and walk off, the crowd parting before them, and Gabby lugging one of Cyganna's chainsaws.

"Well, that was humiliating," Pyra mutters, as she picks herself up off the ground.

"I trust you will stop with making unprovoked attacks on others?" Mina asks, her tone still far colder than those who know her are used to.

"Oh, I got that message, loud and clear," Pyra answers, shuddering slightly at the memory of that phone call.

"Good. Then I believe it's time for afternoon classes to resume," Mina says, with a slight smile, and her tone regaining the general warmth she is known for.

"Never expected to see that," Jura says as they watch the moths leave the commons.

"I never knew she had it in her. Mina can be downright scary when she wants to be," Kaze agrees.

"I never would have expected any of them to be able to create weapons like that with their powers," Sera adds.

"No kidding. Who ever heard of k-girls using weapons that they didn't come naturally equipped with?" Kera adds.

Kaze and Jura smirk at that one, before Jura adds, "Just when you think you know the rules, someone goes and re-writes the book on you. Now c'mon, or we'll be late for class."

"So this is the kendo teams' clubhouse?" Jura asks as she and Kaze stop outside and look the place over.

"Sounds that way," Kaze returns as the sounds of wooden weapons contacting each other reaches them.

The pair enter and wait near the door as they watch the various club members run through their practice routines.

"So what brings a K-girl and one of the most powerful robo-girls in the school to the kendo club?" comes from behind them as the door opens once more.

"Someone wants to learn how to use a blade," Kaze answers turning to face the boy leaning against the door frame behind them.

"You I take it?" he asks, turning to Jura. "Since I've heard that she's already a fair hand with one."

"Yes," Jura answers shyly.

"Well, I'm sorry, but you will have to do it someplace else. Last time we let a K-girl train here, we were constantly putting the place back together," he tells them. "She was constantly stomping the hell out of us as well, always calling us weak, and putting down our training. We finally got fed up, and voted her out. She leveled the club house on us for that. Since then, we don't allow them to join, or even to practice here."

"But…..But I'm nothing like that!" Jura sputters. "I'm a complete beginner! I don't know much of anything about swordplay."

"As I said, I am sorry, but after the last time, it's highly un-likely that the others will go for letting her in," the boy explains.

"Could we at least borrow some equipment? That way I could help her away from here?" Kaze asks, clearly getting mad that Jura is being judged for another's actions.

"Aside from personal gear, the Clubs stuff doesn't leave the clubhouse unless we are involved in a tourney. I'm sorry, but there really isn't any reason for you to remain here, so I'm going to ask you politely to leave. We really don't want any trouble," he finishes.

"Very well. Let's go Jura," Kaze seethes, as she grabs Jura's hand and pulls her out the door.

"Thank you for understanding," he sends after them, before Kaze slams the door hard enough to shake the wall.

"Enter," Milenna calls toward the knock on her office door.

"I hope you can spare a few moments for me," a gruff male voice asks, causing Milenna to snap her head up from her desk and stare at the newcomer.

"Major General Yoshi Takahara. To what do I owe the honor?" Milenna returns, not sure she's happy to see the man or not.

"Well, since I've been informed that you will be assisting with operation Phoenix Rising, I thought I would drop by and let you know that I've been given overall command of it," he answers.

"Well, that is a surprise. Is the military actually using their head for a change?" Milenna shoots back, making the standard joke about "military intelligence".

His answering smirk tells her that he caught the joke, and isn't offended. "Let's just say that with my background, it would have been the height of stupidity for them to put anyone else in charge," he tells her. Then he adds, "And I made certain that everyone who had a say in it knew that as well."

"Have a seat," Milenna grins, taking a liking to the man. "So niceties aside, what are you really here for? While I don't doubt your stated reason for this visit, I know full well that most generals are kept too busy to go off to visit civilian experts for no apparent reason other than their taking over command."

"As clever and intelligent as the reputation that precedes you," the general returns. "I would like to "pick your brain" a bit, regarding the events that happened at the harbor over the weekend."

"So why didn't anyone ask me about all that when they asked for my help with the Phoenix?" Milenna returns as she wonders how much he already knows.

"They were still trying to get their facts straight at the time," he answers. "The reports of a super robot and Godzilla brawling in the harbor had to be verified, and the location of the beast confirmed….you see why it took so long, I hope."

Milenna lets out a rather large sigh, before leveling her gaze on the man and asking, "What do you want to know?"

"Stupid, self centered, arrogant, self important, egotistical…" Kaze mutters under her breath as she and Jura walk toward home.

"Stop it," Jura tells her. "He wasn't any of those things. Given what he said happened last time they dealt with a k-girl, he was quite polite."

"I know," Kaze growls. "It just pisses me off that you got judged for what someone else did."

"I didn't get judged for it," Jura tells her. "I just got caught on the wrong side of the results." Then she sighs, and adds, "I guess we will just have to buy the equipment."

"Not very likely," Kaze retorts. "I've been shopping online, pricing the stuff out, and it's way out of our price range."

"So what do we do now?" Jura asks her.

"Plan B," Kaze tells her. "We'll both have to be careful, but we'll just have to make due with real weapons, and trust that I'm good enough to keep from hurting you."

"I've never regretted trusting you before," Jura tells her, hugging her arm. "But are you sure this is a good idea?"

Kaze sighs, then admits, "Not entirely, but I'm out of other plans."

"I miss Maizy," they both say to each other at the same time.

"So how are your plans progressing?" a raspy/whiny voice asks when Geisha finds its owner within her hidden Main Base.

"Much farther along with your assistance," she answers.

"It's always a pleasure to help someone who's goal is the elimination of the miserable fleshlings that infest this world," he answers, remaining near the view port, but keeping to the shadows.

"Even with the technologies that you have so graciously provided us, it will still take us several months to complete the construction of the new titans. And nearly that long to finish the reprogramming of the Maidens," she tells him. "And without them it would have been impossible to resurrect this fortress."

"As I said, I'm more than happy to help," he answers, finally turning from the underwater view, and facing Geisha. The dim lighting gleams off his polished faceplate and irritating smirk as he continues, "Is your "Army" aware that your goals are to destroy the fleshlings?"

Geisha smirks back at him as she asks, "All the time you've been here, and you haven't noticed anything different between my ranking organic officers and the cannon fodder they lead? I'll have to make sure to compliment them on their deception."

"Hm? No I haven't noticed anything substantially different between them. They are all fleshlings," he answers.

"True enough Pyre, but they are hardly the same," she tells him. "For instance, they are not even humans at all."

"Oh? Some alien species perhaps?" he wonders, bringing his hand up and stroking his chin.

"Exactly. I've been cultivating their assistance for years, and once I took control of Red Bamboo, it was the proper time to bring them in," she tells him.

"So what are they? Some form of shape-shifter? It must be a formidable process of disguise, in order to fool my scanners. I am far more advanced than you and your other mechanical followers after all," he returns, thinking out loud.

"Very true. But I think you will be impressed. And they have a very good reason to follow me. Their world has been lost, and only a few scattered colonies keep their race from extinction," she tells him. "In exchange for my allowing them a colony here, they will offer all assistance they possibly can. Apparently, this world is as close as they have ever found to being a duplicate of their own."

"Yes, that would make for fairly loyal troops. Promises of a new home world are always an excellent motivator," Pyre agrees. "But you have yet to tell me just what they are."

"And I'm not going to either," she grins at him. "You will simply have to await the unveiling with the rest of the world."

"I may be a patient mechanoid, but I dislike being toyed with," Pyre warns her.

"Who is toying with who Pyre?" she shoots back. "You refuse to tell me anything about your origins, or complete capabilities. The only reasons that I didn't have you obliterated after I had what I needed from you where that you have made it abundantly clear how much you dislike the human race, and your skills as a strategist. I'm still unsure about your capabilities as a tactician, but that will have to wait until we have an opportunity to strike once more."

"And when will that be, Commander?" he asks, her insolent smirk and tone starting to annoy him.

"Once the reprogramming, and the titans are completed," she tells him. "Oh, take these, and have them constructed as well. Just in case the problem with my last operation reappears, I plan to be ready to crush it with overwhelming specialized force."

"As you wish," Pyre returns, betraying nothing as he snaps to attention, and brings his blue right fist up to the left side of his red chest plate, the energy cannon hanging from his upper arm swinging in its wake.

"Carry one then," Geisha grins at his display, before turning and leaving him to his own devices once more.

"Damn them. Whatever possessed them to mix organics into our technology? Constantly fighting these…disgusting…urges is becoming tiresome. If not for the irreplaceable capabilities of this shell, I'd construct another to free myself of them," he thinks after Geisha leaves him alone. "These urges…..they force me to wonder how wholly organics manage to get anything accomplished," he thinks, before heading toward the construction area, where the Titan class battle forms are under construction, to pass along the data on what Geisha wants constructed..

"Where could that cyber rat have gotten off to?" a golden eagle thinks as she travels around the globe far faster than any animal has a right to move. "It wasn't enough to go on that rampage at the lab. He had to steal a ship, and make a transwarp jump. And then the moronicon has to screw up the settings and jump to an alternate dimension on top of everything else! It's not fair! Just because we have the same capabilities, I'm sent in solo to drag his sorry tail section back home. He may have been built as my brother, but I think I'd rather slag him at this point than find out what went wrong with him. Oh, well. Looks like the next stop for me to search is called Japan."

Clang!

"Well? We've been at this for a week now," Jura says as she and Kaze slowly circle each other. "How am I doing?"

Kaze's only answer is an over head smash that Jura is forced to catch with her hands bracing both ends of her blade. Even then the force of it gives Jura no choice but to drop to one knee, or suffer damage to her arms. Kaze follows it up with a spin kick that Jura takes in the chest, sending her tumbling away.

"Owww! What was that for?" Jura yells as she picks herself back up.

Kaze refuses to talk, just holding her blade in one hand, while curling the fingers of the other in a "bring it" gesture.

Jura growls, as she snatches her blade from it's place on the ground and rushes Kaze, her temper making her release her normally tight control on her strength, and her roundhouse slash actually forcing Kaze to move with it or being knocked over.

Once she has her balance restored, Kaze quickly works a disarming move on Jura, sending her blade flying up, where Kaze catches it as it falls back down. She then returns both blades to their places in her shoulder armor.

"That's enough for today," she finally says, tapping her choker and changing from her armor to street clothes.

"What brought that stuff on?" Jura demands, her eyes flashing as she places her hands on her hips.

"You weren't focusing on the fight. I can't go easy on you, because no one else will. Also, I wanted to check something I've noticed, and it seems to be true," Kaze tells her.

"What's that?" Jura asks, slightly appeased that the abuse she was just given had a good reason.

"When you are all calm and collected like this, your strength is a joke compared to what you are truly capable of," Kaze tells her. "Even without your size shifting power, you are like the Incredible Hulk. The madder you are, the stronger you get."

"How do you figure that?" Jura asks, not wanting to believe it.

"Look at today's training," Kaze returns. "That overhead smash shouldn't have dropped you to your knees like that. When you went after Gabriella, it took me, Zoe, and Gina, to pull you off of her enough for Giganna to get her clear. With that as a bench mark of what you're capable of, I know for a fact that you are holding back. After I gave you that boot to the chest, you came back stronger, and slightly faster. You damn near smashed me off my feet with that last one."

"I was actually madder that you wouldn't talk to me, than I was over being kicked like that," Jura smirks at her, giving her a hug.

"I'll remember that for the next time," Kaze grins, nuzzling the top of her head.

"You.." Jura smiles giving her a gentle swat.

"C'mon, let's go see how things are going with the tiny terror," Kaze suggests, giving Jura a gentle push toward the house.

"I hope Zoe and the others can get her up and running again soon. It's just not the same around here without her," Jura says as they enter the house in time to hear someone knocking on the front door.

"Who is it?" Kaze asks as Jura rushes through the house to reach the door.

"Yes?" Jura asks as she opens the door wide.

"Hi!" Nuri and Immomu chirp together.

"Whoa. I didn't think your sisters where going to let you two out of their sight until you had grown your own powers to fight back with," Kaze says when she catches sight of the pair.

"They agreed, on the condition that we call for them to come get us, or you drop us off," Immomu says.

"So what brings you two over? Checking on Maizy?" Jura asks, as she gestures for them to come in.

"Can we see her? Is she awake yet?" Immomu starts asking almost faster than they can follow.

"I don't see why not, but as far as we know, she's still offline," Kaze tells them.

"Um, if I could, Maizy was running a couple of projects on her computer. Think I could keep an eye on them for her?" Nuri asks shyly.

"I don't see why not," Jura tells her with a warm smile. "I'll run it past Zoe, but as far as I'm concerned, you have full permission to look after her stuff for her."

"Thanks!" Nuri says looking relieved, while Immomu shoots her a questioning look.

"Well, we were about to go check on her ourselves, so come on," Kaze says as she leads to way toward the basement.

"She looks worse now than when we hooked her up," Immomu says sadly when they see her.

"Yeah, but at least she's not going to die on us, thanks to you two," Zoe says as she pushes herself away from the workbench, where she has been operating on one of Maizy's arms.

"Sis, Nuri wanted to know if it was okay with you if she kept some of Maizy's online stuff going for her while you're putting her back together," Kaze says.

"I don't have a problem with it. Go for it," Zoe smiles at the little brown bug.

"Thanks!" Nuri cheers. "Good luck, and I hope you can get her up and running soon!"

"Me too, kiddo. Me too," Zoe says tiredly. "You really can't do much down here, so go on up to her room, and do what you need to for her projects."

"Alright. We don't want to be in the way while you work," Immomu adds as she and Nuri head back upstairs.

"So how are things going down here?" Jura asks, gently stroking the limp red hair away from Maizy's face.

"Slowly. I've managed to construct a new arm for her, since we had to cannibalize both of her old ones to build a single one with her rocket punch capabilities," Zoe says. "We still need to finish rebuilding her lower torso, where Geisha ripped her apart, and her flight pack was completely destroyed by the bitch's "Solar Sword". Then there are the upgrades that I want to make while she's like this….we are looking at months of work here. And that's with help from Megan and Milenna."

"Maybe we can help out some?" a purple haired mecha girl comments from the top of the stair.

"Kiry!" Zoe squeaks, rushing up the stairs to jerk her girlfriend into a hug. "They told me what happened to you. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Someone made sure to keep the fakes off of me until the fight was over," Kiryuu tells her, glancing over her shoulder with pride.

"If I hadn't both Zoe and Katsura would have wanted to trash me afterward," Sumegi, the youngest (at least mentally) of the mecha-g girls smirks down at her sister from the landing.

"Not that I want to seem ungrateful, but why are you here Sumegi? I know full well that Maizy isn't on your list of favorite people," Zoe asks, as she waves for both MG girls to follow her down.

"Katsura had to stay behind at the base to meet with some general for a debriefing about what happened at the harbor. Since I really didn't want to sit home alone, Kiryuu said I could tag along," the copper haired mecha dragon answers. "We heard about what happened. How far are you willing to change her, in order to bring her back?" she asks.

"What did you have in mind?" Kaze asks suspiciously.

"Do you guys watch anime?" Sumegi asks in return.

"Some, but you still haven't answered the question," Jura shoots back.

"Well, I was thinking that if her flight gear was totaled, you might want to think about something like this to replace it?" Sumegi answers, putting her index finger up against a USB port, and displaying a small file of several different images.

"You want us to turn her into a mech that can warp minds, and has enough raw firepower to level countries?" Kaze asks, getting a look at what's on the screen.

"No!" Sumegi returns, insulted. "Like I said, "flight gear"! If you know that much about the mech, you should know what those wings capabilities are, and how they work, at least in the context of the show's world, right? What if we gave her a set that are similar?"

"What are you talking about?" Zoe asks, totally confused.

"I think Sumegi wants us to build a set of wings like this anime mech's to replace Maizy's flight pack," Jura says, not quite sure she's got it all either.

"It has promise," Kaze adds. "In the show, each one of those "feathers" has a small thruster at its base, giving that mech incredible maneuverability, and the wings can also serve as a shield of sorts by dropping down across the mechs front. The biggest problem I see, is actually getting the anime mechanics to function in the real world."

"Right," Sumegi agrees. "But if we can make it work, would you be willing to put it in her?"

"If you can make it work, and it has the capabilities you claim it should, then why wouldn't I? It would be a serious upgrade to what her flight capabilities where before," Zoe tells them.

"Great! Now I have another project I can work on!" Sumegi cheers.

"We'll help you out if you need it," Jura offers.

"Yeah, we're not much help working on her main systems, but maybe we can do some good on this one," Kaze adds.

"I'm not dumb enough to turn down help," Sumegi grins. "When should we get together to work on this?" she asks.

"I've got to work the rest of this week, so it will be the weekend before I'm free to help," Kaze tells her sadly.

"I'll hook up with you after school," Jura tells Sumegi.

"When was the last time you had any rest?" Kiryuu demands as she looks Zoe over with a critical eye.

"Huh?" Zoe returns, caught off guard , since she was concentrating on Sumegi's idea.

"You. Downtime. Away from lab," Kiryuu clarifies.

"…Um, when Geisha knocked me offline with a Thunder Break?" Zoe returns lamely.

"And you let her work herself nonstop like this?" Kiryuu snarls at Kaze.

"It's kind of like you telling Katsura what to do," Jura returns, defending her girlfriend. "It just doesn't go over very well."

Kiryuu lightens up at that, nodding in understanding. "Yeah, Katsura would tell me to go slag myself, or order me in for a complete software diagnostic, if I tried to tell her what to do," she admits.

"Would that be before, or after, she screamed at you that she is the ranking unit, and that you where grounded until she could talk to the C.O.?" Sumegi asks, clearly annoyed at how she is treated by their older sister.

Raised eyebrows from everyone who isn't "family" meet her words.

"Yeah, she does seem to have a few "control issues" that have nothing to do with her programming," Kiryuu admits, rubbing the back of her head.

"There have been more than a few times that I wish something like that would have worked on her," Zoe says wistfully, stroking Maizy's hair.

"That tears it. You need to get out of here for a few hours," Jura says, dragging Zoe's attention away from her little sister.

"But I can't. Not until she's back on line," Zoe returns stubbornly.

"You have someplace in mind to take her so she can relax?" Jura asks Kiryuu.

"Yeah, I've got a few of them in mind," the dragonish mecha girl returns with a smirk.

"Then you," Jura says, poking Zoe in the chest, "Are going to get out of here for a few hours. You need to unwind, before you start making mistakes down here."

"I'm a robot. I can't make mistakes," Zoe shoots back.

"No, you're a cyber doll. And one who's A.I. makes her as close to human as is possible for man to create. AND you need to rest your mind, or just like us organics, you will start to make mistakes. And we all know that the last thing you want to do is make a mistake while you're rebuilding our favorite tiny terror," Jura fires back, with no let up. When Zoe looks like she is about to argue some more, Jura adds, "Kaze? I think you need to escort your sister upstairs."

Kaze gets a slightly evil look in her optics, as she steps up behind Zoe, and wraps her in a bear hug. "Care to get the doors?" she asks as she lifts Zoe off her feet.

"No problem," Kiryuu grins, moving ahead of them to open the doors.

"Put me down this instant!" Zoe snarls, thrashing in Kaze's grip.

"Not going to happen," Kaze grins. "You may as well relax, you know full well that you can't beat my strength."

"I was beat before this started, wasn't I?" Zoe asks.

"As soon as Kiryuu asked how long you'd been down here, you should have expected this," Jura tells her.

"Come on, Sumegi. Maizy's repairs are going on pause, while we get this one to chill out for a while," Kiryuu calls down to her sister.

"Alright. I need to start working on this anyway," Sumegi grins as she follows the others up to the main floor of the house.

"Doctor Tokai?" General Takahara asks after knocking on her office door.

"Yes?" she answers, looking up from her desk, and the budget sheets resting there.

"I'm here to inform you that your project is no longer under the command of Colonel Mitsuka. You will need to prepare to set up duplicate facilities at an undisclosed location, because your charges are going to be answering to a new commanding officer," he tells her.

She stares at him in shock for a few moments, before sinking back into her chair and muttering, "Thank God."

"Not a fan of the colonel I take it?" he asks with an understanding smile.

"That egotistical, self righteous, arrogant, self serving, son of a bitch, needs to be tossed into the same room as that possessed k-girl," she growls.

"Ouch. I hate the man's guts, and even I wouldn't go that far," he says with a wince.

"You have no idea what I have had to put up with from that bastard," she snarls back.

"Oh, I have a fairly good idea. I served under his idol back when I was a captain. That piece of filth was a major at the time, and the colonel a simple lieutenant, and serving as the man's aid. The backstabbing prick repeatedly sent the best squad I have ever had the privilege to work with on nothing less than suicide missions, then had the sheer gall to be upset when they not only survived, but completed their mission. I really wish one of those girls would have shown him exactly why they were the only one's capable of saving us all," he answers her.

"Makes me glad that we're not at war right now," the doctor answers, before realizing something. "Wait a second. They barely tolerate women in the military now. There is no way in hell they would have allowed them to be sent on suicide missions as far back as you are talking."

"Nice catch doc," he answers her with a nod. "But I never said that they where human, now did I?"

"Then….The Maidens? You served with the Shogun Maidens?" she asks in awe.

"I was their immediate commander," he returns with a bittersweet smile. "I was the one who got to pass along the bastards suicide missions to them. I'm just pleased that they where human enough to be willing to "bend" mission parameters to the point that they were able to survive."

"What I wouldn't have given to have been able to model the MG girls after a complete schematic of one of the Maidens. The best I was able to do was guess at how things worked," she mutters.

"I had wondered why the few glimpses I've managed to get of them made them seem so…..incomplete…..when compared to the Maidens. And I mean no offence with that," he answers.

"I don't take any, but the girls probably would," she smirks back. "Sadly it's probably quite accurate. I know for a fact that the powers that the Maidens possessed had to be immense, given what they are grudgingly given credit for. I'm fairly sure that we've managed to come close to those levels with the MG girls, but it's in the realm of their A.I.'s and non-combat systems that I'm unhappy with what we managed to accomplish."

"So the girls are merely intelligent robots, rather than in-organic people?" the general asks, testing his understanding.

"Some of them come closer than others," she answers. "Katsura is everything you could ask for in a soldier. She obeys orders, sometimes too well, she looks after her team, and she tries to keep collateral damage to a minimum. But I'm not sure if she does those because of her personality, or because they are part of her programming."

"We discovered during the Maiden's original trials that if we taught what we wanted them to know, rather than dumping it into their heads, we got much better results from them," the general tells her. "That was why Zoe was always so human. She was raised that way, learning the same way we do, although at a much faster rate."

"Something else for us to lay at the colonels feet. Professor Ikatski wanted to do that, but he was over ruled," she answers.

"I see," the general says, clearly thinking something over. "I'll tell you what, doctor. Once you have the secondary station set up, I will see to it that you get the information you want on the Maidens. I'm not sure what good it will do you at this point, but I don't see how it can hurt."

"Well, at the very least, I might be able to retrofit some systems into them to make them more complete. Nothing gives you understanding, like being able to experience it," the doctor returns, standing up and offering the general her hand. "I'm certainly looking forward to working with you more than I ever did Colonel Mitsuka."

"And I look forward to serving with another team of Robotic Defenders. Good day, doctor," the general returns shaking the offered hand.

"Now aren't you glad that we made you leave the basement?" Kiryuu asks, as she snuggles with Zoe in a secluded spot at the park.

"You, Little Dragon, are far too pleased with yourself," Zoe shoots back, giving her a poke in the ribs. "And yes, I did need to get out of there for a while. But I can't stand the thought of her laying down there, parts of her hanging out, and not doing anything to fix it."

"I know. And the fact that you would feel the same way if I'd been the one to be hurt like that, is one of the things I love so much about you," Kiryuu tells her, nuzzling the back of Zoe's neck.

"Yes I would. And the thought of you all torn up like that is not something I really want to be imagining," Zoe tells her. "I….I think I need someone to be in charge of me for a change. I'm so focused on Maizy, that I'm not really thinking straight."

"You mean that?" Kiryuu asks, snaking herself around so that she can see Zoe's face.

"Yeah, I think I do. For today at least, I really need a keeper. I need to get my mind off of Maizy's situation, for at least a few hours," Zoe admits.

"Then we are going to need someplace with some privacy," Kiryuu tells her with a feral grin. "Know of any place like that?"

"Home. It's big enough that even if Kaze and Jura are home, we will be left alone," Zoe answers her.

Kiryuu, looks at her skeptically for a few moments, before agreeing. "But if you try to go to the basement, I get to do whatever I want with you, agreed?" she adds.

"Fair enough. Shall we go?" Zoe asks, as her wings spread from her flight pack.

"Let's go," Kiryuu agrees.

"I think that is the one power you have that I wish most that they had given me. Even Katsura and Sumegi can fly on their own. Best I can do are booster jumps," Kiryuu tells her lover.

"Maybe you should ask for some upgrades? It shouldn't be too difficult for them to redesign your weapons pack to give you some real flight time," Zoe returns, unlocking the door and leading the way in.

"I'd rather have them give me some other upgrades," Kiryuu smirks to herself as she follows Zoe into the mansion.

Zoe doesn't even think about what she is doing as she makes a bee-line through the house and heads for the door to the basement.

"Looks like I'm going to have to get a little more forceful with her," Kiryuu thinks to herself as she reaches for a compartment on her back and withdraws a few items.

Zoe still has her hand on the door as she starts through, when Kiryuu grabs her wrist and loops a cord around it, then shoves her forward until she is bent over the railing looking over the basement lab.

"Kiryuu! What are you doing!" Zoe yells as the mecha dragon girl quickly grabs her other arm and proceeds to bind them behind the hero's back. "This isn't MMPH!" she tries to continue, but Kiryuu slaps a piece of black duct tape across her mouth.

"Don't bother trying to break the cord, it's got highly flexible wire woven through it to make it strong enough to take our weight," Kiryuu grins as she whispers in Zoe's ear. Then she passes the excess cord through Zoe's legs, before turning her around to face away from the basement. "Remember not more than twenty minutes ago?" she asks, giving the cord a slight tug. "When you agreed to let me do whatever I wanted with you if you tried to come down here?"

Zoe's eyes widen in shock when she realizes that she completely zoned out about that.

"Now, I think it's time that I took you upstairs, and saw to your punishment, don't you?" Kiryuu asks, with a wicked grin on her face. Then she gives the cord a sharp upward tug, making it ride tightly against Zoe's crotch.

Zoe goes up on tiptoe in reaction, before Kiryuu tugs again, and starts leading her to her room.

Once they arrive, Kiryuu quickly strips Zoe, and works some additional bindings on her before standing back to admire her handy work.

"How many times can our helpless heroine be brought to orgasm in one night?" Kiryuu asks, getting a wide eyed look of surprise in return. "Let's find out," she adds, her optics color shifting from its normal yellow to an orangish color.

"Do we really want to interrupt them?" Jura asks, before Kaze can pound on Zoe's door.

"With all the noise Zoe was making last night, I think they've had enough fun time, don't you?" Kaze shoots back.

"No. Zoe needs this. She's been working herself to death trying to get Maizy back online as fast as she can. Let Kiryuu keep her mind off of things for a while longer," Jura argues.

Kaze hesitates for a moment, thinking it over. "Alright. You're right about her needing to stop pushing herself so hard. We'll check back in on them later," she agrees, following Jura down the stairs.

A few moments later, the sound of the front door closing reaches the sensitive audio sensors of the pair in question.

"So how shall we spend the rest of the day?" Kiryuu grins, gazing at her lovely captive.

"So what do you think of the place?" Mandy asks as she shows Tina around one of the smaller outbuildings of the school.

"Is it going to be large enough? How many children will there be?" Tina returns.

Mandy has to think for a moment, before answering, "Around ten or so, for now. But one of them is currently out of commission, and is undergoing extensive repairs."

"The little one who was hurt trying to protect her friends?" Tina asks.

"Yes," Mandy answers. "She is the prototype for the older looking Mazinger girls. Compared to the other "juniors" her powers are immense. But when faced with a cyber doll with as much experience, and advanced weaponry as her sister, or the one who tried to kill her, she was simply out classed. While I have no doubts that she will be joining your class, she will not be here for the first day."

"That is too bad, since I'm looking forward to meeting her," Tina admits. Then she smirks over her shoulder and asks, "So what do you five think of the place?"

The Lion Drones begin to appear from various doors and halls, sending their impressions of the building to their mistress. After a few moments of her nodding in response to what she is being told, she gives one final nod, and they go back to exploring.

"So what did they have to say?" Mandy asks, once more amazed at the way Vol-Tina and her lions work together.

"They say that the place will need a bit more minor security, since there are a couple of entrances that don't appear to have locks on them, and Black suggested turning half of the second floor into a place for the lot of us to stay," she answers.

"I don't think that is a bad idea at all. Given that your…..partners….require a bit more room than most teachers without a family would require, I think it is an excellent idea. It would also make it exceptionally simple for your students to find you if they have need," Mandy agrees.

"You mean I would be allowed to not only live on campus, but in the school itself? That can't be normal," Tina returns in surprise.

Mandy smirks at her as she turns to leave and shoots back, "Define "normal". Especially here."

Tina works her mouth without any sound for a few moments, before she gives up and follows the dragonish woman out of the building, five mechanical cats following in her wake like multi colored shadows.

"Have you seen Kiryuu?" Katsura demands when she finds Jura and Kaze with the twins at lunch. "She didn't come home last night, didn't show up at all today, and isn't answering her com."

Jura and Kaze share a look, before Kaze answers, "Do you promise to leave her be if I tell you what I know?"

"Oh crap. This isn't going to go well," Sumegi mutters, knowing that Katsura doesn't put up with circular thinking.

"You will tell me where my sister is, or I will beat the information out of you. You have no right to set conditions on how I deal with family matters," Katsura snarls back at her.

"This isn't a good idea!" Sumegi hisses at her, getting a glowing glare in return. "Fine! Do what you want! And I'll make sure to tell them all that the reason you got disassembled with a sword was because you where too stubborn to be reasonable about things, and lie if you needed to!" She shoots back as she moves away to a safe distance.

"She is right. It's not a good idea to try to pick a fight with Kaze, when she will tell you what you want if you agree to her terms," Jura tells her.

"Stay out of this. Despite your assistance in ending the trouble at the harbor, I still do not trust you. Your powers are far too dangerous in my opinion to allow you to be roaming about," Katsura growls back at her.

"I've had just about enough of your insulting both me, and my girlfriend, you chrome plated k-girl wannabe," Kaze growls as she gets to her feet.

"Oh, crap," several people whisper as they hear that Katsura is pissing off some of the most powerful new students. And doing it on purpose. There is a quick but orderly mass exodus from the general area, leaving only Katsura, and Kaze's group remaining.

"Jura? Do me a favor and get out of the way, and take the twins with you. This may get…..messy," Kaze tells her as she faces off with Katsura.

"You're sure you want to do this?" Jura asks, as she and the twins back toward where Sumegi is standing, glaring at her sister.

"Want to? Not particularly. Feel that I need to? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that this needs to be done, and is actually a little overdue," she answers, giving Katsura a cold look as a breeze blows her hair back from her face.

"This is going to get ugly," Kera mutters as Kaze and Katsura continue to face off, neither of them making a move as yet.

"Sumegi, I know why Kiryuu won't answer Katsura, but will she answer you?" Jura asks.

"She's with Zoe, isn't she?" Sumegi asks with a deep sigh. "I told her that Kiryuu would be alright, and that was probably what was going on, but she wouldn't listen! She's all hung up on being in charge of the squad."

"I thought you guys where family, like the Mazingers?" Sera asks, suddenly confused.

"We are, but Katsura is the eldest. And the fact that we answer to the military also makes us a squad, with Katsura in charge. Unfortunately, she sometimes lets that go to her head," Sumegi answers.

"Like now," Jura winces, as the first explosion sounds from behind them.

"Yeah….." Sumegi agrees.

"Call Kiryuu. If she won't answer you, then I'll try to get Zoe. They are the only ones who are going to be able to defuse this little bombshell without having to hammer both of them into the ground in the process," Jura orders her.

"You're right," Sumegi agrees, quickly accessing her com systems.

"We don't have to do this," Kaze tells her.

"You will tell me what you know about my sisters whereabouts, or I will commence to blasting the data out of you," Katsura returns, assuming a gunfighters stance, with her legs spread, and her arms at her sides and bent at the elbows so that her hands are pointed at Kaze.

"If you insist on doing this, I refuse to take the blame for what happens to you," Kaze tells her, standing there with her arms crossed.

"As if," Katsura smirks, before launching a full spread of mini missiles from both hands.

The resulting explosion throws Kaze through the air, and leaves her uniform shredded and smoking.

"I've seen your power, and I know how to beat you," Katsura tells her, a smug note in her voice before she fires off a rainbow hued eye blast at her.

"And I've been told that you regularly get your ass handed to you for underestimating your opponents. Looks like it's time to add one more notch to that particular list," Kaze growls, picking herself up from where the blast had thrown her.

"I've been designed to be able to take down the most powerful of K-morphs. You won't be nearly as much of a challenge," Katsura snarls at her, before unleashing another barrage of mini missiles.

The detonations leave Kaze totally enveloped in a dark haze of smoke.

"Now what the hell is going on?" Mandy growls, after hearing the first explosions.

"Another fight?" Tina innocently suggests.

"I'm sure it is. But who is involved this time?" Mandy returns. "It has some outcome on the amount of damage that ends up inflicted on the school."

"Then we should hurry, and find out," Tina says, breaking into a run toward the commons.

"I don't get paid enough for this crap," Mandy mutters before chasing after Tina.

"Are you ready to tell me what I want to know yet?" Katsura demands toward the cloud keeping Kaze hidden from sight.

"Are you ready to shut up and be reasonable yet?" Kaze returns, slowly stalking out of the cloud of smoke.

"Why you…" Katsura trails off as Kaze slowly emerges from the smoke.

First her armored boots and lower arms become clear, followed by her crowned helmet. Lastly, the crimson crest on her chest, and her glowing eyes as she steps completely clear of the shrouding smoke.

"I'm quite certain that you don't want to keep this up," Kaze growls at her.

"Really? How does it feel to be wrong?" Katsura asks, just before she unleashes her eyebeams, and jagged energy bolts from her belly plate, followed by another barrage from her mini missiles.

Several ragged explosions once more conceal Kaze from sight after she is blasted from her feet again.

"It will be better for you if you just tell me what you know," Katsura calls toward the cloud.

Kaze's response doesn't involve words this time, as her left forearm shoots out of the cloud, smashing into Katsura's gut, while her right shoots out at ground level a moment later, and suddenly arcs up to smash into her face as she bends over from the first hit.

As Katsura crashes to the ground, Kaze emerges from the haze, none the worse for having endured Katsura's barrage beyond a few smudges of soot and dirt.

"I warned you. Cease this, before I'm forced to do more than deliver a few love taps," Kaze tells her coldly.

"If that is the best you can do, I'm forced to wonder how you managed to defeat Dizzy. I'm going to chalk your win against the Red Geisha as your surprising her," Katsura smirks as she picks herself up.

"Believe what you want, but it won't change the fact that the only one who is going to get hurt in this is going to be you," Kaze returns.

"You will tell me where Kiryuu is. That is the only way this is going to end," Katsura answers, squaring off with Kaze once more.

"Over there!" Tina says, once Mandy catches up to her, pointing toward the smoky area.

"Katsura? She doesn't usually get involved in brawls," Mandy tells her when she catches sight of the silver saurian-mech.

"Her opponent is approaching her from within the smoke," Tina tells her, as they wait for the other girl to appear.

"Oh, sweet merciful crap," Mandy mutters when the other girl steps clear of the smoke. "Kaze is capable of ripping her apart without even trying hard."

"Then it seems that we should break this up," Tina tells her, as she starts forward, her lions spreading out into a wide "v" formation behind her.

"Double crap," Mandy mutters as she follows along in their wake.

"Have you managed to get through to her?" Jura demands as yet another explosion echoes back to them.

"Yes! She will be here as soon as she can. She said something about Zoe being tied up, and needing to cut her loose before they could leave," Sumegi answers, clearly wondering about the last part of the message.

"Let's just hope they get here before Kaze gets tired of taking Katsura's crap," Kera mutters as she turns back toward the fight.

"General Takahara, the tech section reports that the support facilities for the mechanized squad have been completed," his aid informs him.

"Much faster than I expected," the general says with a smile. Then he pulls a data disk from his desk. Motioning his aid over, he adds, "Take this, and deliver it to Doctor Hitomi Tokai. Tell her that I always honor my depts."

"Sir." the aid answers with a salute, before taking the disk and leaving to deliver it.

"Here's hoping that you can do something for those girls, doctor," the general says to the empty room.

"Stop this right this instant!" Tina shouts out as she storms toward Katsura and Kaze.

"Stay out of this, newbie," Katsura snarls coldly, pointing one hand at Tina, while aiming her remaining weapons at Kaze once more.

"Don't do it…" Kaze warns her.

"Tell me what I want to know, and I won't," Katsura returns.

"You are aware that you sound like a broken record, right?" Kaze shoots back.

"I said- "Tina starts to say, only to be cut off as Katsura fires once more.

"I'm going to keep blasting you, until you give me the information. Make it easier on yourself and just tell me," Katsura calls.

"Blow it out your tail pipe," Kaze snarls, getting annoyed.

While the pair continue to trade insults and the occasional load of firepower, Tina is picking herself up off the ground.

"She did not just do that!" she thinks, shocked at the way Katsura is abusing her abilities. "My friends, I do believe it's time that we showed them what we are truly capable of," she directs the thought at the Lion Drones.

The five roar in unison, drawing everyone's attention to the smoking area where Tina was last seen. As everyone watches, five brightly glowing blurs streak into the cloud, each a different color.

"What the hell?" Kaze mutters, keeping one optic on Katsura, just in case.

Within the cloud, the lions are transforming into armor, and fusing themselves with Tina. Black changes, becoming torso armor and a helmet for her, two red wings sticking up over her shoulders, and golden horns jutting up from the helm. Red, and Green become arm armor, their heads becoming pincer like battle claws over top of her hands. Yellow and Blue, change into armored boots for her, their heads placed so that her toes are just short of the lions jaws. A flash of energy as everyone locks into place, and the transformation is complete. Now standing a fair bit taller, and prepared for almost anything, Vol-Tina strides through the cloud, ready to beat some sense into the both of them.

"Have you flipped your freaking lid?" Kaze yells at Katsura. "She wasn't involved. She wasn't doing anything more than telling you to stop! If that's how you protect the innocent, then I think you need to go in and get your mind wiped and reprogrammed!"

"I think you should just give me the information!" Katsura snarls back, readying another barrage.

Before she can fire, a monstrous blast of flames erupts between them.

When they both turn to look at the source, they find Tina, in full armor, the flame blast erupting from her red armored arm.

"Now that I have your undivided attention, I demand that you stop this battle immediately," she says as she cuts off the flames.

"Stay out of this, or I'll give you some of what I've been giving her," Katsura snarls, before turning her attention back to Kaze.

"I've had about enough of this crap," Kaze growls, quickly moving forward, and slamming her right hand into Katsura's chest plate. Then she squeezes slightly, not enough to destroy the armor, just enough to ensure she has a good grip. Next she lifts Katsura off the ground, and brings her up to eye level.

"Put her down, or I will be forced to disable the both of you," Tina yells, getting angry that her orders to stop fighting are being ignored.

"I'm not going to harm her, I just want to ensure that there can't be any miss understanding here," Kaze tells her, then refocuses her attention on Katsura. "And as for you, you have to be the sorriest excuse for a security officer I've ever had the displeasure to deal with! For someone who is supposed to break up fights, and "keep the peace" between k-girls, you're doing a remarkable job of imitating the worst offenders of the bunch!" Kaze snarls into her face, leaving Katsura gapping in shocked outrage.

But Kaze isn't done yet. Not by a long shot.

Turning her face to look at the ground behind Katsura, she unleashes a quick blast of her Photon Beams, blasting yet another crater into the commons.

Kaze then drops Katsura into the hole, and growls, "Never mistake lack of willingness for lack of capability. You managed to knock me around, because you are supposed to be one of the good guys, and I don't kick the shit out of the good guys unless they force me to!"

Then she turns and stalks away, leaving Katsura in the hole, while Tina looks on, her expression shifting between annoyance at Kaze's theatrics, and approval of her words. Turning her attention back to Katsura as she ignites her flight jets long enough to clear the hole, she demands, "Are you finished now? Or will I be forced to stop you from continuing with your attack?"

"KATSURA!" Kiryuu shrieks as she drops into the commons, the exhaust from her jump jets a dark counterpoint to her gleaming silver skin and armor.

"Where have you been?" Katsura demands, only to have Kiryuu cut her off.

"What I do with my time, on my time, is none of your concern sister," she snarls, her voice cold enough to double for her Absolute Zero Cannon. "You are so lucky that Kaze didn't want to hurt you, otherwise we would be salvaging your remains for a week! Provided she didn't just slag your self-important tail for acting like such an ass!"

"How dare you talk to your commanding officer like that!" Katsura growls back in shocked surprise.

"I dare because someone needs to!" Kiryuu yells in her face. "You have let your position go to your head. Kaze had an open channel to us, and we heard everything you had to say! She repeatedly gave you an option that didn't involve fighting, all you had to do was do things her way! "But no, you had to pick a fight with one of the most powerful mechs ever to walk the halls of this school, a fight you had no chance of actually winning, and acting like the worst of the bullies in the process!"

"We? Who was with you," Katsura demands.

"That would be me," Zoe adds, dropping down behind her.

"I should have known," she mutters.

"I realize you are the most militarily focused of your sisters, but you really need to learn how to loosen up," Zoe tells her, before walking off to check on her sister.

"I trust this is done now?" Tina asks, not expecting to be told otherwise.

"If she wants to try and continue, I'm going to stick a charged combat knife in her core processor," Kiryuu growls.

"No need for that, I think I've been chastised enough for this mess," Katsura answers. Then she turns her attention to Tina, and asks, "And you are? I'm assuming you are new, since I don't have any files on you as yet."

"My name is Tina," she answers. "Starting in a few weeks, I will be teaching here."

"You are going to be one of our instructors?" Kiryuu asks, surprised.

"No," Tina returns. "I'll be teaching the younger girls. It has been decided that it will be safer for them to be here on campus with the rest of you, rather than scattered across the city, like easy targets, if those who attempted to kidnap them try again."

"My apologies. I had no idea that you where a staff member," Katsura tells her, managing to sound a bit sheepish over her behavior.

"Oh, don't worry about this, Katsura. You will be making amends by assisting with repairing the damage. And I will be reporting this incident to your commander. Even if you are a security officer here, this kind of behavior will not be tolerated," Mandy informs her, finally feeling its safe enough to get close to ground zero.

"Yes ma'am," Katsura answers in a small voice.

"What the flaming hell is wrong with you?" Dr. Tokai nearly screams at Katsura as the three sisters stand at attention before the doctors desk.

"I was merely attempting to acquire information on Kiryuu's whereabouts, given the fact that she hadn't been home in more than 24 hours," Katsura attempts to defend herself.

"Is this true?" the doctor demands, focusing her angry features on Kiryuu.

"Yes, but I was off the duty roster until the afternoon of the day in question," Kiryuu responds.

"I see. Make sure from now on to report in at least every few hours, even when on your own time," the doctor orders her. Kiryuu's shocked look and clear intention to argue causes her to add, "Given recent events, it is entirely possible that the next attack could be initiated by someone attempting to take out the strongest and most organized of the defenders who fought back during the last attack. While some of the organic girls may be able to top you in the raw power category, you are the most organized of the lot."

"As you wish ma'am. I'll make sure to report in roughly every four hours or so, when on my own time," Kiryuu agrees sullenly.

"However, this still doesn't excuse your behavior. This incident brings home something that I have been worried about concerning you girls for some time now, and I finally have both the data, and permission to see to some of them," the doctor tells them.

"What are they? Surly we can put your fears to rest, if we know what they are?" Katsura asks.

"My "fears" as you put it, are along the lines of being disappointed that I, and the other designers, couldn't make you all more "human" when we designed you," the doctor tells them.

"But we were never supposed to be human. We are k-girls, aren't we?" Sumegi asks.

"True, Sumegi, but you are missing the point. Before you three, there was another team of robotic defenders who protected the world. While your shells and capabilities would have remained the same, if we could have used complete data from that original team, we could have made your subsystems and A.I.'s much more human like," the doctor tells them, calming herself as she explains. "Katsura, you where the first of your sisters to be "completed", at least as far as the short sighted fools in charge of the project where concerned. To be brutally honest, I have never been happy with the level your A.I. was left at."

"What is wrong with my A.I.?" Katsura demands hotly.

"Tell me, have you ever wondered how your actions make others feel? Have you ever just felt the urge to go lay on a hill and stare at the clouds?" the doctor asks.

"Not really. If I am following my orders and set parameters, their feeling should be immaterial if my actions result in their continued safety. And as for the later, that is simply a waste of time, that would be put to better use coming up with contingency plans for dealing with any K-girl that should happen to go rouge, posing a threat to innocents," Katsura responds.

"Spoken like a model robot soldier, rather than an artificial woman who should be able to think for herself, and merely follows the directives we set down because she feels that it's the right thing to do," the doctor tells her sadly. Turning to Sumegi, she offers up a slight smile and adds, "And speaking of imagination, I'm told that you like to pretend that you are a fictional giant robot?"

"Yes ma'am. I know it's not real, but….it's fun! I can't help it, when I'm watching the shows, I can't help but think about it, and wonder what it would be like to actually be the pilot of a super robot like that," Sumegi admits, a red flush apparent on her chromed cheeks.

"Oh, how I wish we could have had such a success with all of you," the doctor tells them, her smile not so strained now. "However, you need to exercise some restraint in this….fascination… you have with animated television programming. I'm not telling you to give it up, just don't let it be the only thing you think about."

"Yes, ma'am," Sumegi answers, her blush burning hotter.

"And you," the doctor continues, turning her attention to Kiryuu once more. "You have actually become friends with some of the girls who rank highest on the "threat" list, have you not?"

"It's actually more of being "a friend of their friend" than being a part of their private circle," Kiryuu admits, a blush of her own appearing.

"Ah, so the rumors that have gotten back to are proven true, at least in part," the doctor smirks, leaning back in her chair.

"What rumors?" Kiryuu asks, her blush burning hot enough that the air above her head is shimmering in the heat.

"The rumors that you have struck up a friendship with Mazinger Zoe," the doctor tells her, a genuine grin blooming on her face. "And judging by your reactions, I'd say the other rumors are at least partially correct as well."

When Kiryuu shoots a glare at her sisters, Sumegi raises both her hands and says, "I didn't rat you out."

"Neither did I. I may not approve, But I respected your wish to keep it a secret," Katsura adds.

"And that gives me hope for you, Katsura," the doctor adds, raising an eyebrow at the fact that the sisters have been keeping secrets from her. "But I want it all laid out on the table, here and now."

"Is that an order?" Kiryuu demands, her fist trembling in anger as she feels she is being forced to give up the happiness she has found for herself outside of her family and duty.

Surprised by her reaction, the doctor stands up and walks over to Kiryuu, and stares into the face of her "daughter" since Kiryuu was the only one of the three that she had a personal hand in constructing. "….never mind. The truth is written all over your face, for anyone who knows how to read it," the doctor tells her.

When Kiryuu's mouth turns into a small "o" of surprise, the doctor smiles at her, and adds, "Out of the lot of you, I never expected any of you to learn about love, given how limited your programming was. I have never been happier to be proven wrong."

"You….You approve?" Katsura stutters, shocked.

"Why wouldn't I? I've told you before that I wanted the lot of you to be as human as possible. What is more human than love?" the doctor returns.

While the MG-girls deal with that revelation, the doctor returns to her desk and calls up the files on her screen that she had been working on since she had received the data disk of the original "Blank Maiden" schematics.

"I've been working on some additional components for you girls, and after what happened the other day, I'd say that in some cases they are badly needed," she finishes in an annoyed tone, shooting Katsura a look that clearly states that she isn't off the hook yet.

"May we ask what you have in mind?" Katsura asks.

"You can ask as much as you want," the doctor tells her with a smirk. "But the only answer you're going to get is that I expect all three of you back here in two days. Your new parts will be complete by then. I will clear it with the school, so that you will be free for the needed time frame."

"Joy," Katsura mutters under her breath as she and her sisters file out of the doctor's office.

"So how many new students did we get this week?" Katsura asks, unable to believe what she had just heard.

"Connie, the bird girl, Montana, the mushroom girl, Nyuu, the little water dragon thing, Gummi, the walrus girl, Daniel, another Rodan girl, the gargantuan twins, Gilly and Sandy, and if we count new adults, there is the new teacher Vol-Tina, and another Godzilla morph named Nami," Kiryuu ticks off the names on her fingers as the sisters head toward their base, for their appointment with Dr. Tokai.

"Seven new girls for Katsura to scheme up ways to stop, whoop-di-freakin'-do," Sumegi mutters.

"You know it's our duty to have plans in place should they be needed," Katsura sharply reminds her.

"Yeah, that worked out really well for you when you picked a fight with Kaze, now didn't it?" Sumegi shoots back.

"Stop it now, or I'll shoot the both of you," Kiryuu growls. Katsura is about to say something, when Kiryuu adds, "And the first one to say "she started it" gets a double dose."

Katsura's jaw snaps shut with an audible "clack" and Sumegi just grins as they are waved through the gate.

"I'm pleased that you are so punctual," Dr. Tokai says as she waits for the sisters to take their places in their repair cradles. "The instillations will take a few hours, so prepare yourselves for a full systems shutdown," she tells them.

"Can you inform us as to what you're about to put in us?" Katsura asks, as she is locked into place, and her cradle rotates so that she is laying horizontal to the floor.

"You will find out when you wake up," the doctor replies, a smug smirk on her face. "Now commence shutdown."

"As ordered," Katsura answers, her optics going dark moments later.

"You two as well," the doctor adds, as both Sumegi and Kiryuu rotate to horizontal.

"Yes, ma'am," they answer, before shutting themselves down.

"Alright folks, it's time to give these girls an upgrade," the doctor orders as the maintenance teams roll in the carts containing the new components.

"Will you be joining in ma'am?" the head of Katsura's team asks.

"I'll be working with Kiryuu's team. She and Sumegi will be getting the largest changes, physically speaking," she answers. "But don't be afraid to call for help if you run into problems. I don't know about the rest of you, but I think of these girls like my daughters, and I don't want anything to go wrong."

"Yes, Ma'am," several team members call back in response to that order.

"So, have all the proper people been notified?" Tina asks as she has a meeting with Mandy and Milenna.

"Almost," Mandy answers. "I'll be telling the Mothra's and Nami after school."

"And I'll be informing Zoe when I'm over there working on Maizy. I'm stunned at how quickly the repairs are going," Milenna adds.

"I look forward to meeting that one," Tina smiles.

"I look forward to completing her repairs," Milenna smirks.

"How much is left?" Mandy asks.

"We need to finish constructing her new multi-function arm, and integrate the newly designed flight gear. Then there are the additional modifications that Zoe wants to make to her. Once those are done, we can reload her brain core back into the body, and re-activate her," Milenna answers.

"Sounds like a lot of work to do yet, then," Tina says.

"Yes, but it's all coming along quite well," Milenna agrees.

"Well, the class room has been completed, and I'm reviewing the files you have been so kind to give me about my soon to be charges," Tina informs them.

"Let's hope your students are less destructive than ours," Mandy smirks, earning a chuckle from the others.

"I hope so. It would be nice to avoid more scenes like that one with Katsura the other day," Tina answers.

"With any luck, she will be removed from our list of things to be concerned about," Milenna informs them.

"Getting some work done is she?" Mandy asks.

"All three of them, actually," Milenna returns. "It seems the doctor in charge of them has recently been able to lay her hands on some data that should have been made available to the design teams from the beginning. She is in the process of installing some new parts on all three of them as we speak."

"Here's hoping everything goes well," Tina offers up, raising her water glass in a toast.

"Agreed," the other teachers answer, raising their own glasses.

Checking her ships chrono, Milenna suddenly stands up and tells the others, "Sorry to cut this short, but the automated experiment pod that was sent into orbit for me a few weeks ago is due back shortly, and I'd like to be there when the transport comes in."

"Hope your experiments turn up something interesting," Tina tells her as she starts to move off.

"How's she coming?" Jura asks, as she and Kaze check in with Zoe.

"Better. I've almost got the new arm configured," she answers. "How is the flight pack coming along?"

"We've almost got the plans worked out," Kaze answers. "We were going to do some more work on it today, but Sumegi had to report to the base, so we decided to wait for her, since she has a better grasp of how it's supposed to work than we do."

"Makes sense," Zoe agrees. "Funny, Kiryuu had to report to the base this afternoon too. I wonder what's going on with them?"

"Let's hope that it includes Katsura, and the end result improves her disposition," Kaze mutters.

Zoe and Jura can't help but smirk at that one, with Jura adding, "Does she have a knob or something so that they can adjust her attitude?"

"Hell if I know. It would be nice if she would lighten up though," Zoe agrees.

"Heh, maybe they are all getting some new hardware installed. Or should I call it software? Either way, it would mean that Katsura could get laid. God knows she needs it," Kaze snickers.

"That was a low blow, miss sexbot," Jura tells her with a swat to the arm.

"Maybe, but I don't hear either of you arguing with me," Kaze grins, before heading back upstairs.

"Ms. Milenna? The people from the states are here with your package," a customs officer announces as Milenna stares out over the airport, wondering what is taking so long.

"It's about time. I was expecting them an hour ago," she complains as she follows the man out the door.

"We apologize for the delay, but you will understand why we felt the need to do a few additional checks when you see it," he says back over his shoulder.

"Why don't I like the sound of that," she mutters.

The man merely maintains his silence as he leads her down to the proper part of the airport to claim the automated lab unit that had been sent into space on the Americans last shuttle mission.

"Miss Milenna I presume?" a new voice asks once they arrive in the secured room with the unit.

"You know of another scientist with a translucent body the color of blue raspberry jello?" she shoots back.

"She does have a point," a second voice adds, the smirk apparent in her voice.

"And I assume that you two are the babysitters from NASA with my Laboratory unit?" Milenna smirks back.

"Yes, but we originally came along to inform you that the readouts indicated a problem with the unit about two hours into the scheduled test timeframe," the woman tells her.

"However, when we unloaded the unit from the shuttle's cargo bay, we discovered that its structural integrity had been compromised. There was an odd bulge on one side, and the seam along that side had been broken," the man adds.

"That's odd. I constructed it out of the same specialized alloy that was used in my ship. Even if some careless handler had dropped it from your shuttles launch gantry it shouldn't even of had a dent," Milenna tells them, the puzzlement she feels plain in her voice.

"It gets stranger," the customs man adds.

"Doesn't it always?" Milenna adds with a long suffering look.

"When we unloaded it from the transport, we found it in this condition," the woman continues, shoving the rolling divider that was concealing the unit out of the way.

"What the bloody hell?" Milenna blurts out in surprise.

"We were really hoping you could tell us," the man adds.

Impaling the unit in several places are greenish white crystals, making it look like some kind of strange square deep sea mine or something.

Crouching down near the unit, Milenna starts to examine it when she notices the holes the crystals are occupying. "These…crystals punched through the housing from the inside. But I didn't send anything like that up on the mission?" she tells them, confused for the moment.

"Then what the hell is it?" the woman asks.

"I don't know, yet, but…..they seem familiar," Milenna answers,

"What was in the unit for your tests?" the man asks.

"Tissue and blood samples from the K-morphs that can feed on radiation. I wanted to test the effects of unusual radiation wavelengths on them," Milenna answers. Then her eyes widen as she blurts out, "My god…..Crystal!"

"Yeah, they are still sticking out all over it," the customs man says.

"No, that is the name of one of the girls who's samples I sent up there," Milenna clarifies.

"What makes you think it was her samples that caused this?" the woman asks.

"Her Kaiju half is Space Godzilla. And she shares its ability to feed on Cosmic Radiation. But since she is trapped down here, she's never been exposed to it before. I never imagined that a few samples from her, combined with the radiation would be able to produce something like this," she explains, ending by waving a hand at the lab unit.

Just then, the sound of tearing metal surprises the lot of them into silence, as a pair of slender green/white daggers punch through the top of the unit, and proceed to trace three sides of a square in one of the larger open areas.

"Everyone OUT!" Milenna orders, shoving the humans toward the door. Then she quickly patches a call through her ships com system. "This is Milenna. I'm currently at the airport, and I think we have a situation. I'm going to need backup."

As Milenna finishes her call for help, the cut patch curls back like a sardine can. She can only stare in shocked surprise at what slowly floats up out of the unit.

"Someone turn that damn alarm off, and tell me what the hell is going on!" Dr. Tokai yells, as all the team members quickly back away from the MG-girls to keep from accidentally damaging them if they are startled again.

"Doctor! It's an alert! One of the teachers called in an emergency from the airport!" one of the techs calls, after checking for her.

"SONOVABITCH!" the doctor snarls with feeling. "We are in the middle of downloading Katsura's mind into a new cyber brain, and if we try to do anything before it's done, she will die. And Kiryuu and Sumegi have parts scattered across half the repair area! Why do they always wait until we can't do a damn thing to cause trouble?"

"What should we do, Ma'am?" the same tech asks.

"Get me General Takahara! If anyone has a contingency plan ready for this kind of situation, then he will," she finishes under her breath as the tech quickly makes the call and hands over the headset.

"So what do you have in mind for the rest of the afternoon?" Sera asks as she and her sister welcome Kaze and Jura back upstairs.

"And please don't say watching Jackie Chan movies," Kera adds with a smirk.

"Oh, I don't know. I was thinking of something along the lines of the four of us, a tube of lube, a few toys, a large bed, and a lot of moaning, groaning, and screaming," Kaze grins back. "Sound like a plan?"

The twins and Jura share a look, before they all turn back to Kaze and say, "Works for me."

"Then let's go," Kaze grins as she jerks a thumb over her shoulder at the stairs.

They make it halfway up, before the twins jerk as they receive a message over their coms.

"Blast it!" Sera growls, as she turns and rushes for the front door.

"What's wrong?" Jura calls after her.

"Emergency at the airport!" Kera calls back as she rushes out after her sister.

Jura stares up at Kaze. When Kaze nods, they turn and rush out after their friends.

"Where is the problem?" Sera demands as she and her sister land near a crowd gathered around the customs lockup building.

"You guys want a hand?" Kaze asks, as she lands behind them and sets Jura back on her feet.

"Let us take the lead, and act like part of our team," Kera stage whispers to them, before motioning for them to follow along.

"In there," the customs man from before answers Sera, pointing toward the building, just as there is a loud crash from within.

"Okay, now what is the problem?" Kera asks.

"We don't know. When something started to rip its way out of the lab module, Milenna ordered us to run, and sealed the door. It wasn't till we got out here that we realized she wasn't with us," the woman from NASA answers.

"Alright. Possible hostage situation, definite rescue op, still unknown as to whether it's a containment or S&D mission after that," Sera says to her sister, including Kaze and Jura in when her sister nods.

"Understood," Kaze answers, with Jura nodding her own understanding of the situation.

"But getting Milenna out in one piece is the important thing right? We worry about the rest after we are sure she's safe," Jura demands.

"You got it," Kera confirms. "Now give us a little room. We're going to armor up before we head in."

Once Jura and Kaze have cleared a large enough area, the twins activate their drones, and initiate their transformation to their battle forms.

"Elgo Formation!" Sera calls as the purple black energy sphere grows from the circular gem on her chest plate, hiding her from sight within.

"Elgo Flame!" Kera calls in unison with her sister, a globe of green energy hiding her from sight like her sister.

In moments both energy globes have lifted off the ground, and the drones have vanished into them. Seconds later, both globes shatter, letting the girls drop back to the ground.

"Goddess Sigma Gravion!" Sera yells as she hits the ground, energy crackling as she cracks her knuckles.

"Flame Empress, Sol Gravion!" Kera announces, flames dancing around her form for a moment, before vanishing in time to her making a slashing motion with the drill mounted on her right arm.

"Ready?" Kaze asks, having taken up a ready position near the door.

"Jura, you wait here. If whatever is in there makes it past us, you're the last line before it gets to the civilians," Sera orders her.

"Right," Jura agrees, turning her back on the three robots, and moving back toward the crowd. "Just be careful!" she calls back before they go in.

Kaze raises a hand in acknowledgment, before following the twins into the building.

"What made you two follow us?" Sera asks Kaze over a com channel, so that their voices don't give away their approach.

"Well, we thought you might need some help. We know you didn't ask, and you took off before we could offer, so we just trailed you," Kaze returns.

"Backup is never turned down," Kera adds over the channel, causing Sera to nod in agreement.

"Why did you guys get called anyway?" Kaze asks as the trio cautiously makes their way deeper into the building. "I would think that the Mecha Godzilla Team would get sent on something like this."

"Apparently, they were in the middle of some extensive maintenance, and couldn't be brought back on line fast enough to be of any use. Since we are basically Military Reservists, they sent us the scramble order with what little they had, which wasn't a hell of a lot," Sera answers her.

"Well, let's hope it's not too ugly down here. I actually like Milenna. I really don't want to end up cleaning her off a wall," Kaze adds.

"Thanks for the pleasant visual," Kera mutters, as they approach the lockup section, just as the door is blown off the hinges from within.

"Sometimes I hate being right," Milenna thinks as she backs away from the lab unit.

Slowly rising through the hole it had cut, a small, blue/green K-girl with translucent silver hair appears, a faint green glow enveloping her body, most noticeable near the green/white crystals that rise from her shoulders. As the girl slowly rotates to take in her surroundings, Milenna sees that the crystal formations follow the expected pattern, and travel the length of the girls spine and tail, ending in a small spear like arrangement at the tip of her tail. Milenna puts the girls physical age at early teens, and her first impression of the girls disposition is a mix between curious and malicious, as she begins levitating objects, disassembling them, then destroying them with a Corona beam, before moving to the next object. After removing a few more objects in this fashion, the girl begins growing small crystals through the floor, and launching them at the objects, much in the same way Crystal can use her spires as missiles.

Milenna is keeping a running mental commentary as she observes the girls actions, constantly comparing her abilities to Crystals, and wondering how the girl can so quickly divine what each object she is inspecting is for, before destroying it's remains.

This all comes to an abrupt halt, when Milenna feels herself lifted from her hiding place, and brought before the child's inquisitive gaze. Milenna flinches reflexively as the child unleashes a Corona beam, that twists past her without harm, to obliterate the door, blasting its remains out into the hall.

"Well, that's not a good start," Kaze thinks as she follows the others as they break into a run toward where the door used to be mounted.

The sight that greets them stops them cold, as Milenna is held a foot off the floor, her and the girl slowly orbiting each other in the center of the room.

"Put her down and back away from her," Kera orders, being the first to recover, and step into the room.

The girl turns her attention from her captive for a moment, before lashing out with a telekinetic backhand that knocks Kera back through the doorway.

"I think she's going to resist," Kaze deadpans, while Kera shakes off the hit.

"Ya think?" Kera returns sarcastically as she picks herself up.

"Put Milenna down, and back away, or we will use force to make you do so," Sera tells the child as she takes her sisters place, the handle of her energy lash in her hand, but un-activated.

The child's response this time is to launch several of the crystals she had grown from the floor at Sera.

A bit better prepared for a violent reaction, Sera activates her energy lash, the purple ribbon of energy shattering the crystal projectiles before they can get close enough to be a true threat.

While Sera deals with the missiles, Kaze crouches down and launches her Photon Beams under the attack, hitting the girl in the gut, and knocking her across the room to slam into the far wall. Milenna drops to the floor as the girls concentration is broken.

"I don't think you should have done that," Milenna tells them as she scuttles away from the girl and toward the perceived safety of the Mecha Girls.

"It shook you loose, didn't it?" Kaze asks as the girl picks herself up off the floor, and turns her entire attention to dealing with them.

"It also pissed her off," Kera adds, as the girls eyes narrow in anger as she floats back off the ground.

The child proves just how mad she is when she gabs all of them in her telekinetic grip, and launches all three mechs out of the building, through the wall, before following, with Milenna in tow.

Like the rest of the crowd, Jura's attention is immediately grabbed when the mech girls burst through the wall to end up in a pile. "Kaze!" she screams as she breaks into a sprint, putting herself between the downed girls, and the building in time for her to face off with the emerging k-girl, and her captive.

The little Space Godzilla girl brings herself and Milenna to a halt just outside the building, where she looks Jura over for several moments.

"I don't want to hurt you little one, but if you don't put her down, and stop causing trouble, you won't give me any choice," Jura calls to the child.

Her answer is a Corona beam that hurls her back into the mech girls.

"Alright you little brat, but if you insist on fighting, at least put Milenna down, so she doesn't end up in the cross fire," Jura growls, getting back to her feet.

The child tips her head to the side as if considering this, before Milenna floats across the field and is deposited gently near the downed girls, who are starting to stir once more at this point.

"Thank-" Jura begins, before being yanked off her feet and slammed into a wall by the girls TK powers.

"You are beginning to get on my bad side kid," Jura mutters, annoyed at having been sucker punched twice in a row.

"Careful Jura! She has all the same powers as Crystal!" Kaze yells as the trio get back to their feet.

Memories of her first meeting with Crystal, and what she witnessed while they were rescuing Kumi and the kids race through Jura's mind. The child just offers up a suddenly sunny smile, before summoning a small forest of crystal spires around behind her.

"Ah, crap," Jura mutters, as the spires begin feeding power to the child. "Well, only one way this is going to end now," Jura says, resigned to being forced to hurt the girl to end this.

Before she can unleash a radiation blast, the girl nails her in the chest with another Corona beam, then grabs her in a TK grip and begins dragging her across the pavement, using her like a normal child would a piece of chalk on the sidewalk.

"Sera!" Kaze yells, suddenly realizing what is about to happen. "Get a hold of the tower! Have them wave everyone off and order them to a safe distance!"

"What? Why?" she calls back.

"Oh, My, God, her shockwave! It's almost pure Electo-Magnetic energy!" Milenna adds, also realizing the danger to everyone else.

"Understood!" Sera calls back, quickly filling the control tower in on the possible danger, until this matter can be settled, one way or the other.

It is only pure luck that the nearest plane coming in for a landing is still ten minutes out, when Jura begins fighting back. Her shockwave not only knocks the girl to the ground, along with most everyone else, but it also grounds every craft at the airport, until their systems can be torn down and manually reset.

"Damn. I didn't realize how strong she could make that," Kera mutters, holding her head until the static from the attack stops washing across her vision and her systems stabilize.

"Just be glad that we were built to be able to withstand EMPs or else we'd be crashed like every other technical doohickey around here," Kaze smirks back at her.

Jura and the girl both climb to their feet at roughly the same time, the child doesn't seem fazed in the least by the fact that Jura is just dirtied and her clothes ruined by what she had done.

"I still don't want to hurt you, but I can't let you keep doing whatever you want," Jura tells the girl, her radiation blast erupting as soon as she finishes her comment.

The girl merely grins, as she counters the blast with the same type of crystalline barrier shield Crystal produces.

"Oh, fuck me," Jura mutters, when the smoke clears and it becomes apparent that she didn't do any damage at all.

"She's going to need help," Milenna tells the mech girls. "She's trying to not hurt the girl more than needed, but the child is too strong for her to be using kid gloves! Spread out, and take out her power sources!"

"How?" Kera demands, having never faced this type of opponent before.

"Like this," Kaze says, her forearms launching and smashing through the girls' crystal power station, leaving only a few of the spires intact after their return to their owner.

The girl scowls in anger, and turns her attention to the mechs, only to have Jura tag her in the side with a radiation blast, slamming the girl into, and through, one of the spires that Kaze had missed.

"Don't forget about me," Jura tells her as she stalks closer to the child.

"Keep her attention divided! Spread out!" Sera orders, taking to the air, and landing across from Kaze, while her sister does the same to land opposite Jura.

"She won't be able to counter all their attacks. Not being surrounded like that," Milenna says to herself as she watches the child unsteadily stand back up.

"Alright. You can all stop shooting at me now. This isn't any fun any longer," the girl announces in a clear tone. "It would seem that I've learned all I can from this. I'd like you to take me to the school now, so that I may learn more."

"You, you can speak our language?" Milenna asks, shocked once more by the child's capabilities.

"Thanks to you," the girl calls back. "I've been listening to your thoughts since before I emerged from the laboratory unit. That is why I didn't harm you, and why I refused to let you go when they showed up."

"So what's your name, kid?" Kaze demands, still ready to let the girl have a full power blast if she even thinks the child is going to do something.

"I find it strange that I cannot read your minds like I can these two," the girl says, turning to face each of the mech girls in turn, before turning back to Kaze once more. "But it seems that she," the girl adds, pointing at Milenna, "Thinks of me as one of something called "The Shard". I think Shard should do as a name."

"Do you promise to behave? No more using your powers to cause destruction, or to harm or frighten people, just to amuse yourself?" Jura asks her.

Shard seems to think about this, but is actually once more scanning both Milenna and Jura's minds, to understand everything. "Yes, I believe I can make that promise, and live up to it," she finally answers.

"Sera, if you can, I would like you to stay here, and assist me in calming everyone one down and assuring them that the problem has been handled. I would like the rest of you to escort Shard to the school. Vol-Tina and Mandy will be waiting for you. I want to get the child settled before we drop this little bombshell on the others who are going to have personal stakes in her existence," Milenna begins laying out instructions.

"Kera, once you are sure that things won't erupt again, I want you to go report in for us," Sera adds. "With any luck, Kiryuu and the others will be back online by then, and be able to respond to any other problems."

"Got it," Kera agrees.

In a surprising display of trust, given what Shard has proven herself capable of, Kera then disengages her battle armor, reconfiguring her drones into their "Gradius" configuration and stepping aboard the vehicle.

"That is odd. Why did you remove your armor? And why did it reconfigure into this strange vehicle?" Shard asks, crouching down to peer at the Gradius.

"C'mon with me, and I'll answer what questions I can on the way," Kera says, offering a hand to the child.

Shard looks at the only two she can scan, and peers into their minds to find if she can truly trust Kera or not. What she finds in Jura's mind confuses her, but also reassures her that Kera has no other plans for her besides doing exactly what they have been talking about. "I'm still confused as to why I am unable to read your minds," she admits as she takes Kera's hand and allows herself to be positioned so that Kera can make sure she doesn't fall off.

"That is one of the things we will explain to you, while you explain to us why it is that you CAN read minds," Kaze smirks back at her, before Kera launches.

"I ruin more clothes this way," Jura grumbles, shaking her head at the condition of her outfit.

"That's why Darcy loves you," Kaze grins, lifting her girlfriend into her arms, and extending her wings, launching after Kera.

"So what now?" Sera asks Milenna.

"The most tedious part of any K-girl altercation," Milenna answers, surveying the damage caused as they had tried to subdue Shard. "The cleanup."

"Errrrr…..So how long have we been out?" Katsura asks as she comes back online after her upgrades.

"Most of the day," Dr. Tokai answers her. "And of course, there was trouble while you were down, but the reserves managed to handle it with minimal difficulties."

"We have a reserve unit?" Sumegi asks as she returns to the waking world. "And I feel weird."

"You're not the only one," Kiryuu adds, as she too rises. "It feels like I have something pressing against my chest, but all I can see is my armor."

"Hopefully it won't be anything that will cause either of you any difficulties," Katsura tells them as she starts to physically inspect herself.

"What is that?" Sumegi asks, looking around the room. "I've got a new data feed, and it's somehow connected to this weird feeling," she adds, starting to move around the room.

"Here, try this," Dr. Tokai tells her, removing something from her pocket and tossing it to the copper haired MG girl.

"A chocolate bar? Why am I reacting to food? And why does it register so high on this new data feed?" Sumegi asks, holding the candy bar up to her face.

"Because, you now have a sense of smell and taste, as well as the same ability to process food for energy that the Shogun Maidens possessed," the doctor answers her with a smile.

"She can actually eat? Why?" Katsura demands.

"To make her more human of course. I thought I had made that clear before, when I was chewing you out over your actions at the school," the doctor calmly answers, giving Katsura a strange look.

"But this must make her incredibly energy in-efficient. It doesn't make any sense to me," Katsura counters.

"On the contrary, she still retains her old reactor and power systems. This is an auxiliary unit, meant to be used to supply her with power when there is no available way for her to recharge normally," the doctor returns.

"This stuff is AWESOME!" Sumegi exclaims, pulling everyone's attention back to her. They all watch as she enjoys every bit of chocolate, smearing a bit across her lips in the process.

"I'm glad that you approve," the doctor smiles at her.

"Sumegi?" Katsura asks, getting her sisters attention.

"Yes?" the younger sister answers, a wary tone in her voice.

"You have a bit of chocolate on your face," Katsura tell her, a slight smile on her face, causing her sisters to stare at her in surprise.

"Katsura, I'd like you to take Sumegi to the commissary. Don't let her over do it, but let her try some different foods," the doctor orders. "I need to talk to Kiryuu about her upgrades."

"As you wish. Come, Sumegi. Let's see if they have that thing that the other girls talk about…Pizza?" Katsura says, as she leads Sumegi out of the room.

Once they are gone, Kiryuu demands, "What did you people do to her? She's never been that nice, or understanding, before."

"We downloaded her mind into a more advanced cyber brain. It allowed us to add several of the sub routines that you and Sumegi enjoy, but that her old brain was too primitively constructed to support," the doctor answers with a smile.

"Well, this should definitely make her easier to deal with," Kiryuu smiles back, before scowling and rubbing her hands across her chest plate. "But something is still wrong with me. The feeling of pressure against my chest is still there, and my surface pressure sensors are malfunctioning, because they are not registering properly."

The doctor silences her with a single finger against her lips, causing her eyes to widen in shock.

"Ah, I see you just noticed that we upgraded your sensory net as well. What do you think?" the doctor asks, as Kiryuu begins gently poking at her own face.

"I….This….Is this skin?" she asks in amazement, as her fingers sink into her cheeks.

"Yes. We didn't have time to manufacture enough to completely replace your outer layer with it, so we made due with just your face, torso, and hands," the doctor answers her. "And as for your surface pressure sensors on your chest plate, they are not malfunctioning. They simply don't exist any longer. Your chest plate is now, nothing more than a piece of armor. Once we are able to complete this upgrade for you, ALL of your armor will be like that. And underneath, you will have a synthetic skin, every bit as sensitive as any other k-girls, so you will need your armor to protect it."

"That still doesn't explain this feeling of pressure," Kiryuu reminds her.

"Well, I think one of the others gave you a bit more than they were supposed to while I was occupied with the emergency earlier," the doctor tells her.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Kiryuu demands.

"You can change this sequence later, but for now, this will unlock your removable armor sections," the doctor informs her. "Alpha, Alpha, Omega, Delta, Epsilon, Omega."

Once Dr. Tokai utters the last part of the command string, Kiryuu's chest and back plates of armor unseal, and extend a bit from her body, leaving her room to lift them over her head. As she tips her head up to fit it through the openings, she notices the long gaps in the back armor, meaning that her dorsal plates are still a part of her, rather than connected to her armor. As she lowers the armor in front of herself, she brushes her chest, and realizes that she suddenly has a chest. A fully developed and sensitive female chest, complete with a thirty four inch bust, and even more sensitive nipples.

"How…" is all she can say, as she stares down at her own chest, afraid to touch them, for fear that she is somehow hallucinating that they are there.

"Well, that explains the pressure. Someone slipped you a little larger package than I was planning to install. That's why you felt like you where being squeezed under your armor. You where," the doctor tells her.

"But….But why? How? Why now?" Kiryuu babbles in shock.

"Why? Because you are just the first one to get this upgrade. How? Same way that all of these upgrades happened. And that is thanks to General Takahara, and the schematics he gave me, detailing the construction methods of the base frame and systems of the Shogun Maidens type Cyber Doll soldier prototypes. And as for why now, we just managed to get them all built. Unfortunately, as I said, we simply didn't have enough time to fabricate enough of the systems to give all three of you a complete upgrade, so we had to spread what we could make between the three of you," the doctor answers her, smiling warmly at her antics.

"Then, I…I'm," Kiryuu asks, unable to finish putting the thought into words.

"Just as much of a woman as your girlfriend," the doctor grins at her. "You are going to need to calibrate your systems to your new equipment. I suggest asking Zoe to assist you with that," she adds. "I'll see to it that you are removed from the duty rotation for today and tomorrow. Just remember to check in periodically."

"THANKYOU!" Kiryuu squeals, pulling the doctor into a hug.

"Ease up…..Need air….Crushing ribs…" she gasps, until Kiryuu finally releases her, and tears out of the room, only stopping long enough to replace her armor, her only goal at the moment to find Zoe, and take her upgrades for a test drive.

"So what brings you two silver ladies down here? I was under the impression that you didn't have to eat?" one of the on duty cooks asks when he catches sight of Katsura and Sumegi.

"I got upgraded!" Sumegi blurts out cheerfully.

"She has just been given the ability to smell and taste, in addition to being able to process food for energy. Dr. Tokai asked me to bring her down here, so she could experiment with different foods," Katsura tells them as they watch Sumegi sniff at each container of food, a look of wonder on her face.

"If the Doc keeps putting things like that in you girls, soon enough the only difference between you and the other k-girls is going to be a higher metal content," the cook tells Katsura.

"I'm beginning to believe that that is the idea," Katsura tells him with a wry smirk.

"What is this stuff?" Sumegi asks, pointing to a bottle of sauce.

"Wassabe. If you don't have a taste for it, it's really hot," the cook warns her.

"And this?" she asks, pointing at a green glass bottle.

"Lemon juice. It's really sour," the cook's helper chimes in.

"Okay, for starters, I want a bowl of rice, and those two bottles, so I can try them out. I'll be back for other stuff in a little while!" Sumegi tells them.

"We'll be here," the cooks helper smiles at her as her hands over the bowl and bottles.

"I've seen some of the motor pool guys mix that wassabe and lemon juice concentrate before," the cook tells Katsura.

"How did they handle it?" she asks.

The cook smirks, and tells her, "Oh, they didn't eat it. They used it to eat the rust off an old engine block. After an hour with that stuff on it, you would swear someone polished that hunk of iron."

Katsura looks horrified, before she turns to Sumegi, only to find both bottles half empty, and her sister with a huge grin on her face as she gleefully shovels the last of the rice into her mouth.

"That stuff was great!" she gushes as she practically skips back up to where Katsura and the cooks await her.

Before Sumegi can set up another order, several enlisted personnel and a few of the techs from the MG support team file in, talking loudly amongst themselves, and oblivious to whom is in the room.

"I tell ya, it's wild. We set her up with a set of tits like you wouldn't believe, especially on a friggin' robot," one of the techs tells the others. "Not only that, but she's got a snatch too! Who wants to bet that the steel bitch can suck the chrome off a car bumper?"

"Wonder if they are planning to do that to all three of them?" one of the enlisted guys wonders out loud.

"There just ain't no call for talking about you girls like that," the cook mutters to Katsura.

"Relax. I know that not everyone is as crude as that lot," she tells him. "Let me handle this," she says as she heads toward the group.

"How should I know man? Personally, I don't really like it when a weapon like that, which is already pretty damn unstable, is set up to act even more like a real woman. You boys know just how unstable most of them are, right?" the tech grins, playing to his crowd.

"No, I don't. Why don't you enlighten me?" Katsura requests, as she lifts the man out of his chair with one hand on his shoulder.

He starts to struggle, saying, "Put me down, you chrome plated k-bitch!"

She merely turns him around so that she can look him in the face, and pleasantly informs him, "It's not nice to talk trash about others behind their backs. And talking garbage like that about my sisters where I can hear it is bad for your health. Understand?" she finishes with her voice dropping in to a menacing growl, and her optics brightening to the point where everyone present is sure that she is about to fire.

"Perfectly," the man gulps, positive that he's about to die.

"Good. Now get out of my sight. I'll be making a report about your conduct to Dr. Tokai, personally, so don't be surprised when you are called to answer for what has occurred here this evening," Katsura tells him, dropping him unceremoniously on his butt, and smirking as he scuttles out of her reach, before scrambling to his feet, and bolting out the door. As the rest look at Katsura in shocked awe, she turns to them and demands, "Do any of the rest of you have anything else to add on this subject?"

The only response she gets is several head shakes, and a few who simply get up and leave.

"That was awesome!" Sumegi cheers.

"I'm actually quite impressed. The old you would either have ignored it all, or decided that they needed to be disciplined, here and now. You've come far," Dr. Tokai says as she enters from the other end of the room, having witnessed the entire incident.

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't let them keep speaking about us like that, but harming them was out of the question. The best I could do was some humiliation, and report the matter," Katsura answers her.

"Completely understandable, and you are wrong if you think I am upset. I am quite pleased with your method of ….enlightenment. And don't worry, I will be having a discussion with him later. You girls, while public figures, are still pretty much top secret, at least where your systems are concerned. But for now, I think you two should head home. Oh, and I've removed Kiryuu from the duty roster for the next two days, so she can focus on calibrating her new systems," the doctor tells the MG sisters. "And she promised that she would check in, but I imagine she is going to be busy, so cut her a little slack if she's late."

"Understood, ma'am. Let's go Sumegi," Katsura responds, leading the way out.

"She's more human, but she is still all military," the cook observes as the girls leave.

"At this point, I'm quite pleased with that assessment," the doctor tells him, before taking her own leave.

"So that is Daikaiju High School. Milenna thought of it often, but she has apparently never seen it from the air like this before," Shard says as she takes in the view during their approach.

"Yeah, only the ones who get to see this on a regular basis are the fliers," Kera agrees.

"I will have to begin taking flights, for I find this view pleasing," Shard tells her, taking every moment she can to enjoy watching the few people who are still on campus.

"Well, I think that will be up to your new keeper," Kera tells her, as they come in for a landing.

"Keeper?" Shard asks, not understanding the reference.

"Children are generally kept under the guardianship of a qualified adult," Kaze tells her as she and Jura land.

"How does that pertain to me?" Shard demands.

"Heh. Guess you didn't notice kid, but you are a kid," Kera tells her. "Therefore you will need a guardian."

"And who do you think would be willing to take on the responsibility?" Shard asks.

"That would be me," Tina tells her, as she and Mandy approach.

Shard quickly attempts to scan their minds, but can only get anything from Mandy.

"So you are going to be the teacher for the "younger" k-girls like myself?" Shard says to Tina. "I think you will soon discover that I don't require much instruction."

"Perhaps not in matters of intelligence, since you have already rifled through the minds of both Milenna and Mandy, in addition to who knows how many other people who had no idea what you where up to, but you are sorely lacking in etiquette, and knowing when it is proper and allowable to use powers such as your telepathy on others," Tina shoots back, Black moving up alongside her, while the other lions keep watch from various points around them.

"Why wouldn't I use my powers to learn what I don't already know?" Shard asks, confused.

"Come with me, little one, and I will attempt to explain it to you," Tina answers, placing a hand behind Shard's shoulder, and guiding her toward the building where the Junior's school will be.

"They going to be alright together?" Kaze asks as they walk off.

"I think so," Mandy answers. "Tina is going to be their teacher after all. No reason she can't get a head start on this one."

"Good point," Jura smiles.

"I thought so," Mandy smiles back.

"Well, I've got to go fill in the suits on what happened, so I'll try to hook up with you two later on," Kera says to Kaze and Jura. "Later Teach'," she says to Mandy, before igniting the jets on the Gradius, and taking to the air.

"You girls have all the best toys," Mandy smirks, before walking off, shaking her head.

"Well, I like to think so," Jura grins.

"Heh, I'm sure you do," Kaze smirks back at her, before launching the both of them toward home once more.

"Think that the kid will stay out of trouble for at least a few days?" Kaze asks.

"I think that will depend on if Tina can keep her mind occupied or not," Jura returns as they come in for a landing at the mansion.

"Speaking of kids and keeping occupied," Kaze grins, as she waves at Immomu and Nuri as they walk toward the front door.

"Nice timing guys," Jura tells them. "Here to check on stuff for Maizy again?"

"Yup!" Nuri chirps while Immomu smiles shyly and nods.

"C'mon then. You guys know the way to her room, so we'll leave you to it," Kaze tells them as she leads the way into the mansion.

"Alright, you guys head upstairs, and I'll bring up something for you to munch on in a bit," Jura tells them with a smile.

"Thank you!" Immomu calls to her as the pair of Juniors head upstairs, while Jura moves toward the kitchen.

"I'm going to check on Zoe," Kaze calls after Jura, as she turns toward the basement.

"Alright. See if she wants anything while you're down there," Jura calls back to her.

Kaze is about to answer when there is a knock at the door.

"Yes?" she asks as she opens the door.

"Is your sister home? And you know which one I'm talking about," Kiryuu asks, grinning as she adds the second part.

"I was just about to go check on her. C'mon and let's see how she's doing," Kaze returns, opening the door wide.

"Soon, kiddo. We'll have you back in action real soon," Zoe murmurs to Maizy's still form as she gently strokes the girls hair back from her face.

"And how is Mad Doctor Mazinger doing this afternoon?" Kaze grins as she leads Kiryuu down the stairs.

Kiryuu can't help but grin at that and tell the larger girl, "When you say that it makes me think that she needs to have her hair in a frizzed out beehive hairdo or something."

"Not in this lifetime," Zoe returns dryly, despite the smile she wears because of the imagery that the others are creating.

"Jura wanted to know if you wanted anything, since she's fixing a snack for Immomu and Nuri," Kaze tells her.

"Those two are back again eh? Nah, I'm fine," she returns to her sister, who offers up a quick two finger salute before turning to head back upstairs. Then Zoe turns to her girlfriend, and asks, "And what brings my favorite little dragon down to the dungeon to check on me?"

"Oh, you know, the usual," she returns with a smirk, barely able to keep her hands to herself. "Just wanted to make sure that you're not overworking yourself again."

"Oh, your last "lesson" on that subject is still quite fresh," Zoe grins. "And to prove that I did learn from it, shall we go upstairs?" she adds, offering her hand to the silver mech-dragon.

"Oh, definitely. I have a few things I'd like your input on as well," Kiryuu tells her, taking her hand.

"Oh?" Zoe returns with an arched eyebrow as they ascend the stairs.

Kiryuu just gives her a secretive smile, as they continue through the ground floor and head up the main stair to the second story, and Zoe's bedroom.

"So what are you guys up to in here?" Jura asks as she sets down a plate of sliced PB&J sandwiches and a pair of juice boxes.

"Umm…" Immomu trails off, positive that Maizy wouldn't want her to know the truth, but unable to lie.

"Maizy has a web site that she was working on," Nuri tells her. "But since she was hurt before she could get it up and running, I've been using what I can learn about the coding to work on it for her. I hope to have it ready for her to fine tune as a sort of "welcome back" present when she wakes up."

"Good luck then," Jura smiles at them as she turns to leave.

"Thanks!" they chirp together as the door closes.

"That was too close," Immomu says with a sigh of relief once they are alone.

"No kidding. Maizy would skin us, once she was repaired, again, after they figured out what the site is. That's why I told her that it was just some bare code, rather than a working site," Nuri agrees.

"Hey, what's that?" Immomu asks, looking over Nuri's shoulder and spotting a blinking icon on the screen.

"Let's find out," Nuri answers, clicking on the icon, and blowing the resulting image up to full screen.

"Is that Kiryuu?" Immomu asks in shock as they watch the silver mecha-dragon remove her torso armor, and gauntlets, revealing silver flesh no different from Zoe's.

"Looks like someone's gotten herself an upgrade. One that Maizy is going to be kicking herself for missing," Nuri answers, quickly activating the recorder hidden in Zoe's room, so that the entire encounter is saved for Maizy when she wakes up.

"So what did you want to ask me about?" Zoe asks as she leads the way into her room.

"Nothing much," Kiryuu answers, before quickly spinning Zoe to face her, and pulling her into a deep kiss.

Zoe is amazed at how soft Kiryuu's lips are, and how skillfully she is employing her tongue during the kiss. When they break apart, Zoe gasps, and demands, "What has happened to you?"

"You actually," Kiryuu grins. "Our new commander has given Dr. Tokai the "Blank Maiden" schematics. She's been upgrading us to be more like you and your old team. I get to test out what artificial skin they could produce, and will be the first of us to be completely outfitted with it."

"They're making you more like us?" Zoe sputters in shocked surprise.

"Yup," Kiryuu answers her, her grin getting wider. "Although I do need your help with something," she adds, with a slight pout.

"And what would that be?" Zoe asks, still struggling to come to grips with the fact that her girlfriend is in the process of being transformed from a robot into a Cyber Doll.

"Without a functioning Cyber Doll to take the proper setting from, the techs couldn't calibrate my new subsystems. I'd like your help in "fine tuning" my new parts," she answers, silently keying in the command string that will release her armor's locks.

"What do you need me to do?" Zoe asks, before trailing off as Kiryuu's torso armor releases, and she pulls off her armored gloves, revealing the new silver flesh of her hands. Zoe's mouth goes dry as she watches Kiryuu pull her torso armor over her head, revealing her charms to her lover.

"So what do you think?" Kiryuu asks, dropping her torso armor on the floor.

"We shouldn't be watching this," Immomu tells Nuri. "They deserve to be able to do this in privacy, at least for the first time."

"Alright, we'll check out the footage later," Nuri reluctantly agrees, minimizing the window, and going back to updating Maizy's website with the other things that they had collected.

"Damn. That didn't take long," Kaze mutters as the first screams of pleasure reach them down stairs.

"Like we're any different when we go at it?" Jura smirks at her.

"True," Kaze reluctantly admits, putting her arm around Jura's shoulders where they sit together on the couch.

"Doctor!" Sumegi calls as she rushes back toward the doctors' office within the base.

"What is all the noise about?" Dr. Tokai growls as she storms out of her office in annoyance.

Sumegi is brought up short by the doctors display of temper. "Sorry ma'am," she offers, after snapping to attention.

"Office. Now," she orders the MG girl, turning her back on her and entering first.

By the time Sumegi gets through the door, and closes it behind her, the doctor is back behind her desk.

"So what brings you back so soon?" the doctor asks.

"I told Katsura to go ahead without me, because I wanted to ask you a few questions about the plans you are using to upgrade us," Sumegi answers.

"Oh?" is her sole response.

"Could I be allowed to study them?" she asks. "I'm helping to rebuild parts of Maizy, and the plans that we are all based on would be a big help, as you yourself have said more than once."

"That is odd. Kiryuu's reports have indicated that the two of you don't get along, so why are you assisting in her reconstruction?" the doctor asks.

"I offered a suggestion on revamping her destroyed flight gear as part of her reconstruction, and they accepted," Sumegi answers.

"And you want the schematics for?" the doctor asks.

"So that I can make sure that the equipment we've been constructing is compatible with her system. Maizy is the prototype after all, and the schematic is based on her design more than any others," Sumegi answers.

"This is a highly unusual request," the doctor informs her.

"I thought it might be, but it is also the best chance I have of making sure her new parts will be completely compatible with her," Sumegi agrees.

"Having the Mazingers owe us one wouldn't be a bad thing," she thinks aloud as she leans back in her chair. After a few moments, she motions Sumegi closer, and offers her the link to the computer on her desk.

Once Sumegi is connected, the doctor quickly taps in a command string, and downloads a copy of the "Blank Maiden" design schematics into her mind.

"You now have a copy of the designs. Don't make me regret having broken security to give them to you for this," she tells the mech girl.

"I'll do my best to make you proud of me ma'am," Sumegi tells her, her voice full of pride at being trusted with the plans.

"I'm sure you will. Now get out of here," she tells her with a smile. "I'm sure your sister is wondering about you."

"Yes, Ma'am," Sumegi agrees with a grin, before leaving the office in a rush. She barely clears the outer doors, before she ignites her jets and takes to the air and heads for the school, and the little lab she's built for herself in the basement for working on Maizy's flight gear.

Watching her from her office window, Dr. Tokai shakes her head in wonder. "Who would have thought that they would want to be able to help mechs that are not even "one of theirs"? These girls…..One surprise after another, and for a change, I'm looking forward to the next one," she thinks with a small smile as she returns to her workstation.

"This is great!" Sumegi cheers as she does a barrel roll for the hell of it. "Not only can I do a better job with Maizy's parts, I can convert those plans I got from the net, and make myself some playmates who won't think I'm a freak for liking anime!" she says to herself, the rushing wind whipping her words away as soon as they leave her vocalizer.

"Welcome back," Zoe grins, and Kiryuu's optics flicker back to life, in their normal yellow color.

"That…. I don't have any words to describe that. Is that what you feel every time you reach orgasm?" Kiryuu asks, her voice full of awe at what's happened to her since she revealed her new parts to Zoe.

"Not quite. You'll need to dial down the intensity just a bit, so that it doesn't knock you offline," Zoe tells her with a grin.

"Done," Kiryuu tells her, calling up her body's new sensitivity settings, and adjusting them.

"Good, because I've been just dying to use this on you," Zoe tells her, holding up a strap-on. "But first, I want to test a few other things."

Kiryuu gulps audibly when she sees the strap-on, and immediately starts to wonder if her new parts can contains something that large. "Like what?" she asks, her personalities warring between wanting to jump back into things with both feet, and letting Zoe "play" with her some more.

"Lay back, and trust me," Zoe tells her, getting up to all fours, and crawling up next to her.

"What are you planning?" Kiryuu asks, anticipation working on her, and getting her excited once more.

"Just want to test how your settings are configured," Zoe answers her. Then she rears up, and sits on her knees. Leaning over she takes a handful of her silver blond mane, and teasingly drags it up and down the exposed flesh of Kiryuu's body, grinning at the mecha dragons girls reactions.

"My GOD!" Kiryuu nearly screams, as the sensations of the tips of Zoe's hair running up and down her body bring her to the edge of another orgasm, but are not quite enough to take her over. At least until Zoe reaches up and tweaks her nipples, drawing yet another scream of pleasure from her, as she arches her back and claws at the bed. Once she recovers, without having passed out she is pleased to note, she looks up at Zoe and begs "Again."

"I think we can arrange that," Zoe grins at her, dropping her face down to nuzzle at her chest, causing Kiryuu to scream again.

"Hey, Sumegi!" Jura calls, as she and Kaze catch sight of the copper haired mecha girl walking toward the building where she and they have been constructing Maizy's new flight pack.

"Over here!" Sumegi waves back, waiting for the pair to catch up to her.

"I got the note you stuffed in my locker. You've got the flight pack configured to her systems?" Kaze asks. "How did you manage that without hooking it to her?"

"Dr. Tokai let me see the schematics that she is using to upgrade us," Sumegi tells them. "Maizy is the one those plans are based on. With that kind of data, it was easy to reconfigure the connector points and the wing compression so that it would still fit into the same space as her old one."

"Amazing," Jura murmurs as they walk down to the buildings' basement, and take a look at the deployed flight wings.

"Kid's not going to know how to act, first time she pops these things open," Kaze grins.

"Shall we take them back to the mansion so that they can be installed?" Sumegi asks.

"Hey, what's this stuff over here?" Jura asks, sticking her head into the next room.

"Just some left over junk," Sumegi tells her. "I'm thinking that some of it might be useful for my next project."

"And what would that be?" Kaze asks, as she touches the override panels on the surface of the pack that will be within Maizy's body causing the wings to fold and retract into a tight little bundle for instillation.

"None of your business," Sumegi shoots back, sticking out her tongue before grinning.

"Fair enough," Jura breaks in, before Kaze can make a scathing comeback.

"You know, with this ready to go in, it's only going to be a matter of days before she's ready to be brought back online," Kaze remarks as she hefts the compressed flight pack. "You have every right to be there when she wakes up, since you've helped us so much with this," she tells Sumegi.

"No. Maizy doesn't like me that much. I'd rather just know that I managed to help. Give her my best, when she wakes up," Sumegi answers.

"Alright. But you will be really high on the list of people we owe a favor to for this," Jura tells her.

"I'll hold you to that," Sumegi grins.

"Fair enough. C'mon, let's get this home, so Zoe can install it," Kaze says, before she heads for the exit, Jura in tow.

"I can't believe how many animals our teacher has," Nuri babbles as she and Immomu sit under a tree, eating their lunch on their first day of school.

"Hey guys!" Zuki cheers as she flies in and lands next to Immomu.

"Hello Zuki," Immomu greets their friend.

"I brought a new friend!" Zuki tells them, as a blue saurian girl with poofy pigtails walks up and shyly greets them.

"Hello. My name is Min-chan. Zuki invited me along, I hope that's alright," she says as she moves closer, finishing her speech with a deep bow.

"Pull up some yard, and have a seat," Nuri offers, waving a hand toward the side opposite Immomu.

"Arigoto," Min-chan responds with a smile as she seats herself of pulls her box lunch out.

"Look at the brat pack," a snide voice says from behind them, practically dripping with contempt.

"Gabriele…." Nuri trails off, recognizing the voice.

"Awe, it's so nice to have my reputation precede me," she smirks as she steps into view from around the tree.

Gabby cracks her knuckles as she moves closer, but stops short when a snarling growl catches her attention. When she looks up, she finds a robotic lion laying on a large branch, glaring at her with yellow eyes, its green armor blending in with the leaves.

"Damn guard cats," she snarls, before turning and stalking off, stories of Vol-Tina's capabilities already having made the rounds of the school.

"Do you object to me joining you as you read?" Shard asks, as she and Blue find Battamei with her lower half curled around herself forming a stable base as she reads a rather large book.

"It is still a free country, last time I checked," the larva girl returns, not bothering to look at Shard.

"Did I offend you? Or are you always short and sarcastic with everyone?" Shard asks as Blue lays down, and she takes a seat on the grass across from Battamei.

"I prefer to keep to myself, since the others my age annoy me. However, you are the first to ask me why," she returns, snapping her book closed, and turning her full attention to the Space Godzilla girl.

"Ah, then we have that much in common at least, for I find their constant prattle irritating as well," Shard returns with a small smirk. "If I may ask, what was it you where so intent on when I interrupted your solitude?"

"This?" she asks, holding up her book. "I was merely reading about one of the very few sub-groups of humans who haven't had a large part in destroying the environment of the planet. At least while they were allowed to live as they had been."

"Oh? The only human I have met that isn't a waste of oxygen is Darcy. Although she was quite put out when she was unable to sneak up on me," Shard says, looking thoughtful.

"And how did you manage that? She is like a ghost in her shop, appearing and disappearing at will," Battamei asks.

"It's rather difficult to sneak up on someone who can read minds. It's one of the reasons that I hold such a low opinion of humans in general. All that potential, and all most of them can think of is money, sex, and what there is to watch on the television," Shard answers, finishing in a tone of disgust.

"Don't get me started on the "idiot box". It's one of the main reasons that I feel most of humanity needs to be purged," Battamei returns.

"Well, isn't this a lovely little get together?" Gabby growls looking for trouble after Green's interruption of her plans for the other group of children.

Shard quickly scans Gabby's mind, and says aloud, "You want to threaten us with physical violence, so that we will give you whatever monetary resources we may possess." Then she turns to Blue and asks, "This falls under, "defending myself and others" in pertaining to using my powers, correct?"

The lions unmistakable nod makes Shard smile widely. At least until she looks at Gabby, when the look becomes quite malicious.

"Bring it kid. I'd like nothing better than to rough you up a little, before I take your cash," Gabby snarls, flexing her hands as electricity crackles around her fingers.

"You really are not very bright, are you?" Battamei asks with a smirk as Shard begins to levitate.

"Zip it worm. I'll punt you in a minute," Gabby snarls, all her attention on Shard as she hovers around.

"This won't take very long," Battamei tells Blue, who promptly turns to watch Shard.

"I find it strange that someone who has been defeated in such a humiliating manner in the past, is so eager to antagonize someone who is capable of creating the exact same result," Shard says with a smirk as she continues to float around Gabby, who constantly turns to keep the other girl in view.

"Really? So far the only thing I see that you have in common with Crystal is overall body design, your smart mouth, and your ability to float around like a piñata," Gabby shoots back.

"Your bluster is a poor cover for your fear," Shard grins, as she suddenly snatches Gabby from the ground, and brings her up to float face to face with her.

"Let me go, you rotten little brat!" Gabby nearly screams as she struggles to be free of Shards invisible grip.

"Why? So you can…what is the phrase? Beat us up?" Shard returns, before blowing a handful of glittering dust in her face.

Blue growls in warning, while Gabby coughs on the dust.

"Don't worry. I have no intention of doing lasting harm to her. Temporary humiliation and extreme discomfort on the other hand, those I fully intend to inflict," Shard answers the lion.

And with that, Gabby finds herself in the center of a crystal prison, only her face left open to the air.

"Feel free to try and use your powers to free yourself. I can always use the energy," Shard sneers at her.

"You may have over played your hand, but I think your sense of style is excellent," Battamei grins, as she watches Gabriele attempt to free herself from her crystal cocoon.

"Let….me….GO!" Gabby snarls a she continues to struggle.

Blue snarls at Shard, clearly passing an order to do so.

"Very well, but if she doesn't leave us be, I reserve the right to get violent with her," Shard returns, landing next to Battamei, and snapping her fingers. Instantly the crystal transforms itself into dust, freeing the bully.

"I oughta," Gabby growls as she gets back to her feet.

"I think not," Battamei interrupts, prism beams firing from her eyes, and tearing up the ground at Gabby's feet.

A warning snarl from Blue ends the meeting, as Gabby snarls in frustration, and leaves.

"I see you didn't need my protection after all. My apologies, if you had wanted to deal with her yourself," Shard tells Battamei.

"I'm actually flattered that you cared enough to defend me," the Battra girl answers, slipping her book into her bag. "I've never had a friend before. I look forward to seeing you in class tomorrow."

"As do I," Shard answers as the worm girl moves off, to head back to class. Blue nudges her after a moment causing her to say," That was unexpected. But I think….I think I will enjoy her company. It will be nice to have a friend."

And with that, Blue leads her back to the building where the Juniors have their classes.

The rest of the week passes without incident, bringing a most anticipated event in its wake.

"Oh, man. I feel like crap," Maizy groans. "Wha?" she mutters when she is suddenly surrounded by cheering.

"Welcome back," Zoe tells her as Kaze helps her sit up.

"Maizy!" her friends squeal as they barrel in and glomp her.

"Hey guys," she smiles at them. Then her last few memories come back to the surface. "What happened? How long have I been out?" she suddenly demands, turning to her sisters.

"Easy, hotshot," Jura tells her, reaching past her friends to lay a reassuring hand on her shoulder and give a little squeeze. "You've had one long nap. But we needed to get you patched back together. Everyone is fine, and you managed to save these two, even as wrecked as you where. You did good." Jura adds, moving to stand behind Immomu and Nuri.

"How long?" she asks again, suddenly not really sure she wants to know.

"It took us three months to get your act back together," Zoe tells her.

"And don't worry about whatever project you've had going on the computer," Kaze adds. "Nuri has been over here every day, with the exception of the week after the attack, keeping things going for you."

Maizy turns back to her "crew" with a smirk. "She has, huh?"

Nuri just smirks back and nods, tears of joy in her eyes at having her friend back again.

"My systems don't feel the same as before. So what did you change?" Maizy demands, turning back to her sisters.

"There were a few problems with fixing you," Zoe admits. "So we repaired what we could, and replaced what we couldn't. Unfortunately, we had to do a lot more of the second than I'm really happy about."

"You've only got one rocket arm now," Kaze tells her, pointing at her left.

"So my right is just a regular arm?" Maizy asks, lifting her right arm up to her face for a closer look, while attempting to access whatever might be in there.

"Not hardly," Jura smirks.

"What gives? It's like I can make it move, but I can't even scan it's systems?" Maizy growls.

"That would be because I locked your new systems, so you wouldn't accidentally trigger any new weapons before we could tell you about them," Zoe informs her.

"Still don't trust me?" Maizy smirks. "Never mind. When are you going to let me start learning what I can do now?"

"Tomorrow," Kaze answers.

"We figured you'd like to get caught up with your friends today," Jura adds.

"Works for me," Maizy grins, then tries to run a systems check on her flight pack. "Awe, man…..she slagged my flight pack too?"

Jura shoots both Kaze and Zoe a look, before looking back down at Maizy.

"Hold on. I'll enable that one for you. Just watch yourself, cause it isn't anything like your old one," Zoe tells her, sending a set of signals to Maizy that unlocks her ability to access her flight pack.

Maizy lets out a low whistle as she gets her first look at the systems and capabilities of her new gear. Then she shoots Kaze a smirk, and says, "And you thought I was hard to catch before?"

"You're welcome," Jura smirks at her. "Kaze, Sumegi, and I did the design work for you on that."

Maizy is about to thank her, when her look suddenly darkens and she growls, "You let the anime freak design some of my new parts?"

"Careful squirt," Kaze growls back at her. "She made a suggestion, and showed us something, and we thought it was a good enough idea to check into."

"But…But…she's an anime freak!" Maizy blurts out. "You like anime Kaze, but I swear they used that stuff to program her!"

"Maizy, trust me. Once you get the hang of it, you'll like it better than your old one," Zoe tells her. "And you where all excited about it until you found out Sumegi was involved."

"….fine. Let's go girls," Maizy says to the other juniors as she hops off the table.

After the three head upstairs, Zoe, Jura, and Kaze share a look, before they all break into giggles.

"God, I didn't realize how much I missed her!" Jura laughs.

"Heh, I couldn't agree more," Kaze grins.

"It's like we've been running at half power or something," Zoe agrees. "It's nice to have the family back together."

"It's nice to be part of a family," Jura agrees.

"The place wouldn't be the same without you either," Kaze tells her, pulling her into a one armed hug.

"So what's first?" Nuri asks after they make it to the main floor.

"First, I'm going to go see what that anime freak convinced them to install in me," Maizy growls. "Then I want to see what's been happening with the site."

With no warning, she spins, and hugs both Immomu and Nuri.

"And I want to thank you two. You didn't have to stick with me while I was crashed like that," she adds.

"Yeah, like we could just abandon your projects while you where stuck being a paperweight? After you got so badly busted up trying to keep us safe? I think you need to go back down there and have them check your head again," Immomu tells her.

"Thank you, no," Maizy smirks, leading the way out to the back yard.

"You ready?" Nuri asks her, as Maizy takes a couple steps beyond them.

"Now or never," Maizy mutters, as she activates her flight pack.

"Maizy….They made you an angel," Immomu gasps, awed at the two seemingly feathered wings that erupted from her back when she brought her flight pack online.

"Not quite," Maizy tells her, staring at her shadow as she flexes her new flight equipment. "But I think I'm going to have to owe Sumegi an apology if this works the way it's supposed to."

"Well, quit screwing around, and try it out!" Nuri orders her with a grin.

"Don't mind if I do," Maizy grins back over her shoulder, raising her new wings to their fullest extension.

With a massive downward thrust, Maizy leaps into the sky.

"Damn. Zoe was right, I am going to need to practice with this new gear," Maizy thinks as she takes in just how quickly she had ascended with what she thought was minimum power. "Let's see what else these things can do," she grins as she suddenly curls the wings around her body, dropping like a stone. Her friends yell at her to pull up long before she actually does, barely skimming the ground as she climbs back into the sky. Maizy then starts weaving between every tree and statue in the yard, pulling moves that she had never been able to with her old flight gear.

"This is awesome!" she enthuses as she lands back by Immomu and Nuri.

"How can you keep those big wings inside of you like that?" Immomu asks as the wings retract back within her.

"That is one of those things that you just don't worry about," Nuri tells her.

"She's right. If you think about it too much you get a headache," Maizy agrees. "Now that I've had my test drive, let's go see what you've been doing with my web site."

"Oh, we need to tell you all about our new school to!" Immomu adds.

"Yeah. We've got a robot teacher with five robotic lions for pets, and nearly a dozen other Juniors in the class. You'll like it I think," Nuri adds.

"So they finally got around to giving the kids a teacher and classes of their own huh? 'Bout damn time," Maizy grins as she leads the way back up to her room.

Alright folks, this is the end of "Tales"

"Heavy Metal" is next…