"What kind of a partnership do you call this?" Chomper asked out loud as he stormed back onto the ship of the Neo-Spirit. Tendou was given a brief start as he looked up from a monitor and back over at the teen sharptooth as he walked onto the bridge, demanding answers.
"Chomper…" Tendou spoke firmly. "I told you, I needed to keep on eye on Kevran and his ship…I need to get a fix on his pattern, and decide the best course of action for taking him out."
"And you couldn't come away from that monitor for one minute to help me?" Chomper asked; his eyes wide open. "I had my hands full out there. I would have appreciated some help!"
Tendou sighed and lowered his head, seeing no point in lying to him any longer. "I…can't go back into that valley. I have my reasons."
"Why?" A befuddled Chomper asked him as he walked up closer to the teen longneck. "What could you possibly have to fear from that place?"
Tendou gritted his teeth a little, not really wanting to get into the subject, and still holding back. "I've hurt some of the ones who live there…in the past."
Chomper blinked a little as he heard this, scratching his head. "Who, exactly?"
Tendou kept his mouth shut…Until the pangs of conscience urged him to speak up. "See…there's this one family…"
His confession was suddenly interrupted by a lot of beeping, followed by the whirring of a pair of mechanical arms, moving right over the healing tank where Ruby was being kept.
Chomper saw the movement of the arms, and all thoughts immediately turned to his friend. He ran over and watched the arms dip into the tank, and slowly begin to lift Ruby's repaired body from the liquid. Once the arms had placed her onto the nearby table, a third, sleeker robotic arm reached over, and gingerly removed the oxygen mask from her face.
Tendou walked over slowly, sighing a bit in relief as Ruby coughed a little bit, taking her first non-assisted breath in quite a while. Chomper reached over to his friend's hand, and held it gently.
"Ruby…thank the stars you're all right…" Chomper smiled.
"Chomper…" Ruby spoke, weakly at first. She woke up quickly, however, once she opened her eyes, and got a good look at everything that was around her. There were So many strange things…still so alien to her, as she quickly sat up for a good look.
"Where in the world are we?" She asked, a sense of real anxiety in her voice.
"Hey, hey, don't worry…" Chomper patted her hand, reassuringly. "You're among friends here."
Tendou finally stepped forward, seeing this as a good time to introduce himself to the oviraptor. "Glad to see you're on the mend." He smiled.
Ruby's eyes went wide as she looked at the longneck walking right towards her and Chomper. Her mouth went lip for a moment, as her mind searched for a name to go with the face. "Littlefoot?…"
Tendou froze for a moment, not quite sure how to respond to that, as Chomper quickly laughed the notion off, not giving it any more thought then a simple case of mistaken identity.
"No, no…" Chomper shook his head. "This is Tendou…he's the one who saved us from Petrie, and took you into this place to heal from your wounds."
Ruby nodded, as she looked around the bridge of the ship, still only slightly nervous. "And what, exactly, is this place?"
"Well…" Tendou mused as he looked around. "Long story short…this is the place that's gonna save you…all of you."
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"Delta?" Ducky responded to Petrie, a bit worried. "What are you talking about?"
"Oh, come on, Ducky…" Petrie grinned as he shook his head. "Don't pretend anymore…I was there, watching all that time ago, when you carried that duplicate Mihara secretly gave to you, and buried it in that very pond." He pointed to the source of water.
Ducky breathed in sharply as she heard this, looking over the scarred face of her longtime friend, smiling the kind of smile that she had never seen from him before. It made her very uncomfortable.
"What exactly do you want with it, Petrie?" She asked him calmly.
"Well…" Petrie spoke matter-of-factly as he strolled around the duckbill. "I've discovered lately that my mission is going to be rather difficult to accomplish…without a little assistance, that is."
"And what is this 'mission' you're talking about?" Ducky furrowed her brow a little.
Petrie smiled even wider. "We're going to free ourselves, Ducky…" He spoke in a sickeningly joyous tone. "We're going to free all the innocent dinosaurs on this earth from the terror of the Sharpteeth…and we will not be finished until every last one of the murdering bastards have drawn their last breath."
"Petrie…" Ducky spoke in a shocked, breathless tone of voice as she slowly shook her head, scarcely believing what was coming out of her friend's mouth. "I know we've always lived in fear of most sharpteeth, and that we'd do anything to keep them away from us…but that's going way too far."
"No Ducky…" Petrie started to scowl now. "THEY have gone too far…I've seen far too many innocents die in jaws of those creatures, my dear uncle included!"
"You're uncle is ALIVE!" Ducky shouted, hoping to knock some sense into the flyer.
But Petrie's scowl only grew deeper, and more ferocious. "How DARE you…" He growled. "How dare you concoct such lies, simply to keep me from performing a duty to which you seem to object!"
"It's not a lie Petrie…" Ducky responded, her tone becoming more and more desperate. "Just come back to your home, and you can see for yourself!"
"Quit trying to distract me…" Petrie growled again, taking out the Kaixa driver once more. "If you're not willing to assist me…" He began, punching in the 913 code. "Then I'll simply have to take your weapon, and give it to someone more willing to help."
He then pressed the enter key, as the dark sounding computer spoke, "STANDING BY…" He then calmly brought the device to his lips, spoke "Henshin", and slipped it into his belt. "COMPLETE"
Ducky quickly dove into the water as Petrie transformed into Kaixa once again. He then took out his blaygun and cocked it, getting ready to fire as he walked to the edge of the pond, and aimed carefully into the water.
But before Petrie could get a single shot off, Chomper jumped in from out of nowhere and kicked his opponent. His armor was already in its sleeker "cast off" form, his stolen backup processor having been quietly replaced by the Neo-Spirit, who had no time to ask questions about it.
Petrie grunted and turned to face the form of the Gattack armor once more, scowling under his helmet as he slipped the mission memory into the base, making the sword section shoot out with a hum.
"Ready for round two, creep?" Chomper shouted, pulling out the blades from his shoulders and twirling them.
"Last time, Chomper, you had the element of surprise on your side…" Petrie walked in calmly with his blaygun ready to strike. "Rest assured, I've taken great care not to underestimate you any further."
Chomper had heard enough as he moved in with both his blades, trying to cross-slash them across Petrie's head. Petrie quickly swung his blaygun upward, and caught the smaller weapons right on his glowing yellow blade. He then quickly extended his right leg in a sidekick, smacking Chomper right in his abdomen.
The teen sharptooth fell back slightly, but quickly steadied, as he once again twirled his blades. He now spun quickly and slashed with his left blade towards Petrie's chest plate, scoring a quick sparking hit as he spun again, and slashed towards his leg with the right blade.
Petrie saw this second move coming, and moved his leg swiftly, bringing it behind Chomper's own leg as he brought his right arm over his neck at the same time, sweeping the sharptooth's leg out from under him while bringing him down with the arm.
Chomper landed hard on the ground as Petrie then quickly brought over the hand on his same arm, and clasped it around his throat. Chomper kicked and choked a bit, dropping his blades and grabbing Petrie's arm, as the teen flyer tightened his grip, and used his left arm to bring over the blaygun, aiming the muzzle for his opponent's head.
"This would have been so much easier, had you not struggled…" Petrie grunted, getting ready to fire. "Time to say goodnight forever, old friend…"
Petrie then felt something strike his back suddenly…something sharp. He yelled out in pain as sparks shot from his back, letting go of Chomper and turning.
Tendou had suddenly appeared, wielding his dagger as he was also in his "cast off" form.
"Tendou!" Chomper shouted, as Petrie simply growled and rose to meet his original opponent once more. Tendou was ready for him as he weaved right and left, avoiding swings from Petrie's blaygun.
After one such swing, Tendou found an opening, and quickly caught his right arm under Petrie's left, and delivering to him several punches in the stomach with his left fist. He then used his strong left arm, and flipped Petrie over onto his back. Petrie hit fairly hard, but soon after rolled, and got up onto his feet, readying his gun to fire again as he caught his breath…
"Wait!" A familiar voice called to Chomper and Tendou from behind…Ducky had just emerged from the pond with a waterproof case, which bore the triangular symbol of Delta. She was now walking onto the scene from behind her allies, her eyes dead set on Petrie.
"Let me see if I can't bring him back down to earth…" She spoke to Tendou and Chomper, slapping on the belt of the Delta gear.
Chomper would have protested, but Tendou put a hand on his shoulder. "Come on…" He spoke to his partner. "Earlier, I detected some signals just outside this place, and we need to find out why Kevran stole that part from you, anyway. "
Both of them nodded to Ducky before running off, leaving her alone with Petrie. The still armored flyer shook his head slowly as she removed the Delta driver from her side.
"This is an unwise move, old friend…" He spoke. "The Ducky I know would do what was best to protect herself without conflict."
"And the Petrie I know would be above such horrible things as genocide." Ducky responded as she held the driver in her right hand. "…So much for past impressions, huh?"
The new driver had a slight change to it. It was now voice-activated, as she held the object, which looked like the holster of a gun, and spoke "Henshin" into it. "STANDING BY…" The computer spoke a second after she did, and made the usual powering up sounds as she connected the holster onto the rest of the gun, which was clamped onto the side of the belt.
"COMPLETE". Ducky held out her arms as the familiar white photon streams covered her form, and transformed it into a taller humanoid figure. Within a second, she was now in the black and white armor of Delta, the red eyes on her helmet glowing for a moment.
Petrie then cocked his blaygun, and prepared to fire once more…but now, something had come over him…something that he had not felt in a long time, and felt rather alien to him because of this…he was hesitating. But he wasn't exactly sure why.
"Come on…" Ducky walked closer to him. "You want to attack?…then attack!"
Petrie was then able to shake this feeling off for a moment, and fired at her. She promptly strafed off to the side, avoiding the shots as she suddenly ran around a tree, and quickly came out a petrie, taking him by surprise with a front kick before he could turn around fully and fire again.
Petrie grunted a bit and fell back, the sword section of his blaygun still present as he came at her again, slashing at her chest. Ducky grunted as he scored a quick hit, her chest sparking as she spun to avoid another slice, and withdrew the gun from her belt.
Her shots were dead on, as the lasers hit Petrie in both his shoulders and his chest. Petrie yelled out in pain and frustration as they singed slightly through his armor, making it smoke.
Ducky raised her gun slightly, falling back on her attacks for a moment, as she looked straight at her opponent. "Petrie…this unit has a new kick attack, very similar to the one the Faiz gear had…please don't make me use it on you." A tone of genuine concern was now in her voice. She really didn't want to finish Petrie off, but if she was forced to…
"Oh really?" Petrie steadied himself as he cocked his blaygun again. "What makes you think you'll have the time to pull it off in the first place?" He then let loose a rapid fire barrage of energy bullets. Ducky spun and dodged as best she could, but many of them managed to strike parts of her armor, on her hand and parts of her chest.
She grunted and yelled out a bit as he then ran in and took some vicious swipes at her with his blade. Ducky weaved and dodged a few more of the swipes, as one went over her head, then right towards her side. She was then able to move in close, and grab Petrie's gun, keeping his finger from squeezing the trigger with her own as she struggled with him, trying to keep the blade from moving towards her at the same time.
"This is useless!" Petrie grunted. "No matter how much you struggle, I will win. And I will punish all you know and love for refusing to ally yourself with me." He then grinned sickly under his helmet. "Maybe I'll start with your dear family…"
Ducky was absolutely shocked to hear this, and now felt an uncharacteristic rage boiling up from within her. The idea that he would even think of harming her family was just unthinkable, and it put her over the edge.
She then suddenly overpowered Petrie, her arms still locked with his as she pushed them up, and brought up her right leg in a hard front kick. The kick smashed right into Petrie's stomach, and was strong enough to actually dent the metal as she sent him flying.
Petrie had also let go of his blaygun, as it was now flying up in the air, moving back down towards Ducky. She caught the weapon, and quickly tossed it away, taking aim at Petrie with her own gun, and firing as he got back to his feet.
The flyer covered himself with his arms as he was struck a few more times, in the stomach again, then in the arm, and the leg. He tried to think of a way to reverse this, uncovering his face for a moment…before another blast struck him right in the left eye of his helmet.
Petrie howled out in pain as the sparks shot inward, burning parts of his face slightly as he hunched over and gripped the face of his helmet. Ducky watched, still in the throes of her anger of what he had said, as she brought the gun up to the side of her helmet, the mic still present on the holster.
"Kick!" She spoke into it, as the weapon powered up. "EXCEED CHARGE" the computer spoke, as she then slowly took aim at the weakened Petrie, getting ready to fire the pointer that would hold him in place for the kick…
"Wait!" She suddenly heard a voice calling to him. "Ducky, don't do it!"
Both she and Petrie looked up to see Petrie's mother running onto the scene. One of her other children had seen the whole confrontation happen from high up in the trees, and had rushed back to tell everyone else.
And she was not alone either, as she helped a limping Pterano who was at her side. He had recovered quite a bit now, but still had a little trouble moving.
"No…" A shocked Petrie looked at them both, awestruck. "No, it can't be…you died…I watched you." He simply stood, unable to do anything at this point.
"Petrie!" Pterano shouted out to him. "Stay this madness! Stifle it before you do even more you'll come to regret!"
"It…It…" Petrie spoke calmly now, but still with a torn mind. "It was all for you, Uncle…all for you…they've killed…so much killing…I just don't want it to happen anymore."
"Petrie…" Pterano breathed heavily as he clung to Petrie's mother's side. "Don't you see? How is what you're doing any different from what all the sharpteeth have done before? Attacking those that haven't provoked you…killing indiscriminately…can't you see that you've almost made yourself into one of THEM?"
Petrie's eyes went wide under his helmet as he heard this. Ducky just stood there, listening, still in her armor, as Petrie's mother became teary-eyed. "Please." She spoke. "Come home, son…just put this all behind you, and come home…don't hurt yourself, or us anymore."
Petrie lowered his head for a moment, as she and Pterano began to walk closer. Before they could embrace him, though, he suddenly raised his head up and held out his fists.
"aaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" He suddenly screamed, his voice crying out in anger, but also with a touch of genuine shame. He then ran off, disappearing into the trees nearby.
"Petrie…" Pterano softly spoke, as he comforted his emotional sister as best he could. Ducky simply transformed out of her Delta form, and looked out into the distance…
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Onboard Kevran's ship, the impactor was slowly walking around in the lab, observing the giga-fighters and computers he had at work.
The study of the processor he stole from the Gattack armor had already yielded some useful information on how these new units were created. He was soon able to start a project of his own, one that he hoped would add extra protection to him and his plan.
He then looked down into a container where many computerized arms were at work, putting together a unit that resembled an insect, very similar to the Kabuto and Gattack units…only this one was in the shape of a scorpion.