"This isn't going to be easy… Is it…" Gingka muttered as he and Raiden hovered over a large, menacing black building surrounded by guards and engulfed in dark flames.
"Not at all." Raiden whinnied softly, hiding himself in the dark clouds so that they wouldn't be seen. "But at least we've gotten you some armor and an actual sword."
"Yeah I look like I could be from your clan now." Gingka joked, pulling a hood over his head and making sure that all of his hair was tucked into it, to avoid Nemesis realizing immediately who he was.
"You do match the rest of us." Raiden snorted. "Alright… Now getting in won't be as hard as getting out. If we can get her out without them noticing she's missing it'll be easier."
Gingka nodded. "Because if they notice that she's missing the alarm will be sounded and they'll be looking for her and intruders."
"Precisely. I don't know if we can get her out without her absence being noticed since we know basically nothing about how they're doing things." Raiden mused.
"Dangerous assault on a prison filled with people who want to take us down and who will probably kill us if we get caught rescuing our friend who may or may not be able to make it out on her own and might have to be carried. What are we waiting for?" Gingka joked.
Raiden snorted. "I hope she can make it out. Admittedly carrying just you with armor is difficult. I haven't yet recovered full strength."
Gingka frowned. "So if she's not able to fly at least on her own, then we'll be in trouble."
Raiden nodded, tossing his mane slightly. "I take it you can't tell from your connection with her."
Gingka sighed and shook his head. "No… I'm not getting anything from her right now. Nothing noticeable, anyway." He said.
"Well… Shall we go? I think the best thing would be to freefall in." Raiden said. "I can see an entrance there on the roof that's mostly unguarded. If we time it right we can get in there fairly easily, I think."
"And if we freefall they won't see a giant glowing winged horse swooping down. Good call." Gingka said. "But how will we land? We're high up."
"You fall below me and I'll spread my wings at the last second and soften our landing enough that we won't be injured." Raiden said. "Basically we somehow have to get you below me so that I can hold onto you and we can fall together."
"Brilliant. Now we've added stunt maneuvers into the mix of this rescue." Gingka rolled his eyes. "This day just keeps getting more and more exciting."
"Is someone getting scared?" Raiden teased.
Gingka chuckled. "Admittedly, slightly. But I trust you. We can do this."
Raiden nodded. "Be careful." He said, glowing softly and beginning to transform back to human form so that they could execute their plan.
"Think we can communicate like we did before you disappeared? It'd save having to worry about them hearing us." Gingka said.
"Worth the try." Raiden said. "Ready? I'm transforming."
"Yeah. Ready as I'll ever be." Gingka said, leaning forwards as the size of the being beneath him began to shrink down. He slid sideways, holding on carefully as he did so.
"Well. That worked better than I thought it would." Raiden said as he was able to grab hold of Gingka's shoulders and hold onto him, while the redhead held onto Raiden's arms. The two shifted, securing their grip.
"Ready?" Raiden asked.
"Not like I have a choice since you're the one keeping us airborne." Gingka chuckled, taking deep breaths to stay calm.
"True. Dropping now." Raiden chuckled as his wings vanished and he and Gingka plummeted towards the roof.
Gingka tensed immediately, forcing himself not to panic as they fell. He began counting in his head, focusing on the numbers. He knew that it would not be long before Raiden spread his wings again and halted their fall.
"Get ready to land… Three… Two… One…" Raiden whispered before an abrupt jerking motion indicated the spreading of his wings.
The two grunted and rolled slightly across the rooftop as they hit it, Gingka finding that the air had been practically knocked out of his lungs from the impact. He and Raiden laid there for a couple of seconds, gasping for breath, before scrambling to their feet and bolting inside the entrance that Raiden had spotted.
"Well… That… Went alright…" Raiden panted softly as he sunk into the shadows as best he could, forcing the glow in his eyes to vanish.
"Hopefully nobody… Heard anything…" Gingka whispered, trying to catch his breath as he steadied himself against the wall of the dark hallway they were now in.
"We'd best get moving then. Does this work?" Raiden's voice echoed in Gingka's head, much to the redhead's surprise.
"I'll take that as a yes." Raiden chuckled softly. Gingka smirked as a look at Raiden's face confirmed the fact that the bey, in fact, had said nothing aloud.
"Lead the way then." Gingka thought, and Raiden nodded solemnly before creeping forwards, one hand on his sword hilt, ready to fight if they needed to.
Gingka took deep breaths, focusing on the slight swaying movement of Raiden in front of him as the bey crept slowly ahead. The redhead had to admit that he was rather nervous about this entire operation. He had always trusted in a bey to blast through anyone and everyone in his way. He had never had to use stealth. Come to think of it, many things might have gone better in some of his past escapades had he used stealth, but then again, none of his past experiences with sneaking into buildings could have meant death if he had been caught.
"We'll be fine." Raiden reminded him mentally, sensing easily his former master's distress.
Gingka took a deep breath and sighed softly, smiling. "Yeah. What am I thinking, I'm not going in without a bey. I've got you."
Raiden chuckled at this, peering slowly around a corner and putting out one arm to signal Gingka to halt as a patrol crossed their path, heating down another hallway. Once it was passed, the two darted off across its path and into another shadow.
"There's starting to be a little more light here." Raiden whispered, pulling a black hood closer around his light blue hair to be sure that it was hidden completely.
"On the plus side of things, it means we can see better. But it also means we can be seen better." Gingka grumbled under his breath.
Raiden nodded. "According to the map I pulled, we need to keep going down… As in all the way to the basement underground…"
"... Elevator?" Gingka queried.
"Probably too risky." Raiden sighed. "If someone else needed to use it we'd be caught."
"True." Gingka frowned. "So we need to find a stairwell then or something."
Raiden paused and faced the wall, shielding the sight of a small holographic map that he pulled up and looked at with narrowed eyes.
"We should be here." He pointed. "Kaminari's all the way down here. In the highest security cell. I doubt we can go in through the front door."
"Well I always have preferred smashing through things." Gingka chuckled, keeping an eye out for any patrols.
Raiden chuckled under his breath. "Yeah but that's not very quiet, exactly. So unless we can find a quiet way to do so, I don't think that'll work."
Gingka looked thoughtful. "What's right above her?" He asked.
"Just a bunch of regular cells. Why?"
"Smash through the floor of an empty one. We'd be in." Gingka said.
Raiden stared at the redhead in surprise. "That… Could work… But I can't guarantee that we could find an empty one. And there will be more patrols. We're just on the offices right now."
"Most of their patrols seem to be outside." Gingka said. "We can try."
Raiden nodded. "If it wouldn't be a waste of time."
"Only one way to find out." Gingka pointed out.
"Touche. We'll try it." Raiden nodded and put away the map before continuing on.
Soon enough, the two managed to get to the ground floor of the prison, dodging several sentries, motion sensors, and security cameras on their way down. Raiden stood watch while Gingka managed to figure out the locations of any prisoners on the prison's computer database.
"There are some empty cells." Gingka said.
"Do they coincide with her location?" Raiden asked, holding up the map.
Gingka glanced back and forth several times between the list and the map, a concentrated and thoughtful frown on his face as he thought.
"That one does." He said after a while. "1134."
"Let's go then. Quickly. I hear another patrol coming." Raiden said.
Gingka nodded and shut down the computer before darting off and leading the way towards the cell he had indicated. He only hoped that the records were correct. Then again, why wouldn't they be? It did not exactly make sense that Nemesis would change them. The dark bey was probably not even expecting anyone to dare breaking into the prison. Gingka may not know a whole ton about Nemesis, but he did know that the god of destruction was quite prideful and probably thought that everyone was afraid of him. Then again, everyone, Gingka himself included, did have a legitimate reason to be afraid of Nemesis. Gingka had to admit that he was, in fact, afraid of the evil bey that had nearly destroyed his world seven years ago. But he knew how to push that fear aside and fight anyway, because the consequences of not fighting were the same or worse than the consequences of fighting.
"You can worry about Mao later." Raiden's voice interrupted Gingka's thoughts. "We gotta get Kaminari out first. Plus, you're still linked to her and probably not helping her mental state."
"Right. Sorry." Gingka sighed as he opened the door to the cell.
"Look out!" Raiden exclaimed mentally, shoving Gingka aside and using his sword to block and deflect an arrow that flew at them.
Gingka bit back a yelp, knowing that it was imperative to be quiet.
"... Raiden?! What the heck are you doing here?! And who is that with you?!" a voice hissed.
"Not really time to explain." Raiden grunted, stepping into the cell and pulling Gingka with him before mostly shutting the door, but not allowing it to latch.
Gingka looked around, his eyes adjusting to the dim lighting once more. He raised an eyebrow at a young male figure who was currently half-restrained to the wall by long chains that gave him some freedom of movement. He was holding a bow and arrow in his hands, ready to fire.
"They didn't bother taking your weapons, I see." Raiden whispered.
"I was able to hide them by making them vanish. This is my beast form weapon." The young man replied, his eyes glowing a faint gold color.
"Let me guess. Flash Sagittario." Gingka said softly.
The golden gaze was turned to the masked and hooded redhead as Sagittatio raised an eyebrow. "For you to be calling me by that name, you must not be a bey. How are you here?"
"It's Gingka. Your blader's friend. Kaminari's current blader and my former blader." Raiden said, examining the chains to see if he could figure out how to unlock them.
"Nemes- Mao didn't bother registering that you were in here, I guess." Gingka muttered.
"Now I remember you. Although obviously I would not have recognized you. Name's Thorgisl here, by the way."
Gingka nodded. "I'll try to remember that." He replied.
"Come help me with this." Raiden said. "I think we can get him out."
"The more help we've got the better." Gingka mumbled as he did so. "What do you need me to do?"
"If we pull these out at the same time it shouldn't set off any alarms." Raiden said.
Gingka raised an eyebrow. "'Shouldn't'?"
"Well… I don't know how this works." Raiden chuckled. "If it sets off an alarm we'll have to work quickly to get my sister out."
Gingka sweatdropped and shook his head. "I'd say we shouldn't do this but it's exactly the sort of thing I do. So we may as well."
"Orion and Kat should be nearby in other cells." Thorgisl said. "Mao needed them to partially seal Kaminari in. With her inside it won't seal completely but if you get the three of us it'll break open completely."
"So much for busting through the floor." Gingka said. "Not smart of him to keep all of you in the same place."
"Well… I'm surprised that I wasn't guarded, actually." Thorgisl muttered as Gingka and Raiden managed to get him free of his chains.
The two paused.
"... You're thinking what I'm thinking. I can feel it." Raiden said.
Gingka nodded. "There should have been guards."
"But there weren't, since you got in here so easily." Thorgisl said, frowning.
"Which has to mean only one thing." Raiden said, slowly turning towards the door.
"This is a trap." Gingka muttered under his breath.
"And you two walked right into it…" Thorgisl facepalmed. "I should have noticed that much immediately."
A slow, ominous clap came from behind them, just outside the doorway. Gingka and the others whirled towards it, only to spot a single figure with glowing eyes, one red, one purple, as well as wild light purple hair, wearing simple dark purple and black clothing and armor. He appeared to be approximately eighteen, but, considering that he was clearly not human, Gingka figured he was likely much older than that.
"I must applaud you for realizing that fact on your own. Although I must admit that I did not expect a blader to be involved at all. You should have stayed on your own planet and waited for your imminent destruction. Hagane."
"Who are you?" Gingka demanded, tensing as he felt a flicker of fear from Raiden.
"I think your buddy there can answer that." The young boy replied, gesturing to Raiden.
Gingka half-turned to the blue-haired bey, raising an eyebrow and silently asking the question.
"Dougal…" Raiden muttered, his voice betraying the fact that he was fighting to keep himself calm.
"Surprised to see me? I'm not surprised that you are. After all, you did think you had destroyed me and my siblings." Dougal replied.
Gingka tensed slightly. "Then… You're… Lightning L-Drago?"
"One-third of it, to be precise." Dougal rolled his eyes. "Three dragons, you should have figured it was three of us. But my brother and sister are occupied at the moment… Waiting for you, as a matter of fact."
This statement made both Gingka and Raiden feel very uneasy. Thorgisl bit his lip slightly, not daring to move even though he knew he could attack and could likely win this battle, considering that he had grown stronger than he was way back when Dougal and his siblings had been defeated by Raiden.
"Come along then. You really have no choice." Dougal said, laughing. "Karayan and Nereza are waiting to play."
Raiden gulped audibly at this, glancing at Gingka. However, the fear in Raiden's mind did not scare Gingka as much as the fact that the bey was deliberately refusing to release a piece of information that was clearly the main source of his fear. It was something that put Gingka in a lot of danger.
"Raiden. Tell me what's about to happen. I'd rather know what to expect than be surprised in this situation." Gingka thought, putting as much of a firm tone into his mind as he could.
Raiden sighed softly through his nose. "I can't. But Nereza isn't the one you need to worry about. It's Karayan who you will likely be dealing with. Each of the triplets controlled a different 'feature' if you want to call it that, of that bey. Three people in one bey is a forbidden technique because it's dangerous to the three and to anyone who fights them. It allowed for enormous amounts of damage to be done. I had to fight all three."
"Just explain." Gingka thought back. "And quickly. We don't have much time."
Raiden sighed softly as he and Gingka were handcuffed, their hands tied firmly behind their backs as guards escorted them out, Dougal leading the way.
"I'll sum up… Dougal was the normal mode of L-Drago. The one that was mostly used. In your world, the top of the bey form could shift, allowing for a second mode. That was controlled by Nereza. She does more of the power draining than the other two. Then there's Karayan… Who… Well…"
"Just tell me." Gingka snapped mentally.
Raiden sighed deeply. "You remember when Ryuga was possessed and began to change physically…?"
Gingka tensed. "You're saying…"
"Karayan's specialty is possessing bladers. You'd better hope you have a very strong mind to resist him or we're toast." Raiden said bluntly. "Because that's likely what they're planning. They're going to have Nereza drain my power, and Karayan is going to try to take your mind over and destroy you."
"... Great. Just what we needed." Gingka thought, forcing himself to stay calm. He would resist. He would make it through this… Or would he?