Kiyal's jaw was beginning to hurt.
In fact, her entire face was beginning to ache. Her forehead hurt from the permanent frown she had on. Her eyes were beginning to tire from flicking around all over the place, afraid to even blink. Hell, even her nose was beginning to hurt for some unknown reason. It also itched, the way your nose has a tendency to itch when your hands are busy.
And then, of course, was her jaw. The entire area, both upper and lower, ached sorely from the way she had her teeth locked firmly together in a grimace of intense, life-threatening concentration.
'Funny what you notice when you're about to die,' she thought morbidly as she slammed the controls to the side to avoid an oncoming flurry of Charge Particle Cannon beams.
The damn things were everywhere. Her view was basically a frantic medley of red, white and blue: the red of CPCs firing, the white of the thrice-damned Enki units, and scattered patches of blue sky.
Kiyal was numb to it all. Her mind had stopped; gone to that place you go to when you don't want to think any more, don't want to feel. Her body kept acting based pretty much solely on instinct, piloting the Ganman better than she ever had before. A flitting thought wondered whether or not this was what Simon had been trying to teach her to do. She watched numbly as she piloted Gurren Lagann around and through the wave of Enki units, weaving through CPC barrages, tearing through Ganmen with drills. It was amazing, and very frightening.
Enki. Why did it have to be Enki? They'd destroyed Enki. Or at least, that was what she'd told herself. Enki was dead. Enki was gone. Even when the Zessho-Enki had attacked Kamina City, she'd reasoned that it wasn't Enki. It wasn't the tall, white demon of fire with the terrifying helmet of burning destruction that had burned her village to the ground, her mother with it. Enki was gone forever, left only to haunt her memories.
Enki had come back with a vengeance.
Vaguely, she was aware that she was screaming. She wasn't sure whether it was in fear or in rage. She watched bleakly as she tore the helmet off of one of the Enkis and shoved it into the cockpit, causing it to explode in a conflagration of metal and flame.
Probably a mixture of both, she decided.
There was more yelling, only it wasn't her this time. She didn't care, as she took Gurren Lagann deeper and deeper into the enemy horde. Forward, always forward. Was she running towards them, or trying to break free and run away?
Suddenly there was a weight on top of her, and something was obscuring her view of the battle. She felt her hands as they were torn away from the controls, sensation slowly returning to them in the form of a dull aching in her fingers. Her hearing came back next, sounds, slowly filtering through to where she had hidden herself deep inside her mind.
"-out of it, Kiyal! You're going too deep! You've got to snap out of it! Come back to me, Kiyal!"
Her vision slowly, hesitatingly refocused. Her gaze trailed up the blue sleeves, passed the red piece of cloth tied around the arm, traced along the collar before reaching those dark eyes that she had always been fond of.
"Kiyal? Are you with me now?" asked Simon gently, looking her straight in the eye. Concern was written across his face, and she could see it in his eyes: the kind of genuine concern that had always been his forte, always been her favourite part of him.
"...Simon?" she asked hesitantly. She could feel his hands clasped around her wrists, holding them down, away from the controls. Where had he come from? She looked up, past the drill that connected Gurren and Lagann. The hole was more than large enough for him to drop through.
"You snapped for a second there," informed Simon.
Kiyal nodded slowly. She could feel him, his body pressing to hers against the seat. She could feel his warmth, his aura of calming kindness. All she wanted to do was curl up in his arms, safe from the Enki hordes.
'Funny what you notice when your life is in danger,' she thought blankly, even as she whispered the word "Enki," to Simon.
"Yeah, it's Enki," said Simon, his brow momentarily furrowing in worry. "Don't get me wrong, I'm afraid of them too. But we have the courage to break through the fear, and when we can do that, nothing can touch us."
He shifted to the side, and she could see that, all around them, the Brigade was fighting to protect Gurren Lagann in its moment of vulnerability. They bravely fended off the Enki units, even as the wave of white surrounded them and outnumbered them.
Simon began his climb back up to Lagann. He grasped the flanges of Lagann's drill, hauling himself back up to his seat in the head. Once back in his seat, he grasped the controls and bent his head down to smile confidently at Kiyal.
"Remember, Kiyal," he told her. "I'm always right here. Believe in the you that I believe in."
A surge of hope coursed through Kiyal's body, eradicating what little fear she had left. She slowly smiled again, as the spiral gauge in front of Simon lit up with energy.
"We're back online," he informed his fellow Brigadiers.
"Thanks for dealing with that," replied Kittan with some relief. "Out of all of us, Kiyal...never really healed. Y'know?"
"It's fine. I understand," said Simon with a nod. "It looks like none of us got to the surface without having had something taken away."
"Yeah, but that just means we've got to put up twice the fight to keep what we've gained," said Kittan. "What would Kamina say if we lost now?"
"Yeah, you're right," agreed Simon. "So let's show these bastards how hard we're willing to fight!"
His spiral gauge climbed steadily, and Gurren Lagann's eyes lit up with green energy. He yelled his challenge into the Enki hordes, and they responded by charging all of their cannons at once, prepared to obliterate the Brigade even if it meant destroying themselves in the crossfire. Drills sprouted all over Gurren Lagann's body, glowing green with energy, and, almost in sync, both sides unleashed their fury in a light show that would have blinded the Brigadiers if their screens hadn't immediately gone opaque to prevent exactly that.
The drills met the Charged Particle Beams, deflecting the beams of red light and splitting them along their length, tracing them back to their source. Some of the Enki units in the back rows saw what was happening and attempted to break away, but it was too late. Each drill found its target with unerring accuracy, spearing through the CPC ring and causing it to malfunction, exploding in a sphere of red light. The spheres expanded outwards, and would have incinerated the Brigade if a massive force field of green hadn't grown out from Gurren Lagann to shield them against the blasts.
For several moments, all the Brigade could see was a screen of red and green. When everything had cleared, the field shrunk and disappeared. No trace was left of the Enki units, nothing to suggest that they had ever even been there.
"Did I get all of them?" panted Simon, leaning back in his seat as sweat beaded on his forehead. He was slumped, head bowed trying to catch his breath.
"Sorry to disappoint," said Iraak grimly. "But it looks like they have more friends."
Yet another squadron of Ganmen was rising up from Centrallio's central compound. There were less of them this time, but they weren't a unit the Brigade was used to dealing with. They were colored purple and were armored more heavily than the slimmer, streamlined Enki. They, too, had the CPC, but even that seemed to be different. Only experience would tell what other weapons they hid up their sleeves.
"Well, at least it's not Enki," commented Simon, cracking his knuckles. "Dai-Gurren Brigade, let's get to work!"
"Yeah!"
The Brigade got back into formation and boosted forward, ready to face yet another series of new threats.
Ribo sat back in his chair, a comfortable leather armchair that he had had transported from the Dai-Gantei. Arrayed in front of him was a multitude of screens, showing various bits of data and, scattered among them, several real-time feeds from Centrallio's security systems. Behind him several Beastmen and some Nucleotype overseers worked on the technical screens, managing his temporary forward headquarters.
A screen in the lower-left corner blipped to life, and Kuroko's face popped up on the screen. She waved to her king.
"Hello, Ribo darling~!" she greeted him cheerily. "How's your setup, nya?"
"Perfect, thank you," said Ribo, inclining his head. "Everything I need is right here. I assume you're seeing exactly the same information?"
"Well, a little more actually, but otherwise yeah," confirmed the cat-Beastwoman. "He's amazing, isn't he, nya?"
"Indeed," mused Ribo. His rival had once again proved himself worthy. Ribo was beginning to see how the boy had defeated his father; he possessed a truly amazing amount of Spiral Power. For an average human, anyway; in Nucleotype terms, so far he had only managed to brush the higher levels.
"Still nothing compared to my own power," he said, half to himself and half to Kuroko. "How goes the new Centrallio Defense System?"
"We got lucky~!" purred Kuroko. "They showed up just as the defences were being completed. In fact, they're engaging the new Gilga units right now, nya."
"And what of the High Energy Laser Cannons?" asked Ribo.
"Please, dear, call them HELCs."
"All right, my dear." The young Emperor smiled indulgently. "What is the status of the HELCs?"
"Aaaaalmost calibrated, darling. I figure they should be done by the time our visitors make it to the island proper, nya."
"Good," intoned Ribo, pleased. "We have to defend the entrance at all costs. They cannot get into the prison levels."
"Easily done. Our assets are very well defended."
"Very well. Keep me informed via my implant." Ribo stood. "I have other business to attend to."
He turned and regarded his father's study, now his own. The place was massive, packed full of books and documents and scientific instruments. It would take forever to search through all of it.
Ribo vowed that, even if it took an eternity, he would find what he was looking for.
The new units were fast and powerful, far beyond even the Enki units in speed and strength. From the moment they engaged, Simon knew that the Brigade was in trouble.
The new units weren't just another Enki redesign. They were something else entirely. They were bigger, stronger, more heavily armored. Large pauldrons covered the shoulders, and the hands were massive, as if they wore giant gauntlets. The faces in their bodies grimaced darkly, like soldiers who had seen too much bloodshed but were prepared to shed more for their cause. From the waist a metal skirt fanned out, protecting the upper legs, a massive version of Ribo's insignia cinching the plates together. The legs ended in massive booted greaves, painted purple like the rest of the armour. Much like the Enki units, these bore a second head on top, but unlike Enki's, they were tooled to look like great helmets, and a baleful red glow peered forth from behind the V-shaped visor. The units also carried CPCs, though these were smaller, and the ring was interspersed with jagged spikes that rayed outwards. Above the pauldrons protruded two great handles, obviously the hilts for some kind of sword.
These swords soon saw action, as they were quickly drawn in order to fight against the Brigade. The air was filled with a strange kind of humming, sending chills down Simon's spine. The two forces clashed.
Simon drew Gurren's shades and used them to parry a strike from one of the new Ganmen. The Ganman quickly drew its second sword and struck again, forcing Simon to retreat backwards to avoid getting hit. The Ganman followed quickly, its levisphere leaving a purple trail in the sky.
"Damn they're fast!" yelled Simon, weaving to avoid another strike. "I can't get away!"
"You're telling us!" called back Kidd as he played a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with another unit, trying to stay out of range while firing back with the Kidd Knuckle's pistols.
Makken was trying to fight one of the new units with his sword. For several moments they seemed to be matched equally, though Makken had only one sword while his opponent had two. But then the humming spiked in intensity, and with its next strike, the enemy sheared Makken's sword in two.
"Our weapons are no match," announced Moshogun's pilot grimly. The blue mecha tossed away the useless hunk of metal. It fell for several seconds before splashing into the ocean.
"No kidding!" yelled Kittan as his sword, too, was cut in half. Unlike Makken, when he discarded his sword, he discarded it straight at the enemy. His opponent flicked its swords, slicing the remains of the sword in half again and sending the remains down into the ocean.
Simon sheathed Gurren's shades back onto the Ganman's face, deciding to give up that angle before he lost the one-of-a-kind eyewear. "Stay away from them!" ordered the digger. "We'll use our speed to confuse them, then hit 'em hard and fast!" He silently thanked fate that there weren't that many of the new units: only one for each Brigade member.
The Brigade instantly took up the new tactic, zooming around their adversaries. It didn't work for long; the new Ganmen quickly took up pursuit, easily tailing the Brigade's Ganmen. They were going faster, even, slowly catching up. Some of the slower members, like Jorgun and Balinbou, took several hits from the strange swords.
"This is bad," remarked Iraak nervously, watching as his follower drew closer and closer, blades bared. "Reeeaaaaly bad."
"All right, then!" called Simon. "Group together, and fly up!"
The Brigade Ganmen gathered together in one mass and flew up, Simon at their centre. The enemy Ganmen did likewise, their purple trails grouping together and ascending.
Then the Dai-Gurren mecha split apart and zoomed off in different directions. The only unit left was Gurren Lagann, facing back at the enemy. Tiny, glowing drills covered its body.
"TAKE THIS!" yelled Simon, unleashing the Drill Barrage. Green trails sprouted from Gurren Lagann like tiny tendrils, arcing out and back to aim at the strange, purple Ganman squadron.
Just before they were hit, the enemy units pulled something out from behind their backs, something that Simon hadn't noticed earlier.
The drills impacted. A thousand green explosions burst out, turning the sky a brilliant shade of emerald. Simon stared intently at where the enemy had been, waiting to see the broken andsmouldering corpses of the Ganmen as he took deep breaths to regain his oxygen.
Then they burst out and up, through the field of explosions. Not one of them bore even a scar from the assault. In addition, each one held in front of it a smoking, kite-shaped shield, imprinted with Ribo's symbol of two crossed scimitars superimposed upon a spiral, all on a purple field trimmed with red.
"Impossible! They resisted it?" exclaimed Simon in shock. Then he gagged and fell into a coughing fit, blood mixed in with the saliva.
"Simon!" yelled Kiyal, coming fully conscious for the first time in several minutes.
"I put too much into that last volley..." wheezed the digger before lapsing back into a coughing spasm.
"Dammit!" yelled Kiyal, seeing that the enemy was approaching and that Simon was in no condition to pilot. She snatched the controls again. The enemy wasn't Enki this time. She could do this.
Kuroko flopped back in her chair, spinning slightly.
On the screen in front of her played the footage from Centrallio's defences. She watched as the Gilga units burst up and out of the cloud of smoke, unscathed.
"Well, whaddaya know. It actually worked," observed the Beastwoman mechanic as she sucked on a lollipop. "An honest-to-goodness Spiral-Power-Resistant material. Nya."
"Indeed," cut in Ribo. His image reappeared on one of the screens, his hands interlocked and his legs crossed in front of him. "One of the reasons I wanted to reclaim Dekabutsu; though most of its hull has been replaced with regular iron and steel over the years, there are still sections made of the material. It's not just resistant to Spiral Power - it actually tends to absorb it. It can be penetrated by ordinary means, of course, and with enough Spiral Power you can overwhelm it, but it's not easy."
"Well, now. I can't wait to get experimenting with it," said Kuroko with glee, rubbing her hands together. Her tail twitched happily.
"I'll make sure some of it is delivered to your new workshop."
"By the way, what is it called? I need a name to put in my files."
Ribo cocked his head to the side and brought his hand to his chin in thought. "Actually, I don't really know. It's from the old days, long before even the oldest Beastmen were born. There's not much on it in the records, either."
"Oh, well," sighed Kuroko. "We'll have to give it a new name, then."
"Soon enough. But not now. You have a visitor to attend to."
Kuroko quickly closed down her monitors; secret defense discussions and operations weren't for just anyone to see. She spun around in her chair to see who, exactly, wanted to visit her in her workshop.
She was surprised to see Yoko saunter in. The redhead looked curiously at the various contraptions that littered the room.
"Well, if it isn't the Queen-to-be herself!" declared Kuroko, startling the redhead. "Whatever could you want with little ol' me, nya?"
"Um, I had a free period," said Yoko, remembering her first encounter with the catwoman. "I was kinda hoping I could spend it here, and you could teach me about, ya know, Ganmen."
Kuroko regarded Yoko curiously. "Really? I wouldn't think you'd be all that interested."
Yoko shrugged. "I've fought them and piloted them. It's kind of in my best interests to get to know them a little better. And honestly, I've always been curious, but whenever I'd ask Leeron he'd mumble something filled with complicated terms and basically just ignore me."
"Well, I gueeeeessss I could teach you..." drawled Kuroko, looking up at the ceiling. "So long as you're not trying to steal defense secrets or anything!"
Yoko blinked. "Actually, I hadn't even thought of-"
"Then it's settled!" Kuroko pounced off of her chair and embraced Yoko fondly. "Welcome, my apprentice!"
Yoko peeled away from the catwoman. "Uh, thanks. So, where do we start?"
"Well, actually, I was about to move to my new place inside that big thing that used to be Teppelin. You can help me move there!"
The two began packing up Kuroko's workshop. As they did, Kuroko rambled on about Ganmen and the Knights and whether purple or green grapehippos were tastier and whatever else happened to cross her mind. Mentally, however, she was assessing, planning, and calculating, trying to gauge how best to teach Yoko and, more importantly, what the consequences would be, for both her and the young sniper.
Because, although Kuroko dearly longed to have an apprentice, or even, possibly, a friend, she had to consider whether or not she could afford the eventual results.
"Simon and Kiyal are in trouble!" shouted Kittan. "Dai-Gurren Brigade, move it! We've gotta save our leader!"
The Brigade circled back around to crash into the enemy, just as Kiyal put Gurren Lagann into freefall.
The red Ganman fell like a brick. As it did it twisted and spun, whirling about gracefully. The enemy units slashed as Gurren Lagann fell past, scoring the red armour but, thankfully, failing to wound it fatally. Gurren Lagann's feet lashed out and caught them in the head. Kiyal re-engaged the levisphere, boosting Gurren Lagann up and allowing her to follow up with a punch that knocked the helmet off one of the Ganmen.
She then spun to face the other one. When she did, she saw that the ring on its head was gathering energy into a red sphere.
A burst of red light, and Kiyal went flying across the street. Pain coursed through her. She opened her eyes to see nothing but flames, opened her ears to hear nothing but screams, opened her nostrils to smell nothing but smoke, blood and death.
Watched as her mother stumbled out of the wreckage, fire turning the clothes to ash, melting the skin away.
And she froze.
"KIYAL!" screamed Kittan as he watched a wide spray of red energy bolts hit Gurren Lagann from point-blank, spearing the unit behind it in the process. With the levisphere pack totaled, Gurren Lagann began to drop again, this time lacking the grace of Kiyal's controlled drop. The eldest Bachika screamed and pushed his Ganman forward, engaging one of the new units. His opponent quickly slashed off one of the King Kittan's arms, but because it held its shield, its other sword was sheathed on its back and unavailable to follow up. The Ganman tried to use its shield to block as its ring charged with red energy, but the Kittan went over the shield and grabbed the helmet, breaking it and causing an explosion that engulfed the enemy unit. Soon he was jetting down after the Gurren Lagann, hoping to catch it before it hit the water. An enemy unit peeled away from the pack and dropped after him.
Meanwhile, Kidd and Iraak had teamed up, zooming around one of the units, alternately kicking it and spraying it with gunfire. It whirled, tracking them, before charging up its cannon and firing a rain of energy bolts in Kidd's general direction. One of the bolts blew off the small left leg, sending the Ganman off-balance and removing one of Kidd's support levispheres. Iraak's immediate thought was for his brother, but he suppressed it and took the opportunity to kick the enemy mecha in the helmet ring with Ainzer's long legs. The ring broke, and an explosion consumed the enemy.
"Hit 'em in the head cannon when they're charging!" yelled Iraak. "That's their weak point!"
Makken ignored Iraak as he faced down his own opponent. The two units circled each other, each one tensing for the right moment to strike. Makken's adversary thought for a moment that he had seen Makken's guard drop, and rushed in for the kill, sword and shield at the ready. Makken dodged around on the shield side, grabbed his opponent's shield, twirled him, and grabbed the sword that remained on the back. With one neat slice he bisected the enemy mecha, and the two halves plunged into the ocean's depths.
"You have a good sword," complimented Makken.
Kidd, Iraak and Makken rushed over to where Zorthy and the twins were fighting. They weren't doing well; Sozoshin had already lost an arm, and the twins bore multiple scars on their Ganman's armor.
They didn't get there in time. The enemy tossed away its shield and drew the second sword in time to repel an attack from either side, slicing away Sozoshin's other arm and neatly cutting the Twin Boukun in two. It continued whirling, spinning towards Sozoshin, and its blades lashed out like a pair of scissors, cutting off the Ganman's legs and going through part of the cockpit.
The Brigade heard Zorthy's screams as his Ganman tumbled down.
"Iraak-!" yelled Makken, for the first time showing panic.
"On it!"
Ainzer jetted down to catch Sozoshin's mangled remains while Makken deftly parried the enemy's attack and, with two quick strikes, quartered it.
During this time, the last enemy unit had been chasing Kittan. The last enemy, the King Kittan, and Gurren Lagann all plummeted towards the ocean.
Just before they hit the water, Simon recovered the controls. With a flash of green light, the levisphere pack returned and the Gurren Lagann halted in midair, the force of the stop sending both Simon and Kiyal's heads into the backs of their seats. Seeing its adversary recovered, the pursuing enemy fired its beam cannon, hoping to catch both the King Kittan and Gurren Lagann with one blast. The bolts of red energy lanced down, spearing the King Kittan through the left eye, but leaving the main body intact. Simon deflected them with a drill, and then pointed the drill up.
"This one's just for you!" he yelled. The drill detached from Gurren Lagann's arm and rocketed up, propelled by a jet of green energy. The falling mecha raised its shield, hoping to catch the drill, as it was falling too fast to get out of the way in time.
For several precious, breathtaking moments, the shield held.
Simon's eyes widened in shock as the green energy slowly drained out of the drill, the jet faltering. But, despite the shield's strange properties, the drill broke through it through sheer mass and velocity. It buried itself in the enemy mecha, debris shooting out of the back. The Ganman crackled and sparked for a second, and then an explosion lit up the sky, turning the clouds orange.
Simon fell back in his seat with a sigh, feeling exhausted. He wiped the sweat off of his brow. Using Gurren Lagann had never drained him before in the way it had during the fight. Not even the fight with the Royal Knights had drained him this much. The only fight that came close was his fight with Lordgenome.
He then sighed again, this time in resignation. Despite all of that, they weren't done.
"I'll take over for a bit," offered Kiyal. "Get some rest while you can. We're still not done here." Inwardly, she worried about Simon's condition. She resolved to do her best to spare him from further exertion.
"I know," breathed Simon. "I just hope that the worst of it is over."
Even before he had finished saying it, he realized that it was a stupid hope.
Kuroko pounced back into her chair, spun once, and came to a stop in front of her array of monitors. At the press of a switch they quickly buzzed to life again, filling the workshop with a pervasive humming.
"Ribo? Ribo?" she called. "Dammit, Ribo-dear! What did I miss, nya?"
Ribo strolled into view again. He appeared to be engaged in some kind of physical labor, something uncharacteristic of the young emperor. He had removed his robes and exchanged them for a pair of dull brown pants and a white shirt.
"Ah! Kuroko. Salutations," he greeted her. "I am most glad to hear from you again."
"My visitor stuck around for a while. I actually just got rid of her; sent her to bring stuff to the new workshop."
"Well, you're here now. I believe you asked what happened? You can see for yourself."
The live feed blinked to life again, showing the aerial battle outside Centrallio. As Kuroko watched, the last Gilga unit was pierced by a drill and exploded.
"Those bastards!" Her teeth ground against each other. "They destroyed my precious beauties! I'll have to redesign them now, since obviously the current design is insufficient. Too much focus on melee and the CPC. And on top of that they're still too slow; I'll have to-"
"That can wait," interrupted Ribo. "For now, I require the HELCS to defend the base."
"Ah! You're right!" Kuroko flipped through some screens and tapped some keys, and lines of data began scrolling down her screen. She regarded them critically, and then grinned happily.
"Final calculations are done, and everything's calibrated!" she announced. "HELCs are ready when you are!"
"Then as your emperor..." He smirked, holding out his arm. "I command you to open fire!" He flung his arm to the side in dramatic flourish as he gave the order.
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Kuroko pressed a key. A row of lights lit up on one of her screens. Still smiling, she sat back to watch.
"Is everyone okay?" wheezed Simon grimly when he had returned to his teammates.
"For the second time, no," answered Iraak, just as grimly. Ainzer held up the ruined Sozoshin. "Zorthy's injured, and he's not responding."
"Take him back to Dai-Gurren, now!" ordered Simon. "Makken, go with him as an escort."
"Understood."
"What about the twins?" asked Kiyal. "They're in no shape to fight."
"We're fine!" "Fine!" The Twin Boukun had been split in half, but thankfully each half was equipped with its own flight sphere and they were perfectly capable of acting on their own.
"No. This is an order. Get back to Dai-Gurren!"
The twins resisted silently, refusing to move.
"We can't wait here any longer," urged Kiyal. "Simon, we have to attack now, while we have an opening."
"Fine," said Simon grudgingly. "I still think they should stay behind."
"Can it and let's get them!" shouted Kittan. "Yoko's in there waiting for us! Let's go already!"
"We don't know that for sure..." muttered Kidd. All the same, the Brigade began advancing on Centrallio.
As Gurren Lagann blasted forward towards the courtyard near the prison entrance's large iron door, Kiyal felt a chill run down her spine. For a moment, the world stopped. Her hands gripped tighter on the controls, and she broke into a cold sweat. She didn't know what it was. Even as she urged the red Ganman forward, something else urged her to pull it back. Something instinctual, something primal, was telling her that something was about to happen.
Then time started forward again, and the Brigade proceeded unhindered.
Until a series of towers folded out from Centrallio.
They rose out, spiraling as they grew, a multitude of thin white towers. When they had finished growing, strange devices unfolded from the tops. Great metal barrels, ringed with red lines, extended outwards, and three strange rods folded out from behind each one. The rods crackled with ominous energy, arcs of lighting jumping between them.
The rods and the arcs of lighting formed circles that were eerily similar to the Charge Particle Cannon.
As one, the weapons turned towards the Brigade with precise, mechanical precision.
"Scatter!" yelled Simon; and, seizing control away from Kiyal again, he snapped Gurren Lagann out of the weapons' line of fire.
This proved to be ineffectual. The machines readjusted perfectly, and, perfectly synchronized, each one loosed a wave of red energy directly at the Brigade.
The spread was too wide, and at that range, impossible to dodge. In a last-ditch effort, Simon extended Gurren Lagann's protective field again. The energy beams crashed against the barrier, waves of red pulsing along and around it. Simon had extended the field too far, though, and it began to crack, pieces of it snapping and green dust flying before disappearing into thin air.
"No...you...DON'T!" Simon screamed, and, just as the field burst apart, he manifested a truly massive wide-area drill to shield the entire Brigade.
The beams pounded against the drill, forcing Simon back even as Gurren Lagann's levisphere flared like a miniature sun. Kiyal screamed as the drill, too, began to crack. Over the roaring of the energy beams, Simon's voice could be dimly heard shouting for the Brigade to retreat. The scattered Ganmen needed no orders, turning tail and jetting away as fast as possible, faster than was even safe, at speeds that could potentially rip their machines apart. In moments they were far away, hopefully far enough that they would survive. Behind them, though, lagged the twins, their mecha the slowest as usual. The two halves of the Twin Boukun struggled to get away, badly uncoordinated as neither pilot was used to piloting alone. Simon gritted his teeth and pushed all he had into Gurren Lagann, desperately willing it to hold together to buy time for them to escape.
Then the drill broke.
The barrage of laser fire shattered the drill into a million fragments, sending bits of metal flying. They then lanced forward, towards the fleeing Brigade.
Kittan hollered as a lance of red light gored his mecha's legs.
Kidd yelped as his other massive leg was shattered, and his support levisphere with it. Thankfully, Ainzer's large legs grabbed the head of the Kidd Knuckle and prevented it from falling into the ocean.
But the twins weren't fast enough. Red energy consumed them, engulfed them entirely.
After several seconds, the lasers thinned and dissipated entirely. The air still crackled with residual energy, but otherwise, it was as if the entire world stood still, shocked into a stunned silence. All that remained after the attack was a single red Ganman, burnt and smouldering. Its levisphere faltered, sputtered, and died completely, the green flame flickering out like a candle that has run out of oxygen to consume.
Simon felt his heart convulse painfully, and Lagann popped up from Gurren.
On cue, Gurren's many injuries manifested themselves. Scores and craters formed on the hull. The levisphere pack exploded, pushed far past its limit. The eyes and shades shattered.
Kiyal screamed as Gurren dropped like a brick.
Lagann fell, limp and lifeless, into the ocean below.
"Well what do you think, Ribo darling?" oiled Kuroko as she stared back from her monitor. Suddenly, all of her mini-screens vanished and were replaced with Ribo sitting on his chair, head bowed. His shoulders shuddered a little, a chuckle coming from the speakers.
"This proves it!" he hissed. He raised his head; he was smiling widely, and a strange gleam was in his eyes. "This was destiny! I am the heir to Lordgenome; I will pierce the heavens, not some tiny digger looking for fame! I could dance, I feel so elated!" He almost did, standing from his chair, but instead of dancing he pointed a finger at his own set of monitors.
"Only the best players win at this game, Simon the Digger. And in this game...you have lost!"
Yoko stood at the door to Kuroko's office, hiding slightly around the corner. Blood leaked form her lower lip where she had bitten it in order to prevent any sound from giving away her position. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
'Jorgun…Balinbow…Simon…' She peeked through the door once more. Ribo sipped at a glass of wine, chuckling only sporadically, while Kuroko appeared to be utterly immersed in a set of blueprints, making changes and modifications.
'So he thinks this is some sort of game, does he…' The redhead struggled not to scream. Heart torn in half, she stormed off to the firing range, feeling frustrated and useless. She hoped that imagining Ribo as one of the targets would ease her pain somewhat.
In the darkness, a Ganman skimmed along the surface of the water. It flew low, as close to the surface as possible, ignoring the possibility of underwater Ganmen in fear of other, more terrifying threats. As it flew along it scanned its surroundings, searching.
At length it came across a giant mechanical figure and a much smaller one floating along in the water. There was no shout, no exclamation of joy at this finding. Rather, the Ganman carefully picked up its target and lifted it off to a darker blot that hovered high in the sky.
The wrecks were gently and cautiously lowered onto the ship's deck. Before they had even touched down, teams of men had rushed out of the main hangar to greet them. They scrambled about it, stabilizing them, preparing stretchers, and striving to get them open. Eventually one cockpit was found and wrenched open. The other was carefully burned open with the use of small lasers. Two unmoving figures were pulled out and moved onto the stretchers. A slender man inspected them, checking them for damage. A girl ran out from the hangar, trying to reach one of the still forms, but was restrained by the man. At a wave of his hand the stretchers were wheeled back into the Dai-Gan's hangar, past a small group of shadows that waited solemnly. They followed the stretchers inside, and behind them, the other teams began working on the battered wreck of the Ganman that had been their motivation and inspiration.
Simon opened his eyes, and saw nothing. But it wasn't a dark nothing. It was a white nothing, like a white void, a blank canvas of non-existence.
Then his eyes adjusted, and he realized he was looking at the roof of the ship's infirmary.
At that, pain exploded against his skull. Every part of him ached, and then some. His mouth tasted the way it does when you haven't had a drink of water in forever. His lips felt dry and cracked. His head pounded with the worst headache he had ever felt.
Despite all this he sat up. Blinking around tears of pain, he looked around. In the next bed on his right there lay someone else; Zorthy, he realized after a few seconds. Sozoshin's chain-smoking pilot was breathing easily, as if he were only sleeping. Something seemed wrong, however. His form underneath the blankets looked...wrong. Simon dropped his gaze to his bedsheets, unwilling to comprehend any further.
"You're awake. And alive."
Simon turned his head in the other direction. At the door to the infirmary stood Leeron, arms crossed. Both his voice and his stance were uncharacteristically devoid of the energy and humour that normally seemed to fill him.
"Battered and beaten, but alive." The mechanic and doctor sat down at the edge of another bed. "Though I guess I really shouldn't be surprised."
Simon nodded dumbly.
"A thousand things could've gone wrong. Broken spine, broken neck, internal damage and bleeding, piercing from mechanical parts, brain injury...but nothing. Not even a fractured finger. You're either very lucky, or have one hell of a guardian angel."
Simon turned away, toward Zorthy again.
"Yes, he's sedated pretty heavily. I bet you can see why."
Simon moved his tongue around a bit and licked his lips. When his voice came out, it was crackly and uncertain.
"...Kiyal?"
"Behind that curtain." Leeron nodded to a curtain that cut off a portion of the infirmary. "Girls' side, you understand. She's pretty much in the same condition you are; bruised, but not broken. I think she'll wake up soon." Leeron sighed. "You two have been out for a couple days, though. Had us all scared sick. I had to put an IV in you."
Simon touched his arm and felt the tube running from his wrist. He followed it with his eyes, up to a plastic bag that hung from a hook.
He worked his tongue some more and swallowed. Leeron handed him some water in a paper cup, and he sipped at it gratefully. When he had finished, he spoke again, and this time his voice was clearer.
"Did you find them?"
"Who?" asked Leeron.
"You know who I'm talking about. Did you find them?"
Leeron shook his head.
"Nothing. Not even a scrap of metal."
Simon looked down into the empty paper cup. His fingers trembled, and the remaining dregs of water shivered at the bottom of the cup. His vision blurred again as tears flowed, running down his cheeks.
He roared in frustration and slammed his fist into the small table next to his bed. A vase of flowers that had been placed there toppled and smashed, spilling water and flowers all over the floor. Leeron stood silently as Simon burst out sobbing, clutching his hands to his face.
"I told them to stay behind. Those idiots…"
Less than a day later, Simon was up again. Aches and pains still plagued his body, but he was up.
His first action was to order Dayakka to stop the Dai-Gurren's limping retreat back to the mainland. His second was to call an emergency Brigade meeting.
There were more empty chairs than ever before. The few that remained sat in a somber silence, waiting for their leader to speak.
For several moments, Simon just looked at the new empty chairs. The two towards the end, the chairs that the twins had never been able to sit still in. Now they wouldn't have to endure it anymore. His focus shifted to one on the other side. Zorthy's chair, the chair that he'd never be able to sit in again.
He prepared himself to speak again. To address everyone's fears, to address the problems they faced. Kittan, Kidd, Iraak and Makken looked at him expectantly.
But before he could speak, he was interrupted as the door slammed open.
"You bastards thought you'd start without me, huh?" roared the intruder as he wheeled into the room.
"Zorthy?" gasped Kittan. "You're supposed to be in bed!"
"Decided I didn't want to miss this," the injured pilot proclaimed. "Besides, those bastards owe me a pair of legs."
Despite all the effort given to not look down, all eyes turned to look at the bandaged stumps that had once been Zorthy's legs. They had been severed completely, almost at the hip. Realizing their error, the Brigadiers quickly looked away, partly to try and be polite, but mostly because of the gut-wrenching grief they felt, thinking of what had been lost.
"Yeah, look at them, you sons of bitches!" growled Zorthy. "Look at them and remember why you're fighting! Why we're all fighting! Those douchebags aren't going to stop until we're dead! If you're thinking about retreating, then I'll come over there and beat the crap out of ya!"
"Good thing we're not planning on retreating," informed Simon. "But thanks for the motivation."
"Oh! Well...great!" said Zorthy, relieved. "So, when are we heading out?"
"We?" spluttered Iraak. "We? You can't pilot a Ganman!"
"Damn straight I can! If you think I'm going to sit back just 'cause I can't stand-!"
"Enough!" bellowed Simon. Instantly everything fell silent. He nodded and sat back in his chair.
"Zorthy can pilot if he wants to. End of story." He raised a hand to quiet the inevitable arguments. "End. Of. Story. Now let's get to what I really called you in for."
Zorthy rolled himself over to where his seat was. With one hand he leaned over and moved the chair away, then rolled his wheelchair in.
"By the way, has anyone got a smoke?" asked the chair-bound pilot. "I lost my last pack when my pockets were sliced off."
Six heads shook to indicate no. Zorthy crossed his arms and grumbled in annoyance.
"Zorthy's recent losses aside," said Simon bluntly, "we've sustained pretty heavy losses. I'm going to be up front about it, because we can't ignore what happened."
"Remember what you told Rossiu, Simon?" interrupted Kittan, slamming his fist on the table. "'Don't tell us those numbers,' I think you said."
Simon stared at him coldly. The blonde pilot reluctantly backed down, muttering "Bozo..."
"Let's start with the main Brigade. When we went into battle...Out of all of us, only Makken came out relatively unscathed. King Kittan took considerable damage, and lost a leg. Kidd Coega lost both legs. Ainzer suffered extensive damage to the internal systems due to the shockwave of that last attack. Gurren Lagann was pretty much totaled. Sozoshin lost half of its main body, and Zorthy was permanently injured. The twins..." Simon gulped, gathered his courage, and went on.
"The twins are dead."
A dead silence draped its dark folds over the assembled warriors. None of them had wanted to admit it. None of them wanted to remember what had been lost. But it had to be said. They had to be properly remembered.
"Furthermore," Simon continued after several moments, breaking the gloomy quiet. "Out of the new recruits we got when we left Littner, twenty survived, most of them injured in some way."
"That's not too bad, isn't it?" commented Iraak nervously, trying to alleviate the tension somewhat. "I mean, that's over double the number of us Brigadiers. More of them made it through than us."
"We started with over sixty."
Iraak fell back in his chair, crushed under the sheer weight of those numbers.
"While I'm ready to blame lack of experience for the...loss...of the recruits, we didn't have that excuse." Simon looked about at his brothers in arms. "What do you think caused our losses?"
"The new units," said Makken gruffly. "They caught us off-guard. And they had new weapons."
"I think so too," agreed Simon. "Their technology was too advanced. We couldn't keep up. I don't know about the rest of you, but stuff like that was impossible for me to imagine until a few days ago."
The Brigade shivered, remembering the awesome might of the energy cannons that had finally brought them down.
"That said, we have some good news. Leeron's been at work analyzing the sword Makken brought back, and he thinks we'll be able to make more of them for ourselves. He says he still doesn't know about the shields or the cannons, but it's a start. When we attack again, we'll have the swords at least."
"Why even bother?" moaned Kidd. He had his head in his hands, and shuddered in despair. "We can't get through those cannons. They'll destroy us! Look at what they did to Jorgun and Balinbow! We'll all end up like them! It's impossible!"
"You cowardly bastard!" yelled Kittan, standing and pulling Kidd up by the scruff of his neck. "Do I have to remind you what our motto is?"
"It's just words!"
"KICK LOGIC OUT AND DO THE IMPOSSIBLE!" screamed Kittan in Kidd's face. "THAT'S THE DAI-GURREN WAY!"
"Sit the hell down, Kittan!" shouted Simon, and the eldest Bachika threw his teammate back down in his chair before sitting down himself. Simon's fingers twitched nervously; he was beginning to lose control, and that wasn't good. He quickly calmed himself before continuing.
"Sometimes, a digger finds a rock he can't break. Or maybe it's just too dangerous to break." He looked Kidd in the eyes, daring him to speak up. "But that doesn't mean it's impossible to keep going. Sometimes, you just have to dig around it."
"And how to you suggest we do that, Mr. Digger?" asked Zorthy skeptically. "Because, you know, it's kind of hard to dig anywhere when you're surrounded by water."
"You must have forgotten our battle with the General Adiane," answered Makken coolly. "Simon has dug through water before."
"And I'll do it again," promised the digger. "I'll dig through the water, and I'll break into Centrallio from below."
"You're insane!" said Kiyal, standing up with her hands on the table, concern evident on her face. "Ribo's definitely got that place secured tight, both above and below the water!"
"Then I'll go down farther than he has defenses."
"The water pressure will crush you!"
"No, it won't." Simon crossed his arms. "Kiyal, stop this. You know I can make it. I'll drill right down into the seafloor if I have to; nothing can stop me when I'm digging."
"This might sound cliché, but...then let me go with you!"
"No."
"Why?"
"Understand this. It's not a matter of danger." Simon bowed his head respectfully. "You're a warrior, like me. We've chosen to live our lives out in constant danger, and you've been doing this longer than I have. I wouldn't keep you behind just because I thought it was too dangerous." He lifted his head. "But this time, I have to keep you out of danger, because you're not just a warrior anymore. You're the Brigade's interim leader."
Kiyal was stunned.
"I need somebody to lead Dai-Gurren while I'm gone. Once I've disabled the laser cannons from the inside, I need somebody to lead them in the counterattack. And, in the case I don't...I need somebody to take over."
"Simon...I'm not ready."
"Yes, you are."
"No, I'm not!" Kiyal's eyes shone with fright. "I can't lead them. Especially if you...die. I'm not a leader, Simon. I've followed Kittan, I've followed you, but I've never wanted to lead. I can't take that responsibility. Accept it."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"I don't believe you, but if this is what you want...All right. Kittan will be the interim leader. But you're still not coming."
"Again, why?" Kiyal's voice trembled with frustration. "Why are you so hell-bent on keeping me away?"
"Because I have to do this alone." He shook his head. "I don't know why. But that's the way it is."
"Dammit, Simon!" Kiyal slammed the table and sat down again in anger. "I know I can't change your mind, but...you're such a bozo sometimes!"
"Truly your brother's sister..." muttered Simon with a smile. Kiyal looked at him strangely, but he didn't repeat his thought.
"Dai-Gurren, get some rest," ordered the young commander. "Tomorrow I'm going in, and I want you to be ready to attack when you get the signal."
The Brigade filed out and headed off to the sleeping quarters to do just what they had been told to do. Each head was a stew pot of thoughts and opinions regarding what was going on, but no one spoke a word.
The only common thought was that, come the morrow, their fates would be decided for certain.
"I'm sorry I forgot you," apologized Simon to Dayakka.
"That's okay," replied Dai-Gurren's captain. "I knew about the meeting, but I was busy anyways."
"Busy? How?"
"I was with Kiyoh, helping take care of the recruits. We took a real beating."
"I know." Once again, Simon felt that heavy feeling in his heart. "But it isn't something we haven't faced before."
"I know that," sighed Dayakka. "But everyone's feeling tired. No, make that exhausted. A lot of us want to give up."
"But we won't," added Simon quickly. "We'll never give up."
"I know that," said the captain. "Stubbornness is kind of the only thing we all have in common."
The two leaders laughed together.
"Say, mind taking over for a bit?" asked Dayakka. "I want to go be with the Kiyoh. In the engine room. You know, helping repair the engines and stuff?"
"I understand," said Simon understandingly. "Brigade leader and Captain, though? I'm not sure I need another set of responsibilities."
Dayakka chuckled and assured him it was only temporary before rushing into the lift and rushing down to the engineering deck.
Simon smiled for his friend. He understood well indeed.
The sun rose again, the seventh day since the Brigade's staggering defeat at Centrallio. Rays of sunlight skipped and played along the surface of the ocean, turning it into a gleaming spectacle of light.
Above it floated Dai-Gurren, and on its deck waited the Brigade, prepared to begin the counterattack.
"We have to succeed today," warned Leeron to the assembled Brigade. "They've almost certainly sent for reinforcements, and if they get here before we're done, we're doomed."
"Don't worry," said Simon confidently. "I'll be done in there before the day is up, and by tomorrow morning, Centrallio will be ours."
"And Yoko will be free," added Kittan.
"Hopefully," corrected the Brigade's leader. He looked at his assembled troops, feeling that hope fill his chest.
"Wish me luck."
Unceremoniously, Lagann dropped over the Dai-Gurren's edge, falling faster and faster before disappearing beneath the waves with a distant splash.
"Did you seriously forget to send reinforcements?" Enzai glared at his liege through the monitor, frustration welling up in him.
"I was too caught up in the moment, and I forgot. What does it matter anyway? We have the HELCs now, and Centrallio still has Ganmen in reserve."
The massive Spiral Knight growled, low in his throat.
"Now, now. Don't be rude, Enzai Golgi!" Clora's face invaded the screen from the left edge. "You just might get reprimanded."
"My liege, I must insist!" the hulking Knight practically spat. "Sending reinforcements is of the utmost priority!"
"All right, fine." Ribo opened another channel and gave some orders. "There. They're off."
"What were you thinking...?" Enzai palmed his forehead. "What if they attacked?"
"We have the HELCs now, like I said. They can't get in."
"It's still just sound strategic sense. Have you forgotten everything Mito taught you?"
"I was too caught up in the joy of victory, like I said. Now I have business to attend to."
The screen winked out, but not before Clora was able to make a face at her fellow knight.
Enzai put his hands to his head, his elbows resting on the Dai-Gantei's control console. Between his Emperor, the other Knights, and being cooped up in Dai-Gantei, he thought he might very well go insane.
In the darkness, a pair of fluffy pointed ears perked up.
The twitched back and forth, trying to pick up a faint sound that disturbed the pervasive silence that had been existence for longer than their owner cared to remember.
Night and day were nonexistent in the inky-black void, but the owner of the ears was still capable of keeping a somewhat-accurate count of the days as they rolled past. According to that account, it had been an exciting week - first, the sounds and smells of battle, something that was more than familiar. Something that hadn't been smelled in ages. And now, this.
At the thought of smell, a nose snuffled, trying to gain some sense of what was happening. The only thing it smelled was the same non-smell it had smelled for years. So, the new disturbance wasn't another battle. But then, what was it.
Suddenly, the nose was hit with a wave of new smells. The distinct aroma of freshly turned earth rolled forward across the darkness, immersing everything in its perfume. At the same time, the ears were assaulted with the sound of a kind of explosion, as if the ground had suddenly burst like a ripe fruit. The sound broke the silence violently and cruelly, making the owner of the ears flinch in shock.
Laced in the cloud of earth-scent, however, were other scents. The most prominent among them was the smell of human sweat. At this realization, the nose twitched, and the ears stood straight up. An interested eye opened, golden and slit like a cat's, curious as to whether or not this new event would bring an end to the darkness as well as the silence and the non-smell.
As if on cue, light erupted into the chamber. At first the eye was blinded by the sudden change. Soon, however, it adjusted, and widened at the curious sight beheld.
Buried halfway in the dirt was a strange machine, like a Ganman but smaller. Standing up from inside it was a figure, clad in blue, with a shock of dark hair. The figure's back was turned to the owner of the ears, eyes and nose, but that was almost preferable, as it provided a sight that caused the owner's interest to reach levels that would have otherwise been unattainable.
Emblazoned on the back of the figure was a red, flaming skull, bearing a pair of angular black shades.
A mouth stretched into an amused smirk, revealing a row of sharp, pointed teeth.
"Who are you, boy, to be wearing my emblem...?"
And that's chapter 10. Truly one of 1 over 0's longest works. Next chapter will be written up by me.