Heart of Metal
Chapter 10: If You Can't Beat 'Em...
That Monday, Sadato calmly walked home after eating at Kintoukido. While he had plans for that day, though they just involved doing homework, the evil inside of him had other ideas.
Admittedly, Sadato actually didn't remember exactly what transpired during his last encounter with the PPGZ. In fact, he usually didn't remember very much of whatever had happened when he was Metal Morph. Bits and pieces stood out in his memories, but they were usually very faded, and didn't give him much indication as to what he had done.
Of course, this meant that he didn't have a very big clue as to how evil his other side really was. In his normal form, Sadato was as kind, caring, and gentle as can be. Maybe not as much as Miyako, but still.
But, just because he couldn't remember exactly what went on when he was Metal, that didn't mean that couldn't remember the fact that he had lost. And while Sadato tried not to care as much as he could, there was this odd part of him, a part that was right at his core, that just screamed out, wanting revenge.
Though he managed to ignore it well, eventually, the all too familiar pain would shoot through his skull at some point or another, signaling that his body wanted him to transform. He had tried to ignore the pain, which only made it grow with time. He then took a couple painkillers, hoping they'd curb the ache. While they lessened it at first, it only lasted for a few hours, before the pain came back with a vengeance.
He decided to dub the odd pain the, 'Metal Migraine,' so as to have a name to call it by in the future. For shortening purposes, he abbreviated it to the 'MM'.
Sure enough, that Monday, the day after Metal's last fight, luckily after school, the MM went off again almost immediately after Sadato walked into his house.
Groaning, Sadato hung his coat on the coat rack near the door, then went up to his room, throwing his bag onto his bed.
"Are you serious?" he asked aloud, as if whatever internal force that was controlling the pain could hear him.
The MM simply continued to throb in his head, and Sadato sighed.
"At least let me finish my homework," he bargained, not really expecting anything to happen.
He was then surprised when the pain lessened severely, so much so that he now barely felt it. Though, it was still present, enough so that he wouldn't forget about it while he was working.
So, he thought, whatever's controlling this sense...is sentient?
Shaking off the thought, Sadato got to work on what little work he actually had to complete. Though, at a slower pace, so as to delay his transformation.
It turned out that, after some careful testing from the professor, that the white light had no adverse effects while the girls weren't transformed.
Unfortunately, while their injuries were healing faster than they would be without the light, they were still in no condition to battle crime. After testing it out, just transforming was extremely painful. The professor said that he'd have to calculate how long it would be until they fully healed.
Until then, they just hoped that the local villains would remain quiet. They had been for the past week or so, and hopefully it would stay that way. Though, they were really only worried about one villain in particular.
After their healing session, which involved pumping as much artificial white light as the professor dared into the girls' bodies, they decided that it might be a good idea to strategize against Metal, for whenever their next fight with him arose.
Playing back footage that the cameras around the area captured, the girls, the professor, Ken, and Peach all looked on in order to try and find some sort of flaw in Metal's fighting.
They found no such flaw until they came to the part when Metal's creations suddenly seemed less durable and stopped forming.
After rewinding the clips several times, the professor pondered exactly why Metal's shield had broken so easily, and why his ball and chain had not completely formed.
"I think I might know what happened," Ken finally said, standing up and typing away at the computer below the monitor.
"I've only got so much metal?" Metal shouted out to his empty training area in the forest, as if some being would provide him with an explanation.
As much as he wanted to deny it, the fact remained. The metal contained within his body wasn't infinite, and eventually, it ran out.
"Dammit!" he swore, punching a tree in anger. Of course, the tree easily broke, flying back and knocking over several more trees before stopping.
"Well this is just great!" Metal sarcastically said to himself. "How am I supposed to get my metal back?"
From earlier testing, he knew that the alloy he produced was special. It always had just the slightest tint of purple and black when it was made, and after some strength testing, it was a hell of a lot stronger than even a special titanium alloy he had stolen from some construction site.
He hoped that he wouldn't have to use some other alloy, for fear that it wouldn't be strong enough for combat purposes.
He was just about to punch another tree in anger, and probably decimate the forest that much more, he had a brainwave.
"Wait a second," he said aloud, "is it really that simple...?"
Walking over to his training post, which was still there, he then placed his hand on the body, concentrating inwardly.
Suddenly, the post began to shrink, almost as if it was decomposing from all sides simultaneously in the general direction of Metal's hand.
Eventually, the entire post had completely disappeared into Metal's hand, and owner of said hand smiled, having figured out the solution to his conundrum.
At least, he hoped he had.
He needed one other test, however, to confirm that he could really use this ability.
Flying into the air, he made a beeline for a specific area.
The Tokyo Junkyard.
"You think Metal only has so much...metal?" Kaoru asked, hesitating in the middle of her sentence due to how odd it sounded.
"Exactly," Ken confirmed. "Metal's creations near the end of your fight had significantly less mass and durability to them than at the start. I also noticed that when he was examining that ball and chain that didn't form properly, it seemed to still be forming, which tells me that Metal's body produces its own metal at a very slow rate."
"Then, does that mean he's out of metal right now?" Momoko asked.
"Possibly," Ken replied, "but, if my theory is correct, and Metal thinks at least half as well as he fights, then that means he'll be able to absorb more metal from any source."
"Won't that harm him though?" Miyako asked. "I mean, I doubt any metal he could absorb is stronger than what we can break."
"I can debunk that," the professor said, standing up, while Ken took his seat.
The professor began typing away at the keyboard, and a picture of Metal showed up on the monitor. Several small labels with lines pointing to various parts of Metal's body then appeared, with each label sporting various data points.
"My theory," the professor explained, "is that the black light inside Metal somehow changes whatever metal he absorbs into his own unique alloy. Knowing this, he's probably getting back the Metal he lost in the fight right now."
"Which means..." he trailed off, typing several more commands into the console.
The screen then flashed to a live camera feed from the Tokyo Junkyard.
For a moment, the girls expected for the professor to complete his sentence, but instead, something else did.
Suddenly, on the screen, a prominent piece of metal that was sticking out from the rest suddenly vanished. Immediately afterwards, more metal from that area also began to rapidly disappear.
"W-what's that?" Momoko asked, scared as to what the answer might be.
Instead of answering, the professor merely zoomed in with the camera to reveal a certain black figure grabbing giant pieces of metal and absorbing them into his body, all the while laughing maniacally.
"There he is," the professor said. "As I thought."
He then turned to face the girls, who all had scowls on their faces.
"Now that he knows about his ability to absorb metal, girls, that means he's going to implement it into his fighting. So, next time you fight him, I'd recommend trying to lead him into the forest, or someplace that doesn't have a lot of metal. Fighting in the city, he'll have practically unlimited amounts of it."
The girls nodded, each leaving mental notes to remember that during their next fight.
"Though," the professor added, "I don't think he'll cause trouble for a while."
"Why do you say that?" Miyako asked.
"Metal Morph is probably just figuring out about his limited metal supply," he explained, "just like we are. That means that he still doesn't know everything about his own powers. My prediction is that not only will he be spending some time figuring out other things he doesn't know, but also, waiting for you girls to heal."
At this, the girls each cocked an eyebrow.
"Why would Metal wait for us to heal?" Kaoru asked. "If he's a monster, then he'd surely take the chance to pound us while we can't fight."
"Well," the professor said, "I think that Metal isn't quite like that. You see, most monsters have a motive to why they fight. Mojo, however pathetic his attempts are, wants to take revenge on humans. Princess wants to stand out more than other people. Even the Gangreen Gang has a sort of motive; they want to become famous, in a way."
"So I ask you this," he finished. "What's Metal Morph's motive to why he fights you?"
The girls, each unable to answer, simply looked at each other before turning back to the professor.
"The answer is that he wants to be the strongest. The black light from Him's body is extremely evil in every way. Wanting to triumph over you, girls, and be stronger than you is most likely his goal. Now, there's another possibility, and that's that Metal just likes to fight strong opponents. That would explain why he wasn't very angry at the end of your last fight."
"I think," he concluded, "that we take this window of opportunity to prepare for our next encounter with Metal."
"How do we do that?" Momoko questioned. "We're still injured from our last fight."
The professor nodded. "I know. But, with some calculating, I was able to find out that I can increase the amount of white light I pump into you every day by a certain amount. If my calculations are correct, you girls should be all healed by Friday."
At this, the three girls all shouted out, "All right!" and fist-pumped together. The professor smiled.
"Then," he continued, "we'll start your training."
This is a short one, but it sets up the next few chapters.
Odd thing, I noticed that nobody reviewed last chapter. *confused face* I mean, sure, I said that I wouldn't be responding to reviews that didn't have a whole lot of meat to them, but still, I do like the usual, "Great chapter! Can't wait for more!" review. ):?
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