For this next chapter, let's step back two weeks...
Rust Bucket...
June Darby was looking through a photo album and found a picture of a young black haired boy with a German Shepard puppy.
Jack walked by her, so she decided to show Jack the picture that stood out to her. "Hey Jack, look what I found while looking through some of these photo albums that I kept in here." She Handed Jack the photo.
"Oh, I remember this!" Jack recognized the boy in the picture as himself, but when he was younger than Raf.
"You wanted to keep it, remember." June said, smiling as she remembered a much younger Jack seeing the brown cardboard box on the side of the road that he made her stop to see what was in it, despite it being both dark and rainy.
"Can we keep him?" June remembered a younger Jack asking her. "Please?"
"I wasn't able to keep him." Jack said somberly.
"Yeah, but you did name him, remember." June tried to remember what Jack named the dog. "It wasn't Dogmeat. That was your dad's idea. It was..."
Jack remembered what he named the dog. "It was Jiro." He told his mom with a smile on his face.
Later...
Jack and Arcee, the latter in her Sadie guise were walking down a brick road. Jack had a white bag in his hands while Arcee was carrying a broom.
"Guess we'll be cleaning today." Jack said.
Arcee nodded. They saw a large group of people crowd around something. "Huh? What's going on over there?" Asked Arcee.
"Let's go take a look." Suggested Jack. The two of them went to go see what was so popular.
They saw that people were taking pictures of a man that was wearing a red leather jacket, a black shirt underneath it, and blue jeans. The man had a guitar case on his back. Now that would be normal and wouldn't be worth taking photos of if not for the fact that he seemed to be frozen in place by some mysterious force.
"What the heck is he doing?" Arcee asked.
"Maybe he's a street performer." Jack suggested.
Arcee was confused. "He's not doing anything."
Jack explained. "Some people like to pretend that they're robots."
Feeling a tad offended, Arcee retorted. "Just like some people like to pretend that they're aliens."
"Oh ha ha. But still, you gotta admit it's cool." Jack was about to see how this guy would react if he tapped him, but it started to rain.
Later...
Jack and Arcee, along with several other people were waiting under a bridge for the rain to stop. However, the street performer was still standing in place.
Not wanting this guy to catch a cold, Jack and Arcee ran out into the rain, Arcee using an umbrella to keep herself dry. "Hey! You're gonna catch a cold!" Jack shouted. He grabbed onto the street performer's hand and tried to pull on it. It moved, but the sound of creaking metal was heard. His and Arcee's eyes went wide. Jack tapped his knuckles on the strange man's cheek and the sound that is made when you tap a metal door was heard.
"He's made of metal?" Arcee was in disbelief.
"Then he really is a robot." Jack said.
A bolt of lightning hit a clock, causing the clock to spin around rapidly, the bolt arced from the clock to the metal man. The clock stopped at 11:00. As the clock rang, the metal man stepped forward.
"Look!" Arcee shouted. "He moved." Arcee knew enough about human anatomy to know that if a human was struck by lightning, moving would be the last thing they would do
The man turned to face Jack and Arcee.
Later, at the Rust Bucket...
Jack and Arcee had gotten the robotic human back to the RV. Jack came out of the bathroom with a towel. Arcee was now in her smaller robot mode
"Alright, let's get you dried off." Jack touched the robot's hair to see if it was still wet, and found that it was as dry as Heatblast. "What the? He's already dry."
"But he should be drenched." Said Arcee. Red and Blue energy arced up and down the man.
That caught the attention of Raf, who was reading about a remake of the movie Robocop.
"What the?" Jack saw a green holographic button that had the word REBOOT above it. "What's this? Reboot. Hey Raf, what does this mean?"
Raf walked over and looked at the hologram. "Reboot. It means to restart. It's a term frequently used with computers."
"Hmm. Just what you'd expect from a human made robot." Arcee said.
The man said this and responded. "Robot?"
"Yeah. We're talking about you." Jack said.
"I am a machine?" He saw Arcee. "Are you two also machines?"
"A machine?" Arcee scoffed. "I'm a cybertronian, and Jack's a human."
"But this is a machine." Jack showed the robot man the Omnitrix. "Oh, and I'm Jack Darby, but you can just call me Jack."
"Jack." The man said.
"Yes." Jack then introduced him to his friends. "And this is Arcee. And Raf."
The man turned to face Arcee. "Arcee." The cybertronian nodded.
He turned to face Raf. "Raf."
"Okay." Raf cautiously said.
"Hey, what's your name?" Jack asked. The robotic man turned his head away from Jack. "Your name."
The robotic man faced Jack before answering. "Jiro."
"Jiro?!" Jack was surprised that this guy's name was the same as the dog he couldn't keep.
"Do you remember anything other than your name?" Asked Arcee.
"I don't." Jiro responded.
"He must still be in shock from the lightning." Arcee complained.
"Like a blank computer."
"I got an idea!" Jack spoke up. "You can stay with us until you can remember."
"Jack, your mom's gonna freak." Raf said.
Later...
Jiro was in the Rust Bucket's kitchen cooking. He reached his hand into a pot of boiling water and picked up a piece of potato.
"You picked up a robot?" June, who was taking this far better than expected, said.
"He has amnesia, so I thought maybe reading some books would trigger something. Besides, it's either that or going to cybertron to get his memories from Vector Sigma." Jack joked.
"And how did he handle reading?"
"Well, he went all Johnny 5 and read them in a flash."
June picked up a magazine that had an RV that looked exactly like the rust bucket on the front.
"Hmm, so that's why the Rust Bucket's looking factory new." June then realized that it may be factory new mechanically as well.
"That's a robot like Jiro for you. They always do jobs perfectly."
"True, but he better not've touched all the modifications that my dad made. If he did, then it's off to the scrapyard for him." June threatened.
"Don't worry, he said he found a bunch of things that weren't standard, but he left them alone."
Jiro walked over to Jack and handed him a bowl of Nikujaga(lit. meat potato). "Ah! Hot! Hot!" Jack shouted. He managed to place the bowl down gentluy without breaking it.
Jiro put a bowl of the same dish in front of June. "Wow. You did it perfectly."
"See? And he'll be able to help you out when I'm out fighting aliens."
"Aliens?" Jiro asked. "What are aliens?"
"They're any creature that's not from the earth."
"What do they look like?"
"Mom, can I show him?"
"Sure, go ahead. It's not like he's a threat or anything." June gave Jack to use the Omnitrix in front of Jiro. Jack selected one of his aliens and picked Upgrade. He slammed down the dial and was turned into Grey Matter instead.
"Grey Matter? Seriously Omnitrix, we have a guest."
Jiro reached down and picked up Grey Matter. "Are all aliens this tiny?" The android asked.
"Hardly." Grey Matter scoffed. "There are tons of different aliens, some bigger than the buildings outside. Now could you please put me down?"
"Okay." Jiro placed Grey Matter back on the table. Grey Matter tried to reach the Omnitrix dial to return to being human, but Jiro helped him out by pressing it down for him.
"So, about Jiro, maybe for the time being?" Jack wanted to keep Jiro around, but June thought otherwise.
"Jack, this isn't like picking up a puppy."
"But! I can't just leave him to rust in the rain!" Jack pleaded. "I'll take good care of him."
June gave in. "Fine, but only for a little while."
"Isn't this great Jiro?!" Jack gave Jiro a hug and patted him on the back.
Jiro, in response patted Jack on the back as well, but did so with a lot more force and kind of hurt Jack.
"Hold on, you said his name was Jiro?" June said after chuckling upon seeing Jack get hurt. She stood up from the table and made her way to the dashboard and grabbed the picture of Jack and the puppy that he named Jiro. She handed the picture to Jack. "Just like that dog, remember?"
"Jack, what's this photo?" Jiro asked.
"Me and a dog I wasn't able to keep." Replied Jack. "Sure wish I could've kept him though." As Jack spoke, Jiro scanned the picture.
"Leave it to me." Jiro said. He exited the Rust Bucket.
"Where are you going? What about lunch?" Jack shouted.
Jiro poked his head in the Rust Bucket and whispered: "I don't eat."
June and Jack shrugged. They both picked up a piece of potato with their fork and took a bit out of it. They thought it tasted good, until the salt kicked in.
"Too salty!" Jack groaned.
"In hindsight, we should've expected this. Unlike Arcee, he can't taste things."
The door opened. "I'm back." Jiro came in with a puppy in his hands. He handed the dog to Jack. "I found your dog, Jack."
"No... it was a puppy from when I was a kid." Jack didn't know how to react to what Jiro had done.
"So this isn't it?" Jiro was confused.
Later...
Jack and Jiro were walking through a park.
"Don't feel down." Jack tried to comfort his new robotic friend.
"I apologize. I thought it would please you, Jack."
"You sure are nice." Jack thought that for a robot, Jiro was rather polite.
"I wanted to thank you for saving me."
"Oh? It seems even a robot made by humans can have a heart." Jack said. "Thanks Jiro."
"Help!" Jack heard somebody scream.
"What?" Jack ran to go see what the problem was.
Jack saw a red and black alien that had goat like features was attacking a group of people.
It sidekicked a woman in her chest. Two kids ran by Jack and Jiro.
"Where is the Omnitrix?" The alien asked a man that the alien had by the throat.
"The Omni-what?" The man was scared of the alien. "I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Another guy who's looking for the Omnitrix." Jack said. "Wait here." He told Jiro. "It's hero time!" Jack activated the Omnitrix and selected Heatblast. He got lucky and that was the alien he transformed into.
"What did you do?" Jiro asked.
"I transformed." Heatblast replied.
"Why?"
"To protect people."
Heatblast ran over to the goat alien and kicked it, which got it's attention. The Pyronite punched the alien, sending it back. "Run!" Heatblast told the people that had been attacked by the alien. The alien tried to punch Heatblast, but the blow was blocked. Heatblast then picked it up and threw it against a wall. The goat-demon alien got back up and then charged at the Omnitrix user horns first. Heatblast managed to grab the horns and use those to shove it to the side. Heatblast then flung two fireballs at the alien. "Get out of here!" Heatblast shouted at the people who for some reason have still decided to hang around.
"Protect..." Jiro said to himself. "... people."
Heatblast had been picked up by the goat alien and slammed down onto the ground. Heatblast then got back up and shot a stream of fire at the alien, forcing it back. The alien's eyes glowed red before its horns extended and twisted to form a spiral, which the alien used to drill into Heatblast, causing bits of rock to fly off of the Pyronite. It then used them to whip Heatblast, causing the flaming alien even more pain. It was about to finish Heatblast off, but it noticed in its peripheral vision, a trio of humans that had exited the building that it and Jack fought outside of.
It turned towards them and was going to kill them, but Jiro got in between in and the civilians.
"Watch out, Jiro!" Jack tried to warn his new friend, but Jiro wouldn't listen.
The alien was about to punch Jiro, but a part of Jiro's coding kicked in. He turned his head and punched the goat-demon alien square in the jaw, sending it back. Jiro then approached the alien. The red alien tried to kick Jiro, but its strike was blocked. Jiro then punched the side of the monster's head. The Narnia reject tried to claw Jiro, but he blocked his arms and punched the creature several times.
"Jiro... You..." Heatblast was unable to believe what he was seeing.
Jiro then jumped up and kicked the alien, which sent it rolling into the street.
Defeated, the alien chose to run off.
Heatblast approached a victorious Jiro. "So, are you a combat robot?" He asked.
"Me? A combat robot?" Jiro thought that over. "My body just moved on its own when I thought 'I have to protect those people.'"
At one of MECH's bases...
A black robot with yellow trim along its chestplate was on a table. A light shined on it. Around the table were several MECH scientist and a couple of Forever knights.
"What an interesting android." A MECH scientist said.
"Yes, it is." A forever knight said to the scientist.
"But where did you get it? It doesn't look like one of the Autobots, or even the Decepticons."
"One of the other groups that we fund, DARK had received word of Silas' defeat at the hands of the Autobots and Jack Darby and wished to allow him to be the first test subject for their latest project."
One of the scientists noticed something on a laptop screen. "What's this?" She asked. The image was of an android, but unlike this one, it was red and blue.
"That's just data from that android's memories." Another scientist said. "Scans show that he has two opposite emotions. A legendary hero." The scientist pressed a button on the keyboard, bringing up a textbox that had a word in it.
"Kikaider..." The female scientist said.
At the Rust Bucket...
Jack entered the RV to find Jiro and his mom talking. "I finished the laundry, what's next?" He asked.
"Well, you can help me fix the air conditioner next."
"Mom, don't you think that you might be overworking him?" Jack said.
"Please do not worry, Jack." Replied Jiro.
June was standing on a stool, trying to unscrew the air conditioner cover. She slipped and would've fallen if not for Jiro catching her.
"See? You heard Jiro."
Later...
Jack and Jiro were sitting on a bench that was outside of the Rust Bucket.
"So, do you remember anything?" Jack asked.
"Just a bit..."
"About what?"
"There was someone I had to protect." Jiro responded. "But... I don't remember who that is."
"That's great. Not the fact that you can remember the person you need to protect, but the fact that you know you have to protect someone. It's a big step to remembering who you are."
"I do not want to remember!" Jiro exclaimed.
"But why?"
Jiro turned to Jack. "Protecting means... I will have to fight. I don't like fighting."
Jack got a call on his phone. He answered it to find that it was Arcee.
"Jack!" Arcee said rather loudly.
"What is it 'cee?"
Later...
Jack had arrived at the adress that Arcee had told him to got to. He entered the warehouse and found that it was empty. A few seconds later, Arcee was tossed through a wall and landed a few meters in front of Jack. Arcee was shot at by something, which caused her to collapse.
"Arcee!" Jack shouted as he ran up to his partner. "What happened?" He held her up.
"What out! This guy's tougher than he looks. Jack turned to face a black humanoid robot that hat spiked shoulder pads. A transparent dome with what looked like a brain inside it. It had red optics, yellow lines in its chestplate that resembled the outline of a mask from Bionicle, and a silver belt with a red buckle. It holstered its black pistol and then looked at Jack.
"Good timing." The robot said with a voice Jack should recognize. "I was just thinking that fighting that pathetic Autobot is a waist of my current form's skill set. Don't you think, Mr Jackson Darby?"
"How do you know my name?!"
"It's no surprise that you don't recognize me." The robot said. "It's me. Colonel Leland Bishop. But I believe you know me, as Silas."
"What?!" Jack was unable to comprehend this. "But Optimus and I beat you!"
"True, you and Prime managed to defeat me at that encounter, but though my body was destroyed, my mind survived. And now it resides within this android body."
"Huh?"
"Now... have a taste of Hakaider's power!" Hakaider grabbed his pistol and pointed it at Jack. Jack activated the Omnitrix and turned into Four Arms. Four Arms managed to dodge some of Hakaider's shots, but some hit him, causing him minor damage. When Four Arms went in to punch Hakaider, he dodge the blow and got out of the way. Hakaider then grabbed one of Four Arms' ankles and tossed him into a pile of metal crates. Four Arms got up and punched Hakaider, but that didn't do anything. Hakaider then punched Four Arms, and managed to injure the Tetramand. Hakaider then grabbed Four Arm's clothing and lifted the Tetramand over his head and then slammed him into the ground. Four Arms, who was in a lot of pain, grabbed a chunk of concrete and flung it at Hakaider.
Hakaider in response fired four shots at Four Arms.
"Another killer robot that Silas is controlling. It's stronger than Jiro, maybe even stronger. Still, I gotta admit it's pretty cool." Four Arms commented.
"Oh, Jiro." Hakaider said. "For you to say that name."
"Wait, you know about Jiro?!"
"Jiro..." Hakaider began. "Also known as... Kikaider."
The Omnitrix dial blinked before returning Jack to normal. "Kikaider?"
"A combat robot created by Koumyouji Nobuhiko." Hakaider explained.
"What?"
"Knowing you Darby, you probably assumed he was your friend."
Jack noticed that the Omnitrix had recharged already. He stood up and selected Jackwolf. He transformed and charged at Kikaider, claws ready to strike. Hakaider just stood there, and when Jackwolf tried to claw him, he effortlessly blocked his attacks, then kicked him in the stomach, which distracted the werewolf alien and gave Hakaider an opening to punch Jackwolf's nose causing him further pain. Jackwolf stumbled back, Hakaider kept up with the retreating Loboan. The evil android punched and then kicked Jackwolf to the ground. Hakaider was about to shot Jackwolf, but Jackwolf opened up his muzzle's mandibles and howled at Hakaider, the force of which sent him to the other side of the warehouse. Hakaider recovered and took aim at Jackwolf and was about to fire and kill Jack, but Arcee, who had recovered jumped up and punched Hakaider square in his mechanical jaw. In response, Hakaider grabbed Arcee's arm and ripped it off effortlessly, and then proceeded to beat her with her own arm. He then grabbed Arcee by her neck and threw her against a wall of wooden crates.
"Arcee!" Jackwolf yelled, not wanting to see his partner get hurt. Hakaider then grabbed one of Jackwolf's ankles and tossed him in the same direction as Arcee, causing the Loboan to fall on the amputee autobot.
"That's enough data for now." Hakaider said. "I now take my leave." Hakaider exited the warehouse, leaving the two defeated.
In a flash of red light, Jackwolf was returned to being Jack. He limped over and picked up Arcee's severed arm. He brought it back to her. He notice that Arcee wasn't bleeding.
"Arcee, are you okay?" A concerned Jack asked.
"No."
"We have to get your arm reattached. Do you have a first aid kit on you?"
"Yeah." Arcee reached into her subspace and handed Jack a white box with a green crescent moon on it.
Jack paid the symbol no mind and began the work of patching Arcee up. After a half hour of work, he got the arm attached, but he knew the bandages wouldn't hold, so he decided to improvise. He transformed into Wildvine and used a length of the vines that he was made of to form a cast around Arcee's arm.
Later...
Jack had taken Arcee to the Rust Bucket, where June had made her lie down until her wound had healed. Jack however was sitting on a park bench and was reading an article on wikipedia about Koumyouji Nobuhiko. Jack saw Jiro walk in front of him on the sidewalk. Jack called out "Jiro." to get the android's attention.
Jiro heard this and ran over to Jack. "Jack, I saw what happened to Arcee, and you weren't there so I was worried."
"Jiro. I know what you are." Jack said somberly. "And you're not gonna like it."
"What am I?" Jiro asked Jack as he sat down next to him.
"I don't know how to say this, but, you were made for fighting."
Jiro's artificial eyes went wide. "I'm... a combat robot...
Jack began to explain to Jiro what he read. "A year ago, Dr. Koumyouji Nobuhiko was participating in some project... when he died in a mysterious accident. Some would say he was caught in some conspiracy, but only if they read information off of the internet. An investigation by the Plumbers revealed that the accident was related to the Forever Knights."
"But what good does knowing that do for me?" Jiro asked.
Jack gave Jiro an answer. "You said you had someone to protect. You need to remember." Jack got an idea that might work. "Hey, want to try pressing the reboot button?" Jack suggested. "You might remember something if we do that."
"No." Jiro declined. "If my memories are restored, I might become a robot like that Hakaider the you fought."
"Jiro, I'm sure you'll be fine."
"I am fine as I am now." Jiro said. " I want to be with you and your friends." Jiro stood up and walked off.
"You sure?!" Jack shouted. "You have the power to protect others. Won't you regret not using it?"
Jiro stopped, glanced over his shoulder to look at Jack, the continued to walk away.
MECH base...
Hakaider was battling a couple dozen Forever Knights who were armed with laser spears as well as three robots that resembled Vehicons, but were slightly smaller. Most of the knights had been defeated, as well as two of the Vehicons.
He grabbed the spear of one of the knights and beat that knight over the head with it. Hakaider then blasted four of the knights with the spear's beam setting, incapacitating them. Hakaider turned around and saw that the Vehicon was about to strike him with its hammed, which he grabbed mid swing and ripped off. He tossed the hammer to the side and threw the spear that he still held into the Vehicon's faceplate, which would've killed it if it was real. One of the knight tried to hack at Hakaider's shoulder with his spear, but failed to pierce the black android's armor. Hakaider turned around and threw the knight to the ground, stood over him and said while pointing his gun at the Knight: "Let me destroy you."
A rocket, one similar to the ones that Breakdown shoots was launched at Kikaider, knocking him off of the terrified knight.
"Please stop." One of the overseeing forever knight pleaded. "Our men aren't expendable Silas. We have finished the modifications to the subject, you can now finish project Chimera."
"And be little more than a metal man? In this body I am stronger than any Autobot, Decepticon, or any of Jackson's alien forms."
"True, it's not like he has one that's a giant." One of the MECH scientists agreed.
"And, I can cause a lot more destruction in this form. Perhaps if we combine the subject and Hakaider, I can finally destroy Optimus." Hakaider grabbed one of the scientists by the collar of her lab coat. "Get to work. I want the subject modified to be compatible with my current form by the time I get back." He then let go of her collar.
"Where are you going sir?"
"To destroy my target."
"And do you have a particular target?"
"Of course I do. My target will be..."
With Jiro...
Jiro was walking down the aisles of a grocery store doing some shopping for June.
He saw a little girl and her mother run past him. The girl said to a man that was following them: "Hurry daddy!"
Jiro smiled as he saw the girl's father catch up to her and her mother.
Jiro looked around at the people going about their daily business. 'I have the power to protect others.' He thought about what Jack said.
He heard people screaming. He dropped the basket with the rather strange items in it and ran out of the store to see the goat alien from earlier attacking. From his vantage point, he saw the alien grab a man and check his wrists.
"No Omnitrix!" The alien tossed the man against a wall.
Jiro ran down some stairs and ran up behind a woman that a man tried to protect. The man that the goat alien grabbed was forced against a light post where after checking the man's wrist, the goat alien hissed and was about to deliver a fatal blow to the head, if not for Jack grabbing one of the aliens horns and pulling it off of the victim.
"I'd run if I were you." Jack told the man. The guy nodded and then ran off.
The alien tried to punch Jack, but Jack redirected the blow away from him. He then kicked the Alien's torso a few times, which caused the alien to stumble back. The goat creature then swung at Jack, which he dodged. Jack then punched the alien's chest, which caused the alien no harm. However, when the alien did the same to Jack, Jack was hurt greatly. The alien then bent Jack over and kneed him in the chest, causing Jack further pain. Jack back up. When the alien tried to kick his legs out from under him, Jack performed a backflip and avoided the strike. When the alien went into punch him, Jack jumped and did a round kick and struck the alien's head. The alien, enraged, punched Jack in the face, giving the human a bloody nose. The alien grabbed Jack by his blue jacket and tossed him onto the grass, where he rolled down a hill and onto another sidewalk.
Jack go back up and activated the Omnitrix. He selected Cannonbolt, but when he transformed, he got Stinkfly.
Stinkfly spat a few globs of slime at the goat alien's feet, keeping it in place, but for how long he wasn't sure. He flew up and was about to dive bomb the goat alien tail first, but Stinkfly's opponent anticipated this and blocked the Lepidopterra's strike. Stinkfly and the goat alien got into a duel, Stinkfly using his tail as a sword, the goat alien using its armored fists to block.
As the two aliens dueled, Jiro noticed something approach him from behind. He turned around to see Hakaider.
"You are..." Jiro knew who this android was.
"I will destroy you." Hakaider said with the voice of Silas, which Jiro didn't recognize. Hakaider ran up and grabbed Jiro and tossed him into a parking garage, sending the human like android through a chain link fence. Hakaider laughed as he approached Jiro. He reached for his gun and pointed it at his opponent. "Hakai! Hakai! Hakai da!" Hakaider fired at Jiro, wounding him, which caused a blue liquid to leak out of the hole in Jiro's body. Hakaider than ran up the Jiro and punched him with as much force as he could and dented that part of Jiro's body. Jiro tried to fight back, but it was futile, Hakaider was a much better fighter. For every punch or kick Jiro tried to throw, Hakaider could counter it and deliver two to the android. With Jiro nearly beat, Hakaider pointed his pistol at Jiro and was about to pull the trigger, but Jiro grabbed Hakaider's arm and forced the evil android to fire at the concrete ceiling.
Stinkfly and the goat alien arrived in the parking garage. Stinkfly was loosing, much like Jiro.
Hakaider was about to pistol whip Jiro, but the good android held his arm in place, but Hakaider used this as an opportunity to kick Jiro's chest. Jiro was on his knees. Hakaider punched Jiro's left cheek and sent him to the ground.
"Jiro!" Stinkfly clawed at the goat alien with his three clawed hands, which stunned his opponent. Stinkfly flew over to Jiro to see if he was okay.
Hakaider had gotten Jiro back on his feet, and immediately delivered an uppercut to Jiro's jaw.
"Stop!" Stinkfly shouted. He spat a glob of goo at Hakaider, getting the evil android's attention. Stinkfly grabbed onto Hakaider and tried to cut his legs off with his tail, but the metal was too strong to be cut. Hakaider proceed to beat the crap out of Stinkfly, drawing his attention away from Jiro.
"I..." Jiro said as he got up. "I... I..." Jiro saw that the alien goat monster had joined Hakaider in whaling on Stinkfly. "...will fight."
Hakaider and the alien were thrown off Stinkfly. Stinkfly got up, but was limping. "Hakaider shot!" Hakaider fired at Stinkfly, knocking him down.
"Jack." Jiro said to Stinkfly, who was lying on the ground in front of him. "Please press the reboot button."
"Jiro..." Jack was about to warn Jiro about what he thought Jiro feared.
"I won't become like that."
Hakaider laughed upon hearing this.
Stinkfly got up and looked at Hakaider. "Of course! You'll be fine! I'm sure."
"Then please do it."
"Okay." Jiro turned around. The holographic reboot button appeared. Stinkfly twisted it and then pressed it down.
Jiro's fell unconscious, then woke up seconds later. A bright white light appeared on his head. A burst of energy was released, causing the alarms of all the cars on this level of the parking garage to go off.
"Switch On!" Jiro said. In the span of a few seconds, his human guise vanished and his robot form was revealed, the red and blue form of Kikaider.
"Woah." Stinkfly was amazed. Kikaider reached over to the Omnitrix dial on Stinkfly's face and turned it then pressed it down, transforming Stinkfly into Diamondhead.
"Oh..." Hakaider said. "That's the legendary hero... Kikaider's true form!"
"Let's do this like a machine." Kikaider said with Jiro's voice, only it sounded muffled.
"Alright!" Diamondhead agreed. He formed his arms into blades. Diamondhead and Kikaider charged at the alien goat and Hakaider. Kikaider battled Hakaider, while Diamondhead fought the goat creature. They traded opponents, Kikaider fought the goat monster, while Diamondhead battled Hakaider.
The goat alien tried to use its drill horns on Kikaider, but found that they had no effect of the heroic android's chassis. Kikaider pulled the horns off of him and chopped them, getting rid of one of his current opponent's moves. Blue energy built up in Kikaider's fist, which when he punched the goat alien, caused the energy to be transferred to the alien, causing a lot of damage.
As Diamondhead battle Hakaider, Diamondhead was able to tank anything Hakaider could throw at him, but Hakaider was just as tough. Hakaider threw a punch a Diamondhead, which the petrosapien dodge. Diamondhead then grabbed onto Hakaider's hand and toss him over the car whose window got destroyed by one of Hakaider's punches.
Kikaider kicked the goat monster in the chest, sending it flying back. He then ran over to help Diamondhead fight Hakaider. Hakaider, who had broken off a piece of Diamondhead's armor, was about to use it to impale the Petrosapien, but Kikaider grabbed his hand and flipped him away. He helped Diamondhead up.
Hakaider grabbed the car that he landed by and was going to use it to crush the two heroes, but the two heroes grabbed the car mid swing and took it out of Hakaider's grasp. They placed the car down and jumped over the car. Diamondhead forming his fist into a spiked ball, while Kikaider's fist emitted red energy both of their punched caused massive damage to Hakaider, who was forced to back up. Diamondhead and Kikaider took turns punching Hakaider, until they both struck him at the same time, sending Hakaider towards the wall of the parking garage.
"It can't end here..." Hakaider refused to admit defeat. He fired a single shot at the car that he tried to use as a weapon, causing it to explode, then one at the wall that was behind him, allowing him to escape.
"He's getting away!" Diamondhead wanted to go after Hakaider, but they still had to deal with the goat demon alien. "Let's go!" Diamondhead readied his crystal firing hands. Kikaider ran up and did a slide kick, which stunned the alien. Diamondhead then got a more fun idea. He formed a large sphere of crystal, which he then launched towards the goat alien. Kikaider then kicked it, giving it more power. When the energized crystals collided with the alien, the alien was atomized, leaving only a small amount of black dust.
The Omnitrix dial on Diamondhead's chest blinked red before Jack was back to being normal. "We did it Jiro!" Jack said. He looked around, and found that Kikaider was gone. "Jiro?!"
Jack heard a somber tune being played on an electric guitar. He followed the source of the sound and found Jiro walking down the sidewalk while playing on his electric guitar.
Jack ran up and shouted: "Jiro!"
Jiro stopped playing the song and faced Jack. "Who are you?" He asked.
"It's me! Jack!"
"So, your name is Jack."
Jack then remembered what reboot meant. On the article that he looked up, it said that at reboot erases all data. "I see." Jack was a bit depressed. "So that's what the reboot did." He said to himself. "So, do you remember who you are now? Don't you?"
Jiro nodded. "I have an important mission."
"Mission?"
"It will start soon. A powerful enemy will make their move." Jiro explained. "There is someone I have to protect. There is somewhere I must go. Someone important is waiting there." Jiro turned and walked off, playing his guitar as he did so.
"I see. Take care then." Jack told Jiro. Jiro gave no responce.
Sunset, in the Rust Bucket...
June was tending to Arcee's wound when Jack entered the RV. June looked to see that Jiro wasn't with Jack.
"Where's Jiro?" June asked.
"He's going to where he's needed."
"Did he remember his real mission?" June smile, but inwardly, she was frowning. "Of course. What a pity."
MECH base...
Hakaider arrived in the base, defeated by Jack Darby and Kikaider.
"Sir, we're ready to integrate Hakaider into the subject like you wanted." A scientist said.
"No, cancel that order! I want project Chimera to have nothing to do with this monstrosity."
"What do you mean sir?" The scientist asked.
"For someone like me to be possessed with the impulse of for destruction, this power is too dangerous for MECH to control."
"What do you want us to do?" Another scientist asked.
"Get my mind out of this android and back in my body, then, undo all the modifications that would make Hakaider compatible with the subject. I don't care how long it takes! Just get it done!" Hakaider laid down on an operating table. "I can't believe the organization DARK requires something like this."
Chapter end.
First Fallout and now Kikaider? What's next?
Next time; Jack has to cooperate with Vince when they're abducted by aliens. Come to think of it, that sounds strange. Aliens abducting aliens.
And now, a vocabulary lesson; Kikaider is based of of the Japanese word for machine(kikai), much like how Hakaider is based on the word for destruction(hakai), so when Hakaider was shouting Hakai da, it sounds like he's shouting his name.