With school out, and no calls from Responder regarding their next mission, Tora began to walk home, passing through the streets as he let his mind drift back to the one person who occupied it enough when it didn't come to his hero work, Eri Karan.

'What do I do? Should I ask Cosmic Knockout for help? Advice? Maybe ask Infiltrator for help? Nah, he'd call it a waste of time, or maybe...' The young blond started to think, before a loud beeping sound was heard from his pocket, letting him know that Responder was contacting him through the communicators the group had, causing him to quickly duck into a nearby alley, out of sight, where he took the communicator out and opened it to reply.

"Frequency, Cosmic Knockout, good. I got you both we..." Responder started to say, before Tora found it odd that he heard the Vigilant leader's voice echoing through the alley, where the tech hero then asked. "Why do I hear an echo guys?"

Confused himself, Tora turned to his right to see a corner to another side of the alleyway, causing him to look around, only for his face to come face to face with Eri's, who not only held the same look of surprise as he did, but a similar communicator to his own rested in her hand, where both then heard Responder question. "Guys, you there?"

'Eri?! But... why is she...?!' Tora started to ask himself, before the gears began moving as he realized, if Eri's pink hair was in twintails, and her eyes were covered by a familiar visor, she'd look exactly like...

'Tora?!' Eri thought in shock as her mind went into full gear as well, taking in Tora's appearance as she imagined his hair a little bit messier, his eyes covered by a visor, while replacing Tora's sweet smile with a more familiar smirk, it made her realize the truth before her.

It was then that both Vigilant heroes realized that their teammates and the ones they each felt drawn to were one and the same.

Both teens were shocked and unsure what to do, while Responder's voice continued to play through the communicators, expressing a continued confusion to the status of his teammates, causing Tora to snap out of his stupor first, where he responded into his communicator. "Sorry, just some background noise. What's up?"

"We need to meet at the base. Infiltrator found some odd things regarding those towers that KnightCorps' building." The Vigilant Leader replied, where Eri quickly replied into her own comm. "We'll be there as soon as possible."

The pair then closed their communicators before looking at one another, both now feeling an awkwardness, realizing that they had both easily shared how they felt about one another without even realizing it, and were not sure how to interact with one another anymore, leaving the pair in silence as they left the alley and began to make their way towards the bookshop, to regroup with Responder and Razor Wolf.

But the whole walk there, both continued to remain in their silence, occasionally turning to look at the other, before shying away, still unsure how to process this information or what to do next.

-A little bit later-

Within their secret base, Responder and Razor Wolf noticed the unusual tension between Frequency and Cosmic Knockout, as the two, who usually chatted and almost flirted with one another, were now keeping their distances from each other.

Sensing something was off, as their leader, but more as a friend, Responder asked. "Is everything ok between you guys?"

"Yep, everything is fine!" Both replied in unison with nervous tones, their eyes darting to one another through their visors, before looking the other direction, causing Haru to sweatdrop behind his helmet, but shrugged it off as Infiltrator came online.

"There is something up with those towers Knight is building. Unfortunately the files we got on them are incomplete, as though parts of their information were excluded from the original plans. I need to access one of the uncompleted towers, but they are heavily guarded, more than any of the previous facilities. You'll have a fight on your hands." Infiltrator explained, where Responder nodded in acknowledgement.

"We'll get what you need. If these towers are a part of Knight's plans, we need to figure out what they are and fast." The green haired hero replied, getting a determined nod from Razor Wolf, while both Frequency and Cosmic Knockout nodded in silence, concerning Responder even more as neither offered a sly or enthusiastic remark to the objective thrown their way.

'I just hope whatever is going on doesn't affect their teamwork.' The tech hero thought with a sigh as the team headed out for their mission.

-Later-

The journey to their target was quieter than usual, where the Vigilant were now standing on a rooftop near one of the construction sites, seeing that the workers had left for the night, but a small army of security guards were left posted all over the site, while four, large silver cylinders had been placed around the base of the tower, leaving the Vigilant further concerned as to what KnightCorps was planning.

"How do you want to play this, Responder?" Razor Wolf then asked, slightly shocked over the size of the security present at the tower, which was more than even the facility he was kept in and experimented on.

Thinking for a moment, Responder looked at his team where he stated. "We need a diversion. Razor Wolf, think you can stir up some trouble and get them to chase you? I know you can outrun them."

"You can count on me." Razor Wolf replied with a nod, before the Vigilant leader turned to Frequency and Cosmic Knockout, continuing in his commands as he said. "We'll take out the rest of the guard then and I can access one of the towers terminals without any trouble then."

"Sure." Frequency said, still lacking his usual enthusiasm.

"Sounds good." Cosmic Knockout agreed, expressing a similar lack of emotion in her tone, which continued to worry the tech hero.

While Responder wanted to talk to his teammates, to ask what had caused a sudden shift in their behaviours, Frequency and Cosmic Knockout merely headed off, jumping from off the roof they had been hiding upon and landing in the construction site, immediately picking up the attention of the security forces.

"Damn it!" Razor Wolf growled, before jumping down himself, quickly knocking a few guards out as he tried to get the attention of the rest of the guards.

'Stupid! Stupid! Why did this have to happen?' Cosmic Knockout thought as she slammed her fist into the ground, creating a shockwave that knocked several guards down, using her mixed feelings as an excuse to fight, hating that she now knew that Tora and Frequency were the same person, but hated that she didn't know what to do, how to properly feel or act to such a situation, feelings of which Frequency shared as he combatted his own enemies.

Gathering sonic energy around his arms, Frequency pummeled any guards that tried to attack him, surprising and confusing Responder and Razor Wolf at his change in fighting style, while within, the blond felt his own anger, confusion and self doubts consume him.

'I told Cosmic that she deserves the best and I am nowhere in her league. If I can't even speak to her at a bookshop, what chance do I have with her as Eri?' Frequency questioned, continuing to blame himself, thinking all the tension and distance between him and the pink haired heroine was his fault.

'Now Eri will never want to speak to me ever again!' He thought as he delivered a powerful right hook to the face of one of the security guards, knocking him down and out cold, astonishing the other heroes at the sight.

Through his comm systems, Razor Wolf questioned. "What's going on between them? Frequency is fighting like Cosmic, and Cosmic looks as though she's almost ready to give up."

"I have no idea, but we need to act fast or things will only get worse." Responder replied as he quickly flew up towards the tower, where he allowed Infiltrator to access the tower remotely as the hacker began downloading the tower's data.

From the main construction building nearby, one of the scientists that was assigned to the site saw Responder by the tower, and in a panic, started to type on one of the computer terminals in front of him.

"What are you doing?!" One of the other scientists cried out in fear, knowing all too well what his colleague was doing, where the one at the terminal looked at him and yelled. "Would you rather tell Knight we failed?"

It was then that alarms began to blare across the construction site as red lights began flashing at the base of the four cylinders, causing the security guards to cry out in fear as they began to make a run for it, confusing the Vigilant by the sudden change in their foes' behaviours.

The four then heard a hissing sound coming from the cylinders, causing them to look at the containers as they slowly slid open, revealing a sight that caused all four heroes to cringe in fear, watching with shock, horror and disgust to what emerged.

From all four cylinders slid out four creatures they guessed were victims of Helix's more intense experiments.

They were warped beings that were at least twelve feet tall, each had long arms, with one claw-like and displaying an array of dagger-like fingers, the other having a plasma weapon built into it and fused around the skin of the creatures' arms.

Six tentacles came out of the creatures' backs, while all had helmets that had two horns coming out on top with one eye yellow and the other purple.

And with their freedom, all four let out inhuman cries, each expressing a mix of anger, agony and fury, causing the Vigilant to back up a little as they saw the creatures start to look at them, directing their hostility toward the four.

"Damn that bastard!" Razor Wolf growled, feeling pity for these beings, only imagining what twisted experiments Helix performed on these individuals to make them into these abominations.

Then, acting on instinct alone, the creatures launched themselves at their foes, with one charging at Razor Wolf as it tried to slash at him with his claw hand and tendrils, where the cybernetically enhanced wolf hero managed to dodge and evade the creature's strikes as he tried to fight his enemy.

Meanwhile, another started to scale the tower, firing a burst of energy at Responder, who dodged in the air as the creature continued to fire, where he responded by fired several energy blasts on his own, causing the creature to let out a cry of fury as it was hit, but not too damaged.

It was then that Responder quickly noted that his attack didn't even leave a scratch on the tower, causing him to briefly wonder what the tower was made of, before he refocused on his fight.

Like Responder and Razor Wolf, Frequency and Cosmic Knockout were divided as they each took on one of the abominations, with the sound based hero keeping his distance as he threw a disc shaped speaker at the creature he was fighting, where it landed before the creature and began to produce a high tone echo.

Expecting the attack to leave the creature stumbling and rendered in a weakened state, shock and confusion fell upon Frequency as the attack did nothing to hinder the actions of the creature, leaving Frequency to think. 'Do these things not have ears?!'

But distracted in his thoughts, it allowed the creature to attack, where its blaster arm came up and began to fire at Frequency, who snapped out of his thoughts quick enough to start dodging as the abomination started to come closer to him.

While Frequency remained in his own endeavour, Cosmic Knockout was having troubles of her own.

Despite her great strength, it seemed as though close combat against such an enemy gave her a major disadvantage.

With each punch she threw, the abomination would block it with its line of tentacles, forming a defensive wall before between it and the pink haired heroine.

And while Cosmic Knockout continued to try and fight, striking back, the creature spread its tentacles out, smashing into the pink haired heroine's body and knocking her to the ground, causing her to let out a cry of pain, the sound of her cries caught Frequency's attention as he turned to her, where a great concern filled him at seeing the pink haired girl in danger.

'No, Eri!' Frequency thought with worry and concern, quickly dodging the swipe of the abomination's claw, before he quickly rushed to help his teammate and the girl he cared for.

'Move, Tora... move! You promised... you promised!' Frequency mentally yelled as he raced over, seeing the creature Cosmic Knockout was fighting now standing over her, with its clawed hand extended as though to skewer her.

And against all logic, against all doubts that had filled his head, Frequency leapt forward, using his body mass to tackle the creature and manage to bring it down, forcing both to the ground, leaving Cosmic Knockout with a stunned silence at the sight as she thought. 'Tora...'

Quickly getting to his feet and jumping back before the creature could strike at him, Frequency stood in front of the pink haired heroine as both abominations faced him, where he glared at the two, and said in a voice filled with anger and determination. "I became a hero... so that I could protect her smile... and I won't quit now!"

Cosmic Knockout's eyes widened at Frequency's words, before remembering the flowers Ai handed her the other day, saying that they were from someone who wants her to be happy, causing her to tear up a but, before smiling as she got up, gaining a determined smile as she stood next to her teammate, who looked at her with some confusion, before she nodded at him, a moment of understanding passing between them as they both looked back and got ready to fight, especially when Cosmic Knockout then asked. "How about we turn up the frequency?"

With the question, Frequency gave a grin, his confident smile warming Cosmic Kockout's heart, before the duo looked on and saw the abominations they had been fighting solo were teaming up against them.

But feeling the bond they thought they had lost between one another, Frequency and Cosmic Knockout sprung into action, with the sound based hero renewing their fight as he brought up his arms and released a series of discs from his gauntlets at the abominations, causing them to act on instinct and bring up their tentacles to block the ranged onslaught.

And with the creatures stuck blocking Frequency's attacks, it allowed Cosmic Knockout to follow up with an attack of her own, to which the pink haired heroine rushed around the creatures and showed her power, no longer hindered by her conflicted feelings as she jumped at the one on her right and slammed her fist into its face, the impact and power of her punch smashing the abomination right into the ground, the creature no longer moving as its tendrils stopped flailing.

With one of the experiments taken down and looking as though it wouldn't be getting up anytime soon, Cosmic Knockout and Frequency joined together as they faced the second abomination.

Giving off a fearsome roar at the sight of the duo approaching it, the creature then set out its cannon mounted arm, charging it with energy as it opened fire at the two, where Cosmic Knockout moved aside, allowing Frequency to move in, where he clenched his right hand, surrounded it in sonic energy and slammed it into the barrel of the cannon, where the combinations of the creature's energies and his own overloaded the arm and causing it to blast apart, the creature letting out a screech of pain as its entire body was torn to shreds.

Meanwhile, Razor Wolf had won his battle, tearing the creature he was fighting's arm off, before using his blades to quickly decapitate the abomination, watching its body fall to the ground, before another screech and a flash of light caught his attention, looking to see the burning remains of the last experiment falling from a higher point on the tower as its body burned with a blue aura, thanks to Responder's energy attack.

"We got what we came for. Let's get going." The leader of the Vigilant said as the sound of sirens were heard, knowing that the police might take Knight's side in all this, before he looked at Frequency and Cosmic Knockout and asked. "You two alright?"

Smiling at the question, Cosmic Knockout said with a more enthusiastic voice. "Never better."

"Same here." Frequency added, before saying with a continued grin. "Now let's beat it before we wind up in the spotlight, and not in the good way."

Seeing the two somewhat back to their old selves, Responder nodded as the team took off, with a part of the tech hero hoping Infiltrator had all he needed now to figure out Knight's plans for Odaiba.

-The next day-

As the day before, Tora was walking home from school, and with no word from either Responder or Infiltrator, he knew the team could take the day off, allowing him to once again let his mind wander back to the revelation that the girl he liked and his female teammate were one and the same.

'How do I deal with this...?' Tora thought as he started walking through the park, still finding that though he felt more at ease with her as Frequency, he was still uncertain of the relationship he shared between himself and Eri.

Before he could think too hard on the subject however, much to his surprise, a hand reached out from a bush, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, and pulled him in, causing him to let out a startled yelp, before his eyes widened to see that it was Eri, a big smile on her face at seeing him.

"Eri?! But... what... What about your friends? If they see us...?" Tora started to question, before Eri giggled and asked in reply. "If I was able to ditch them whenever I wanted, I wouldn't be much of a secret hero now, would I?"

"True." Tora replied with a small smile, finding Eri's comment a little amusing, but he was more happy to be able to speak with the girl he liked without anybody trying to stop them.

"So, listen..." Tora began to say, trying to find the right words to explain his hero persona.

"I'm sorry I never told you I was Frequency, I'm sorry I never told you a lot of things. Every time I saw you, I really wanted to speak with you, but between your friends and my nerves, I never found the right chance." The blond then said, feeling a little blame from the chances he never took.

"I'm as much to blame for all this." Eri replied with a sad smile, where she added. "I never told you I was Cosmic Knockout either, and I could never work up the courage to either talk to you or tell my 'friends' to be quiet for a moment."

"But... can I ask you something? As Frequency, you're so confident and carefree, but the rest of the time, you're shy, timid and nervous, why?" Eri asked, trying to wrap her head about the two personalities he's seen in this boy.

"The shy Tora you know is who I really am. I was raised to show respect and discipline, but as Frequency, I can let all that go. I can do what I want and not have to worry about what my friends and family will think or say. There are times I want to just let loose and express what I am thinking, but without my Frequency personality, I feel trapped, so I stay silent." Tora told Eri, where he felt a little embarrassed at the explanation, but hoped Eri understood.

"I kind of get it." Eri replied as she looked up at the clouds and added. "As the girl you see before you, I'm constantly worried about what others think about me, wanting to make others happy, even at the expense of what I want. But as Cosmic, I can be who I want to be and not be afraid of what others think and... and still put smiles on people's faces."

"Well... as Eri or as Cosmic Knockout, you always make me smile." Tora said with a small smile of his own, expressing empathy and sincerity in his words, before looking over at Eri, quickly gaining a light blush on his face as he saw her close to him with a bright smile of her own.

"And whether it's Tora or Frequency, I think I like them both." Eri replied, gaining a light blush of her own as she leaned in and gave Tora a quick kiss on the cheek, before getting up and leaving their hiding spot as she began to head on home, leaving the stunned form of Tora sitting in place, before bringing his hand to where Eri had kissed him.

And after overcoming the stupefied state he was in, now knowing that the girl of his dreams had indeed kissed him, Tora couldn't help himself as he gave a big grin, and an even louder cheer.

"So Groovy!" He called, expressing nothing but joy, with part of him still finding it hard to believe Eri had kissed him, but he continued to enjoy the moment, while Eri, who was still close enough to hear his cheerfulness, giggled lightly as she continued to walk with a big smile on her face.

-Meanwhile-

From his office, Knight watched the security footage on his main computer, with only a frown on his face, showing his displeasure as he sat contently, while Helix, Jester, Lady Beauty and Kouki all stood before his desk, each holding nervous expressions on their faces.

"I can't believe they destroyed my wonderful creations!" Helix cried out, angered to see his hard work destroyed so easily.

"Such ugliness doesn't belong in this world, so they did you a favour." Lady Beauty commented calmly, detesting Helix's experiments and the results of what he considered were superior beings.

"So what now?" Kouki then asked, seeing Knight turn his computer off, before watching as his employer arose and looked out the window, staring down the nearly finished town before him.

"They're getting closer than I expected. Fortunately, time is on our side." The CEO of KnightCorps replied, before adding with a smirk as his eyes glowed with a red hue. "But why leave everything to chance? The next time, I think I will be there... personally."