Mediziner's Notes: So this chapter I started involving the antagonists' PoVs more, I think I built up enough confidence and developed them enough to actually have them appear a bit more... Kinda like how you see in shows that have the villains or baddies plot whatever they're gonna do.
This Chapter was originally uploaded: 8/6/2020 on DeviantART.
The Leader within Cover Art is drawn and commissioned by Erilmadith-Everyoung on DeviantART. You can also find Radiant Prism's full reference there, too.
Enjoy!
...
"Hmm... It's been two weeks and Mr. Toudou hasn't said a thing yet. I wonder if he'd managed to find something but could have just been so focused on working away at those firewalls...?" Yuuta muttered to himself, having just finished school for the day as he leaned against the backrest of Deckerd's seat. The two of them were already on their way to the station. Deckerd easily picked up hearing what his friend was muttering about, hoping that the Chief Engineer had found a means to safely and painlessly remove the cluster of firewalls from Radiant Prism's Super A.I., he hoped that he and his mechanics have found something, the longer those cruel firewalls remained, the more it began to anger him. He believed that the longer they remained the more it'll cause Radiant Prism's anti-virus systems to destroy them instinctively and cause her even more pain. The least he did was to immediately inform Redlight via email about their discovery after their talk with the Chief Engineer. 'I wonder how are the other German Braves taking this news...' He thought, having not received a response from Redlight other than knowing that he has read it at some point. 'He must be looking into the situation I've informed him of what's happened... Perhaps inquiring the rest of the police force.'
"Deckerd? Deckerd, are you okay?" Perking at hearing his friend addressing him, he listened as Yuuta asked about if there was something wrong.
"Ah, sorry Yuuta." Deckerd replied. "I'm fine, I..." He paused, unsure where or how to begin as he stopped at a red light. With a sigh, Deckerd observed the passing cars as he spoke, pushing aside his previous thoughts. "We still haven't found any traces of the criminals responsible for causing those landslides. Fortunately no more landslides have reportedly happened, but I'm concerned about them starting more west or more north..."
"Deckerd..." Yuuta frowned. "You didn't sleep much, did you?"
The Brave Detective didn't answer right away, needing to think for a moment then spoke. "Admittedly I've been quietly going out helping anyone that's assigned to night patrols while you were asleep. I didn't mean to sneak away, but I was hopeful that I could've been more helpful trying to clue things together faster rather than... I'm sorry, Yuuta." He noticed the lights for his end began turning green, continuing along their destination to the station as the two of them continued to talk about the incident for a bit longer until finally arriving. Climbing out of his interior, Yuuta backed up to give Deckerd space to change form.
As they walked inside, Yuuta immediately stopped in their tracks. "Eh? Where's Radiant Prism?" He asked, seeing that their foreign friend wasn't docked in any of the docking cradles, nor was she in sight.
"Have you seen where they took her?" Yuuta asked Deckerd, wondering if his friend knew since he'd been going out over the course of two weeks. Deckerd unfortunately shook his head as he was just as clueless about what had happened and was just about to look for Toudou until one of the mechanics who was helping his fellow co-workers perform routine maintenance on Drill Boy approached them. "Good afternoon Deckerd, Inspector Yuuta." They greeted. "If you're looking for Radiant Prism, we had to relocate her somewhere else after what happened earlier in the morning."
"Eh!? What happened that she had to be moved somewhere else?" Asked Yuuta.
"What happened earlier... Well..." Shivered the mechanic, giving himself a moment to explain. "I wasn't there when it happened since I was in the midst of getting ready for work, but when Chief Toudou and some of the others who come in just as early as he does were testing some experimental program designed to nullify any means of pain Radiant Prism would feel from having those unnecessary firewalls removed. From what I was told by some of them, the experimental program unfortunately didn't work upon destroying one firewall when they tested it..." He paused with a shake of his head. "Not only did it caused her so much pain that she had reactivated herself without warning as she was lashing out from the pain. Look at the state of the docking cradle where she was docked."
Deckerd and Yuuta momentarily looked over at the docking cradle she was originally docked in. Clearly what has happened was evident of it's battered state from dents, bent parts, and areas in certain places have been caved in. "It's quite scary, despite that she had been deactivated for safety reasons she was able to reactivate herself in the midst of such pain..." The mechanic further added.
"If Radiant Prism is capable of reactivating herself..." Yuuta looked up at Deckerd with concern, who was thinking about it carefully, then spoke. "We're aware that she's not very keen about being put in a vulnerable state, and I fear her strong sense of wanting to stay activated and keep fighting could have contributed to her sudden reactivation. At least... From the story that Radiant Prism herself has told us, and other extra parts I've been told by Redlight. But... If I might ask, was anyone hurt?"
"Fortunately nobody was injured other than probably a few minor scrapes from falling to the floor in startle. Gunmax and Power Joe at that moment she was lashing out had just returned back to the station saw what happened and immediately worked to make sure that she didn't accidentally hurt or step on anyone though both of them did get pretty beaten up after she's finally calmed down. But, this incredibly dangerous situation forced the Chief to put any type of work on her on hold to relocate her elsewhere to where she is now. But, in the end... It really broke the others' hearts to see what the mess in her Super A.I. is doing to her..."
"Eh!? Wouldn't she accidentally step or lash out at any of you again?" Yuuta asked.
"As far as I know, the layout of the building she's been moved to is different than here in the repair bay. All of the equipment is up on higher ground than on the ground so this way Chief Toudou and the others can work safely so no one can risk getting stepped on or injured by accident. It's designed in that in case she lashes out in agony, her arms won't hit the platforms above too since it's so high up." Replied the mechanic with a shrug. "I'm not assigned to help him and the others, I'm just here performing routine maintenance on some of the Brave Police units, Drill Boy here being one of the few who's due for routine maintenance. Ah, but don't let me keep you two from work, I need to get back to work as well before the others get mad."
With the mechanic politely dismissing himself and returning to his fellow co-workers, both Deckerd and Yuuta relocated themselves upstairs to the office. Deckerd got to work right away, looking into the landslide case to see if anyone might've found any clues to work with. Unfortunately aside from the old evidence that left them on a cold trail, there was no new submitted reports for anyone to look at. Yuuta on the other hand was busying himself with his homework, he seemed to have a couple of subjects he could easily pick away at rather than ones he struggled with. With everyone's roles assigned, it wasn't five minutes in since he and Deckerd began assigning everyone their respective duties for the day and a thought had already crawled into the boy's mind.
It was unfortunately short lived when he noticed something on Gunmax's face. Upon focusing on it carefully, what he saw left him speechless, the Motorcycle Detective had folded up a few sheets of cut paper into a crude shape of his shades, save for two cut rectangular holes so that he could see. Power Joe kept glancing at Gunmax and trying but failing to hold in a laugh.
"Gunmax... Why are you wearing paper in the shape of your shades...?" He asked slowly as Gunmax flinched at being caught, unsure what to take of what he's looking at. He wasn't expecting the Motorcycle Detective to attempt anything silly or hilarious and Gunmax could only reply with an annoyed sound. Power Joe on the other hand snickered at the response and turned his attention to Yuuta. "Actually, Boss. There's a story to tha-"
"Don't. You. Dare." Gunmax growled out in English.
As if somehow knowing what Gunmax was saying, the striped yellow Brave smirked. "Why? The Boss deserves to know why you're wearing that instead of your actual shades. I don't think it's a good idea to leave him in the dark about the fact that-"
"STOP!" Snapped Gunmax, standing up.
"Come to think about it..." Yuuta began to think. "Gunmax, I don't think I've seen your face with the shades off. Wouldn't you have to worry about cleaning them every once in a while?"
"They do get cleaned, kiddo. I prefer others not to see me when I'm cleaning them." He replied unhappily. He was about to change the subject but Power Joe chimed in deviously. "In truth, let's just say that assuming the mechanics didn't tell you about what happened, Radiant Prism got him square in the face with one of her arms-" He smirked when Gunmax threatened to walk on over to him. "...And broke his shades, never thought she'd have quite a punch."
"Power Joe..." Gunmax snarled, his orange optics glowing brightly. "You asked for it." The moment the green coloured Brave was about to go and have some 'stern' words with Power Joe, Drill Boy had walked into the office announcing to the others that he's all done with routine maintenance, but stopped mid-way on wanting to add something when he collided right into Gunmax as both of them stumbled backwards onto the floor. "Ow ow ow... Gunmax why did you-" The moment he looked at the Motorcycle detective. "Uh? What's with the paper shades?" The sight was enough to make Drill Boy laugh. "You can't wear that, they can get ruined in the rain or when dealing with criminals!" Right away, Power Joe began keeling over into a laughing fit.
"That's enough." Yuuta stood up, looking at Deckerd to continue as the Brave Detective stacked his paperwork neatly as he addressed the three of them. "Drill Boy, you're assigned patrol duty today. Power Joe and Gunmax, both of you have paperwork."
"Oi oi, you're assigning-" He ceased upon seeing the disappointed look on Yuuta's face. A part of him wanted to go out and get to patrolling but because his shades were busted up thanks to Radiant Prism... It was either being a laughing stock to the public or remain stuck around the Kung-Fu Detective for a couple hours and avoid being laughed at. After a solid minute, he turned away. "Tch, forget what I said." He finished in defeat, planting himself back in his chair. He had to admit, over the years he's worked alongside Yuuta and the others, he could see that there was a slight change in the young boy. Not too much, but enough to see that he was less teary than what he had been used to long when he first started officially working with him and the rest of the Brave Police. It was still there, but not as much as back then.
'Kid's growing up, it's going to be a little difficult to address 'em once he's grown to be as tall as the old man or even the Commissioners.' He thought. He heard Drill Boy exclaim in despair about that he wanted to ask for a little extra free time so he could play some soccer but paid no mind to it.
"We're not always able to get the free time we'd like, Drill Boy. Even after routine maintenance we have to make sure we don't fall behind on our job schedules." Deckerd told Drill Boy.
"B-But..." Drill Boy frowned, deflated about having missed his chance to use up some free time to play soccer. Yuuta tried to comfort him in saying that he can't always get free time either but there's always another time. "Eh, really? Don't you have free time during your school?" He asked, bemused about his response.
"Not really. Um, there's break for when we have lunch, but other than that I've got work and work until I'm done for the day..." He then looked over at Deckerd, then back to Drill Boy. "I'd talk about it more but you need to get to work."
"Okay..." Drill Boy nodded, clearly still disappointed as he sadly made his way on out to get to patrol duties.
...
As the evening rolled in, Eberhard was just as eager to get the next part of their plan in motion. "Heh, sneaking through various criminal organizations is an easy feat thanks to our armbands. Uwe, you've done a wonderful job in crafting these. They work exactly as you intended, nobody could even see us on the radar once we've put them to work. Or in this case they can't see Hans."
"I did those as a side project while I was waiting on particular parts of my research." Uwe pointed out. "Hans should be placing the last remainders of the devices meant for causing more of those artificial landslides. The first wave tested out nicely and all of them have scattered to investigate all locations without even realising they were used as decoys, but now we're going to move them up further north now that we know where Radiant Prism is hiding."
"What about that one other criminal we saw them fight? A secret partner of ours?"
"No, I wasn't expecting anyone to show up and start trashing up the city. But, let's hope we don't get anymore petty criminals getting in our way this time." Uwe inputted a couple of commands, inquiring Hans if he's finished up but ceased when he heard the doors open up, there was Hans who had just managed to flee the area undetected. "They're all set, Uwe. Clever idea that we're planting more than the four devices we've tried out, but now we've got more set up and armed, those petty criminals are going to have... Quite the time digging themselves out once the mountain and hills come down on their bases."
"Now all that's left is to storm that warehouse and take out Radiant Prism while she's vulnerable!" Eberhard grinned, cracking his knuckles.
"Not so fast, Eberhard." Uwe spoke as the man shot him an angry glare, clearly wanting him to explain. "Instead, how about we wait until the Brave Police gather back at the base to shut down for the night, then we can trigger our plan in motion so all of them go to investigate the areas in one group rather than a scattered group. Think about it, if we start earlier than we planned it may not turn out in our favour. Besides, they can't patrol 24/7 since they'll need to have checkups or refuel and whatnot from what Hans here told us a week ago."
"What!?" Eberhard gritted his teeth. "I've had enough of waiting! I'd say we attack now before those mechanics finish repairing Radiant Prism! Who knows how long it will be until they fix the source of her pain! Pain... Wait a second, that was strange how she seemed to have been in agony mid-fight against that one criminal. Uwe, were you the one responsible for doing that without Hans and I knowing?"
"That is a curiosity. Out with it, Uwe." Hans chimed in.
"No that wasn't me unfortunately, something else must be at work that caused that." Replied Uwe. "Even with this technology in our hands, I've tried to crack into one of the robots, and even Radiant Prism previously but I couldn't make a break. Speaking of Radiant Prism, I also unfortunately couldn't get much data on her as a whole with our machine. Sure, I have the data on all members as well as a few from the Scotland Yard that were here, but... There's some strange interference that prevents me from knowing everything in complete detail about Radiant Prism in particular. I only know the basics but not the full detail which I suspect that there might be something I'm unaware of what's causing it." Uwe finished with a shrug. "I can only assume there might be another criminal unknown to us who might've done that."
Both men were a little surprised. Surely Uwe would've been the one responsible for immobilising Radiant Prism but to know that someone else was doing it and not him left them a little stunned. "Hrm no matter, regardless while she's still down we can at least finish her off before she's fit to fight again. I'd say it's easy pickings once we destroy her." Eberhard replied.
"I'd say if we can find this mysterious person, they could make a powerful ally to work alongside with." Said Hans. "Think about it. If we find whoever caused her that much pain, we could use this to our advantage and finish her off before the others get here. But, considering the language barrier the mysterious criminal and us could be facing it might not work out too well even if we described things. Neither of us know any Japanese."
"We'll just have to wait until things settle down. Especially since today's a new moon, we'll be a little less seen in the darkness though we'll have to chameleon from above." Uwe spoke, making some adjustments and double checked procedures to prepare for the later attack.
"Right, if we use that feature from a low level, we'd cast a shadow. Sadly cloaking isn't a thing but as long as we're away from anything that will make a shadow out of us, we'll be detected less. ...And to avoid the purple and blue coloured robots. Something about them being more developed than the rest of the Brave Police here seems too risky." Replied Hans.
"I agree. Well, all we can do is just wait things out for a time." Replied Uwe.
It had been a few hours into the late night and the three criminals have been occupying themselves with whatever they could find that was airing on T.V., other than not being able to understand what's being said, they were able to figure out what was going on by what they were seeing. "Got to admit, the content in most of Japan's shows don't hold back nor hesitate on what they display." Smirked Hans, having observed a relatively violent show with genuine curiosity that had now shifted onto displaying ads. "This is the kind of content you wouldn't even see back in Germany, either. At least, outside of live-action based shows or films."
"It is interesting to know that this country doesn't hold back on it's violent displays in the shows they make. The rules of show contents might vary from country to country but you're absolutely right about that." Uwe pointed out, though noticed how much time had passed and he spoke up. "Since it has been some time, I'm going to pull up the schedule from here..." Inputting a few commands, Uwe compared the current time to the scheduled time and he couldn't help but grin. "Boys, looks like it's time to roll. The Brave Police are one by one heading back into their cozy home."
"Finally!" Eberhard stood up with a stretch. "Let's get to the fun part already!"
The criminals relocated themselves into their respective seats as Uwe piloted the machine towards the location of the warehouse. Upon nearing said location, he flipped a switch, activating the chameleon cloak. Once he was into position, he stopped. "So... Where's the location?"
"Sending visuals... There, that warehouse." The screen changed to zoom in on a particular building, it was an unmarked warehouse that didn't belong to any form of company. "Pfft, it's hilarious that they chose to relocate Radiant Prism all this way, it makes the job that much easier with them being so far out but let's get to destroying!" Eberhard grinned, rubbing his hands. "Hans, start up those landslide things or whatever!"
"Beginning now." Hans brought out a small device from his pocket and slotted it into the machine, which took a moment to identify and then requested confirmation on using it. "Here goes in three... Two... One... Detonating!" With the press of the button, a faint sound similar to rumbling could be heard in the distance as they could see dust and ash were starting to fly, Uwe zoomed in with one of the cameras while using another to detect and focus locations of all the Brave Police units.
"Good, now we need to wait until they're investigating the areas. Since up north had been raining more frequently than down here, the devastation should double the effort in making it difficult and additionally with the distance from Nanamagari City and Tokyo, this will buy us more additional time for us to get down to business." Said Uwe.
"It's good that they think another group of criminals are causing these sorts of things." Hans commented, with Eberhard chiming in impatiently. "Uwe, have they moved yet?"
"A couple of them have started to move, it shouldn't be long until everyone else starts to move and investigate... And hopefully those two unique robots investigate as well, I have a bad feeling that if we're too close to them, they might sense us... I don't know, but we should be careful-"
"Are you saying you barely have any info on the purple and blue robots...?" Eberhard asked with a frown.
"I have plenty of info yes, certainly more than whatever data Radiant Prism hides behind the interference but I fear there might be more to them because some information I tried to get out of them kept scrambling the systems when we were recovering our borrowed technology. Worryingly, they also can't be detected on radar either. Not even other parts of the sensors can detect them. I would've said something earlier, yes but I needed to be sure that I could attempt to unscramble the garbled data, but to no avail..." Uwe immediately took notice of the radar, seeing changes and switching the subject back to the task at hand. "Look, more of them are moving." His eyes trailed onto one particular target that was further away from the others. "Hm, I am curious as to why one of them is over in the city's residential area rather than with the others... But no matter, they're moving now. All of them."
Little did they know, they've failed to notice that one of the signals had suddenly disappeared among the others.
...
"Ow ow ow ow..." Drill Boy muttered to himself, backing up as he fell onto his rear, feeling a little sick from the shock as he was trying to stop himself from shaking. Not long after he left the station on his way to investigate one of the sights, he spotted someone down below a person inspecting a car, which turned out to be a petty criminal upon seeing them break into the window of the driver's seat and crawled inside. He couldn't stand there and ignore it despite that the landslides were more important to look into and turned his attention to dealing with the criminal. He tried to give chase on foot but because he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, he'd unfortunately run into power lines without even taking notice. Drill Boy felt as if he downed so many barrels non-stop until he couldn't consume anymore. After giving himself a moment, he shakily reached for his communications badge knowing he had to inform them about that he might take a while to get there.
"This is Drill Boy, I- Oh no..." The Soccer Detective frowned upon realising that his badge had been destroyed from when he had run into the power lines. The smoke emitting from the badge indicated the circuitry had been fried.
"Just my luck..." Drill Boy pouted sadly, putting his badge away. Slowly, he stood up despite he was still shaking. He wasn't sure how he was going to inform the others about what had happened, but what he did notice was that from his location, he wasn't too far from the warehouse Radiant Prism had been relocated to, looking in the direction of where it was. 'Ugh, I feel really ill... But, I think I should go see Radiant Prism before I help the others out, maybe the Chief Engineer has made some progress. I think the others wouldn't mind me dropping by for a peek...'
"CHANGE!" Changing into his drill tank form, Drill Boy couldn't risk crawling under the power lines, lest his wings touched the wires and get himself electrocuted again. He drove a few kilometers, wanting to make sure there weren't anymore power lines before continuing. "...Okay, I don't see anymore power lines. "CHANGE!" Switching to his drill jet form, Drill Boy ascended and flew towards the warehouse's location Upon getting close however, he noticed a strange shadow cast onto some of the buildings. Faint, but visible thanks to the city's lights.
'Huh? There's nothing nearby that matches the shape of that shadow...' He thought to himself as he scanned the surrounding area. He decreased his movement to a hover, observing the shape for a bit longer until finally descending back down onto the ground, changing back to his normal drill tank mode once his treads touched down. He continued onto his destination towards the warehouse, not too far from his location as he mysterious shadow made him uneasy. 'Must be someone trying to prank me... I remember someone tried to prank Duke like that before from what Kagerou told us, but I'm not going to fall for something like tha-' The sudden sound of something colliding into a building snapped him out of his thoughts, seeing strange thin shapes emerging from up above in the sky and crashing down onto something. When he pinpointed the target location that was being attacked, he realised that it was the same warehouse Radiant Prism was in.
'Oh no! If only my badge weren't damaged... No, I need to do something! The mechanics should have badges too if the Chief Engineer had one of his own!' While he had no doubt he might be already detected, Drill Boy began burrowing underground, hoping to get to the warehouse from underground with as little detection as possible. At least this way when he approaches and gets the others to safety, he could hold them off while the others return from investigating the 'landslides' until they get here.
"This is going to be risky... Whatever I might be dealing with once I get there but I won't let that stop me!" It worried Drill Boy, but he wasn't going to let his teammates down. He needed to protect the mechanics and Radiant Prism.
"Okay, here goes!" Ascending upwards once he knew he was just under the warehouse, Drill Boy burrowed his way upwards. He relied on his scanners to ensure that he wouldn't emerge from under anyone such as the mechanics, their equipment, and especially Radiant Prism. He could feel the vibrations caused by the pacing of the mechanics' footsteps and both rubble and debris alike crashing down, The moment he breached the surface, he didn't dare let his momentum drop as he sailed right into the skies, colliding with something as he didn't hesitate to drill into whatever he's hit that he couldn't see.
"Tch, what tough armour...!" Drill Boy cringed, trying to drill into something but did succeed in revealing whom he was attacking as they flickered out of their chameleon cloak. "They had a cloak like Shadowmaru and Kagerou... E-EH!? R-Radiant Prism's criminals!?" He failed to react when something struck him, knocking him off as he quickly changed form, back flipping as he landed neatly on his feet. "Whoa, their machine looks so much bigger up close..." He muttered to himself, feeling slightly intimidated by the sheer size of the machine but stood his ground.
"What the!? How did- I don't know how you managed to evade our radar, but you're going down all the same, Brave Police!" Eberhard yelled out as he threw various attacks at the Soccer Detective, who gracefully avoided the each one. Eberhard tried again and again, only becoming more angrier when Drill Boy blew a raspberry at them. "Damn you!"
Mid-dodge, Drill Boy brought out a soccer ball, however he realised that he was somewhat at a disadvantage due to the clutter and debris that littered the ground, which meant he wouldn't be able to build up enough momentum by his normal ways to strengthen his kicks without stepping or tripping on them. Because he didn't pay attention, he was suddenly struck. The force of the impact sent him into the warehouse's walls. Realising that they immediately changed their attention to the still unconscious Radiant Prism, Drill Boy quickly scrambled back up on his feet, recovered his soccer ball and had to improvise a way to build up momentum without the debris obstructing him from doing so. 'Tch, I'll have to use the bomb attacks... Normal ball attacks won't be enough to leave a dent or even stun it...' He thought, moving close enough to get within range.
"No you don't!" Cried Drill Boy as he regained their attention before they could attack. "SHOOT!" The moment they looked at him, the Soccer Detective kicked the ball in their direction. As the ball went flying, the spikes retracted mid-flight, exploding on impact. Pleased that he managed to land a hit, he readied another soccer ball.
"Drill Boy! If you can hear me, warn the others about the criminals!" A mechanic cried out.
"I can't!" Drill Boy replied, building up momentum for the next shot as he dodged a few more attacks. "My badge is- AGNK!" Unable to finish his sentence, Drill Boy was struck from behind. He was about to quickly recover when something heavy had slammed down on him as the criminals used their machine's foot in an attempt to prevent him from trying to throw another explosive ball again. They had switched from hover mode to ground mode. "Can't... Move..." He choked out, trying to break free but couldn't. Pain shot all around him as he felt his wings were bent and mangled from being stepped on, preventing him from proper flight if he tried to attack from up in the air than on the ground.
"If I can... Just..." Planting his servos against the large mecha foot, Drill Boy pushed against it with all his strength. When the criminals applied more force, it slowed him just slightly but he wasn't giving up. He had one trick up his sleeve and he wasn't going to let the criminals win. While he wouldn't be able to fly, it didn't stop him from what he could still do. "Almost... There... CHANGE!" The moment he cleared up just enough space, he quickly changed into his drill mode, quickly teetering himself upwards so that the large foot of the machine would instead be drilled in. At this point however, Drill Boy had used up so much of his strength and energy. Because he'd taken so much damage from his fight, he wasn't sure if he could get himself out of this as he felt himself being shaken about. The criminals were trying to shake him out.
"Grrgh, get out of there!" Uwe growled, commanding the machine to shake it's leg in hopes of jostling Drill Boy out. "No good, he's drilled himself in the leg joint!" He cursed, still trying to shake the orange and white coloured Brave out.
"What are you guys waiting for!? Even if he's jammed himself in there, we can focus on Radiant Prism now while he's stuck!" Eberhard snapped.
"He's right, Uwe. Let's finish this so that we can end this foolish deal with our mysterious helper. If we delay any further, the rest of the Brave Police are going to catch up!" Exclaimed Hans.
"Crap, they're focusing on Radiant Prism again!" Drill Boy panicked as he felt the mecha shift, knowing right away that because he's lodged himself inside their machine's leg, he needed to get himself out, preparing to drill his way out. Rather than backing out where he came from, he drilled through the rest of the leg, just narrowly missing the knee joint. At that moment, he could hear the sounds of powerful jets growing louder and louder. "The others are here!" He exclaimed, quickly avoiding an attack from the criminals as he came back down on the ground, quickly avoiding another attack as he turned himself around to face the criminals, aiming machine guns in his knees and fired.
"Drill Boy!" Build Tiger called out.
"Fire J-Decker, Build Tiger!" Drill Boy exclaimed.
"Jeez, look at you. You're a mess." Power Joe commented unhappily.
"Let's worry about injuries later, we need to deal with the criminal and protect Radiant Prism!" Said McCrane.
Knowing he was too badly injured to combine with his Brothers and help fight, all Drill Boy could do was drag Radiant Prism out of sight while his teammates have the criminals distracted. He couldn't risk them trying anything as low as use her as a shield or strike some sort of sneak attack. all while he dragged Radiant Prism over to the hole he emerged from, he could overhear Shadowmaru and Kagerou warning the others about that these were the same criminals they encountered before when they dealt with the large organization over a month ago.
But most of all, he knew that he'd have some explaining to do once they've dealt with the criminals, jumping down the hole with Radiant Prism in tow.
...
"Those guys are really mad..." Yuuta frowned, watching from the safety of Fire J-Decker's interior.
"Not just mad, but they're enraged." Duke added as Fire J-Decker quickly deflected an incoming attack with the Fire Sword then dodged an incoming set of wires coming his way, slicing them when given the chance. Upon something heard by one of the criminals however, Fire J-Decker narrowed his optics as he heard something that he had his suspicions about them being the ones, and hearing one of them rant...
"Fire J-Decker, we need to clear these guys out before more criminals start causing-"
"No... They're the ones that caused the landslides." Deckerd spoke next. The moment some of the others asked to explain further, he contniued. "It makes sense now. They just said that they were intending to use the landslide incidents yesterday to test us, and now that they used them again, they were intending to direct us away so that they could target Radiant Prism without interruptions."
"That's..." Yuuta frowned, unable to believe what he just heard. He's never heard of a case where the Braves were targeted when they were undergoing repairs or any of the sort. Sure some have been injured to the point of almost being at the mercy of the criminals, but they've always pulled through. But in this case... This was more like a severe personal case of revenge in the form of a manhunt of their friend that these criminals were desperate to send them far away from her location.
"Everyone, let's show them what it means to mess with the Brave Police!" Yuuta commanded.
"Understood!" Came their responses.
"What the- Is that the voice of a child!?" Hans exclaimed, completely dumbfounded and disgusted at what he had just overheard. A child leading the Brave Police didn't sit with him at all. No matter how hard he tried, there was nothing that he could think of other than he cursed angrily. He was about to ask Uwe if he could find where the child was located but Uwe himself had spoke, telling them that they're going to have to retreat. Right away, Eberhard became enraged at the choice his two allies were making. "Eberhard, one of them might have the kid inside them and I'm sure you've clearly heard them! Yes, we're criminals but I'm not going to go as far as to take the life of a minor! Do you even know what other criminals would do to us if they caught wind of what we've done!? Other criminals can outright give us a quicker end before the cops would! Believe it or not, it's an unspoken rule to... No, we're out of here!"
"They're starting to retreat!" Exclaimed Gunmax Armour. The moment they changed their mecha's appearance, taking off all while training a set of weaponry at them. Yuuta exclaimed that they must not let them get away. As they gave chase, the others used their respective ranged weapons, hoping to hit them in hopes of slowing or crippling them, but the moment they neared just almost within reach, something flew out of the damaged machine, exploding into a bright flash of light, immediately blinding everyone. Once it faded, the Brave Police couldn't detect anything and have completely lost their target.
"Damn it, they got away..." Gunmax Armour frowned, noticing the two ninjas in the corner of his vision. "Oi Shadowmaru, Kagerou, any of you both pick up our target's exact location?"
"No." Replied Kagerou. "Neither Shadowmaru and I can detect them on the radar even with our best equipment... However I noticed that they use a chameleon cloak similar to what we use, but it seemed to be damaged."
"Most likely Drill Boy's handiwork from the appearance of the twisted metal." Shadowmaru continued. "I'm unfortunately not detecting a thing. However, Kagerou and I will have to keep this area and the surrounding area in mind to patrol around the next time we don't have any important classified police work to attend to."
"The main important thing for now is that we've kept them from taking out Radiant Prism." Said McCrane. "Drill Boy did a good job stalling them. However, it's strange how he wasn't responding to us..."
"Ah! We should go see if the others are okay and help them if we can." Yuuta spoke next. "If anyone's injured, we'll need Duke's help in treating them."
"Oh? I'm impressed, kiddo. You're starting to act more like a real Boss of the Brave Police." Gunmax Armour commented as the others turned their attention back to the ruined warehouse.
"Honestly, I still have a long way to go, Gunmax." Yuuta said with a small sheepish smile. "I'm only thirteen, so I'm in some ways still a kid even though I'm more of a young teen now. Even though I've been made as the boss of the Brave Police three years ago I'm realising that as I'm getting older, I also can't really see myself as a full police officer completely- Not yet anyways until I get the proper full training like all newcomers to the police department... For now, it won't be until years and years until I'm old enough to get the training in and become a police officer. A proper one. There's only so much that Mr. Saejima can do for me, but there's some things he can't do... And the last thing I want is to get him in trouble."
Yuuta perked up with a smile. "But don't worry! Even when I do become a full police officer in the future, nothing makes me happier than working along you guys!"
'You've grown so much, Yuuta.' Deckerd thought to himself happily. Returning back to the warehouse, where they could see Drill Boy carefully moving large debris to get a few mechanics out from under them. Once Fire J-Decker placed Yuuta back down on the ground, the boy ordered everyone to disengage and help Drill Boy out in finding anyone who might be injured and soon enough they got to work. The others could see the extent of the damage Drill Boy had, but the young Brave quickly dismissed it saying that the mechanics come first.
"Drill Boy, where is Radiant Prism?" Asked Yuuta, approaching just enough to be within conversation range.
"Down in the hole over there." Drill Boy briefly looked in the direction of it. "I couldn't think of anywhere else so I put her down into the hole I made... I figured since those criminals wouldn't possibly reached in there, it was what I could think of at the time."
"...Oh." Yuuta glanced down the hole but not for long. He couldn't see anything down below but after getting his bearings at how much of a drop it was, he addressed the Soccer Detective. "Um... Can you bring her out please? Since the criminals aren't here anymore, you can safely bring her out from there."
"Okaaaaaaaay!" Replied Drill Boy happily, dropping into the hole as if he were doing a cannonball into the water. Yuuta had to admit, despite Drill Boy was pretty beaten up himself, his seemingly endless energy kept him from looking like he wasn't injured to begin with. He wasn't sure how he'd have such an incredible pain tolerance, but he didn't think too much about it as he glanced over at McCrane and Gunmax managing to move away some more debris, finding one person injured. A brief glance between the Combat Detective and the Ninja Detective, the latter shook his helm. "That's the last one." McCrane called out as Gunmax gently and carefully scooped up the injured mechanic and brought them over to Duke, who was already in his vehicle mode. Power Joe and Dumpson worked together to clear away the debris, allowing Duke to take his leave and head for the nearest hospital.
The moment Yuuta heard the sounds of rocks and dirt rustling, he knew to clear away as far from the hole as possible and just as he moved away to a safe distance he saw Drill Boy emerge back out with Radiant Prism hooked onto his back. "I'm back with Radiant Prism!" He announced to his team. Other than being covered in mud, Radiant Prism was completely intact. Despite that, he was glad to see that the mechanics have completely repaired Radiant Prism even though she most likely still had issues going on in her Super A.I.
It was an odd sight to see Radiant Prism clinging onto Drill Boy, but then again since she was inactive throughout the whole thing when the criminals attacked... Deckerd came over and helped get her off of his back so that his teammate could climb out more easily. "Due to the criminals being on a manhunt for her, it's not safe to keep her too far from us especially when she's shut down like this." Deckerd announced to the others. "Not after what happened tonight. Were it not for Drill Boy, we would've lost a member of the Brave Police regardless if they're native or foreign. Even what happened previously was dangerous, we'll need to make sure she's with us at the station where they can't try to pull the same trick again while the mechanics continue to work with figuring out how to wipe the mess out of Radiant Prism's Super A.I."
"The last thing I need is for her to smash my shades again." Gunmax commented unhappily. "But you're forgetting the important part, Patrol Car: The safety of those that keep us in working shape."
"The others and I can build some sort of high platform that can prevent what happened before doesn't happen again considering the machinery have pretty long cables anyways." Power Joe said as he approached them, changing out of his vehicle form. "Before the landslide part of tonight's incident happened, McCrane, Dumpson, Drill Boy and I were talking about that if it ever happened. We can do something like that to ensure their safety, of course with the idea that- Whoever is assigned to the job, one of us could make sure to keep the damage to a minimum if she lashes out again."
"However, it's not going to be a permanent addition to the station." Dumpson pointed out. "We're only going to keep the structure around until they clean out the mess from Radiant Prism's Super A.I. and we're also keeping the Chief and his fellow mechanics safe while they work on fixing her issues. They're be attached to the walls like the structures here... Or what's left of it."
"That's a great idea!" Yuuta beamed. "I was worried about that but you guys know how to think of solutions really quickly! But... Wouldn't you guys need to approve of this with Mr. Saejima and the rest of the department?"
"We've already got the permission. McCrane wants us to get started on it first thing in the morning, I'm not looking forward to an early job but I'd rather repeat the incident from before." Power Joe said with a slight frown. "Anyways, I'm going back to the station first, I'd like to get some rest in before we start working on the temporary structure. You and Deckerd should get some rest too, Boss."
"Yeah, see you tomorrow Power Joe." The young boy watched as the Kung-Fu Detective left ahead of the others. He watched as the others got to work on loading Radiant Prism onto a flatbed, wondering how could that sort of thing work due to Radiant Prism's wings but realising the sideways position they placed her rather than facing forwards or backwards, it made sense. By the time everyone one by one were heading back to go and rest up. Deckerd and Yuuta were already on their way back to the Tomonaga residence. He couldn't help but feel like things weren't going to look great for the next encounters with the criminals from earlier should they cross paths again. If they've thought this far ahead by luring them away to get to Radiant Prism, he had no doubt that they were certainly types of criminals that they haven't seen in such a long time. He realised that he hadn't asked Drill Boy about if they might have detected him. 'I'll need to remember to ask him tomorrow, but I think the others might already ask that question by now or when they get back to the station...'
Shaking those thoughts aside, he needed to get something else out of his mind. "Deckerd." He spoke just as Deckerd drove into the driveway. "We're going to have to be careful the next time we deal with those criminals. I don't know but I'm getting the feeling that they're the kind of criminals that..." He couldn't finish, unsure how he could explain.
"I agree..." Replied Deckerd. "We'll need to keep our guard up and keep a close optic out for any sight of them from now on. However, it's worrisome that neither Shadowmaru or Kagerou can detect them. The others are going to inform the Chief about that, but considering the technology the criminals possess, there's only so much they can do to help improve their equipment. But, what matters the most aside from performing our duties as per usual is ensuring that Radiant Prism has a clean bill of health without any further interruptions. We're going to make sure she's well protected until she can defend herself once again."
"Yeah..." Yuuta climbed out of Deckerd's interior as he thought back to what they've had to deal with. With powerful technology at the criminals' disposal, something told him that they're most likely going to need extra hands on needing to deal with them. Immediately his thoughts went over to the Scotland Yard, wondering if Regina could spare a few members to help out whenever they could.
He would have to see about talking to her about it tomorrow if he's able to.