Mediziner's Notes: Slowly but surely getting closer to the big stuff... I'm honestly nervous about how I'll execute it but we're not quite there yet I'm afraid! Also the little visual realisms? I won't name the whole thing but I'll point out some things. Deckerd's vehicle mode colours are actually the same black and white markings you'd see on real police cars in Japan. That little yellow 'star' you see on Deckerd and his team's vehicle modes? (and some in robot mode) That's called an 'Asahikage', the symbol and logo of Japan's Police Department. The handguns you see Deckerd and the others use (excluding Gunmax who has a different type of handgun.) are real handguns, which are also what the Japanese police officers use. (Though I think they have a more improved model than the current ones seen on the show.)
One final one for you BP fans. That big towering police building you'd often see sometimes in the episodes with a giant red and white antenna on the top? That's a real police building too. It's the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department headquarters located in the Kasumigaseki district in Tokyo.
There you go, some visual realism facts there for you to be surprised about should you have not known.
WARNING: This chapter contains a fairly dark scene in a later scene!
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!
...
Throughout the stressful time that she was strategizing with the others, Radiant Prism had to excuse herself from the office when she received word from Kagerou. The Shadow Detective informed her that he located the tracer but no sign of the bio-monster. He couldn't confirm if the creature managed to get the tracker off of it's body, or if it fell off at some point. "...I understand, we'll have to come up with another plan. Whatever you and Drill Boy do, don't wander too far from one another and begin search of the two cities, things can get dangerous in the blink of an eye." She replied unhappily as Kagerou acknowledged. Radiant Prism wasn't sure about the intelligence capability that bio-monsters possess, but a part of her felt that this one was unlike what she or even possibly the others had to deal with. 'Shapeshifter can't be classed as a bio-monster... It had a robotic head and used liquefied metal for it's body... Bio-monsters are purely organic I think, artificially created by mankind for ill reasons... Damn, this is going to be harder than I thought. I don't even know how we can stop this creature. We can't touch it nor can we let it touch us otherwise we risk it eating our energy... If even touching it without it biting or using it's toungue on us causes the same results. There has to be something that we can do to stop it...'
Returning back into the office, Radiant Prism approached the others giving herself a moment to think things out, then spoke. "Everyone, we should start planning another approach on the bio-monster. I received a report from Kagerou that the tracker he planted on it either got it off or it'd fallen off. Hard to say." Radiant Prism told them. "There has to be another way where we can track this thing without losing it."
"Yes sir- Er, ma'am." They acknowledged and got to work. the Braves worked together as they took turns to suggest ideas of various tactics that some sounded like that could work, but before any idea could be solidified, the sound of the small door opened as Saejima stepped in with Onoue Seia at his side. The others greeted them, asking how their plan was coming along, which everyone else looked at one another uneasily. "We've just roughly thought of something, but..." Power Joe frowned. "Only issue we have is to keep that thing still, but we can't even risk touching it otherwise it starts eating our energy, worse if it takes a bite out of us or gets us with that weird sticky toungue."
"I see..." Seia replied, then paused for a moment to think, then looked back at everyone again. "The Land Defence Forces have recently created a new type of material that I believe will help you with your proposed plan if you already decided on one. Unfortunately, I do not have the information files on me right now but we recently developed a new type of cabling that unfortunately failed to meet a requirement we tested it out for. But, instead of seeing the project scrapped entirely, I requested that we see the failed project for another kind of use: For the Brave Police."
"Er... Why would we need something that didn't work out as you originally used it for?" Radiant Prism asked. "The station's own cabling is fine."
Saejima bore a playful devious grin before Seia could say anything. "Ah, you'll need to think outside the box for this one, Radiant Prism." He explained. "All of you are still in the middle of organising a plan together on how to stop that bio-monster even for a moment, right?" His words only puzzled Radiant Prism, not sure where he was going with this and still couldn't tell how a mere cable could help. It was then Gunmax spoke up. "Sounds like you still need more training, Rookie." He told her with a shrug, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back into his chair. "You should really know by now that we sometimes we'll use some things to aid us in whatever we're dealing with even when offered. You also see it in use throughout Japan in certain places, if you know where to look."
Radiant Prism could only stare at Saejima and Seia, clearly she had no idea where this was even going. After a few seconds, she looked away. "Again, I'm not used to taking the lead and I don't exactly have a similar mindset to Deckerd and the young Inspector..." She told the others uneasily, yet felt a sense of shame that because she'd only been put as acting Leader, she had almost little to no knowledge on how this sort of thing worked, even if she'd receive some lessons in the past, experiencing the real deal in full had never happened for longer than what she last did.
"It's not really that hard, Radiant Prism." Power Joe pointed out. "Seia's crew created a special kind of cable, right? You're seeing it as what are used for in just about whatever scenario you can think of. Take a moment to think, this type of cable is special that electricity cannot travel along it very well like other cables can. The outer shell is coated with a special kind of material."
"I think I can see it now..." Radiant Prism frowned, then inquired Seia what's the point of a cable where electricity can't flow freely through it. The woman explained that while she cannot explain everything due to it being top-secret, she could only explain that they were hoping to improve security that they felt needed an improvement, explaining that they aimed to make their weaponry much more harder to break into since they'd experienced a couple of troublemakers on the base trying to get into some of their top-secret equipment. "The only thing that passed the test was that electricity cannot travel along it very easily, similar to how electricity cannot travel along wood."
"I think I'm seeing things a little more clearly now..." Radiant Prism murmured to herself. "I think I've got the idea now... However, I believe it's wiser to ask about if these cables should we turn them into capture if they're flexible and durable enough to be fashioned into them? Depending on the size, we'll need specific vehicles strong enough to fire them... Since it's been sighted to be either grow in various sizes. How big or small it can get is unfortunately unknown to us since we've only seen it about half our size, or roughly a combiner's size at times."
"It's also a possibility that we could be dealing with multiple of them, in various sizes." Duke pointed out. "If this is confirmed, we'll need to find the one that snatched Boss... Or at least try to capture one of them and triangulate it's previous path. Just a moment..." Duke turned to his seat, inputting a few commands into his desk keyboard and soon the screen began to display a simulation of what he'd roughly set up. "Here is a wide part of an area that should be far enough away from civilization that I believe this plan could work. If we position ourselves along the edges here..." Duke began drawing a line along the outer section of the open area. "...And then position Seia's vehicles here once they're equipped with the nets. Additionally, by using some solutions that smell like nature, this should prevent the creature from picking up our scent... If we can consider the possibility of it having an accurate sense of smell like most animals that hunt by scent."
"We already know what that thing likes: Electricity, and lots of it." Gunmax pointed out unhappily. "Can't believe I allowed myself to get caught back there..."
"What I'm really worried about is the fact that Boss wasn't equipped with a protective suit like the one he wore when he entered Gawan years ago to save Makoto..." McCrane frowned which brought everyone to worry. The topic of when Gawan ate Makoto so long ago after the team had awakened it was something Seia hoped to never hear about again. Shaking those thoughts aside, she stood tall.
"We will rescue Yuuta once we learn his whereabouts from the bio-monster." Seia told the Brave Police, then turned her attention to Radiant Prism. "As for your earlier question, the cables should be sturdy enough to hold it down, but for how long I'm not sure. Do any of you have anything about the monster's strength? If so, it will allow us to make modifications beforehand." Her question was met with a shake of her helm, knowing that it's actual strength was completely unknown. "I see, we'll make sure that the cables are tested to withstand as much of it's strength if possible. The only thing we'll need to worry about is luring it to this area Duke picked."
"Alright. As for the bait..." Radiant Prism narrowed her optics, not liking what she'll have to do but had to try. "None of you are going to like this, but I'm going to use myself as the bait."
"No way." Gunmax straightened himself in his seat. "Nobody is going to be bait for this plan, Radiant Prism. Especially not while you're acting Leader."
"There's no choice, Gunmax. It targeted you, Duke, and Drill Boy as energy snacks catching the three of you off guard, I'm not going to risk anyone being used as bait so it has to be myself." Radiant Prism argued. "I don't like it either, but I'm not mindlessly doing this... But, as Redlight once told me..." Radiant Prism hesitated slightly, but shook her helm and looked at the others determinedly. "A leader should know to trust their teammates whatever the situation we're dealing with."
"Tch, you're suddenly sounding like Patrol Car. Where the hell did this come from? ...Fine, point taken but I'll still tell you that I still don't like this but don't come complaining to me if this whole thing turns out to be a failure." Gunmax frowned.
"Mm... Gunmax is right, Radiant Prism. This is a very risky move you're putting yourself into, even as acting Leader of the Japanese Division." Saejima told her. "I can't guarantee that I'll let you off the hook if the mission turns out to be a failure and we don't retrieve Yuuta out of this mess."
"I intend to ensure that he's returned safely, Commissioner. I worry about Deckerd trying to do something reckless that would complicate things even further since he's out of commission since Yuuta's kidnapping..." Radiant Prism frowned, but recalls what McCrane said about the Silhouette Man, having not forgotten about him. "Hm... Since capturing the trio, we haven't heard a thing about him... But if some of the previous criminals I've dealt with are being sent here, he might be trying to use other criminals as his disposable tools. Tch, when I get back to Germany I'm going to find that bastard even if I have to turn the entire country upside down!" Radiant Prism became irritated as her language immediately swapped to Germany midway through her sentence. She slowly relaxed and looked over at Duke. "Duke, once we solidify the plan, we're going to need to update Kagerou and Drill Boy."
"Yes sir... Erm, ma'am."
"The pronouns don't matter to me, use whichever one feels more natural." She told him.
"Radiant Prism, there is something that Deckerd and the rest of us encountered." McCrane pointed out, continuing once he had the German Brave's attention. "As J-Decker and Build Tiger respectively, it called for us to present you as part of it's ransom. I've thought about this for sometime but the way it specifically asked for your Super A.I. means it could be working for that 'Silhouette Man' the three criminals called him."
"I wouldn't be surprised." Radiant Prism shook her helm. "For now, we should try to piece our plan together."
As time passed, Saejima, Seia, and the Brave Police carefully solidified their plan in capturing the bio-monster, some backup plans had to be thought out once a few others had point out the openings that could allow the bio-monster to easily escape in case such their plan turned out to be either partially or a complete botch. Ideas were thrown left and right, some that worked while some did not in favour of something else. Eventually, they would soon be called down to the repair bay as the mechanics had something to show them. Once everyone had made it down to the repair bay, they were all greeted with the mechanics, along with something draped over with tarp. "Apologies for interrupting anything serious but after we've overheard that the tracking didn't go as planned. We decided to work together in coming up with something we felt could help all of you. This was quickly made in our spare time." One of the mechanics announced, then asked their colleagues to reveal what was under the tarp.
Once the tarp was thrown off, the others were greeted to what appeared to be the drill device, or something similar to what McCrane had used in the past except that this device was fashioned into a dart. "Since we don't know the whereabouts of Yuuta's location yet, we designed this dart with the purpose of injecting a tracker we made small enough to fit through the needle, but it also gives that bio-monster a nasty stinging feeling with the liquid loaded inside that it's placed in with, to prevent it from feeling the tracker enter it's system." Another mechanic explained.
"I hate to say it but... If bullets can't penetrate that thing's hide, that dart can't be capable of penetrating it either." Power Joe frowned. "If Shadowmaru were here, he'd probably give that thing an open wound which could allow the dart to dig into it then since I doubt it can withstand a sharp blade. But even then, that's a very small target someone's going to hit."
"We'll leave that task to Kagerou and McCrane." Saejima told the others. Radiant Prism agreed with a nod, then turned her attention back to the others. "My apologies but unfortunately it's name slipped from my mind, but Kagerou has his bladed chain weapon. Due to Shadowmaru's absence in looking into a case in Europe, we'll be needing Kagerou's-" Before she could finish her sentence, Kagerou suddenly made his entrance, blurring into view. "Kagerou! Will you cut that out!?" Power Joe exclaimed, becoming angered by the ninja's habit of just seemingly teleporting into view.
"I heard my name just as I returned to the station. I was curious if I was needed for something." Kagerou turned his attention to the others. "...It sounds like I've missed quite a lot since I just came back to report that Drill Boy and I haven't found any leads in any of the cities we were assigned to look into, none of the residents saw anything either." By this point Drill Boy had just landed at the entrance to the station. "Sorry, everyone... We couldn't find anything about- Huh? What's that thing?"
"We'll explain later, but for now let's head upstairs so that we can update you and Kagerou on the plan we've just put together."
...
"Mm... What?" Yuuta slowly began to wake up, he couldn't remember anything after the bio-monster had swallowed him whole in the blink of an eye. Everything happened far too fast, wondering if this was it's plan all along. He tried to move, but realised he'd been strapped to the chair though soon felt disgusted when he'd picked up a foul smell. '...Ugh, I think that thing vomited in order to spit me out.' He thought, trying to wriggle himself free from the chair but didn't seem to get himself loose. 'Where am I anyways...? If I could just get myself free so I can call Deckerd and the others, they'll know where I am.' Trying again, Yuuta struggled and struggled until he'd managed to free an arm. Right away, he reached into his pocket where he'd keep his comms badge, but was alarmed that it wasn't in any of his pockets. 'No way...! It must have slipped out of my pocket somehow and is somewhere inside that thing's stomach!' He thought, paling at the thought.
"Ah, you're finally awake. Right on time. You have kept us waiting quite a long time, boy." A foreign voice rang throughout the dark room as Yuuta tried to find who spoke to him.
"Wh-Who's there!?" Shouted Yuuta, narrowing his eyes as he looked around.
A set of footsteps could be heard, alerting Yuuta as he turned his attention to the direction of where the sound was coming from. Emerging from the darkness of the room, Yuuta could spot a creepy looking man carrying a small screen where a figure could be seen on the screen, but couldn't make out who it was. "You're...!"
"Yuuta Tomonaga, the famous young boy known to have given the first Brave Police a 'heart' all those years ago. We finally meet. You may know me already as the 'Silhouette Man' as many call me." The Silhouette Man said as the thug translated his words into Japanese, doing so every time the man in the screen spoke, and in reverse when Yuuta made his responses. "I won't be caught like this for very long, I'm warning you, criminals!" Yuuta said, putting on a brave look. "Deckerd and the others will easily find me and we'll stop every single one of you!"
"Stop every single one of us?" The Silhouette Man chuckled in amusement. "Foolish child, you fail to realise the situation that you're currently in. I may not have known how you were able to sway fools that call themselves policemen into making a mere kid one of them, but I assure you that this is no game you're playing, for you'll be getting a taste of what real criminals are capable of doing." The shadowy figure snapped his fingers as Yuuta began to struggle, trying to get his other arm free so that he could then free his legs, but suddenly yelped in pain when someone from behind had grabbed him by his hair while another quickly and painfully wrestled his arms back to the chair again. The moment Yuuta tried to struggle once again, he immediately stopped when he noticed the shine of a knife gleaming into the corner of his eye as it was positioned near his face.
"Wh-Wh-What do you want with Radiant Prism!? Why are you guys targeting her!?" He managed to shout out as he moved his head away from the blade as the criminals behind him could only laugh, pulling on his hair again as Yuuta yelped out in pain from the action.
"You know nothing about her, boy." On hearing his words translated, Yuuta stood his ground. "A defect like Radiant Prism isn't someone you should waste your breath on. I'll only say this, she harnesses a dark secret that she will never tell anyone, not even you or anyone else. She may be running freely for now, but eventually my pet will bring her to me without fail. None of your friends will know where you are, and you will be part of my plan if it means bringing those outdated models to heel!"
"Radiant Prism and the others won't lose to your bio-monster!" Yuuta snapped as he felt the criminal pull at his hair again, but this time he was thrown to the side as the chair tilted over as hitting the ground with a loud thud as he cried out in pain. "I-I'm not afraid! E-Even if you-" He ceased with a slight frightened squeal as the criminal brought the knife close to his face again.
"What shall we do, boss? Shall I decorate the kid's pretty young face with scars?" One of the criminals chuckled deviously. "I'd love to see the look on the Brave Police's faces when they see my artwork carved permanently on his face."
"No, leave him be for now." The Silhouette Man ordered. "I want to give those Brave Police a reason to surrender Radiant Prism to us. Leave him intact, for we're going to attempt an... 'Exchange' if you know what I mean." The man's words seem to tick the other criminal. "In case the original plan fails, then we will be forced to lead Radiant Prism all the way back to Germany. We both know that she won't stand by and watch her home become destroyed once we attack."
Because the criminal that acted as the translator had stopped once the mysterious man had spoken to the criminal, Yuuta didn't understand what was going on but did hear Radiant Prism's name mentioned. The confused expression starting to reveal itself on Yuuta's face only made the criminal grin knowing he was being left in the dark about the plan. The less he understood, the more interesting things would get unless he was smart enough to figure it out despite the language barrier. Yuuta on the other hand was nervous, but didn't dare lose hope. Even if he no longer had his comms badge on him, his friends were quick to find him without fail and he knew that many times. But he hated was the fact that he felt powerless, only driving him further into wanting to get full police training so that he'd know how to deal with situations like the one he's in now.
'Everyone, don't lose to that bio-monster... I believe you guys knowing you'll destroy it and come find me. I refuse to lose hope knowing you guys will find me!' He thought.
Meanwhile at the station, Deckerd had just watched the others leave to start putting their plan into action while he still had to remain where he was. The Brave Detective tried to reason with the others that he's in a far better mood and wants to help out, but when one of his teammates brought up Yuuta, he suddenly ran on adrenaline all over again which was the dead giveaway as he tried to struggle against the dock but was kept in place by the others. 'Tch, I just can't sit here and do nothing! Yuuta's out there and he needs my help...!' Clenching his fists, Deckerd slowly reached for the cabling hooked just about all over his body, causing a mechanic to react.
"Deckerd, stop!" The mechanic cried out. "You're still not-"
"I'm... Not going to sit idly while Yuuta's in danger!" Deckerd growled, tearing the cables off of his body. "He needs my help!"
"None of us know where Yuuta is and we still haven't heard word from either the police force or the Land Defence Forces searching for him! The others that just left are our last hope in trying to catch the bio-monster!" Another mechanic shouted. "Radiant Prism and the others are in the middle of setting up their plan so they can attempt to capture and interrogate the the bio-monster! If anyone knows where Yuuta is, it's that thing!" Regardless, Deckerd refused to listen. As foolish as it was, the mechanics knew there was no reasoning with the Brave Detective if he didn't have his friend. Deckerd was by no means dependent on Yuuta, but his greatest fear was losing his first ever friend he's made since he was first built long ago. "Sorry!" He shouted, quickly heading for the exit and changed into his vehicle mode, speeding off.
Deckerd continued to drive, turning into different street addresses. While his movement was wobbly in robot form, he could still drive fairly well in vehicle mode while making sure he didn't swerve too much. Even if he didn't know where Yuuta was, he still had to make some effort in trying to locate him. Not long after he'd left the station, he could overhear conversations between the mechanics and his teammates, warning them about that he'd gone and left the station without an all-clear of being able to return back to work again as there were still remnants of the scrambling system the bio-monster had thrown on him and the others.
-What!? I thought Deckerd would have been already long cleared!- Dumpson exclaimed.
-Deckerd wasn't allowing himself to recover efficiently...- Replied a mechanic. -His recovery was slow due to the fact he kept worrying too much about Yuuta that he'd been too focused on wanting to prioritise him over his own health. The records last updated us that he's roughly eighty seven percent recovered, but it's not enough. He still has traces of the scrambler left that still mildly impair his motor and visual functions.-
-As much as I'd like to search for Deckerd, we still need to prepare ourselves for capturing the monster before it could cause anymore damage.- Seia announced to the others. -Everyone, start moving into position and prepare to wait until it shows up.-
-...Seia is right, if we can capture and extract information about the young Inspector's whereabouts, we'll begin our search immediately if this goes according to plan.- Radiant Prism agreed reluctantly.
Unable to stand listening into the conversation anymore, Deckerd eventually found himself in an isolated part of the city. With the adrenaline loss, he began to slow down and the effects of his motor and visual sight were starting to show themselves. While he knew he should have waited longer to recover, he couldn't afford to wait any longer. He gave himself a moment before slowly continuing his search. "Tch, I should begin my search from a bird's point of view. I need J-Roader..." The Brave Detective sent a signal to call for the J-Roader, once it'd arrived he proceeded to align himself with the support vehicle, getting into position to change into his vehicle mode to dock.
Without warning, something had knocked him away just before he could combine. Deckerd had been sent out of the city and into it's outskirts, leaving a trail as he slid across the ground until he came to a stop. "Who's there!?" Sitting up, Deckerd could hear a devious chuckle and shortly afterwards the bio-monster had blurred into view, Getting up, Deckerd tried to get away but his condition caused him to stagger, giving the creature a chance to bring a large paw crashing down onto him. "Well well, look who we have here all alone." It chuckled, slightly squeezing the Brave as he yelped out in agony. "Yes... I think you'll do very nicely. I can't decide whether or not if I should be surprised that your team left you all alone to find me. Don't think for a second that I haven't been made aware of what you plan on doing, I'll assure you that your plans will only crumble once I have what I seek!"
"Agghhhkkkk...!" Deckerd cringed as the bio-monster tightened it's grip on his body, his visuals warning him that some parts are about to be damaged. "Where- Nngh! Where have you taken Yuuta!?" He yelled, voice straining from the pressure applied to his body.
The creature only chuckled. "Why, he was quite the tasty treat Brave Police." It then leaned down to whisper. "To allow a child to throw their life under the belief they're playing police officer, this is all your fault for allowing this to happen." It then leaned in closer to Deckerd's faceplates. "What were you even thinking, I wonder... But it's too late, I've already digested him. He's no longer among the living anymore!"
"WHAT!?" Deckerd began getting mixed feelings about what he'd heard. A part of him wanted to believe that he's still alive and that there was still time, but the fact that Yuuta didn't have a suit let alone life support to avoid getting digested. "I will not believe the lies of a criminal! Bio-monster, bio-machine, human, no matter what I have to deal with, I know Yuuta is still alive!" The Brave Detective started to struggle, sliding his servos under the massive bio-monster's paw and gained just enough strength to push it off of him, then quickly moved out of the way just as it began to apply pressure in an attempt to crush him. "You...! To dare tell me that Yuuta is gone..." Deckerd quickly brought out his badge to quickly call for backup, but before he could even let out a single word, the bio-monster had fired it's toungue at the device, quickly swallowing it whole.
"No-!"
"I don't think so." It grinned deviously. "No one will help you here! I will slaughter every single one of you, and you'll be the first one to die!" As it lunged in an attempt to grab Deckerd, the Brave Detective had to concentrate on where he could predict the bio-monster could attack. The creature was fast, far faster than a standard bio-machine. Unlike Gawan that traded speed for sheer strength, evolving to better suit the environment it was exposed to, this creature traded all of that in favour of possessing incredible agility, with the ability to siphon or expel electricity to change it's size accordingly with either it's toungue or it's teeth.
...
-You're positive that the signal you detected briefly belonged to Deckerd, Kagerou?- Radiant Prism asked through the communications.
"I'm very positive, Radiant Prism." Replied Kagerou. He and McCrane had gone ahead to investigate where the former had detected the signal's last location. "Nothing can escape my radar even if I've detected it for a brief moment. I may still be catching up to Shadowmaru but I've already familiarised myself with everyone's unique signals. I know for sure that what I detected belongs to Deckerd and no one else."
-Be careful, it could be lying in wait if it's attacking Deckerd or possibly using him as bait to ambush you two.-
"Yes ma'am!" With the connection cut, Kagerou brought out a few devices, four small triangular devices as he handed two of them to McCrane. "Here, I'll need your help. If we place them in a large radius in the form of a square, it will nullify the inner area that prevents sound from being heard outside. In turn, this is also going to allow Seia and her team to drive their vehicles into position, allowing them time to ready the special nets when the time is right." Kagerou then brought out something else as both of them stopped, first spraying the device all over McCrane and then all over himself. "This spray will also mask our scent in case it has a highly developed sense of smell considering it's purely organic. We'll smell like the surrounding nature as we're placing down these nullifying devices.
McCrane nodded. "Alright, let's begin."
They immediately got to work, moving in the opposite direction of one another with Kagerou heading west and McCrane heading east. Kagerou instructed McCrane to stop and start planting the first device. Once the Combat Detective told him that it was setup, Kagerou then instructed McCrane to head North until he tells him to stop, doing the same thing as he went. Once they'd gone far enough without making too much noise, the blue and black Brave spoke.
"This should be enough, now place your device and I'll place mine."
-It's placed.- McCrane replied after he'd done so.
"Good work, I'll activate the device now."
Bringing his servos together, Kagerou concentrated as he activated the device. A soft, silent whine could be heard as the device powered up. A small dim light indicated that it was active and working. 'Alright, it should be working. Now to go seek out McCrane.'
It didn't take long for the Shadow Detective to quickly find and locate McCrane's location. The orange and dark blue Brave had just informed Seia that her team can start getting into position. "The others are going to move into position. Both of us should start doing the same right away."
"Agreed, here they come now. ...I can only hope Deckerd can hold on long enough for us to get into position."
The others eventually caught up and Radiant Prism patiently waited for Seia's team to position themselves. She spotted Kagerou and McCrane approach, informing her about that the bio-monster shouldn't be able to hear the others provided they stay outside of the field. "Good, once Seia's team is in position, we can continue things as planned... I'm going to inform Deckerd now so he won't be too surprised or distracted." She did just that, informing Deckerd not to make an signs or signals to search for them but they're here to provide him backup. She only requested that he follow along with the plan and before he could ask what sort of plan she had in mind, he could hear a shout which caused both to cease on hearing the voice.
"Ah, Radiant Prism! But what's this? You're not going to 'power up' and fight me? How intriguing."
"I don't need my combined form to fight you." Radiant Prism narrowed her optics, her servos squeezing together as if she were 'cracking' her knuckles.
"Radiant Prism!?" Deckerd exclaimed. "What are you-"
"I can take you on as just myself alone, monster. You said that you wanted my helm, but I won't submit and accept death so easily." Deckerd watched as Radiant Prism continued to taunt the creature, while he had no idea what sort of plan she and the others had, he wasn't going to waste his chance in signalling for the J-Roader and try again to combine into J-Decker. Unknown to the Brave Detective, his support vehicle had just run over one of the devices used to nullify the sound outside of the field, causing a loud painful shriek to be heard and alert the bio-monster "What... Who!?"
"Take this!" J-Decker dove towards his target, intending to impale it with his police baton. Radiant Prism had to scramble out of the way as the moment J-Decker made contact with the ground, he'd decimated most of the surrounding area where he impacted, missing his target as it fled just before it could make contact.
'No! J-Decker is ruining the plan! Tch, something's not right with him either... He's recklessly chasing after the creature...!' She could only watch momentarily as J-Decker continued to give chase and attack, Radiant Prism grew concerned thinking that something must have set J-Decker off or that he might be in some sort of situation where he'd be running off of adrenaline out of revenge for Yuuta's disappearance. Radiant Prism changed form and took off into the skies, whistling for the Aerial Striker as it emerged from the clouds from above.
Just as Radiant Prism was perfectly aligned with her support, the creature saw what was going on and wasn't going to allow Radiant Prism to combine, swiping away J-Decker and fired it's toungue.
"No you don't!" Kagerou shouted, blurring into view and severing the toungue in one swift move as the creature shrieked in agony. Something in it seemed to change the moment Radiant Prism successfully combined to form Aerial Radiance. It quickly avoided another incoming attack from J-Decker as it swiped the combiner away once more, going entirely after Aerial Radiance in a all out frenzied rage.
"I WILL NOT LEAVE WITHOUT YOUR SUPER A.I. RADIANT PRISM!" The creature suddenly switched languages as it clashed with Aerial Radiance. "I WILL SEE YOU SQUIRMING FOR YOUR LAST ATTEMPTS AT FREEDOM AND PRESENT YOU TO MY MASTER!"
"I refuse to go down easily, beast!" Shouted Aerial Radiance, switching to German herself. As the two dodged, blocked, and exchanged attacks, she suddenly came up with a plan and once she'd seen the opportunity, the German Brave quickly grappled the bio-monster.
"NOW! FIRE THE NETS!" She shouted as she began to feel the energy being siphoned from her body. the sound of two explosions could be heard as nets were fired at incredible speeds, quickly wrapping around the creature as well as Aerial Radiance's arms. This only seemed to further anger it as Aerial Radiance shouted for Kagerou to open a wound in it. The Shadow Detective did as told, blurring into view as he dove down to dig the sickle portion of the Kusarigama into the flesh of the creature. While it was impervious to bullets, his thoughts that it could still be injured with sharp weapons were true, blades could still hurt the thing. "You're up, McCrane!" Kagerou called out, moving away.
"Drill Boy, I need your help!" McCrane shouted for his Brother. The orange and white Brave quickly scrambled up to McCrane, grabbing a hold of him as he lifted him up into the air. "Over there, that wound Kagerou made!"
"Right!" Drill Boy acknowledged, but noticed something unusual "...Ah!? McCrane, look! It's wound is closing up!"
"Hurry and dive towards it so I can inject the tracker before it does!"
Acknowledging once more, Drill Boy flew in closer. He was starting to find it was too dangerous to continue approaching with it thrashing around wildly, quickly dodging an attack from it's long, slender tail. "Wah! McCrane, I can't fly any closer without the risk of it knocking me out of the sky!" The Soccer Detective shouted in a slight panic.
"Tch, it can't be helped... Alright, grab hold of my cabling!" He instructed, positioning the crane arm upwards and ejected his hook out to allow Drill Boy to grab a hold of the cabling. "Hold onto this, I'm going to reel myself down for a closer shot. We have only one shot of this so we have to make it count!" Once the young Brave had a grip of his cabling, McCrane quickly began to reel himself downwards, getting himself closer to the shrinking wound while readying his shotgun with the syringe attached to it. He took aim, patiently waiting for the right moment but then paused when he realised that it wasn't going to work due to how much it was moving. Detaching the syringe from his shotgun, he then swung himself a few times until he could reach and grab hold onto the netting. 'Here goes!' He then jabbed the syringe into the bio-monster's and immediately started injecting the substance as he tried to keep it still to prevent it from dislodging even though the wound was starting to slowly wrap around it. In the background, J-Decker tried to assist but had been continuously swiped away regardless of what attack he tried, as if it could easily read him out like a book and how to strike accordingly.
"Status, McCrane!" Aerial Radiance shouted, trying to keep strong even though she could feel more of her energy being drained away. Unlike by herself, she had more energy as Aerial Radiance, but while it allowed her to last much longer, she wouldn't be able to last all that long regardless. Checking her scans, she had about roughly seventy two percent and dropping.
"Just about thirty-five percent injected! Keep it steady!"
'Damn! I need to work hard to keep this thing steady long enough. If I fail here, we're done for... Once McCrane's able to get that tracker inside it's flesh, then we can finally wait and locate the young Inspector and bring him home safely! I... Cannot... Fail!' Thought Aerial Radiance. Her strength continued to weaken slowly every second, she needed to keep the bio-monster still as best as she could. She couldn't tell if McCrane had completed his task since she couldn't see him, unaware that the bio-monster was using her siphoned energy to allow itself to heal the wound Kagerou made. The other Braves have been providing some small additional backup, in the form of shooting at it's face as a means of distracting it despite bullets had no effect on it.
"Fifty percent... Sixty four percent... Seventy five percent... Eighty... Eighty nine... Ninety- Aggghhk!"
"ENOUGH!" Thrashing free, the bio-monster roared, flying into a frenzied rage as it lashed out at everything around it, sending everyone away while it tore itself free from the cables. "I KNOW WHAT YOU WERE ALL PLANNING AND WHATEVER YOU THROW AT ME NEXT... I WILL NOT FALL FOR THE SAME TRICK!" It's attention turned to Aerial Radiance. "YOU MAY HAVE WON FOR NOW, RADIANT PRISM, BUT I WILL ASSURE YOU THE NEXT TIME OUR PATHS CROSS, YOU WILL BE DESTROYED!" Without warning, it began spewing the same scrambler mist as before, using it to hide itself partially as it immediately shrank and disappeared in the blink of an eye. With it gone, Aerial Radiance slowly collapsed to one knee, feeling exhausted as she disengaged from her combined form. The Aerial Striker itself floated down to the ground, unable to fly off thanks to both low energy, and the scrambler's work. Unable to continue standing, Radiant Prism collapsed.
...
"Dammit, that thing pulled the same cheap trick on us again!" Power Joe grumbled. "I should have seen it coming when it sprayed that damn scrambling mist on us again!"
"But it's unknown if McCrane and Drill Boy were successful in the final part of our plan. But to know that it siphons energy to regenerate it's wounds... That's bad." Duke narrowed his optics at the thought of discovering it's healing potential, but pushed them aside for now as he turned to look at McCrane. "Were you successful? Did you get the tracker inside of that thing?"
"I'm not sure." McCrane rasped, feeling completely weakened from the mist as he'd taken the brunt of it alongside Drill Boy. "I can't say for sure if I got the whole thing since I had a small amount of left, but I didn't see if the tracker had left the syringe. I'm not sure where it is since that mist made me incredibly weak, and I felt like I was fading in and out of consciousness to really see if I did it or not, but I recall it had been smashed when I hit the ground."
"Tch, I hope getting scrambled by that mist was worth it in the end." Gunmax sniffed. "I don't get how Patrol Car isn't phased from how disgusting it messes with our visuals and audios! I feel like I've lost the ability to control my limbs and I'm occasionally hearing specks of white noise in my audios. If I had muscles like humans, I think I'd have some sort of-"
"We don't even have any muscles, Gunmax..." Duke frowned in annoyance.
Drill Boy spoke up with a frown. "I'm sorry everyone, I tried to keep things steady for McCrane, but..."
"You tried your best, Drill Boy." Radiant Prism assured the young Soccer Detective, then looked at everyone. "In correction, everyone did their best and while we can't say for sure that we were successful, we'll know sooner or later once we hear back from Kagerou."
"He's the only one immune to it. Huh... The wonders of having advanced technology." Dumpson muttered. "If only all of us had something like that, it wouldn't send us back to the station and put the mechanics to work flushing this rubbish out of our systems."
"But Dumpson... If we all had what Shadowmaru and Kagerou had, we'd be investigating our cases in secret." Drill Boy whined. "I think we'd only scare people if they couldn't see us anymore! I-I wouldn't want that since I'd hate for us to rarely see one another, too!"
"I'd think it'd be an interesting concept to try, even though that's not going to happen." Power Joe smirked, but then frowned upon further thinking about it. "...But Drill Boy's right, I probably would even lose any ability to make time for my favourite soap operas." As the others continued to chatter among one another, Deckerd was the only one who remained silent. He couldn't believe that the creature they were battling earlier had just gone and left when they were so close to figuring out where it had taken Yuuta. While he'd eventually learned that their plan was to inject the bio-machine with a tracking device since it'd fallen off of it previously, he didn't feel relieved that they'd be a step closer. Instead, he'd felt anger rise within him. He felt that the others should have captured that beast so they could interrogate it.
He was going to have a talk with Radiant Prism once both of them have recovered.
It wouldn't be until the evening when the mechanics finally cleaned the Braves of the scrambler's effects, the group was glad they could move around again and were starting to head up to the office. Radiant Prism would be the last one to step out of the lift, where she would be greeted by Deckerd whom he'd been waiting for her. "We need to talk." He told her.
"What is it, Deckerd?" She asked, curious on what the Brave Detective wanted to discuss with her. She watched as he slowly approached her until he stopped. He didn't say anything right away and would continue for about another minute. "...Deckerd?"
"Why...?"
"Pardon...? Deckerd wha-" Without warning, Radiant Prism gasped as Deckerd grabbed her by the front of her armour, slamming her against the wall. "Agghhkk-! What are you doing, Deckerd!? What's gotten into you!?" She wheezed.
"Why did all of you let that thing get away!? Weren't you supposed to capture and interrogate it!?" Again, Deckerd slammed Radiant Prism into the wall, causing her to yelp out in agony. The second impact against the wall was enough to draw the attention of the others, who were shocked to see their friend hurting Radiant Prism. "We could have caught and interrogated it for the location of Yuuta but all of you allowed it to escape!" Deckerd shouted.
"Th-That was the original plan, until your support vehicle destroyed one of the devices Kagerou had- Agghhkk! Had set up to prevent it from... From hearing Seia and her team! We were forced to- Aagghhkk!" She couldn't get the chance to say anything when Deckerd slammed her for a third time into the wall.
"That's enough, Deckerd!" Shouted Duke, taking action and pulling the two leaders apart. Radiant Prism coughed and wheezed from the assault but straightened herself up, continuing her sentence. "We were forced to make changes which resulted in me having to still play along with my part in acting as bait, but because you destroyed Kagerou's sound nullifying device that creates a sound barrier to prevent those outside from hearing what's coming, we were forced to take the alternate and go with quickly injecting the tracking device into that monster's flesh. We were going to use that to allow Seia and her team to fire the netting to capture it without that thing hearing them considering how noisy their vehicles can be."
"But when will we hear from where Yuuta is!?" Deckerd snapped as Duke had to hold him back. Everyone else seemed to go silent at this, even Radiant Prism had no answer to that. She looked away, disappointed as Deckerd shouted once more. "Do you... Even know what it means to lose a friend dear to you!?" His words were enough to narrow Radiant Prism's optics, her attention drawn back to him when the Brave Detective shrugged Duke off. "Deckerd, we're trying all we can to bring Yuuta back. You have my word with that as acting leader-"
"Acting leader!? You...!" He ceased when the other Braves approached. Duke spoke to Deckerd explaining that he chose to put Radiant Prism as acting Leader until Yuuta has been recovered. He explained that he hated to do this but with his current mental state clouding his judgement, he had no choice but to do this after he had a discussion with the others. "Deckerd this is no one's fault, that bio-monster took us completely by surprise and we all wish to see the young Inspector found safe and sound. But with the current state you're in... You're scaring everyone and making them worry." The others expressed their concern which made Deckerd calm down, hesitating when he'd heard everyone's distress and that he wasn't alone in this. He had gone completely silent, feeling ashamed for letting himself fly off in an uncontrollable, volatile state.
"Deckerd, like you I have a friend back in Germany. A special friendship equal to that of what you and the young Inspector share." Radiant Prism explained. "It pains me every single day that I've been unable to see him even as years have passed since I first landed all the way here from my home. I never expressed how painful it was to be so far away from someone who was the first friend I've made in the beginning of my life, but I know I had to stay strong and keep going forward knowing I'll see him again when the day comes that I can finally return back to Germany. I know you're deeply worried about him being somewhere all alone and scared but even I want to ensure his safety no matter what." Radiant Prism looked at the others briefly, then back into the blue Brave.
"But know that he's not just your friend, Boss is our friend too." Radiant Prism extended a servo for Deckerd to shake, wanting to make peace with him. The latter stared at her servo for a moment, then looked back up at her. After a moment, he then extended his own servo, shaking hers.
"Deckerd, I promise that as acting Leader I will ensure Boss is back with us safe and sound. Of course, I'm not the only one who's going to bring him back..." Radiant Prism turned her attention to the others with a smile. "But everyone I consider a friend will also help bring him back, too."