Lucia stepped shamefully back onto the Neo-Organism's ship, as Logia, who had been off studying diagrams, ran back into the room to meet her.

"Lucia!" he called out to her as she walked to him. "Lucia, what happened out there? Where's Radia?"

Lucia lowered her head and said nothing as the Neo-Organism, who had been watching through the eyes of Doras, appeared in the middle of the room once again.

"Radia is no more…" he flatly stated.

"What?" replied Logia, giving him a look before looking back at Lucia. "Is this true?…"

She slowly nodded and looked up. "We had them beaten, and then he arrived…"

"Who?.." Logia looked her straight in the eyes. "Who arrived?.."

The Neo-organism turned and answered Logia's question for Lucia. "A very powerful armored warrior from Paxeria, whose name seems to be Kusaka."

Logia quickly bolted away from Lucia and clenched his fist. "Kusaka!" he growled a bit as he resisted the urge to hit something really hard. "That nuisance followed us again?"

Lucia nodded again. "Yes…he caught us off guard, and attacked Radia. I was attacked by the others, so I was outnumbered, and unable to help him…all I could do was watch Kusaka kill him…" she lowered her head again in shame.

Logia sighed heavily and shook his head, unable to believe that one of his closest comrades was now dead. He paced around the ship, wondering what he was going to do about this latest setback, as the Neo-organism suddenly spoke up.

"Now is not the time to be mourning any losses. We still have objectives to complete."

Logia then walked right up to the Neo-Organism and pointed a finger at it's face. "We're not just mindless automatons, you know…if there's an objective to complete, then we will complete it when we are well and ready too, got that?"

Lucia could feel the tension between these two as the Neo-Organism just stared at him, and replied, grudgingly. "Very well…but do not waste more time than is necessary…" With that he slowly lowered himself down into the screen and vanished.

She looked to Logia as he sat next to her on a console chair. "Logia…are you sure that teaming up with this thing was such a bright idea. There's something about this computer that makes it so…so…megalomania cal."

Logia sighed and shrugged a bit. "I know…it's quite an unusual thing to get involved with. But we have a mission to accomplish. The professor created some potentially dangerous and destructive weapons with these new suits, and we must retrieve them before they can be utilized by the Paxerians to harm us and other Impactors. And if that means that we have to cooperate with some less than savory characters, then that's what we do."

Lucia looked at Logia, and then down at a console nearby as she lowered her head. "I still can't believe he's gone…after all we'd been through together…"

Logia patted her on the back softly. "Being killed in action is a part of War, Lucia, and it's to be expected every time we go into battle…I know Radia's death is as much a shock to you as it is to me, but all we can do now is make sure he didn't die for nothing."

Lucia slowly nodded as she looked back at her commander. "I understand…"

"Animals?…did you hear what he called us? Animals? Who does he think he is?"

An Irate Shorty paced around Littlefoot and Ali as he said this.

"Calm down, Shorty." Littlefoot responded, trying to keep him from flying off the handle. "Just let Takumi and Mihara talk with the guy. We're not even exactly sure why he's here just yet."

"I don't like this guy." Ali flatly stated, looking right at Littlefoot. "There's something about him, something I see in his eyes…it's not good, I can feel it."

Littlefoot looked her in the eyes as he responded. "Now don't you go overreacting as well. I don't know about you two, but I think there's always a way to cooperate with others, even if they don't come off as the nicest of people. Just look at Cera for example, or you Shorty. We didn't get along at first, remember?"

Shorty nodded slowly "Yeah…I guess you're right. Maybe Takumi and Mihara just need to find some common ground with the guy."

As the three longnecks we talking, Takumi, Mihara, and Kusaka, were all assembled in another section of the valley, looking at each other cautiously.

"Ok Kusaka" Takumi said, breaking the silence, "How did you find out about all this?"

Kusaka wiped some dirt from his uniform as he responded. "I got my hands on some new long distance tracking equipment, that allowed me to monitor the ship Radia came in on from far off, so I didn't have to go into range of their sensors to follow them. Once I saw them land on Earth, I landed my own ship not too far from theirs, got onboard while they weren't around, and hacked into their database. The logs talked about their first encounter with the supercomputer, and the existence of the suits, and how they managed to find hosts in those animals."

Mihara shook his head. "Would you please not call them that?"

Kusaka gave Mihara a dirty look. "Well what else could they be? Huh? Look at this place. Look at them…" He shook his head gently. "Maybe you've forgotten that this is a primitive planet undeserving of technology like this, but I haven't!"

Mihara scoffed "Listen to yourself…you're barely the Kusaka I used to know anymore…"

Kusaka just looked him sternly in the eye. "Good…that's exactly the point!"

Takumi finally interjected. "Ok, that's enough you two." He addressed Kusaka. "Look, I don't care what your personal feelings are on the matter of Earthlings possessing these suits, the fact is that we've got two other Impactors, and a crazed computer who want them. And no matter what the circumstances surrounding these suits are, we CAN'T let them succeed in retrieving them. Understood?"

Mihara nodded quickly as Kusaka sighed and folded his arms. "I suppose you're right."

Takumi walked over and patted his shoulder. "Good. I'm glad to see you can still be reasonable."

Kusaka simply nodded and stood by the bike he rode in on earlier, as Takumi went to find Littlefoot and the others, with Mihara following, but stopping for a moment to stare at Kusaka, wondering if he could be trusted, before walking off.

"He's right." Kusaka thought to himself as they left the scene. "The impactors should not be allowed to have these new suits…but I wonder…is it any safer to let these creatures have them, instead of loyal Paxerians?…"

He pondered this question alone as he cleaned the tires on his bike of any mud they had picked up on the journey from outside the valley.

"So you're telling us he's ok?" Littlefoot asked Takumi, who had just found him and the others and explained to them how the conversation with Kusaka had gone.

Takumi nodded slowly. "I think I convinced him to work with us here. Granted, it's not an ideal situation to have someone as unstable as him involved, but I think he realizes how bad it would be if our enemies succeeded in killing you all and taking the suits."

Shorty shook his head a bit and gazed at Takumi. "I sure hope he does."

Mihara sighed a bit as he sat down on a log nearby. "I don't know…I guess it's just hard for me to accept what he's become now, and that makes it hard for me to trust him."

"What do you mean?" Ali asked him curiously. "What was he like before?"

Mihara looked down at the ground for a moment, before looking back at her. "Well…I've known Kusaka for many years, back when we were children as a matter of fact. See, after his parents and sister died in that attack I told you about, he was placed in the care of his Aunt, who lived in my neighborhood. I was always a friendly kid, so I got to know him immediately. But Kusaka…he was so quiet, so distant. Trauma that bad can do that to children I guess…anyway, he was never naturally gifted physically either, so that made him a popular target for bullies." He sighed and shook his head. "Some of the things those bullies did to that poor kid, it was terrible. Spent his entire childhood believing he was a weakling."

Shorty addressed Mihara next, his eyes transfixed. "That's awful. How did he end up changing so drastically then?"

Mihara rubbed his hands a bit as he continued. "Well, that happened when he first got himself into the academy, by virtue of his academic skills. People thought he was just going to be another engineer or analyst. But instead, he went out there and trained every morning, harder than anyone else I'd ever seen work at the academy, even most of our instructors. It was amazing. He never neglected his studies, but it was clear once he started winning competitions and even outperforming some instructors, that he wasn't just another analyst in waiting. There was just one problem with Kusaka…"

"What was that?" Littlefoot asked, standing very close to Mihara.

"Well, he slowly started to become a big discipline problem. He disobeyed orders frequently and just started following his own instincts, and that made a lot of people unhappy. But he didn't care. He now believed that he had survived the worst things that life had thrown at him, and he was a better, almost superior, Paxerian because of it all. And it was that arrogance that started making me a bit uncomfortable to be around him. Not too long after that was when he stole the Kaixa belt and escaped."

Ali shivered a bit as she heard all of this. "And you think someone like him is going to want to work with us?"

Takumi just paced a bit as he responded. "Well, we have to do what we can in order to keep the Impactors and the Neo-Organism from winning, and despite his problems, Kusaka's a good fighter. I think if we give him time to warm up to all of us, he could be a great asset."

Mihara nodded slowly "I know the guy still makes me a bit uncomfortable, but you've always had good instincts about these things, Tak, so I trust you."

The others simply nodded in agreement at Mihara's statement, some more uncomfortably than others.

As this was going on, Kusaka was driving around on his bike outside of the valley, just trying to relax after the tense conversation he had with Takumi and Mihara, before he suddenly saw a light in the distance, headed his way.

Kusaka pulled his bike over to the side, watching the ball of light land and materialize, revealing a familiar face as he stepped off his bike.

"So…the legendary commander Logia finally reveals himself." He grinned just a little as he reached back and pulled out his metal case, carrying the X-like "Chi" symbol, while Logia simply watched him.

"You could have let what happened in the past stay in the past, Kusaka" he said in a calm tone of voice. "You could have saved yourself a lot of pain and anguish by moving on with your life instead of holding a grudge…but instead, you've slain my best general, caused my Lieutenant to fall into a depression, and in the process you have made me quite unhappy. I don't like to get angry Kusaka, and my subordinates don't like it either."

Kusaka scoffed as he slapped the Kaixa gear around his waist. "What about me, huh? What about my anger? Do you have any idea what your best general did to me?" he shook his head. "He killed the only two people who cared about me, he cut my sister's life short! She was just a little girl!" He shouted out the last part. "I could have died with them, but no, I'm the one who has to grow up with an apathetic aunt, being taunted and tortured with no one to turn to, thinking I was nothing but a loser for years and years!"

He then got out the "henshin" device "I'm going to take it all back now." He punched in the code slowly…

9….

"The wasted years…"

1…

"The endless self pity…"

3…

"And the weakness…"

He then punched the "enter" key, as the same dark distorted voice said "STANDING BY…" He raised the device to his mouth and said "Henshin!" before sliding it into the slot onto his belt. "COMPLETE" He then held out his arms as the yellow photon streams once again encircled his body, changing him into Kaixa once more.

Logia shook his head slowly as he readied the gun at his side. "So young a Paxerian to have such pain in his heart…the least someone can do for you is put an end to all of your suffering, and it's clear from your defeating Radia, that I'm the only one who can accomplish this."

Logia then turned and quickly held out the gun with one hand, shooting powerful bullets at Kaixa as he ran towards him and withdrew his blaygun, extending the sword at the bottom as he slashed at the bullets, before using the gun section to fire a spray of yellow glowing bullets at him like a machine gun. Logia soon spun and jumped out of the way of these bullets, quickily firing two bullets in mid-air, striking Kaixa in both shoulders! Kaixa grunted and fell onto his back as Logia ran towards him, aiming the gun at his head before Kaixa quickly lifted his blaygun and hit him in the chest with another spray of bullets!

Back in the Valley, Takumi heard a beeping noise on his henshin device in the case, getting it out and opening it, looking it over.

Littlefoot ran over to him. "What is it?"

"My device is picking up a signal from the Kaixa belt, outside of the valley…Kusaka's fighting someone!"

Shorty looked at him and cocked an eyebrow. "Should we help him?"

Takumi sighed as he got out the Faiz gear and slapped it around his waist. "Look, he's just fighting one guy it looks like. You can decide this time whether you want to get involved, but I think I should at least help him."

Ali and Shorty just looked on, unsure about this as Littlefoot stepped up to him. "I'll go with you, Takumi…he needs help, and that's good enough for me."

Mihara then got up and nodded as he put on the Delta gear. "Yeah. He's still an old friend of mine, no matter what he's become. I've got to show him that I still am his friend."

Littlefoot looked back to Ali and Shorty, as Shorty spoke up. "Look, you can do what you want, but we're still not sure…but if you need help, we'll sense it and come to your aid."

Littlefoot nodded as he heard this "I understand." He then joined Takumi and Mihara as they both transformed into Faiz and Delta, and changed himself into Agito. Faiz and Delta got onto their bikes as Agito made his materialize, driving off with them to find Kaixa.

Meanwhile, Kaixa was swinging the sword part of his Blaygun at Logia, who expertly dodged every swipe before kicking him in the stomach, and smashing him in the helmet with a spinning backhand! Kusaka tried to aim his gun, only to have Logia grip his wrist and twist his arm, making him drop it as he cried out in pain.

"I'm not going to let you off easy with a quick death…" Logia said as he held Kaixa's arm. "I'm going to very slowly tear this arm from it's socket, so you can feel every agonizing second…then I'm going to work on the other one…"

Kaixa gave him a defiant look under his helmet, trying to think of a way out of this, before something came by and slashed Logia over the back!

Logia fell back and saw the figure of Agito on his bike, in his red form with his sword extended as he got off the bike, with Faiz and Delta getting off of their bikes too, as Faiz suddenly pulled a sword from one of the bike's handles, while Delta readied his gun.

"It seems you have some allies now…" Logia said as he looked at Kaixa. "We shall finish this another time, once I have the proper forces assembled." Kaixa got up and tried to shoot him as he changed back into a ball of light and flew away.

Kaixa hunched over a bit as Agito came over and patted him on the back. "Hey there…you ok?…"

Kaixa stayed silent, and simply responded by raising his blaygun and shooting Agito in the stomach!

"Kusaka!" Faiz yelled as Agito stumbled and fell from the blast.

"What the hell are you doing?" Mihara shouted. "I thought we had an agreement!"

Kaixa stared down at Agito as he caught his breath and slowly got up. "You were right about one thing, Takumi…the Impactors shouldn't be allowed to take possession of these suits…but there's only one way that they can ever be safely in Paxerian hands…" He fired his gun at Littlefoot again as he dodged the blast.

Delta quickly responded by firing his own gun, hitting Kaixa on the arm. "That settles it! You're really not the Kusaka I know anymore!"

Kaixa scoffed. "Fine…you were never a true friend to me anyway…always holding me back and laughing about me when I wasn't around…I'm glad I'm not who I used to be, Mihara, cause I'm not your doormat anymore!"

Delta shook his head. "You've lost it, you know that? That weaponry's going to your head!"

Kaixa readied his gun once more "You're the one who's gone crazy! Protecting these wild animals! I'm the only one who knows the answer is to get these suits off of them, and if that means killing them to do it, FINE!"

He then charged Agito, clashing blades with him as Delta and Faiz ran in, trying to restrain Kaixa, who simply threw them both off. Delta fired his gun as Kaixa dodged the shots, and Faiz slashed at him with his sword, clashing blades with him as Agito took a few swings with his own sword.

Kaixa then became angry and looked at Agito. "I said, DON'T TOUCH ME!" he then powered up his blaygun and broke off from the two, spinning and letting a barrage of yellow glowing bullets fly as they all hit Agito, Faiz, and Delta.

The three warriors fell and clutched at their wounds as Kaixa set his sights on Agito, taking the charger from his belt and attaching it to his blaygun.

"READY"

Kaixa looked to Agito as he rose onto his feet once more. "Now to do what these other two cowards can't bring themselves to…" he flipped the device open on his belt and pressed the enter key as the voice said "EXCEED CHARGE"

Agito got into a defensive position, unaware that Shorty and Ali, who were now Gillis and Chalice, were riding onto the scene, ready to fight Kaixa off, but they were too late…

Kaixa readied himself, his blade glowing as he ran straight towards Agito, ready to finish him off with the sword on his blaygun. He charged in and extended the blade!…

Agito readied himself to defend the finisher, knowing fully well it might have been the end for him, before something happened. From out of nowhere, Delta leaped in front of Agito, and took the full brunt of Kaixa's finisher!

"MIHARA!" Takumi yelled as Kaixa turned in shock to see Delta sputtring and falling over as his suit vanished, the delta gear falling off as Mihara hit the ground. He didn't turn to dust, but the impact was fatal, as he began to spit up blood and grunt softly in agony, shivering.

Kaixa kept looking to Mihara as he shook his head.

"Look what you did…and for what?…another animal…what a waste…"

He quickly got onto his bike and drove off as Takumi quickly ran over to his fallen comrade, changing back in a flash as he kneeled down and cradled him in his arms. "Mihara!…Mihara!…c'mon, stay with me!"

Mihara opened his eyes and just stared at Takumi. "I…told you…it was a bad…idea…to…trust him…"

Takumi held his friend close as his eyes began to well up with tears. "C'mon Mihara, hang in there…I can get you to the ship in no time, I'll get you fixed up, all you have to do is hang on."

Mihara sighed softly "I'm sorry…Tak…" he slowly began to lose consciousness…

Ali let her tears flow openly as she and the others watched Takumi take his friend's hand in his own. "Don't be afraid…" he said as his own tears flowed…"I'm sure you'll find favor with the great creator…you gave your life for someone you barely knew…you're a good soul…remember that…"

Mihara smiled a bit as he closed his eyes. "Th…thank…you…Tak…my…friend…" a single tear flowed from his eye, as he breathed his last breath, and went limp in Takumi's arms…

Mihara was gone…

Ali sobbed softly as she leaned into Littlefoot, who looked on and shed a few tears of his own, as Shorty lowered his head and angrily stomped the ground with a foot, a tear seeping from his own eye as well.

Takumi then lowered Mihara's body, and gently picked up the Delta gear from the ground. He looked at it, then at Mihara as he gripped it tightly in his hand.

"My old friend…" he thought to himself "Forgive me for my mistake… I'm going to right all of this, somehow…that bastard Kusaka now has Paxerian blood on his hands…And I'm not about to let him forget that fact!…I'm going going to show him, and our enemies, what I and these "animals" can do!"…