Infinite Anime Loops

by BIOS-Pherecydes

Yggdrasil, the supercomputer god-tree which runs all of reality, has suffered a cataclysmic breakdown. In order to prevent all of existence from falling apart, uncountable worlds within the Multiverse have been placed into a near-permanent time loop. Based on the idea created by Innortal: These are the Infinite Loops, and this is their insanity.

6. Chapter 6

6.1 - (Tabac Iberez)

[Hellsing/Girls und Panzer]

Starting the Loop, Miho felt something... off. It wasn't that grimy, stained off that represented an abridged loop, or the just plain weird for a Variant. No, this one smelled like a Fused Loop. Shrugging, Miho made sure her flask was out and loaded. Fused loops didn't need as much booze as Variants, so this could go either way.

-x-x-x-x-

After seeing her Tankery teammates, Miho drained her flask. So this Loop, there was an additional club, with a Valentine light tank. The, gasp, Novel Club. Looking over Seras Victoria, their leader, Miho just took a shot and got ready to talk to the leading Looper. Miho was getting to be an old hand at this, and they had the look. Grabbing Seras, she pulled her into a corner, and got ready to do damage control.

"Loopers?" she asked, blunt.

Seras was taken aback, but nodded. "Yep. Hellsing is our home loop. So what's the deal here?"

"Big ships, tank battles, moe. Welcome to Girls und Panzer. Are you all Awake?"

"Me and Alucard are, not sure about Integra. Also, despite claims to the contrary, Alucard is a guy."

Miho leaned a little, looking past Seras. "Alucard's the one in the little red jacket, black hair, flirting outrageously with Erwin?"

Seras turned, and took a quick look. "Yep. Odd, that hat's from the Wehrmacht. He's told me he hates Nazis, so that's strange as hell."

-x-x-x-x-

While Seras figured out with Alucard the difference between the Heer and the SS, Miho frantically worked the new tank into her battle plans. That was the fun of Fused Loops, after all. They let her try new things, and meet new people- a valued commodity for someone like Miho. She really hoped she got some more Loopers soon, though.

More importantly, it also gave her an opportunity to try new things. Such as figure out how vampires worked, so that the next time she accidentally ended up in that loop that was infested with the sparkly ones that wouldn't stop bothering her she could kill them right instead of hiding in Nike all loop. Alucard was incredibly helpful in that respect, although the offers for lesbian sex in their tanks did get annoying after a while. They slacked off after Miho heard some odd rumblings from the Tankery shed one night, though. For some reason, Hana did seem to develop a taste in red flowers after that night, so Miho could connect the dots.

-x-x-x-x-

Nearing the end of the Loop, Miho raised an eyebrow. Black Forrest Peak had been disqualified from the finals, due to "An incident with the coaching staff." Alucard was being particularly smug, though. Miho just rolled her eyes and got ready to go against whatever the committee scraped up. Wasn't worth worrying about this close to Autosage and the Loop End.

---

6.2 - (Harry Leferts)

[Evangelion/Land Before Time/Jurassic World]

Littlefoot was wiping out a glass before he turned to Ducky who had been staring at something. "And what did we learn?"

Shuffling a little, Ducky blushed a bit. "Um... to be really careful about what I mix into a smoothie and to make sure that if I am adding honey that it is really honey..." She glanced to the side again and nodded. "Yup! Yup! Yup!"

That caused Littlefoot to chuckle some and pat her on the head. "Exactly." It was then that Owen walked in and sat down. "So, Owen, what can I do you for today?"

Frowning, Owen glanced up at the menu and frowned some. "I'll have the..." Having seen something out of the corner of his eye, Owen blinked and then turned. For several moments he was silent as he stared at the sight before him and then looked at Littlefoot. "Um... just one question but... how...?"

As he put the glass into a rack, Littlefoot grinned a little. "Ducky mixed up the honey that she was adding to Gendo's drink. Instead, she added Invid Flower of Life nectar. It has some... effects, especially with what else was in his smoothie, let's just say."

With a disbelieving stare, Owen glanced at Ducky who gave him a sheepish grin before he turned back to where Gendo was and blinked.

More then a minute passed as he looked at the flying high as a kite Gendo. Part of Owen did wonder where the colors came from as well as the sparkles, though he remembered that weird guys who wore green leotards and decided not to ask. "Right..." He did scoot a bit further though at the strange music...

---

6.3 - (KrisOverstreet)

[Haruhi Suzumiya]

Yet again I stood atop that multi-purpose building, full of shops and offices and other things, listening to Koizumi describe closed space and his role as an esper. Why can't the Loops come with a fast-forward button?

"I am able to detect the emergence of closed space. So can my colleagues. The reason we are able to do so is a mystery. But we know the time and place of emergence without knowing why. And the method for entry, as well. I am unable to express this sensation in words."

And yet you keep on wasting my time trying. How I wished Koizumi could say because Haruhi and leave it at that!

"My powers are not limited to detecting and entering closed space," Koizumi continued. "You could say that I've been granted powers which reflect Suzumiya's rationality. If the world is like a-" That smug, confident smile vanished in an instant. "It's here!" he gasped, tone of voice completely changed. "But it can't be! It's far too close!"

For a moment I wondered what he was talking about, and then a glowing wall of blue appeared behind him.

"Celestial!" Koizumi shouted. "Quickly, run! It's not safe here! Get down the stairs as fast as you can!"

Even I could see it was far too late for that. The giant manifestation of Haruhi's inner turmoil had already lifted an arm and was bringing it straight down towards the roof where we stood. Koizumi dodged one way and I dodged another, and the arm came down between us, cleaving the roof like butter.

The portion of roof I was standing on peeled away from the building, and I felt myself falling.

Koizumi, body glowing, reached out a hand to try to catch me. The Celestial swatted him away, and down I went.

As the ground approached, and as bits of the building broke up around me, I had enough time for two thoughts. The first one went something like, Why wasn't I consulted about whether or not Koizumi should start Looping? At the least I could have chosen a more pleasant way to get killed.

The second thought struck me only a couple of moments before I hit the ground. It came to me when I saw a third human in closed space, a fact which ought to have been impossible. The specific human- the middle-school girl in a high-school uniform, the yellow smiley face pin in her short-cropped hair- the fact that it was that particular human meant I felt no surprise at all at seeing her.

Watahashi, I thought, and then I hit the pavement head-first.

Four thirty-eight in the morning, the first day of high school, I sat bolt upright in my bed, hands grabbing my head. My total absence of headache was already beginning to give me a headache.

Someone offered me a cool, damp washcloth. I lay back down and let them put it on my forehead.

"Sorry about that, sempai," a young female voice said, "but Haruhi wanted Koizumi to start Looping, so I had to give the system a bit of a bump."

I groaned. Yasumi Watahashi looked like an underclassman. In a baseline run I wouldn't meet her for over a year from this moment. For that matter, normally she wouldn't exist until a year from now. Watahashi was a creation of Haruhi's subconscious, like the Celestials, only less destructive.

"How do you mean, a bit of a bump?" I asked, sitting up again while holding the washcloth to my head. "I think knocking me off the top of a tall building is a bit more than just a bump!"

In the unlit room, I thought I could just barely see a short figure cocking her head and smiling. "That's not important right now," she said. "But right now, you should call Koizumi and let him know he's not going crazy."

Something dropped onto the bed next to me. I put my hand where it landed, found my cell phone, and opened it up. "And what am I supposed to tell him?" I asked.

No answer. I flipped the phone over, using the display to light the room. Watahashi wasn't there.

Right. I had no idea where Koizumi lived, but I did have his phone number memorized.

"Hello, you've reached Itsuki Koizumi's phone. Unfortunately I can't answer right now, so please leave a message."

"Koizumi, are you listening? This is Kyon." I felt ridiculous. If Koizumi hadn't started Looping, there was no way on Earth he'd know that nickname. He'd have no reason to. The only person who knew I had any association with Haruhi Suzumiya was Nagato, and that only because she had a copy of me frozen in time in her bedroom, returning from three years in the past the long way.

"We need to talk," I continued. "Meet me at the café by the station after school. You know the place."

–-

The Koizumi who sat across the table in front of me wasn't the one I was used to. I remembered numerous conversations, repeated numerous times- how many now, forty? fifty?- in which Koizumi had told me about his happy, smiling, pleasant act, and how he feared becoming the role. Well, there wasn't a trace of a smile on his face now. Those eyes that so seldom looked directly at anything stared straight at me now.

I wasn't sure this was an improvement over the act.

"I've spent the whole day trying to reconcile a logical paradox," he began, after I joined him at a booth. "I remember my entire life, or at least all of it since kindergarten. I definitely have not traveled in time or visited an alternate dimension. And yet I have memories of things that haven't happened yet." Koizumi sipped his coffee and added, "You are in those memories, of course. Otherwise the circumstances of this meeting would be much different, I assure you."

I love you too, Koizumi.

"And then there's the truly disturbing thing," Koizumi continued. "The freshest memory I have actually conflicts with those future-memories. I remember taking you to a certain place, letting you observe certain phenomena from a safe distance, and bringing you back home safely. And I also remember things… ending less pleasantly."

Yeah, I know, I died. What happened after I died?

"The… phenomenon… swatted me away, and then it tried to catch you. It wasn't fast enough to do both. When you hit the ground, it screamed. I've never heard a Celestial scream before." Koizumi shuddered. I guess a Celestial's scream isn't pleasant to hear. "Then closed space began to break up, but instead of the real world, there was nothing outside. Just void. And when the breakup reached me, I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock this morning."

So, pretty much the same thing as happened with Nagato and Asahina.

"I see. And that was?"

I explained- about time repeating, about my two prior deaths, about Nagato and Asahina occasionally Looping along with me. And, of course, Suzumiya.

"I'm surprised she wasn't here with you."

"She drew the first cleaning duty," I said. "But I suspect someone arranged for that to happen."

"Nagato?" Koizumi's head tilted. "I doubt Asahina's people could arrange that, and I know the Agency hasn't done so."

"Haruhi. After a fashion. It's complicated, but to put it simply, she's limiting her access to her power, no, I mean she's limiting her knowledge of when she uses it."

Koizumi nodded. "That fits with a lot of theories we espers discussed," he said. "But I gather by what you said that Suzumiya does have some knowledge of her power."

Put it this way: she's never short of change for the snack machine.

"Then it's even more of a pity she isn't here," Koizumi said. "You see, I'm still stuck with that dilemma. Let's presume that any and all beings in a universe is a potential Looper, able not merely to repeat portions of history- as we did in that endless summer, of course- but to remember iterations."

I don't know about that 'any and all beings' part.

"For sake of argument. Further, let us say that a strong enough shock- a difference from the normal history, in such a fashion that makes the rest of the history impossible- can trigger the Looping ability in a person. Logically, that person would begin the next Loop with only the memories of the prior Loop, the one which ended prematurely."

I shrugged. I'd already given up on logic after spending so many repeats of high school with Haruhi Suzumiya.

"And yet I have memories of incidents after that point," Koizumi continued. "There's no logical reason for me to have those memories, and yet I have them."

I nodded. "Nagato and Asahina had the memories, too. I don't think either of them ever questioned it."

"So is this some side effect of Looping?" Koizumi sipped his coffee again, then added, "If so, where did the memories come from? Why do we have them?"

"Because," said a short figure walking towards the café's doors, "Haruhi thinks it's stupid for people who Loop to not know how history went the first time."

Koizumi began to stand up, but I grabbed his arm and pulled him back into the booth. Watahashi was already out the door, and of course she wouldn't be anywhere in sight once we got outside. And what would I ask if I caught her, anyway? "Hey, why don't you ask somebody else before bringing more people into these stupid time loops?" Pointless.

After a moment, a ghost of that annoying smile appeared on Koizumi's face. "Of course," he said. "You told me Haruhi's keeping herself from knowing about her powers."

About most of her powers. Would you like a claw-machine doll of her? She can do that now, you know.

"That's tempting," he said, "but I think it'll be safer if you ask for it, and I collect afterwards."

---

6.4 – (TrueZero2)

[Sly Cooper/Gurren Lagann]

You know, Awakening in what looked like a tech-bay was definitely a plus. I quickly checked to see what my body looked like in this Loop, since I didn't really think I was in my home Loop this time. No mirror nearby so no getting a look at my face, but it did feel human, so nothing too far from standard Fused Loop forms at least. Looking at the rest of me, it was definitely a human body that I'd ended up with. Oh good, my hair's still blonde. From the look of my clothes as well as the tool belt I was wearing, this tech bay belonged to me.

"Ooh, looks like this might be a pretty tech-heavy Loop that I'll be working with. Right, first things first. Loop Memories, let's see what we're dealing with."

The memories were a little bleak to be fair. From what I could tell, there were two types of sentient life on the planet, humans and Beastmen. Humans had been forced to live underground in small, isolated villages, while the Beastmen roamed the surface, killing any humans to find their way up there.

At least, they'd try to. From the look of things, I was part of a village that had gone up to the surface. There we'd banded together to drive off any…

Oh.

"There are giant robots here." I said to myself, dropping the memory check immediately. After checking my Subspace Pocket, I came to a conclusion. "Crap, I'll need to either make some room or get more space. I will be leaving this Loop with a robot in tow."

Deciding that the latter would be easier for now, I grabbed a handful of bolts and started to run through those exercises that Bentley had shown me a long time ago. Once I met up with the Anchor, odds were that I'd be able to get a better estimate on how long I had to build it up. Hopefully it'll be big enough to fit a robot in come the end of the Loop.

-x-x-x-x-

It sucked to lose a team member like that. The Anchor, Simon, and I seemed to be the only ones Awake for this Loop.

So when Kamina was killed in battle, I needed some time on my own. There was just… something about him that made me feel like he'd be a great fit for the Cooper Gang.

"Hey, are you OK Penelope?" Simon asked, knocking on the door.

'It's not like there's anyone else I can talk to so openly right now.' I thought, deciding to let him in.

"Hey, you're upset about Kamina, right?" Simon asked, sitting down beside her. All I could really respond with was a silent nod.

"You know how I took it the first time I went through it?" Simon said, "I fought. I hated myself for what had happened when I could have saved him, but I fought anyway. Took a little while, probably about a week, but eventually Lagann couldn't take it anymore and kicked me out of the cockpit. Let's just say that Spiral Energy and Self-Loathing don't mix."

"…So what happens now?" I asked.

"Well it's been about a week, so the next major event is finding Nia. I'll be heading out soon to pick her up." Simon replied. "Trust me, you'll like her. Oh, and before I forget, I'm having Gurren set up for you to pilot it."

Wait, what?

"Me? Really?"

"I may as well give you a front row seat to some of the bigger insanity we usually come across." Simon replied with a shrug. "Besides, Rossiu tends to become a bit of a jackass once things pick up after we beat Lordgenome, so I figure he can sit this one out. See how that changes things."

"…It can get crazier?" I asked, surprised. "Because frankly, riding in a giant mech that has a battleship for a crotch is already pretty weird."

"I know, but it's still home for the next couple of months. It can and will go nth degree crazy by the end of the Loop, it always does." Simon said, getting up and walking up to the window. "For example, you see the moon?"

Following him, I looked out the window and into the sky.

"Yeah, I see it. Why?"

"Well, seven years from now we'll be riding it through space. Then we turn it into another upgrade to Gurren Lagann."

What.

"…I'm sorry… what?"

-x-x-x-x-

"It's hard to believe that it's been seven years of peace since we fought Lordgenome." I said as I looked out over the crowd in front of me. "But it's not me who'll be making the announcement. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Supreme Commander Simon, of the Kamina City Government!"

I moved off to the side as Simon took his place at the podium.

"Thank you Penelope. Citizens of New Kamina City and citizens of Earth. In just seven short years, we will have reached one of the greatest Milestones in our history. From humble beginnings, we fought for the right to live on the surface, we defeated the Spiral King, we built this city, and most importantly, we brokered peace between Humanity and Beastman." Simon said, brimming with confidence. "Today is a momentous occasion. Today, we add one more accomplishment to that growing list. As we speak, brave men and women are taking those first steps towards a new era in our history. They will soon board the first Lunar Exploration Daigun, headed towards the Moon for a six month research mission. Join me as we wish for them to have a safe journey, and that when they arrive home in a little over six months, that they are happy and healthy."

At that point, Simon raised his hand into the air, pointing to the sky. The rest of us that were on stage joined in, and the crowd soon followed.

"To the Pioneers of the new era!"

-x-x-x-x-

"I have to say Simon, from the ruins of one gigantic Gunmen to a bustling city to manned spaceflight in seven years. That is some insane progress." I said, as those of us in the ruling council raised toasted the flight. "To the new era!"

Everyone raised their glasses. Well, everyone except for Rossiu.

"Something the matter Rossiu?" Simon asked.

"Come on man, today's a day to celebrate!" Kittan added, lowering his glass and taking a swig.

"I know, I know. I'm happy for what we've managed to do…" Rossiu replied, his voice shaking a little.

"I sense a 'but' coming up." I said, as I started to sip my drink.

"It's Lordgenome's warning. 'When the land overflows with a million apes, the moon shall become Hell's messenger and completely destroy the world of the spiral.'" He replied.

"Oh yeah. That." I replied, "What're the current population levels?"

"Well, including the people still in the villages, and upcoming births according to hospital records, we'll pass the one million mark by the end of the week." Rossiu replied.

"I see. Well, just to be safe then, keep a close watch on the Lunar mission. If anything happens, let me know immediately, Rossiu." Simon replied. "Personally, I don't think anything'll come of it, but it never hurts to have some preparations ready. We'll keep Gimmy and Darry on standby with a number of Grapearl Squadrons too, just in case."

"Alright Simon." Rossiu said, "I'd best check in with the mission. Enjoy the festivities everyone." He added as he turned and left the room, leaving the glass on the table, still full.

-x-x-x-x-

After the celebration ended, Simon and I had a chance to talk in private.

"So, that prophecy of Lordgenome's. It's true, isn't it?" I asked, getting straight to the point.

"Yep. If everything goes the same way it normally does, we'll be looking at about three days before everything goes to Hell. Since I'm giving you the baseline experience, I won't be using any cheats in the major events." Simon replied. "Is the Gurren ready to go?"

"Well, I left Gurren with Makken and Leite, and Lagann is normally your means of getting around the city nowadays, so if you need to combine the two, head to Leite's place." I replied.

"Alright then. Everything's set up for a near-Baseline run of these events." Simon said.

"Wait, is the fact you're running this Loop as close as possible to the baseline the reason Kamina died?" I asked, concerned. "Because that seems a little bit Sakura-y to me."

"Actually," Simon replied, "Even when he's Awake, Kamina has his fair share of deaths, as do most Loopers. It's just that he tends to push himself further after suffering a fatal injury, so a lot of the time we simply can't save him. I'll tell you this though. When he survives to the end of the Loop, that's quite the experience right there."

"I'll keep that in mind." I replied.

"Anyway, that matter aside; are you enjoying the Loop thus far?"

"Piloting a mech is something my UnAwake self normally does during her ultimate downfall, but when it comes to the Looping me, it's been far too long since I was in a cockpit, especially considering my Loop normally fits right into the gap between Lordgenome's defeat and today. Thanks for the Spiral Cannon and the spare Core Drill by the way. I've miniaturised the former and built it into my Gunmen."

"You have a Gunmen of your own now?" Simon asked, intrigued.

"I've been building one in my spare time." I replied, pulling up the images on Simon's computer.

"Let's see then." Simon said, looking at the screen.

"Well to start off, it's based on Lordgenome's old Lazengann unit, with a few design changes. For one, all of the previous drill holes were sealed, and I've added a handful of new ones, mainly on the arms, and along the tail, although there are a few in each knee and one in each foot so they can use drills for increasing damage from kicks." I said, walking him through the machine's design. "I've built the miniature Spiral Cannon into the palm of the right hand. Thanks to that, the Knight Baron has a decent long range attack to surprise an opponent with."

"Knight Baron?"

"That's its name. It combines my two main aliases from back home: the Black Baron, and the Black Knight. I went for a wolf-man motif on the upper face, while I've covered the lower face's eyes with a visor of sorts. Put it together with some of the new armour and the unit's torso looks like it's wearing a knight's helmet. Now, I don't really like my stint as the Black Knight since that's when I lost everything, but I had managed to build a pretty darn big mech using materials from the medieval period. That's no small feat."

"True, that is impressive."

"Now if only I could get it to fit into my Subspace Pocket."

"Still not big enough?" Simon asked.

"It's bigger than when I started, don't get me wrong, but I'm going to have to bust out some tech from the Transformers Branch to give me a boost." I replied.

I explained the mechanics of the subspace generator to him, making a point of stating that in a way I'd be getting the Pocket space in advance, then growing into it properly so that I wouldn't have to use it forever. As I'd expected, he'd been able to follow along.

"Well at least you have options. Anyway, it's been nice chatting with you Penelope, but I'm supposed to be meeting up with Nia in about 20 minutes, so I'd best be going." Simon said, checking his watch.

"Tonight's the big night, hmm?" I asked with a grin. "I'll not hold you up any longer. Best of Luck Simon."

"Thanks. See you later Penelope."

"See you later Simon." I replied, as we both left the room.

-x-x-x-x-

Three days later and the world went to hell, just as Simon had predicted. He took out the Gurren Lagann on his own to fight these weird Anti-Spiral mechs, which Gimmy had nicknamed Mugann.

Thanks to Simon giving me the 'Baseline experience' he wound up destroying a number of buildings in the city just by beating one Mugann. Boy they were unstable.

Well one thing led to another and Simon had been arrested and put on trial, and subsequently sentenced to death. Frankly the trial was a sham, as far as the majority of the team was concerned. Rossiu had lost it in the face of the Anti-Spiral attack and taken over the government. Hell, the way the trial was arranged was rigged against Simon. Rossiu had assigned Balinbow to be Simon's attorney, while the prosecutor for the case was one of Rossiu's top subordinates.

Thankfully, circumstances defied Rossiu's plans when there was a large scale Mugann attack near Littner.

"Rossiu, you've got to let me go! I'm the only one that can fight them right now!" Simon shouted.

"How can we be certain that you won't go rogue and flee while you have the chance?" Rossiu asked.

"You can set up some kind of insurance to keep me from running away!" Simon said, before turning to look at me. I nodded solemnly, realising what he intended to do. When he turned back to Rossiu, he sighed. "You can put a bomb in Gurren. If I try to run, then you can set them off. It'll take the Gurren Lagann out with me inside it, and I'll be killed in the blast."

"…Very well. We can arrange that." Rossiu replied, "You have one hour to get ready for launch. We'll set up Gurren's bombs in that time. You will be given your Core Drill immediately prior to launch, and you will return it to me upon your return."

"Fine. So long as the Mugann are stopped before they reach Kamina City, I'll accept those terms." Simon replied.

Why did Rossiu being reasonable make me nervous?

-x-x-x-x-

Well, first things first. Thank you Simon for the Spiral Cannon. Rigging up a set of weapons to allow the Grapearls to fight the Mugann went much easier than I'd originally thought, so that was a plus. Now if only Gurren Lagann hadn't been totalled beforehand, things would have gone easier.

Of course, that positive is nothing compared to the stunt that Rossiu and his cronies pulled on Simon just prior to take-off. Kinon volunteered to sit in the Gurren cockpit, my cockpit, while Simon was fighting the Mugann. They knew he didn't like risking the death of his friends, so Kinon sitting in Gurren was the perfect plan to ensure that Simon came back.

So with Simon off to battle, I had to make sure that Gimmy and Darry's squads were outfitted with the new Anti-Spiral Countermeasures. Thankfully that was easy enough, although Rossiu's cronies triple checking my work wasn't helping. Since I was the go-to pilot for Gurren, Rossiu had me under armed surveillance to make sure I was 'playing nice'.

Seriously Yggdrasil, am I going to be a criminal wherever I go?

-x-x-x-x-

Turns out as soon as the countermeasures were completed, me and Simon weren't needed anymore. We were each thrown in prison and left in there to rot.

I don't know how Simon fared during this time, but it was times like this I wish I had an RC Car, or just something to tinker with to keep my hands busy. I couldn't really use my Pocket because I was still being watched night and day by a guard. I must be a special case, lucky me.

I must have been stuck in that prison for a little over a week, with everyone in there against me, so you can imagine my surprise when a Grapearl breaks through the wall to my cell.

I was even more surprised to see Kiyal in the cockpit.

"Hey Penelope! You up for a jailbreak?" She asked, grinning like a madwoman. I quickly ran towards her, the cockpit closing around us.

"I think my guard there would like it if I stayed, but screw her. Thanks Kiyal." I replied as Kiyal relinquished the pilot's seat to me. "So what's going on? Didn't get any news in there."

"Ok, first off, Rossiu's got this big big Dai-Gun, he's got all of Kamina City in there, except for a lot of members from Team Dai-Gurren." Kiyal explained, "Yoko's just busted Simon out, and he took Viral with them-"

"Wait, Viral? Recurring pain in the ass, that Viral?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah, no idea why. Yoko said to meet at Makken and Leite's place when I busted you out." Kiyal replied, "She says that it had to be me that came to get you because the rest of the team's getting an upgrade and they need to be there to help out."

"Well that explains things. To be honest, I expected Kittan to be part of the Jailbreak team." I replied. "I mean, the last time you piloted a Gunmen was seven years ago, wasn't it?"

"Actually, I've been helping Leite with unit testing." Kiyal replied. "It was good practice, now let's pick up the pace!"

"Roger!" I said with a grin, as we flew towards Makken and Leite's workshop.

-x-x-x-x-

When we arrived at the workshop, we were greeted by the bulk of Team Dai-Gurren's pilots. Dayakka, Aretenborough, and the other members of the Dai-Gurren bridge crew were on board Rossiu's Dai-Gun, the Arc-Gurren. Gimmy and Darry were likely on standby in their Grapearls, so it was mainly those of us that piloted Gunmen during the Teppelin War.

"Good to see the two of you back with the team!" Kittan said, tossing the Core Drill to Simon.

"It's a good thing that Kittan was on hand after the Gurren Lagann's last battle." Leite said with a smirk. "He got it sent here and told us to make it better than new."

She pressed a button, and to be honest, the Gurren Lagann looked better than before.

"Woop de doo. You apes have your symbol back."

I turned around to see Viral leaning against the doorframe. Kittan and the others recoiled.

"What's this guy doing here?" Kittan asked Simon.

"I decided to bring him with us." Simon said, "Penelope, your Gunmen's able to fight, isn't it?"

At that point, all eyes were on me. Thanks Simon.

"Thanks buddy, way to put me on the spot." I said, "But yeah, it's ready to go. I left it here for safekeeping."

"And it's right over there." Leite said, pointing at a covered Gunmen. "She's a real beaut, I tell ya."

"Well, since your Gunmen's ready to go, I was thinking of having Viral pilot the Gurren." Simon said.

"Say what now?" I replied, shocked.

"What the hell are ya saying Simon?!" Kittan shouted. "He fought for the Spiral King and tried to kill us! Multiple times!"

"As much as it pains me, I agree with the loudmouth." Viral agreed, while Kiyal, Jorgen and Balinbow tried to hold Kittan back. "I was your enemy, and yet you'd trust me with one of your best Gunmen? Don't tell me prison made you go soft in the head, Simon."

"On the contrary. We can't afford to go without you now. This isn't about humanity and beastmen anymore, it's about survival. This time, both races are on the same side, so I say we capitalise on that. You're a damn good pilot Viral, and frankly, it's a waste to not have you piloting something at a time like this. Besides, you were told to see humanity's fate for yourself, right? Well in the Gurren you'll have a front row seat."

"I hate to admit it," I added, "but Simon's right. I'll use my Gunmen, Viral can take the Gurren."

I walked over to the covered up Gunmen and pulled the sheet off, revealing the Knight Baron for all to see.

"Y-You built that?!" Kittan sputtered.

"Is that the Spiral King's Gunmen?" Viral asked, stunned.

"No, but it was based on the general body type. It'll take me a minute or two to run through my checks, so I'll be over here." I replied, reaching under the seat and pulling my Core Drill out of my Pocket. "Under the seat, right where I left it."

"It's got a Core Drill too?" Yoko asked.

"So Viral, what do you say?" Simon asked.

"Pilot the Gunmen that shamed me all those years ago?" Viral asked, "As crazy as it sounds, my body knows what it wants. You're on."

"Well you'd best be quick getting used to it." Simon asked, "this one packs a punch."

"You'd both best be careful." Leite said, interrupting the two. "We gave it a tune up while it was being repaired, so it's stronger than before too."

"Alright you guys, buckle the hell up!" Kittan shouted, "See that Moon up there? We're gonna go and stop that thing from crashin' into Earth! If that means we have to smash it to bits, then that's what we'll do! Ya hear me?!"

With a massive cheer from the team (myself included), everyone ran towards their respective Gunmen.

-x-x-x-x-

Once everyone was ready we all took off. The Gurren Lagann and Knight Baron had the ability to reach the Arc-Gurren relatively unassisted, while everyone else was attached to a Rocket-Gunmen and was rising right alongside us.

We arrived just in the nick of time too. From the sound of things, the situation wasn't good.

"No giving up yet, Rossiu!" Simon roared, blasting a ridiculously massive Mugann away from the already massive Arc-Gurren. If you wanted an idea on the size, Arc-Gurren was about the size of Teppelin, which was the centrepiece of Kamina City and the Spiral King's domain. This one Mugann make it look small by comparison.

So of course, Simon was able to blast it away. This Loop ran on the Rule of Cool.

"The cavalry's here!" I added, taking out a few of the smaller Mugann. Since the Knight Baron was based off of the Lazengann, I'd designed it to use the thinner drills that were more like whips.

"So keep on fightin'!" Kittan shouted, blasting some more, "As much as you quite frankly piss me off, you've got most of my family on board, so right now I'll fight alongside ya."

"The instant you give up, it's over." Simon said, "Remember? This drill is the drill that'll pierce the heavens! Viral!"

"Could be interesting." Viral chuckled, "Why not?"

"We embark on the winding Spiral Path, where the paths of man and beast intersect!" Simon shouted.

"Join with yesterday's foes to smash fate! We grab tomorrow's path with our own hands!" Viral added, as both then spoke together.

"Destiny combining! Gurren Lagann!"

"Let's do it guys!" I said, as we all joined in for the last line.

"JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?"

-x-x-x-x-

Well… that happened.

You remember when Simon told me that after a point the group would be riding through space on a ship made out of the moon?

Yeah… he was serious.

To sum up what had happened in the battle, Simon and Viral merged the Gurren Lagan with the Arc-Gurren. The newly formed Arc-Gurren Lagan then proceeded to punch giant Mugann into another plane of existence before eventually turning their attention to the falling moon, which turned out to be a disguise for Lordgenome's old flagship, the Cathedral Terra. Leaving it for me to pilot this new Gurren Lagan form (which, for the record, meant that I was piloting a Gunmen, that was piloting a bigger Gunmen), he entered the moon. Less than five minutes later, the moon not only stopped falling and had revealed the massive battleship inside. To give an idea of the size, it was still acting as the Moon while we were orbiting Earth.

But ultimately, we'd stopped the Human Annihilation System and saved the world, again. Now it was about a week or two later, we would soon be setting off to take the fight to the Anti-Spirals…

-x-x-x-x-

"Penelope, Leite, how do you like the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren's facilities?" Simon asked over the intercom.

"To be honest Simon, this place is an engineer's dream!" I happily replied, "So much stuff to play with, this is incredible!"

"C'mon Penny, we're supposed to be getting Space Gunmen ready for everyone else, you included." Leite said, "Focus a little, will ya?"

"Sorry Leite, it's just a little overwhelming, that's all. I was used to a tech bay or a workshop, but this? This place is huge!"

"Well it's gotta be. We're building Space Gunmen, and those have to be cascade piloted." Leite replied with a grin. "Now let's get crackin'! We've got shit to build!"

"On my way!" I replied.

-x-x-x-x-

Later on, I was sat in my quarters, looking out the window.

"If Bentley could see me now. Gotta hand it to ya Yggdrasil, you've got some insane worlds out there, but I'd be lying if I said this hasn't been fun."

At that, the doorbell rang.

"It's open!" I called, as Simon walked in.

"Hey Penelope."

"Oh, hey Simon." I replied. "You were right. We're going to be flying through space, using what we knew as the moon for a ship. That's definitely something that'll make the guys back home jealous."

"Nothing like this back in your Loop?"

"Well, we do get to travel in time, but if it's a standard Loop, we never leave Earth." I said, "So, how long have we got left in the Loop?"

"If everything works out right, probably another month or so. We're in the home stretch now. By the way, after this next encounter with the Anti-Spirals, that's your best time to pocket your Gunmen." Simon said.

"Really? Seems a little soon, doesn't it?"

"Well, after this next battle, things reach the point where we're all essentially going to be piloting one gigantic Gunmen."

"We're really turning the ship into a Gunmen?" I asked.

"Yep."

"…The Laws of Physics must hate this Loop."

"Trust me. Just be thankful this doesn't appear to be a Movie Variant." Simon said, "Then our final Gurren Lagann form literally contains galaxies. Besides, it's not that the Laws of Physics hate us, but I bet that our Admin, whoever they are, must have a field day with us at the end of that particular type of Variant."

"I'm… not too fond of the Admin for my Loop, to be perfectly honest." I replied, lowering my voice a little.

Simon looked at me, puzzled.

"Bad experience during my initial Loops. Back home, I'm part of a group called the Cooper Gang. Our leader is the latest in a long line of master thieves known as the Cooper Clan." I said, thinking about it, I'd never really told Simon about myself before the Loops. Well, that was about to change. "In my baseline, I was convinced that the gang's leader was squandering both my potential and that of my friend. We were both the resident tech specialists, and we built a lot of stuff together, but we would never be seen as anything more than criminals, given our primary line of work, as well as lackeys, given the fact that we technically answered to someone else.

In the end, I betrayed them. I stole the plans for the time machine and sold them to an enemy of the Cooper Clan who had me build a second time machine. With the time machine ready to go, he recruited various criminals from across the world and left each of us in a different timeframe to deal with a different Cooper. There were six of us in this new group, which was named after the one running it all. We were the LeParadox Gang."

"LeParadox huh? Definitely sounds like a Time Travel villain." Simon replied. "So what happened then?"

"Once we were dropped off for our own respective jobs, we were allowed to do what we wanted, provided we dealt with that time's Cooper and took their weapon for LeParadox's collection. To fix the damage we caused, the Cooper Gang went back in time themselves, defeating each of us one by one. I first Awoke as a Looper about ten minutes before my final defeat. Too late to stop myself from betraying the Cooper Gang, too late to stop LeParadox's scheme before it started, too late to change sides at the eleventh hour. Then it happened again, and again, and again. Always just before my defeat, never enough time to change things. I went through that point in time over three hundred thousand times. It was only when I was well and truly broken that I Awakened in present day Holland."

"Penelope…" Simon replied.

"It's alright Simon." I sighed. "I'm Looping normally now, so everything's OK now. A number of scars, sure. But I'm working through them a little bit at a time."

"Well you've got friends in two Loops to call upon now." Simon said, placing his hand on my shoulder. "I'd best get going, we'll be good to go in a few days but after that, we'll be right back into the war. Make sure you're rested, OK? Leeron's normally on the bridge during combat situations, but you'll be right in the firing line with the rest of us."

"I'll give it my all. Count on it." I replied, "Oh, and before you go? Thanks for listening."

"Anytime. I'll see you later. Oh, and the signal to pocket your Gunmen is an ocean. When you see an ocean after we set off, that's your chance." He said, leaving the room and closing the door behind him. To be honest, I felt a bit better after explaining that to him.

Now though, I had to get my head in the game for all-out war.

-x-x-x-x-

A few days later, and we were about to set out for the Anti-Spiral Home world. Using Nia's engagement ring as a marker, all Simon had to do was picture it and the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren's systems would take care of the rest.

"You know Darry; I don't really get this 'Perceptual Teleportation' thing." Gimmy said as he waited in his Grapearl's cockpit.

"I'm not too sure about how it works either Gimmy, but from what I could gather it works by transcending time and space using Nia and Simon's connection with one another as a guide." Darry replied. I was listening to them chat so I decided to fill them in.

"It's kind of like that. I'll run you through how it works." I said, "Think of the universe as a big 3D map. Simon's going to picture Nia's engagement ring and will the S.G. Dai-Gurren to head towards it. Since he'll be focusing on Nia's ring in particular, the ship will search for that one specifically. In essence, Simon's working to give us a distance for the journey and the right direction for us to travel in. From there, the S.G. Dai-Gurren's systems will kick in and teleport us towards it. Without the teleport, we could be traveling for years. With it though the journey should take a few minutes to complete."

"That's why we're in our Cockpits then?" Darry asked, "But why are you up there if you'll be fighting in your Gunmen?"

"To answer the first question, yeah, we'll likely be fighting Anti-Spirals pretty soon after we arrive. As for your second question, I'll going to be headed down to you guys in a few minutes. I'm just making some calibrations and then I'll be getting ready for battle myself."

"Well we'll see you when you get here, but can you hurry it up a little?" Gimmy asked, "It's boring as hell waiting like this."

"I can only go as fast as the systems can, it's taking a little time to get a coordinate lock." I replied.

A few minutes later, we were ready to go. I set the system to run from voice commands and headed down to the Launch Bay.

'We're coming Nia.' I thought. That was probably something going through everyone's minds at the moment.

"Space Knight Baron ready to go! Whenever you're ready Simon!"

"Thanks Penelope." Simon replied before opening a comm channel. "Everyone, we're about to make the jump into Anti Spiral Space. The Anti-Spiral has taken one of our friends, and I trust that you'll agree when I say that we'll go through hell to get her back if we have to. This isn't going to be easy though. If you all remember the last battle at Teppelin, then remember this: Lordgenome was crushed by the Anti-Spiral. It's up to us to surpass him and to show them just what we Earthlings are truly capable of! So what're we waiting for? Let's go rescue our comrade!"

It's possible that the resulting cheer could be heard across the entire ship.

"Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren, beginning Perceptual Teleportation!" Simon declared, as the engines roared into life.

Then everything went white for a moment, and when we could see again, the area we'd ended up in could really only be described as beautiful.

Then I saw the giant naked Nia being slowly disintegrated.

"Oh. Simon, care to try again?" I asked.

"Probably no point to it." Simon replied over the Comm. "According to Lordgenome; that Nia is messing with the Perceptual Teleportation. We try jumping again; we're just as likely to end up right back here."

"So what're we waiting for?" Kittan shouted. "Let's do something to help us get moving!"

Foolish people of the Spiral.

"What the hell?" Viral asked, as everyone tried to find the one who was speaking.

"Who's there?" Simon asked.

"Anti-Spiral." Lordgenome explained.

"Where is the voice coming from?" I asked. It was one of the newer members, Cybela, who answered.

"It seems to be coming from every direction."

"How can they do that?" I asked.

"It is a small feat for them." Lordgenome replied. "Our universe is ever expanding and remains infinitely malleable. The Anti-Spiral are in full control of the entire process."

"But that means-"

"Yes. It would not be inaccurate to say the the entire universe is our enemy." He finished.

There was a tense silence in response to that statement.

"We're up against the entire universe?" I asked, suddenly feeling extremely small.

Exactly. You cling to the faintest slivers of hope, climbing up time and again from the precipice of despair. That is true foolishness, and it is time for that cycle to come to an end.

Watching from my screen in the Knight Baron, I then saw two rifts open up in front of the ship.

Your last flicker of hope will die when this girl vanishes.

Of course. If this is an image of the real Nia, then Nia must be breaking apart in the same way. If she breaks down completely and vanishes once and for all, then we'd have no way to find where the Anti-Spiral was hiding.

Having realised that, I couldn't help but fear for Nia even more.

The two rifts opened wider, and two vessels, far larger than the S.G. Dai Gurren, emerged from them.

This is the despair of your race given physical form, and it will annihilate you.

"Well that's good for us. We don't know the meaning of despair." Simon replied. "Aretenborough!"

"Oh yeah! You got it!" was the response from the team's resident muppet, as he smashed his controls. Must have worked too, because literally every gun and missile pod on the ship fired in one ungodly salvo.

Sadly, as cool as it looked, every single shot was met by a barrier that allowed the Anti-Spiral ships to completely ignore the barrage.

"That is one tough shield." Kittan said.

"You don't know the half of it Kittan," I replied, "If I had to make a comparison, comparing the shields on those ships with the ones on a standard Mugann would be like a thick sheet of steel compared to a piece of toilet paper."

"Then there's only one thing to do." Simon replied. "Viral, we're up!"

"Alright." He replied, as the two teleported to the platform in front of their unit.

"OK you bozos listen up!" Kittan shouted, "It's time for one last brawl! I don't wanna see anyone holding anything back, ya hear me?"

We all voiced our agreement and every single available Gunmen was launched.

The last skirmish with the Anti-Spiral had begun.

-x-x-x-x-

Wha… That was… How the hell does Simon do this every Loop?!

To sum up how things went, we were kicking all kinds of ass for the first 10 minutes or so. The Anti-Spiral fighters were really slow and went down real easy, and while they had a stupidly high numbers advantage, we had quality over their quantity.

Or so we thought.

Since the Space Knight Baron and the Arc Gurren Lagann were having difficulty piercing through the shields on the carrier ships, Simon and Viral returned to the S.G Dai-Gurren to provide the Spiral Energy needed for transforming the ship into its humanoid mode.

That was when the Anti-Spiral units suddenly turned things around and wrought all kinds of hell. From huge missiles being teleported towards our ship, to the smaller fighters swiftly taking out all but Gimmy and Darry's Grapearls, as well as a few of our more veteran members.

Jorgen, Ballinbow, Kid, Iraak, Makken, Zorthy… I can't believe that you're gone.

That left us with a whopping seven Gunmen Pilots, the head of Lordgenome, Dayakka, Leite, and the bridge crew. All in all, we were probably barely at 14 to 15 people and only four Space Gunmen… well… actually more like three and a half. My Space Knight Baron wound up losing both legs during the retreat.

Of course, there was also the fact that the S.G Dai-Gurren was being dragged into what could only be described as a Space Ocean of Despair, one that was gradually absorbing any and all Spiral Energy that was being put into the ship's engines. That being said, I realised that this was what Simon had meant by the right chance, and did take advantage of the opportunity to pocket the regular size Knight Baron at the very least, thanks to the subspace generator I had, so I was at least taking a souvenir with me.

This was an uphill struggle, and I had no idea what would happen next…

-x-x-x-x-

This Loop was fun, once! Why'd it suddenly go to hell like this?

Kittan… DAMMIT!

-x-x-x-x-

Ok… so I'm back on the bridge, and dear lord this Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann is ridiculous! Seriously, every point in time and space at once?

How are we not in Eiken?

It doesn't matter now though. Don't worry Nia, we're coming…

-x-x-x-x-

Another day, another struggle with this damn Time Machine.

Seriously, me and Bentley can get a time warp going, that much is clear, but for some reason it just won't stabilize.

Although this was a pretty calm Variant. For one, it was a Stealth Anchor Loop, so Sly wasn't Awake this time around (It feels so strange.) The other major difference though when this Loop is compared to the baseline: No Clockwerk. He simply never existed in the first place here.

So while it meant that Sly was out thieving with his siblings (A pair of younger sisters), that left me and Bentley as the two active Loopers in this iteration.

"I've gotta say Penelope, this 'Gunmen' that you mentioned sounds positively fascinating. How'd you fit it in your Pocket?" Bentley asked as I adjusted the controls a little.

"Subspace Generator. Got it that one time we Looped in as Maximals." I said as I saw the problem. It was… a Core Drill? "Funny, this Loop's a Baseline Abilities only one isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is. Why?" Bentley asked.

"Because I've just found this in the controls. It should be in my Pocket, but-"

"Penelope? You aren't holding anything." Bentley interrupted.

Something was wrong.

"So, you're catching on now, aren't you?"

I hadn't heard that voice in a long time. As I turned around, there was a raccoon dressed up like Kamina, glasses and all.

"Kamina? You're here?"

"Yep. So this is your Loop, huh? Got to say, I didn't think you were normally a mouse." Kamina replied.

"You're Awake? But, you weren't when you died." I said,

"You're half right. I wasn't, at least I wasn't before Thymilph's spear went right through me. I tell ya, it really does suck to start of a Loop from the point where you're impaled on a spear."

I cringed at that thought.

"Turns out I had just long enough to process the Loop Memories before I needed to deal the finishing blow, so I could tell that you were Awake, since I got two Pings and one of them was Simon. But we don't have much time so I'll make things quick. Right now, you're still on the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann."

"But that doesn't make sense!" I replied. I looked around, but Bentley had disappeared for some reason. "The Loop ended, and I ended up here."

"That's because the Anti-Spirals use some weird dream world maze-type thing. Sometimes for a Looper it makes things seem like that given Loop ended. Simon's gone through it enough times to catch on and break the illusion rather quickly, but for those that aren't used to it, that's where I come in. My last act during a Loop where I die is to give you guys a helping hand to get yourselves out of this place and back to the battle." Kamina explained, pointing to the Core Drill. "That right there is your ticket out of here."

"But I don't know what to do with this to break the spell."

"They've managed it." Kamina said, gesturing to the window behind him. I walked over a looked out of it, and there was a line of green shooting stars in the sky. The Core Drill in my hand pulsed, and a green light began to surround me. "Ya just have to will yourself back there. Simple as that."

"Will myself back, huh?" I replied, smiling. "Well that's something I can do. Hope to meet you again sometime Kamina."

"Same here, Penelope. See you around."

As we bid farewell to each other, the light completely covered me and I took off into the sky.

Time to finish this once and for all.

-x-x-x-x-

"I've come, Nia. Just like I promised." Simon said as he was reunited his fiancé.

It was at that point that the rest of us arrived on the scene, taking our positions for maximum effect. It was a little weird having your legs surrounded by a drill, but we should be there for much longer.

Impossible! No intelligent life forms can escape the Alternate Reality Labyrinth!

"Well you should never underestimate us!" Simon shouted. "Whether it's time, space, or other realities, that kind of obstacle means nothing to us. We'll pierce through the methods you choose and form our own path! That's who we are, Team Dai-Gurren!"

We shot into the air and rocketed towards the Gurren Lagann, which had shifted into its Arc Form and then its Super Galaxy form. As our drills flew towards the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann, everything went white for a moment. Once everything had cleared, I was sat in a Lagann cockpit.

It was then that I heard Nia.

"Even if we were to be enslaved by the galaxy's cycle of rebirth…"

"The feelings that were left behind will open the door!" Yoko added. My turn.

"Even if the infinite universe was to go against us…"

"Our burning blood will cut through fate!" Viral finished.

"We'll break through the heavens and any dimensions that stand in our way!" Simon called, as every one of us joined in the next part.

"WE'LL SHOW YOU OUR PATH THROUGH FORCE!"

"Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann!" Simon declared.

"JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE!"

-x-x-x-x-

To say the battle was intense would be doing it an injustice. We'd each gotten a chance to shine during that battle, from Aretenborough getting to use PROBABILITY-ALTERING MISSILES and Yoko's sharpshooting, to Viral's swordplay and my drill-whips. The Anti-Spiral King ended up throwing a Big Bang at us and we practically ate it, thanks to Lordgenome sacrificing himself. As much as I hated losing team members in this Loop, we all knew the body was temporary at best, so he did what he could and went down a hero.

Hell, even the ending to this brawl was insane. The Tengen Toppa was trashed so the Super Galaxy emerged and charged towards the Anti-Spiral King. When it went down, it spat out the Arc, which let the original Gurren Lagann out when it went down, and even then, Viral had to throw the Lagann to get Simon to the Anti-Spiral King.

When it all ended though, we returned to normal space, everyone safely sat within an inactive Lagann. Minutes later we were rescued, and we returned to Earth victorious.

Simon and Nia's wedding was frankly just plain beautiful. After all, we had crossed the universe just so we could rescue her, so seeing the two of them actually getting to have their wedding was a real treat.

Sadly, a couple of days later, Nia passed away, her body had taken too much damage from being deciphered by the Anti-Spiral, so she was already growing weaker once she walked down the aisle. According to Simon, it was better than the baseline version, where it broke down at the altar. This time though she was able to pass on peacefully, surrounded by the remaining members of the team, while we all helped her to leave this world with a smile on her face.

-x-x-x-x-

The next day, Simon and I were sat in his home, sharing one last drink before the end of the Loop.

"So how long do we have until the end?" I asked; my Core Drill now sat around my neck.

"It varies, but when Nia's not Awake for a Loop, her death is the last major event, so it's probably about a week at most before we part ways." Simon replied. "So tell me, what did you think of the whole adventure?"

"Well now that I know what to expect, it'll be fun to see how we can change things around next time." I replied, "But I'm going to say this right out. This. Loop. Is. Insane."

"Well once you live it enough times, you get used to some of the oddities. Heck, Kamina can't keep himself from derailing most Loops when he's Awake. I tell ya, Lordgenome's face is priceless when Kamina whips out an Arc Gurren Lagann to fight Teppelin, and that's the tip of the iceberg."

"Seeing something like that would be pretty epic. By the way, if you meet another Looper from my home-Loop, a guy that calls himself 'The Murray', be ready for a lot of repair time. The guy's insurance premiums are so big back home he had to switch from normal racing to Demolition Derby, which he's undefeated in, by the way."

"Sounds like he'd really get along with the team. " Simon said. "Anyway, I'd best be getting ready to go. I normally end a baseline Loop heading out to fulfil Nia's dream. A world full of flowers."

"Sounds nice." I said, "I hope everything goes well for you."

We finished our drinks and said goodbye to one another. Three days after Simon left Kamina City, the Loop came to an end and I was back in Holland, a mouse once again.

-x-x-x-x-

"So, did the guy I replaced join the gang while I was away?" I asked Bentley after we'd met up. I'd taken to wearing my Core Drill around the hideout. It looked good on me.

"Yes, and he creeped me out." Bentley replied, "You know how you and me got together in the baseline?"

"Yes, but I'd like to hope that we're together in the Loops." I replied.

"Well he kept flirting with me the entire Loop." Bentley explained, "Only when it got to the showdown with Lefwee, he told me that he was just messing with me. Explains why Sly tried to stop himself from cracking up whenever Leeron started flirting though. Sly was in on the prank."

I couldn't help but giggle at that.

"Anyway Bentley, you should see what I built during that Loop. Let's find somewhere remote so I can show you…"

---

6.1 – Bitches love tanks.

6.2 – Instrumentality is like, it's like, not good man. It's like… dude, I can taste music dude.

6.3 – S.O.S Brigade reporting for duty. All hands on deck and wide Awake.

6.4 – Team Cooper, meet Team Dai-Gurren