More Human Than Human

"Talking"

'thoughts'

"Recordings, talking on the phone or singing"

"Speaking another language besides Japanese"

:Talking through the comm.s:

Rated T for language, suggestive material and anything else I might have missed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my O.C.s, Starts after the events in "The Masked Brave, Dumpson" and goes from there with a few twists.

Dumpson and McCrane were in the process of dragging Power Joe back to the precinct by the arm-servos when Shadowmaru came around the corner, pulling the femme by the servo and occasionally coaxing her forward or away from the curb when she started to veer off into traffic.

McCrane looked at Shadowmaru. "Ah, Shadowmaru, I see you brought the femme back safely,"

Remembering his promise to not tell anyone anything unless they ask, Shadowmaru decided to talk as little as possible, that way unless they outright asked "Is she sentient?" he wouldn't have to tell them the truth. "Mmm-Hmm,"

Unfortunately, Drill Boy wasn't deterred as he came out of the garage and asked. "Where did you find her?"

Shadowmaru glanced at the femme out of the corner of his optics—he didn't turn his helm so no one saw him look—and told a quick half-truth. "Out on the street, she was wandering around like she was lost. I don't think she was fully aware…" that he was following her. "…but she isn't completely inanimate,"

Power Joe sniggered as he said. "She didn't give you any trouble did she?"

Shadowmaru shook his helm, hoping everyone would drop the subject as they made their way to the maintenance bay. "No, she didn't,"

Chief Toudou looked up at them when they came in. "Ah, good, you're back," he looked up at Shadowmaru. "Any problems?"

Shadowmaru shook his helm and told him the same thing he told the others. That was one lesson he had learned early in life; if you're going to lie, even if it's a half-truth, always keep your story straight no matter how many times you have to tell it.

While the rest of the Build Team tried to coerce Power Joe into his maintenance cradle, Shadowmaru placed the femme in hers and let the technicians hook her up to it.

As Shadowmaru stepped away he looked at both the American B.P.s and that same pity he felt for them back in California came back; he and the others were discriminated against because they were robots, yes, but these two were living in fear that if they acted like anything other than what the humans wanted them to be they would be killed.

Just then they heard an alarm go off in the Decker Room and all the present mechs jumped before running into the Decker Room to see what was going on.

When they got there the Commissioner was waiting for them. Since Deckard wasn't there, McCrane—being the unofficial second-in-command—was the one to ask "Commissioner, what's the situation?"

Commissioner Saejima looked at them with a look of seriousness. "Do you remember the incident with 'Gawan' a while back?"

Power Joe snorted. "How could we forget something like that?"

Drill Boy looked at the others. "What? I wasn't here yet, what happened?"

Dumpson quickly explained. "We had to fight a giant monster after we destroyed a bridge to keep it from entering the city. Boss got swallowed by it, Deckard went ballistic when the Defense Forces were going to try to blow it up with Boss inside…"

Power Joe grinned at McCrane and jeered. "…and McCrane met Seia," he said the Colonel's name in a singsong voice to tease his brother.

McCrane was not amused and kicked Power Joe in the shins in the most discreet way he could manage, making the other mech yelp and grab his leg as he scooted away to get out of range muttering "'Pacifist' my aft,"

Commissioner cleared his throat. "Well, it would seem that the bio-scientist that had created him is up to his old tricks again. A few officers from another department in our precinct had been called out to investigate reports on suspicious activity and the last thing we heard of them was…"

He took out a remote and turned on the monitor on the wall and played a recording, no picture but the audio was more than enough for them to get a mental picture.

"…This is Unit 3, we have infiltrated the premises but the suspect has…" they heard a crash in the back ground along with the sounds of screaming and gun fire. "Ah! Shit, what is that thing?"

More screaming and gunfire. "…requesting back up! I repeat, requesting back-" there was a scream, not in the background this time, and a crunch as the transmission cut off.

The others stared at the blank monitor in horror.

"Oh…"

"…my…"

"God!"

The Commissioner nodded grimly. "And a few minutes later, this came on the news," he raised the remote again and turned on a local news channel and they could see a giant monster of some kind terrorizing the outskirts of the city.

It appeared to be reptilian with gray-green scales and had what appeared to be giant bat wings on its back.

McCrane narrowed his optics. "Yeah, that looks like something the scientist that made Gawan would create,"

Commissioner Saejima paused the video feed. "The scientist's name is Dr. Madoh, we have been searching for him and his assistant ever since the Gawan case but both of them have been laying low… until now,"

Shadowmaru lifted a digit to his comm. link. "I'm calling Deckard and Gunmax, we're going to need everyone for this,"

Everyone waited as the Ninja Detective spoke aloud into his comm. link. "Deckard, did you find Gunmax yet? Because we have a situation," he paused and said. "What do you mean you…" his optics widened and he looked at the others.

"They're already at the scene, and it doesn't sound good,"

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Fifteen minutes prior

Deckard drove as fast as he dared down the highway after the part-time Patrolman on his team. "Gunmax, wait up!"

Gunmax just laughed and revved Gun Bike's engine like he was going to go even faster. "What's wrong, Patoka, too fast for you?"

Deckard grumbled and shouted back. "No, I just actually obey the speed limit we're supposed to be enforcing!"

Gunmax laughed again and turned around to look at Deckard, putting Gun Bike on autopilot as he did so. "You're cute when you're angry, you know that?"

Deckard threw a little bit of caution to the wind and drove faster. "If that's true then I'm going to be adorable if you crash into something because you're being reckless!"

Gunmax turned and hit the brakes, screeching to a stop on the shoulder of the road.

Deckard pulled up next to him and saw he was glaring straight ahead with a death grip on the handle bars. "Gunmax?"

Gunmax refused to look at him. "Are you really going to go there again, Deckard?"

Deckard transformed and tried to lean into Gunmax's line of sight but he couldn't tell exactly where the mech was looking because of his visor. "What do you mean? Go where again?"

Gunmax reset his vocalizer, which sounded like a human clearing their throat, and Deckard heard a few beeps and clicks before his voice came out of Gunmax's mouth. "What if something does happen?"

Deckard realized that Gunmax was lip-syncing to a recording of what he had said to him when he had called him out on his reckless methods when they had first met.

Deckard opened his mouth to say something but before he could Gunmax said in a quiet voice. "What if the kid gets hurt because you're not able to protect him when he follows you out into the line of duty?"

Deckard gasped and glared at the mech. "Over my dead body,"

Gunmax smirked and turned to look at him. "I know, that's why I asked you that,"

Deckard was speechless. "Wha…"

Gunmax held up both servos in a shrug. "You came online after they shut you down because you wanted to protect Yuuta from a crook that wanted to steal you from the police and use you for his own purposes. I was created to safeguard the highways and everyone on it with the Highway Patrol.

He let his servos fall into his lap as he stared at Deckard. "You asked me 'What if something happens because you're not doing a good job of protecting everyone?' but what would you say if someone asked you that?"

Deckard looked at Gunmax, orange optics like embers, "I repeat, over. my. dead. body,"

He took a determined step closer to Gunmax with each word until he was leaning over Gun Bike at him. "And that applies to everyone, Gunmax,"

He stared into the dark visor where he could just make out the outline of the Motorcycle Detective's optics until the mech realized he was included in everyone and smirked. "Aww, we gonna hug now?"

Deckard took a step back and was about to scold him for the smart ass remarks when they both heard an explosion in the distance. "What was that?"

They both turned to see a mushroom cloud rising up from uptown Nanamagari.

"Nothing good," Gunmax started up Gun Bike and drove away. "Let's go!"

The two drove as fast as they could without crashing into anything until they reached the scene of the explosion and saw a fifty foot monster smashing anything and everything in its path.

Gunmax looked up at the creature. "Another giant monster? Where the hell do these things keep coming from?"

Deckard transformed and looked up at the creature that reminded him of a dragon from the books Yuuta had shown him. "I don't know but without the command code from Yuuta's badge I can't merge into J-Decker to fight it,"

Gunmax smirked. "Sucks to be you. Change!" he transformed Gun Bike around him to form Gunmax Armor and flew up to fire on the monster's face.

Deckard brought a digit to his comm. link to call for back up, only to find Shadowmaru was already calling him so he just answered the call without realizing it.

:Deckard, did you find Gunmax yet? Because we have a situation.:

Deckard looked up at the mech flying overhead trying to keep the monster's attention on him. :Yeah, I found him. We kind of have our own situation on our hands.:

:What do you mean you…:

Deckard quickly rattled off the situation as he got out his gun and tried to give Gunmax some cover fire. "Giant lizard monster attacking the city, Gunmax and I were near the general vicinity and are attempting to hold it off until help arrives.:

He could hear Shadowmaru talking to someone in the background before saying. :Ok, glad we're all on the same page. We're on our way right now. Oh by the way, Commissioner wanted me to tell you he's planning on calling this one Dragowan for the case files since it looks like a dragon and the same people that created Gawan created it.:

Deckard ducked and rolled as a car was thrown his way and dumped the shells out of his revolver. :Well, at least we know what to call it, the nicknames Gunmax has been shouting at it are vulgar at best.:

He tried to balance the gun against his leg so he could try to reload it with one servo while he kept his digit to his comm. link but it didn't work so he put the gun away and finished the call as he ran to make sure the street as well as all of the nearby cars and buildings were empty of civilians.

:Someone needs to get Yuuta, we're going to need him to issue the command to form J-Decker and Super Build Tiger.:

:Roger, Shadowmaru out.:

The communiqué ended so Deckard quickly reloaded his gun and resumed firing on any part of the monster, Dragowan, he could reach with the range of his gun but the bullets ricocheted off the creature's scales.

"Dammit!" Deckard flung his bullet casings at the monster just for spite and reloaded as he ran in a flanking maneuver around Dragowan to try to locate a weak spot.

Meanwhile, Gunmax Armor flew around the creature's head and fired at any place that Deckard couldn't get to until he landed a shot on the corner of one of its eyes.

With a roar of pain and outrage, Dragowan took a deep breath and unleashed a jet of flames from its mouth at Gunmax Armor, who flew away to evade it.

"HOLY SHIT, IT BREATHES FIRE!"

Deckard looked up as the Motorcycle Detective came to hover above him. "Yeah, when I called the others a minute ago Shadowmaru said Commissioner wants us to call it Dragowan for the records because it's a dragon and its predecessor was named 'Gawan',"

Gunmax Armor scoffed as he reloaded his rifle. "Who comes up with these names?" he looked down at Deckard. "Did they say anything else or did they just want to know the thing's name before we shoot it full of lead or die trying?"

Deckard started to answer but paused to dodge another vehicle—this time it was a mail truck—that was thrown at them while Gunmax Armor flew higher to avoid it. Once the Motorcycle Detective was back in earshot he explained. "The others are on their way. We just need to hold our ground until they get here,"

Just then, Dragowan slammed its fists into the ground and split the pavement open in a huge crack from where it was standing to the far end of the street.

The two mechs looked at the huge crack that had formed between them and then at each other.

Gunmax tilted his helm towards the source of the rift and quipped. "At this rate I don't think there will be much ground to hold by the time they get here,"

Deckard felt the ground tremor and saw that Dragowan was charging at them on all fours. "Gunmax, look out!"

Too late, the creature slashed at the Motorcycle Detective with one of its claws and knocked him into a nearby building.

"GUNMAX!" Deckard started to go over and check on the mech but Dragowan charged him next, forcing him to run backwards as he fired at the creature's face since the body and legs seemed to have thicker armor.

He cursed under his breath when he ran out of bullets and quickly dove out of Dragowan's path to take cover behind what was left of a wall of a collapsed building, reloading his gun while the creature's momentum carried it past his hiding spot.

Deckard held his gun at the ready as he put his back to the side of the alleyway he was in and leaned around the corner to locate Dragowan, finding that it had gotten itself between two buildings and was having trouble turning around for another run.

Taking advantage of the momentary lull, Deckard ducked into the hole in the building that Gunmax Armor had been knocked into. "Gunmax?"

A pile of rubble fell apart as the mech sat up in the middle of it. "Ow, that's going to hurt tomorrow,"

Deckard grabbed Gunmax Armor's servo and pulled him out of the rubble but stopped when he heard someone cry out behind them.

Both mechs turned to locate the source of the noise and Gunmax Armor leaned over to examine a spot where parts of the ceiling had fallen into a lean-to against the wall. "Deckard, I think someone's under there,"

"I know," Deckard went to peer between the boards. "Can anyone hear me under there?"

He heard a woman crying and a man called out. "Help us! We're trapped!"

Deckard and Gunmax Armor both reached forward to start digging the humans out but had to cover their helms when the rest of the roof was suddenly ripped away. They looked up to see Dragowan had knocked the rest of the building away with its tail and was stomping down the street.

Gunmax Armor took out his rifle and cocked it. "Dig them out, I'll keep Mr. Scaly occupied," he launched himself into the air and flew after the monster before Deckard could stop him.

Deckard returned his attention to the pile of rubble and started pulling away boards and beams away, careful not to bring more of it down on top of the humans. "Hold on, I'm going to get you out of there,"

After a few minutes of digging, Deckard had cleared an opening big enough for a young man and woman to crawl out of the rubble. He looked down at the couple as they held each other and told the other how glad they were that they were alright.

After letting the two lovers have their moment Deckard asked "Was there anyone else in here with you when the building came down?"

The woman looked up at him. "A waitress pulled a woman behind the bar with her when the monster showed up and they hid back there. We were sitting in a booth and hid under our table,"

Deckard looked around and realized that they were in a café, what was left of it at least, and tried to locate where the bar would be so he could find the people that had supposedly hiding behind it. "Where?"

The man pointed to the far side of the room they were in. "Over there,"

Deckard nodded. "Thank you. You two had better go, it's not going to get any safer here until we get that…" he jerked his thumb digit toward the window to indicate the fight outside. "…under control,"

The couple nodded and ducked outside and ran in the opposite direction of the gunfire and animalistic roars while Deckard made his way to the front of the room, careful of where he stepping in case there was someone under the rubble.

"Hello, is someone there?"

"Deckard?"

Deckard looked over his shoulder to see Power Joe standing in the hole in the wall while Dumpson peered through it. "Guys,"

The two Build Team mechs entered the room fully and Dumpson asked. "What happened here?"

Deckard returned his attention to the rubble and scanned it for any signs of life. "I just got done digging a young couple that was trapped in here out of the rubble, they told me on their way out that a waitress had pulled a woman behind the bar with her when the initial attack happened and they got trapped when the ceiling came down,"

Dumpson went to help Deckard dig through the rubble while Power Joe kept watch at the opening in case Dragowan came back.

After a while McCrane came to switch places with Power Joe so the Kung Fu Detective could join in the fight. When he looked into the café he saw that Deckard had suddenly became frantic and went over to them. "Deckard, why don't you go help the others with Dragowan? Search and Rescue is supposed to be our thing,"

Deckard stopped and help up his servo. "Shh, listen," they stopped and listened. For a moment all they could hear was the sounds of the battle outside but then they found they could hear other noises—small, scared noises—under the rubble.

Dumpson looked at Deckard. "You said a waitress pulled a woman under there?"

Deckard nodded. "That's what I was told,"

McCrane leaned closer. "So why does that sound like… Oh no,"

"My thoughts exactly," Deckard started digging more frantically than before and Dumpson did the same along with McCrane who had come over to help with the digging until he stopped and waved the others over.

"Hey, I found them!"

The other two Brave Police crawled over to look in the hole McCrane had dug and saw a young girl slightly older than Azuki with dark hair with purple streaks in it wearing a pink and white waitress uniform with her arms around an older woman who was curled up on her side.

By examining the way the two were arranged they appeared to be shielding something that was cradled in the woman's arms.

Closer examination revealed what that something was as well as the source of the noises they had heard before; a crying baby, wrapped in a pink blanket and wriggling in her mother's arms as she voiced her discontent to the world.

Dumpson carefully poked the woman on the back. "Hey, you okay?"

The waitress opened her eyes and looked up at them, a bloody cut on her forehead clearly visible. "Is… Is it gone?"

Deckard shook his helm. "No, it's outside but the rest of our team is keeping it busy while we get you out of here,"

McCrane reached down to help the girl up. "Can you walk?"

The waitress nodded as she shakily stood up and let McCrane lift her out of the wreckage. "I think so,"

They heard a loud crash outside and looked up to see Dragowan had knocked over another building. Dumpson looked down at the girl. "Can you run?"

"Try and stop me!" she slid out of McCrane's servo. She stopped and looked over her shoulder. "What about…"

Dumpson nudged the woman in the hole again to try to wake her up and scanned her to make sure she was still alive when she didn't. "She's out cold. One of us will have to carry her out,"

"I'll do it," McCrane held his servos out to grab the woman once Dumpson got his own servos out of the way. Once he did, however, the baby in her arms started squalling even louder.

McCrane just stood there helplessly, holding an unconscious woman in his cupped servos not knowing what to do about a screaming baby in said woman's arms except make sure he didn't drop either of them. "What do I do? WHAT DO I DO?"

Deckard and Dumpson looked at each other and shrugged; they've never handled human babies before, they were way out of their league.

The waitress smacked the side her head. "Geez, typical men. Talk to her, let her know you're not going to hurt her,"

McCrane hesitated before carefully shaking his servos to rock their occupants to try to soothe the crying infant like he had seen someone do on one of those soap operas Power Joe watches sometimes. "Shh, don't cry, little one. I'm not going to hurt you,"

The baby girl's screams quieted down to hiccupping sobs, like she was starting to calm down but still not happy about the situation at all.

Dumpson smiled as he looked at his brother. "Ah, you're good with kids. I'm definitely telling Seia about this,"

McCrane looked at him with a "Bring it!" look. "Not before I tell Ayako you were afraid of a screaming baby, of all things,"

Deckard got between the two brothers. "Not now, you guys. You can tattle on each other to the other's girlfriend later. Right now we've got more important things to deal with,"

He pointed up at Dragowan, who was fighting the others further down the street.

"Right,"

They all left the café, Deckard and Dumpson running over to help the others with Dragowan while McCrane brought the unconscious woman and her child to an ambulance that was further down the street with the waitress running alongside.

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Meanwhile

Yuuta sat at his desk, tapping his pencil against his chin as he tried to come up with the answer for the next math problem. 'Of all the times for a surprise math test!'

He jumped when someone tapped on the window and turned to look, along with everyone else, to see who it was.

Since their classroom was on the second floor, Yuuta thought it was Power Joe and prepared himself to get between the mech and his teacher, Miss Meiko, so the two wouldn't fight again.

To his surprise however, it was Shadowmaru at the window.

Miss Meiko turned and was about to tell the mech to leave but he looked at her and politely said. "I'm sorry to interrupt, Meiko-sensei, but there's an emergency in the city. Alright if we borrow the Boss for a little bit?"

Miss Meiko looked at him then at Yuuta then sighed in defeat as she looked back at Shadowmaru and nodded. "Alright," she turned to shake a finger at Yuuta. "But you will finish your exam on your own time, understood?"

Yuuta stood up and nodded. "Yes, ma'am!" he started to run to the door but Shadowmaru reached through the open window.

"This way is faster, Little Boss,"

Yuuta hesitated before going over to climb up to the window and into Shadowmaru's waiting servo. "What exactly is going on, Shadowmaru?"

Shadowmaru lifted Yuuta out of the classroom window and said nonchalantly. "Oh, you know. Giant monster attacking the city. Gotta go beat it and find out whose monster it is so we can arrest them. Business as usual,"

He jogged a few steps to get further away from the school before launching himself into the air and transforming into his jet mode around Yuuta and flying away.

The other students crowded around the window to watch.

"Wow!"

"So cool!"

"Yuuta's lucky, gets to get out of class to be with the Brave Police,"

Miss Meiko shooed the kids away from the windows and back to their desks. "Finish your tests or I'll have to keep you after class!"

A.N.: Comments, questions, suggestions and predictions welcome. Any flames will be dealt with accordingly.