More Human Than Human

"Talking"

'thoughts'

"Recordings, talking on the phone or singing"

"Speaking another language besides Japanese"

:Talking through the comm. links:

Rated T for language 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.

Meanwhile

The other Brave police fought against Dragowan as best they could as smaller, separate units until they could combine into a few larger units to counter the giant monster they were fighting.

Drill Boy and Gunmax Armor were flying around it like a pair of hornets and firing on it from above while the others did what they could with their guns from the ground.

It was more irritating the beast than anything by playing 'tag' with it but they had managed to contain it in a general area where it had limited mobility and couldn't escape further into the city.

Deckard fired off shots at Dragowan as he dove behind the crumbling wall that McCrane was using as cover while he reloaded his gun and did the same.

As he did so, Deckard checked to see just how much ammunition he had left. "Damn, I've only got one more round of ammo after this one,"

McCrane reached into a compartment in his leg and took out a few clips of revolver ammo. "Here, I rarely use my side arm anyway,"

Deckard looked at it for a moment before taking it. "Thanks," he stowed it in a compartment in his hip. "I hope Yuuta gets here soon. If we don't 'Brave up' soon…"

McCrane aimed his shotgun and fired a shot at one of Dragowan's wings but hit its shoulder instead when the creature moved to swat at Drill Boy as he flew by. "Shadowmaru went to get him because he's faster than the rest of us and so we're all here and ready to go in the event Yuuta tries to give the unification command from a distance like he did when Drill Boy first joined us,"

Deckard grabbed McCrane and pulled him out from behind the crumbling wall just before Dragowan came crashing through it. "Good call, now if they could just get here…"

Then they all jumped when a beeping sound only audible to them hit their audio receivers like a dog whistle.

"Yeah, he's doing it from a distance again," McCrane looked around to locate his brothers. "Alright, guys, time to link up!"

"Roger that!"

"About damn time!"

"LOOK OUT BELOW!"

Dumpson and Power Joe ran over to meet McCrane halfway while Drill Boy just transformed in mid-air and dropped down to land amongst of them as they all merged into Super Build Tiger.

Deckard looked up at Super Build Tiger as the combiner tackled Dragowan and tried to put the creature into some kind of wrestling hold that he didn't know the name of and then looked around. "… And J-Roader isn't here yet,"

Gunmax Armor flew over to him and hovered upside down so their helms were level. "Still think it's a good idea to let a kid have so much control over you?"

Deckard swung at the Motorcycle Detective who flipped himself right side up to get out of his reach. "Gunmax…"

Gunmax Armor shook a digit at him. "Hey, hey, I thought I told you your punches don't work on me,"

Deckard growled as Gunmax flew away to give Super Build Tiger some cover fire before taking out his gun and doing the same until he could hear jet engines overhead. He looked up to locate the source of the engines and saw Shadowmaru flying up to do a strafing run on Dragowan.

"Sorry we're late, had to stop and pick something up,"

Deckard looked around at the sound of familiar sirens approaching and smiled. "I'd say you're right on time," he turned and ran down the street to meet J-Roader halfway so he could link up with the support vehicle and form J-Decker.

Yuuta jumped out of the S.W.A.T. truck and took out his badge. "Deckard!"

"I know!" He sent a data burst to J-Roader to establish a remote control link with it so he could get it to follow him as he ran along-side it to get closer to the fight to help.

Yuuta sent him the unification command and he "Braved Up" into J-Decker, still running into the battle as J-Decker to tackle Dragowan and help Super Build Tiger wrestle it to the ground.

This worked for a while until Dragowan breathed fire on them to get them to let go and smashed through a building to get to another street.

Shadowmaru gained altitude to locate the creature and saw it limping away. He quickly calculated its trajectory and the others. :He's heading for the marina!:

"Copy that!" J-Decker picked up Yuuta and placed the boy in his cab before taking to the skies with Super Build Tiger and the whole team followed Dragowan from the air to try to box it in again.

However, this street was wider than the other one had been and Dragowan, having more room to maneuver, climbed up the side of the building until it was above the other buildings.

Super Build Tiger scoffed. "What does this thing think it is, King Kong?"

But then, with a mighty beat of its wings, Dragowan launched itself into the air and flew above the city to continue heading in the direction it had before without any buildings to get in the way.

Yuuta gawked at the creature as he looked out J-Decker's windshield with wide eyes. "It… It flies too?"

Dragowan roared as it flew away at higher speeds than any of them expected a winged creature of that size would be capable of.

Yuuta pointed at it and shouted. "After it! We can't let it destroy the city!"

"On it, Boss!"

The Brave Police flew after Dragowan until they reached the wharf where the creature turned its attention downward, as though looking for something.

"Is it just me or is that thing slowing down?" Power Joe's voice came from Super Build Tiger.

Then Dragowan turned around and released another jet of flame in their direction, forcing them to scatter to avoid being hit. When it cleared they resumed their pursuit of the creature and then noticed Power Joe had a point.

"Yeah, it's definitely slowing down. Watch out!" J-Decker covered the windshield on his chest so the flames wouldn't go through it and get to Yuuta when the dragon started to release another bout of flames from its maw, only this time it spluttered out before it got far.

With a demonic screech, Dragowan fell from the sky and crashed through the ground in the middle of a seaside fish market.

Yuuta uncovered his head and tried to peer between J-Decker's digits as he removed his servos. "Uh, what just happened?"

Shadowmaru transformed to hover in robot mode. "Looks like it ran out of fire; and from the looks of things whatever gave it the ability to breathe fire also gave it the lift it needed to fly,"

J-Decker looked down at the creature that was now climbing to its feet and shaking off the debris that had covered it when it landed. "Alright, so it can't fly or breathe fire. Which means it's only options now would be to run away on the ground or to use brute strength to fight,"

Yuuta gripped his seat; he had a feeling things were going to get rough. "See if you guys can trap it like you did before so we can capture it, or stop it,"

"Roger!" J-Decker started to dive down to make the arrest like he always did when they had the villain cornered but Super Build Tiger stopped him.

"Wait, look," Super Build Tiger pointed down and they saw Dragowan sniffing around, looking for something, until it found the open displays of fish and seafood and started eating; chomping the catch of the day by the crate, while it was still inside said crates.

"It's… eating?"

Dumpson's voice came from Super Build Tiger this time. "Not exactly the best time and place for a snack break,"

The others all flew into a flanking formation and dropped down to surround Dragowan in an attempt to pen it in.

But then Dragowan saw movement out the corner of its eye as it was about to snap up a box of flounder and looked over to see J-Decker moving up towards its head while Super Build Tiger came up on its flank.

Gunmax Armor appeared next to it on the other side from J-Decker and pressed a gun to the back of its head. "Snack time's over, big fella,"

J-Decker saw Dragowan's pupils narrow as it slowly turned its head around, growling. "Gunmax, don't…"

Like a crack of a whip, Dragowan's head turned around and seized Gunmax Armor in its jaws and clamped down on his midsection.

The Motorcycle Detective cried out as the sharp teeth pierced the armor that was formed by Gun Bike and his actual armor underneath started to give way under the crushing pressure of its jaws.

"Hey, Put me down you big scaly piece of sh—AHHH!" He beat his fist against its snout and tried to pry its jaws open but he couldn't get himself free and Dragowan only tightened its grip further so J-Decker lunged forward to help him while Super Build Tiger tried to hold it still.

Dragowan paid them only enough mind to lift Gunmax Armor out of J-Decker's reach and off handedly bat Shadowmaru away with its tail and kick Super Build Tiger like a mule as it carried Gunmax Armor away like a new toy it didn't want to share with anyone.

Shadowmaru pushed a couple of crates of fish off of him as pulled himself out of an open sided fish stand he had landed in. Rubbing his now sore neck—and briefly wondering if robots could get whiplash—he tracked the trajectory of Dragowan's course.

Now seeing Dragowan's plan, he called out to the others. "He's heading for the water,"

They heard an exclamation of "SHIT!" coming from Gunmax's general direction as they sprang into action.

Power Joe's voice came from Super Build Tiger again. "I say we just let it eat him,"

The rest of the Build Team scolded their team mate and Super Build Tiger shuddered like it was going to fall apart but was able to hold together.

Yuuta was also appalled. "Guys, come on, we can't just let it eat Gunmax,"

J-Decker nodded. "Yuuta is right, Gunmax might be a rude, overconfident jerk that says weird phrases in bad English sometimes but he's one of us,"

He rand after Dragowan and Shadowmaru added. "Which means he's our rude, overconfident jerk that says weird phrases in bad English sometimes,"

They all chased after Dragowan and Super Build Tiger tackled it while J-Decker put it in a head lock.

Unfortunately, due to the size difference, Super Build Tiger was just lying across Dragowan's back like a human on a horse.

Then Drill Boy's voice came from Super Build Tiger. "Pull on his wings, guys!"

Super Build Tiger grabbed the base of the dragon's wings and pulled until the dragon reared up and fell over with a shrieking roar.

McCrane's voice came from the Build Team combiner next. "How did you know that would work?"

Drill Boy again "Because sometimes you guys pull on my wings and it hurts, really bad,"

Dumpson's voice came next, he sounded guilty. "Sorry, buddy,"

While the Build team was having their momentary heart-to-heart, J-Decker and Shadowmaru tried to get Gunmax Armor out of the Dragowan's mouth, with J-Decker prying the jaws open while the Ninja Detective grabbed Gunmax Armor's servos to pull him out.

To their surprise, however, Dragowan suddenly dropped Gunmax Armor and started sniffing Shadowmaru as it got to its feet.

Seeing the creature's attention was now on him and its pupils were dilated, Shadowmaru put his servos up and backed away. "Nice dragon, nice dragon,"

Dragowan simply shrugged the other Brave Police off and followed him, sniffing him curiously.

Gunmax Armor laughed as he sat up slowly, wincing slightly as he did so. "Aww, it likes you,"

Shadowmaru made a face like he was trying to glare at Gunmax Armor but didn't want to take his optics off of Dragowan. "Not funny, Mr. Chew toy,"

Gunmax Armor's smirk went away, replaced by a scowl.

Yuuta, on the other hand, tried to figure out what was going on. "Why is he just sniffing Shadowmaru?" then he looked at the crates of fish that were scattered about. "Shadowmaru, weren't you just thrown into a pile of fish just now?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

Yuuta pointed at the partially demolished fish market, even though no one could see him. "Dragowan came here looking for fish, maybe he smells it on Shadowmaru and is looking for it,"

Everyone considered this for a moment and Shadowmaru sniffed his arm-servo, wrinkling his olfactory ridge in disgust.

"Phew! Yeah, he smells it alright," then he realized he smelled like something the giant dragon monster was just eating and started running backwards. "No, no, I'm not a fish, I'm not a fish!"

Dragowan just purred and followed him even when he jumped to the side to try to lose the dragon. So, J-Decker suggested. "See if you can lure it away from a populated area,"

The Ninja Detective gave him a bemused look. "Are we taking turns being bait now?"

Super Build Tiger chuckled so Shadowmaru pointed up at him without looking. "Don't laugh, you're next,"

So, Shadowmaru slowly walked backwards, leading the curious and hungry dragon along, with J-Decker and Super Build Tiger on either side in case Dragowan tried to make a break for it and Gunmax Armor brought up the rear as their little parade made its way to an abandoned side of the wharf.

Everything was going fine until a fishing boat came into the harbor; the wind that brought the little sail boat in also carried the smell of their fresh catch right to Dragowan.

The dragon stopped and sniffed the air, the purple robot that smelled of old fish forgotten; there was a live and fresh catch nearby, lots of it, and Dragowan wanted it.

Before any of the Brave Police could react, the creature bounded to the water line and dove right in.

"NO!" They all ran to the nearest pier and scanned the water for signs of Dragowan.

"Anyone see him?"

Super Build Tiger shook his helm. "No, but I really hope this one doesn't turn into a sea monster like Gawan did. I really hope it doesn't,"

"Found it!" Shadowmaru pointed at the water.

"Where?" Everyone else scanned the water where Shadowmaru was pointing but his scanners were able to pick up things that theirs couldn't so they couldn't see what he was seeing.

J-Decker looked at the Ninja Detective. "Which way is he heading?"

"Right… towards that boat that just came in," Shadowmaru scanned the boat and scowled. "Crap, it's a fishing boat, full of fresh catch. That must be what it's after,"

"We've got to warn them!" Yuuta grabbed the mouth piece for Deckard's public address system and shouted into it. "Attention… um…"

Yuuta hesitated; he couldn't see the name of the boat painted on the side of it so he didn't know who he was warning.

J-Decker zoomed in with his optics on the side of the fishing boat and told him. "It's the 'MiBonny',"

Yuuta nodded and continued. "Attention, crew of the MiBonny, this is the Brave Police! You are in a restricted area. Please leave or there will be trouble! I repeat, Please leave the area or there will be trouble!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, aboard the MiBonny.

One of the fishermen in the crew of a dozen went over to the Captain and tapped him on the shoulder. "Captain, there's something going on at shore,"

The Captain took out a pair of binoculars and looked to see the giant robots known as the Brave Police standing on the pier. "The Brave Police? I wonder what's going on there,"

"Listen…" both men listened and heard someone calling out to them; however they were still too far out to hear it clearly over the waves so part of what whatever they were saying was lost.

The only reason they knew it was aimed at them was because they could make out "…crew of the MiBonny….P…lice….. leave the area…"

The Captain looked at his crewman. "Sounds like a kid, what's he saying?"

The crewmember shrugged. "Sounds like he's saying 'Leave the area!',"

The Captain scoffed. "Like I'm going to listen to some kid, I'm going to go see what the hell is going on that the frickin' Brave Police are snooping about,"

It was no secret amongst the crew that the Captain was one of the people that didn't like the Brave Police; someone had brought a portable radio on board so they could listen to music on the trip but when a news report about the Brave Police came on the Captain got angry and threw the radio overboard.

Just then a giant reptilian creature burst out of the water at crashed into the side of the boat, making it rock and buck violently as though it itself had become a giant beast that wished to throw its occupants overboard to the other monster waiting in the surf.

The men aboard the boat screamed as they grabbed onto the closest thing they could to steady themselves and when the creature went back into the water they scrambled to secure their nets so they wouldn't lose their catch.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Too late," The Brave Police saw Dragowan attack the fishing boat and quickly mobilized.

J-Decker and Super Build Tiger took to the air, intent on dropping down on Dragowan from above, while Shadowmaru transformed into jet mode and flew to the boat to get the crewmembers.

Gunmax Armor ran along the pier to try to take off as well but skidded to a stop inches away from the edge when his wing turbines wouldn't activate.

"What the actual fuck?" He reached behind himself and felt around until he found the problem; one of his wings were bent and crumpled from when Dragowan chomped down on him, rendering that wing useless and him incapable of flight. "Dammit!"

J-Decker noticed Gunmax Armor wasn't with them and looked back to see the mech running to the next pier over. He called the mech's comm. link. :Gumax, what are you doing?:

There was a ping followed by Gunmax's response. :Wing's busted, can't fly. I'll do what I can from the shore.:

J-Decker hesitated before nodding. :Alright, good luck.:

Gunmax laughed at that. :I'm not the one that's gonna need luck, Patoka.:

J-Decker turned and continued his original flight path and Super Build Tiger looked at him. "What's Gunmax doing now?"

J-Decker took out J-Buster and fired a few shots at the water to try to draw out Dragowan. "Gunmax's wings were damaged when Dragowan was chewing on him. He's going to see what he can do from the shore,"

"Okay… there it is!"

"Banzai!" The two mechs dropped down as Dragowan came out of the water and all three went back under water as they tackled it away from the ship.

Shadowmaru landed carefully on the ship and looked at the crewmembers. "Drop the nets and head to shore, now,"

The Captain roughly pushed his way towards the front. "We can't just toss our catch overboard!"

Shadowmaru looked down at the Captain with cold green optics. "That creature in the water isn't after you, it's after the fish. It's your catch or your lives, your choice,"

The crew members looked at each other before the Captain nodded to the men. "Cut half the nets,"

While the men got out knives and scrambled to hang half the nets aboard the ship over the water so they could cut them loose, the Captain looked up at Shadowmaru. "Hopefully, that will keep the beast busy long enough for us to make port and get out of here, but a man has to make a living,"

He pointed to the nets of fish they were saving to get his point across; the fish was how the fishermen made their living and without it they had nothing.

Shadowmaru nodded; understanding but not seeing why the men were putting a few nets of fish ahead of their own well-being. They could always catch more, couldn't they?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile

J-Decker and Super Build Tiger fought Dragowan at the bottom of the bay, the water was just deep enough for the creature to swim—using its wings as oars as it kicked and paddled with its legs—and it was easily over their helms so they used their underwater propulsion systems to "swim" as well.

J-Decker opened a comm. link channel with Super Build Tiger so they could talk to eachother under water as he dodged a swipe from Dragowan's tail. :We have to stop this thing before someone gets hurt!:

Drill Boy's voice came through the line. :How did you guys stop Gawan before? Maybe we can do it again.:

Yuuta could hear the whole conversation on J-Decker's radio and answered on the C.V. radio. "McCrane fired a shot through the… venti-thingy they used to get me and Mr. Onoue out of Gawan and it blew him to smithereens! It was actually kind of cool,"

McCrane's voice came next. :Ventilator, and I'm afraid we don't have one handy right at this moment.:

Just then Dragowan kicked off the bottom of the bay and launched itself straight up to shoot out of the water right next to the boat and grabbed a net that was being hung over the side, grabbing on to it.

The men scrambled for purchase as the boat tipped almost completely to the side, some were able to grab onto something to hang on to but quite a few ended up in the water.

Shadowmaru drew one of his swords and held the net steady with his other servo as he cut the net free so Dragowan wouldn't drag the whole boat down along with it and the boat quickly fell back into place.

Unfortunately, the sudden motion of the boat had knocked Shadowmaru off balance and his servo got tangled in the net, resulting in him being pulled over board and into the water when Dragowan sank below the surface.

The Ninja Detective cursed inwardly as he tried to cut himself loose. For a brief moment however, he swore he could almost hear Kagero chastising him for his foolishness.

*flashback*

The two brothers were in the sparring ring again. Usually they pitted the two of them against each other for a match at least once a day but they had already had a session that day and now they were being put through another one.

On their way into the ring, Kagero had mumbled something about how the higher ups that supervised these matches were probably just bored and wanted some sort of entertainment.

This second match, however, resulted in Shadowmaru being pinned to the floor with one of Kagero's swords through his servo.

The elder brother hissed at his brother under his vents. 'Shadowmaru, pay attention! You're going to get yourself killed one of these days,'

The green mech the sword out and placed it in Shadowmaru's injured palm before pulling him to his peds with his good servo.

He never did take his sword back—it was a spare he kept on him as an extra weapon to surprise his opponents with—and he let Shadowmaru use it when the humans in charge of the match told them to resume fighting until they said to stop.

*End Flashback*

Shadowmaru glanced at the sword he was now wielding; it was the same sword Kagero had given him that day and it was also the sword he had run him through with when he was forced to kill him in a fight to the death when Kagero was on an out-of-control rampage in the city.

Tightening his grip on the sword, he slashed the last of the cords holding him to the net and let himself drift away from Dragowan as the creature swam away.

The Ninja Detective sheathed his sword and watched the dragon swim away with its prize before shifting into his wolf mode—he could swim better in that form than he could in robot mode—and followed it.

A.N.: Comments, questions and predictions welcome. This story is un-Betaed, if you see a mistake feel free to point it out and I'll fix it as soon as I can. Any flames will be dealt with accordingly.