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, mentions of suicidal thoughts 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.

Gunmax Armor ran along the edge of the bay to try to cut Dragowan off if it tried to leave the harbor so they could corral it in.

As he circled around to the other side of the boat, Dragowan leapt out of the water and grabbed something out of the boat. The Motorcycle Detective looked over and saw it was one of the fishing nets on the boat.

Another thing he noticed was that Shadowmaru was pulled out of the boat along with the net. "Shit…"

Gunmax Armor opened a comm. channel with the others. :Hey, guys, Shadowmaru just got pulled under along with the fishing net Dragowan just snagged. I repeat, the dog is in the net… and fishnets really aren't a good look on him.: he added the last part with a smirk.

J-Decker and Super Build Tiger looked up at the boat then at Dragowan and then each other.

"Did you see him?"

J-Decker shook his helm. "No, the rest of the net was in the way,"

Super Build Tiger looked at him in disbelief. "Really?" he held out his servos towards Dragowan. "Because the whole dragon was in our way!"

Yuuta cut in before everyone could start arguing. "Guys, let's just find him and stop Dragowan. The boat is heading back to shore so the fishermen are safe …"

Gunmax Armor told the others. :I'll make sure everyone gets off the boat in one piece.:

Everyone's comm. links buzzed and Shadowmaru's voice came through. :And be sure to arrest them for obstruction of justice. They didn't leave the area and kept the fish and drew Dragowan right to them, despite being told to leave the area and not keep the fish for that very reason.:

Yuuta grabbed the radio mouth piece and practically yelled into it. "Shadowmaru, you okay?"

The Ninja Detective chuckled. :You mean you doubted me? That hurts, O little ye of little faith.:

J-Decker asked "Gunmax said you got dragged under, Need an assist?"

:Nope, already cut the net. I'm going to follow Dragowan to see where he's going.:

J-Decker looked around to try to locate either Dragowan or Shadowmaru but both had already left the marina. :Wait, Shadowmaru...:

The call cut off and everyone looked at each other. J-Decker waved his servo in a "follow me" gesture. "Come on, let's go give him some back up,"

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Shadowmaru just ignored J-Decker and disconnected the communiqué as he watched Dragowan swim away.

'If they catch up they catch up, but if I wait too long I will lose the trail,' he swam after the dragon.

After a while, Shadowmaru got a ping from J-Decker's frequency and answered the call. :Yes?:

Yuuta's voice came through. :Shadowmaru, head back to the Decker Room. Azuma just called and wants everyone at the precinct right now, he sounded mad.:

'When isn't he mad when he talks to us?' Instead of voicing his train of thought he said. "But what about Dragowan?"

Yuuta sighed. :I guess we're just going to have to hope he doesn't cause any more trouble until we find him again.:

Shadowmaru looked at Dragowan as the dragon swam away and weighed his options; go back to the Decker room and get yelled at by the Co-Commissioner or just pretend the pompous windbag doesn't exist for a little while and continue with the mission.

After a moment of consideration, Shadowmaru responded. "I'm pretty far out right now, you guys go on ahead, I'll catch up,"

:Okay, see you there.: the call ended.

Shadowmaru looked around to make sure no one was around to see him and kept swimming. 'I never said I was going to head back RIGHT AWAY…'

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Back on shore

Gunmax Armor leaned against a boathouse with his arm-servos crossed as he waited on the pier for the others. He looked up as Super Build Tiger and J-Decker came trudging out of the water.

Super Build Tiger huffed as he stepped on shore. "I can't believe Azuma is calling us back in the middle of a pursuit of a dangerous giant monster," the combiner split apart into the Build Team and they all marched up to the road to transform into vehicle mode.

Gunmax Armor snorted. "And probably to yell at us for not catching it and the mess we made while trying to,"

J-Decker looked down at the Motorcycle Detective. "Were you waiting for us or are you just going to hang around here all day?"

Gunmax Armor smirked at him and rapped his knuckles against his chest. "If this thing would come off I would have hit the road already, but as it turns out I can't fly and I can't drive so what difference does it make?"

J-Decker thought for a moment before picking the mech up in his servos.

Gunmax Armor looked around and struggled. "Hey, what are you doing? Put me down, Patoka!"

J-Decker looked down at him in a manner that hinted that he was smiling behind his mask. "Giving you a lift back to the precinct for the meeting, wouldn't want you to miss something important,"

Gunmax Armor gave up struggling since J-decker placed his thumb digits over his waist like the safety restraints on a roller coaster and crossed his arm-servos. "He's probably going to give us the same crap he always does…" He changed his voice so it was deeper yet screechy to mock Azuma.

"'You walking scrap piles need to be more careful. Look at all the damage you caused! Do you have any idea how long it will take to fix this mess or how much it will cost? And did you catch that thing? What? Why not?',"

Yuuta snickered behind his hands at the impersonation so Deckard tilted his seat forward to pat him on the back to get him to stop and saying. "Come on, Gunmax, Azuma's … talks aren't exactly a picnic but we still need to go,"

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Back at the Decker Room

"YOU WALKING SCRAP PILES NEED TO BE MORE CAREFUL!" Azuma's face changed between different shades of red and purple and back again as he yelled at the Brave Police who all—minus Shadowmaru, who was late getting back but insisted he was coming back when Yuuta called him—stood at attention in front of him while Yuuta stood next to his desk.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH DAMAGE YOU CAUSED? OR HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE TO FIX AND HOW MUCH IT WILL COST TO FIX IT?"

Gunmax opened a private channel with Deckard on their internal comm. links :Told ya.:

Azuma straightened up. "What is that status on the monster?"

Deckard stood straighter and answered. "I'm afraid we were unable to apprehend it, sir,"

Azuma's hair actually stood on end. "What? You mean it's still on the loose?"

Yuuta looked up at the Co-Commissioner. "We almost had it but you called us back and said we had to get back here right away before we could actually get it!"

Azuma turned on Yuuta. "Don't interrupt me, boy," Yuuta flinched and started to tell him he was just answering his question but Azuma looked back up at the Brave Police like Yuuta wasn't even there. "I want that thing…"

"Dragowan,"

They all turned to look at the Commissioner, who was standing behind Azuma and Yuuta with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. He opened his eyes and elaborated. "We are calling the creature 'Dragowan' for the records, since 'that thing that tried to destroy the city' could mean anything,"

Azuma glared at the man in disbelief and then looked at the Brave Police "I want 'Dragowan'…" he said the name mockingly as he gave the Commissioner a pointed look and then looked back at the Brave Police. "…found and apprehended as soon as possible, before it attacks again,"

"Well, already have the 'found' part taken care of," they all looked down and saw Shadowmaru crawling through the "doggy door" in his wolf form. He transformed into robot mode and crossed his arm-servos. "I saw Dragowan crawl ashore on a small island off the coast before I turned back. We weakened it so it shouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon,"

Azuma glared at him like he wanted to yell at him but couldn't; not only couldn't he find a reason to yell at him but the Ninja Detective was staring him down.

After a moment, Azuma straightened his tie. "Which island?"

Shadowmaru went over to the mechs' computer and brought up a map of Japan and the surrounding area and projected it onto the monitor. "Right here," he zoomed in on a small island.

McCrane immediately recognized the island. "That's where the Defense Forces go for training retreats,"

Azuma frowned. "Which means it's out of our jurisdiction, we will need clearance before we can go there or there will be an incident,"

Everyone knew that was just more of the political B.S. he and the other Board Members were always throwing at them but held their tongues as Azuma became more business-like; business-like Azuma they could deal with, angry-Azuma was just an asshole they didn't want to deal with.

"I will see about getting you clearance to be on that island. See that this thing goes away and today's fiasco never happens again," The Co-Commissioner turned on his heel and walked out of the room.

As soon as he was gone everyone let out a sigh of relief and Dumpson waved his servo at the door. "Why does he always act like everything bad that happens in this town is our fault?"

McCrane didn't pay them any attention; he was still looking at the map projected at the monitor. "Shadowmaru, are you sure that's where you saw Dragowan go?"

Shadowmaru looked at the Combat Detective with uncertainty. "Yes, why do you ask?"

McCrane's optics widened. "Oh, this is bad,"

Deckard looked at him. "How so, McCrane?"

McCrane looked at him. "Seia was going out there with some new recruits for training sometime tomorrow. If we don't catch Dragowan by then it will be 'Gawan' all over again,"

Yuuta looked at the crane. "Call Seia and tell her what's going on. Even if it's too late to stop them from going at least Dragowan won't catch them by surprise when they get there,"

"Already on it, Boss," McCrane put a digit to his helm to activate his comm. link and stepped off to the side for some relative privacy as he called the Colonel's cell phone.

After three and a half rings, he heard Seia's voice "Hello?"

:Seia, it's McCrane.:

Seia paused for a moment and McCrane could hear her talking to someone in the back ground for a moment before talking to him again. "Oh, McCrane, can this wait? I'm in the middle of coordinating our training retreat tomorrow,"

McCrane winced. :That's…. uh… kind of why I'm calling. Would there be a chance you could postpone it? Or at least go to a different location this time?:

Seia hesitated before asking skeptically. "Why, is something wrong?"

:You heard about the giant monster incident in town earlier today?:

Seia laughed bitterly. "Who didn't hear about it?"

McCrane sighed :Well, the incident is still ongoing. The creature we were pursuing, designated 'Dragowan', was last seen on the island you were scheduled to have your training retreat.:

Seia gasped "Need help catching it?"

:Too soon to tell, I just wanted to make sure you weren't going to end up on a small island with a bunch of new recruits and a giant, fire-breathing, winged monster.:

Seia laughed. "Well, thanks for looking out for me, McCrane," then her tone changed. "Wait, did you say 'fire-breathing winged monster'?"

McCrane nodded :Yeah, picture Gawan only flight capable.:

Seia grumbled and McCrane could tell she was trying not to curse, then she said. "Alright, I'll try to change either the time we go or the location. Let me know if you need help catching the monster, I promise we won't screw things up for you this time,"

McCrane snorted. :You were just following orders, what happened with Gawan wasn't your fault.:

Seia sighed like she didn't believe him and said. "I'd better go. Talk to you later,"

:Alright:

There was a pause before Seia whispered into the phone "I love you,"

McCrane looked over his shoulder to see if anyone was listening—he had a sinking suspicion that was also why Seia had paused as well—and whispered back. "I love you too,"

After they had their quick whispered conversation—which his brothers did not listen too… when he was looking—McCrane ended the call.

Drill Boy revealed their eavesdropping when he gasped and asked a little too loudly "Wait, did you just say 'I love you too'?"

McCrane tensed and quickly answered "No! I mean… no, no I didn't," he started to walk out of the room. "Clearly, you are all imagining things,"

Power Joe noticed his older brother was refusing to look at them and slyly asked. "So, how are things between you and the good Colonel anyway, McCrane,"

Shadowmaru offhandedly said with a smile on his lip components. "They're past their first kiss, I know that much,"

"How in the hell did you…" McCrane spun around, looking like he was about to throw something at the Ninja Detective but quickly regained his composure. "Ahem, what makes you say that, Shadowmaru?"

Shadowmaru turned to give him an "isn't it obvious?" look. "The Inti case; Miss Seia let Inti possess her so she could show you what her desires were so you wouldn't feel bad about having desires of your own. She ran into that mall and you followed her,"

He grinned, well, wolfishly. "You both came back out blushing and she had hamburger grease on her chin while you had it along with some of her lipstick smudged on your lip components,"

Now McCrane blushed as red as Dumpson's paint job as everyone sniggered at him while he quickly wiped his mouth like he was trying to make sure none of the stain Shadowmaru was talking about was left. "What? Why didn't anyone say anything until now?"

Dumpson shifted the light in his optics to mimic an eye roll. "We didn't notice, we were kind of busy at the time,"

Gunmax smiled and slapped McCrane on the back plates. "Alright, McCrane! Way to not give a fuck about a giant monster attacking the city while you make out with your girlfriend,"

McCrane shoved him away. "That is not what happened,"

Deckard spoke up to change the subject. "Speaking of giant monsters, we still have a dragon to catch on that island,"

Yuuta looked at Deckard and then everyone else, eager to get going. "Alright, let's go!"

Then Shadowmaru spoke up "How about you all unite here and fly there while I bring Little Boss back to school. That way you will get there faster and be ready to go and the Boss can get back to class,"

Yuuta gave the Ninja Detective a look of betrayal and he looked down at Yuuta with a "get mad all you want, you know I'm right" look. "That math test you were in the middle of sounded important,"

Yuuta looked up at Deckard pleadingly, hoping to convince him to let him stay with them until the case was completed.

Deckard wanted Yuuta to come along, he really did, but… "Shadowmaru has a point, Yuuta,"

Yuuta pouted; normally he and Deckard were on the same page about everything but right then he was pretty sure someone had moved the bookmark. "Why? Don't you guys want me there?"

Dumpson held up his servos "No, it's not that Boss,"

Power Joe nodded "We just don't want you to fall behind in school,"

Yuuta narrowed his eyes at the yellow mech. "Says the guy that interrupts class every chance he gets. By the way, you really need to quit stopping by to chat during school. If Miss Meiko sees you there again she'll probably call the cops,"

Power Joe huffed. "That lady is just mean. I think she has something against robots,"

Yuuta tilted his head. "She didn't have any problems when Shadowmaru was there,"

The Ninja Detective looked away as he started humming to himself, something that sounded suspiciously like "She likes me better, she likes me better…"

Power Joe bristled "Maybe she just likes dogs!"

Deckard stepped between the Kung Fu and Ninja Detectives. "Enough!" he looked at Power Joe. "Would you rather deal with Miss Meiko or a dragon?"

Power Joe's thought for a moment and said "There's a difference?"

Deckard ignored him and looked at Shadowmaru. "Think you could bring Yuuta back to school and meet us at the island?"

Shadowmaru mimicked an eye roll with his optics. "Pfft, I can have him there and be on my way to meet up with you by the time you get there,"

Deckard and the others frowned; they didn't doubt that Shadowmaru could but he didn't have to rub it in.

"All right, let's go,"

After everyone but Gunmax—who was staying behind to get repaired—went outside, Yuuta gave the unification command to unite the Build Team into Super Build Tiger and Deckard and J-Roader into J-Decker.

Before actually taking off, J-Decker looked down at Yuuta. "Good luck on your test, Yuuta,"

Super Build Tiger turned to look at him. "Yeah, don't mess up on it too badly,"

Yuuta pulled down his eyelid and blew a raspberry at the combiner mech, which just drew a laugh from all the mechs present and the two combiners took off.

As soon as they were gone, Yuuta sighed in defeat and turned to Shadowmaru who turned into his jet mode and opened the canopy to let him in. This surprised Yuuta; the only time Shadowmaru let him ride in his jet mode was if there was an emergency and they needed to get somewhere A.S.A.P.

'Probably just wants to drop me off at school as fast as he can so he can get back in the action,' Yuuta thought to himself as he climbed up into the hovering jet's cockpit and started to fasten his seat belt but a safety harness closed around him.

"Buckle up, Little Boss," Shadowmaru said in a glee filled tone as he took off and did a slow barrel roll as he flew over the nearby rooftops and into the blue sky above.

Despite his previous gloomy attitude, Yuuta gripped his seat and laughed. "Whoa, cool!"

Shadowmaru chuckled and straightened out. After a few minutes, Yuuta looked out the window, previous glumness returned.

"Something troubling you, Little Boss?"

Yuuta jumped and looked at the control panel, which he now felt like it was somehow watching him. "Huh? Oh, it's nothing, really," he looked at the window again.

The Ninja Detective sighed and said gently. "Boss, not only are you a terrible liar as it is I have lie detectors integrated into my audio receivers; don't think you can lie to me,"

Yuuta looked at the console where Shadowmaru's voice was coming from and hesitated; normally he has these kinds of talks with Deckard alone but at that moment Shadowmaru was giving off the same patient "I'm-right-here-if-you-need-me" vibe that Deckard always practically shone with.

Yuuta sighed as he leaned back "Sometimes… I don't know… Sometimes it feels like the only reason I'm even on the team with you guys is because the Commissioner gave me this…" he took out his badge. "…and you guys need it to combine. Well, you and Gunmax don't because um…"

Yuuta stopped talking, worried he had offended the Ninja Detective somehow by mentioning he was the only one on the team that couldn't combine with anyone else, but Shadowmaru just hummed to himself; had he been in robot or wolf mode he would have nodded.

Yuuta figured the mech wasn't going to say much else—Shadowmaru may be a know-it-all that always seemed to have a clever comeback for everything but he was still a quiet mech, mostly—and looked out the window again; silently marveling at the city below them.

After a few minutes of the not-so awkward silence, Shadowmaru spoke up hesitantly "Say, Boss…" Yuuta looked at the console so Shadowmaru continued. "Alright if we take a quick detour?"

Yuuta thought for a moment and asked innocently. "Why, is something wrong?"

"No, just wanted to show you something," One thing that never changed about Shadowmaru, no matter what mood he was in, was that he always had an aura of mystery about him; like he always had something to hide or wanted everyone to guess.

A little concerned about what this "something" might be—Yuuta didn't know all of the things Shadowmaru got himself into when he was on solo missions or during his spare time but he knew the mech's servos weren't exactly clean because of it—but not wanting to go back to school just yet, Yuuta shrugged. "Okay,"

Shadowmaru changed direction to go to another part of town; they were still heading in the general direction of the school but they were veering slightly off course.

Yuuta leaned back in the seat and tightened his grip on the arm rests as the jet tilted as he turned. "Where we going anyway?"

"Oh, you'll see…" Shadowmaru picked up speed until he was careening through the air like an arrow.

When he finally slowed down, Shadowmaru carefully descended to land in the street next to the university—mindful of the students, professors and other pedestrians that scattered in his wake—and let Yuuta out.

Yuuta looked around and realized they were close to where he lived. "Why here?"

Shadowmaru looked around and took a deep intake of air which he let out in a sigh. "Remember when I left after Kagero…" he couldn't bring himself to say the words; after I killed my brother because some madman took control of his body.

Yuuta looked up at the Ninja and nodded as he sat on a nearby bench. "Yeah, we were going to go after you and bring you back to make sure you were alright but Mr. Toudou said you would come back eventually when you got hungry and needed fuel,"

Shadowmaru smiled, he had thrown a wrench in that plan quite spectacularly. "This was where I was when the 'low fuel warning' started beeping," he sat on the ground next to the bench Yuuta was on with his servos strewn across his lap as he slumped tiredly. "But I kept going,"

Yuuta looked at him. "Why didn't you come back?"

Shadowmaru looked at the ground and darkened his optics. "Because by that point… I wanted to die,"

Yuuta gasped and he clenched his fists and jumped up. "No!"

Shadowmaru looked at him and held up his servos in a placating manner. "Calm down, Little Boss, I'm still here, aren't I?" Yuuta calmed down somewhat and Shadowmaru tilted his helm to the side with a slight smile. "I have you to thank for that,"

Yuuta looked up at him and pointed at himself. "Me?"

Shadowmaru nodded. "Yes, you… well, you and your sister. I came here first because the place where Kagero and I were built was nearby but there were too many witnesses who would have ratted me out to the rest of you so I just wandered around aimlessly until I got tired and found a shady spot in someone's back yard,"

Yuuta looked up at him as he sat back down. "So that's how you ended up at our house,"

Shadowmaru laughed. "Yeah, as sheer dumb luck would have it, that back yard happened to be yours. Bottom line is, Azuki distracted me from my suicidal tendencies but you, Little Boss, gave me hope to keep going,"

Yuuta rubbed his neck "Ah, it was nothing,"

Shadowmaru gently tapped his digit against the top of Yuuta's head in a mock-scolding. "Let me finish,"

Yuuta rubbed his head and sat up straighter as he looked up at Shadowmaru.

"Deckard became sentient because of you, you helped convince the Board of Directors that the Build Team needed minds of their own to be able to function as a unit, you saved me from myself, you helped Drill Boy realize that not everything is about him and now he's not a…"

The Ninja Detective thought for a moment and shrugged "Well, he's not a complete childish jerk anymore,"

Yuuta spoke up in defense of his friend and teammate "Hey, Drill Boy is not a jerk!"

Shadowmaru waved him off. "Speaking of childish jerks, you also saved Gunmax in the Hourglass and you held off Azuma until we were able to prove his innocence when they were going to decommission him for crimes he didn't commit,"

The mech leaned down so he was looking Yuuta square in the eye. "We are alive because of you, Boss, and you have been practically one of us from the beginning. So if anyone ever tells you you're just on the team because of your badge you tell us,"

Shadowmaru grinned as he cracked his mechanical knuckles. "I don't know about the others but say the word and those jerks will be eating those words as their last meal,"

Yuuta was touched by the fact that the Brave Police would go so far for him—although he would do the same for them—but he held up his hands. "I don't know, I don't want you to get in trouble,"

Shadowmaru smiled "Can't get in trouble if I don't get caught," then he remembered what they were supposed to be doing and stood up. "Speaking of getting in trouble, I'd better get you back to school before someone realizes you're not back yet,"

Yuuta hopped off the bench. "And you need to get back and help the others catch Dragowan,"

"Yeah, and make sure Dragowan doesn't catch them instead," Shadowmaru picked Yuuta up and transformed into jet mode around him as he took off and flew away.

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Minutes later

The whole classroom jumped when they heard jet engines right outside and then suddenly Shadowmaru was hanging upside down outside their class room window and passing Yuuta through the open window.

"Sorry for the disturbance, have a nice day! See you after class, Little Boss," the Ninja Detective dropped down to land in a crouch on the ground, transformed into wolf mode and loped away.

Yuuta staggered over to his desk and sat down. "Sorry, Miss Meiko, is it too late to finish my test?"

Miss Meiko looked stunned by the boy's sudden arrival but set his test on his desk. "You are not leaving until it is done, is that clear?"

"Yes ma'am," Yuuta said breathlessly and winced as he sat forward to see his paper.

Emily leaned over to whisper to Yuuta. "Are you okay, Yuuta?"

Yuuta rubbed his abdomen. "I think I lost my stomach somewhere over main street. Shadowmaru broke the sound barrier at least three times on the way here,"

Masaki overheard them and leaned forward, wanting to hear more. "Cool!"

Miss Meiko swatted Yuuta's desk with a yard stick. "No talking, Yuuta is still taking his test and you all have classwork to do,"

All the children turned their attention to their desks and Miss Meiko went to sit at hers to grade the tests that had already been turned in.

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After school, everyone filed out of the classrooms and outside, eager for a few hours freedom.

Yuuta walked along with his friends, who almost immediately started questioning him.

"So, what was going on in town that… um, what's the purple one's name again?"

Yuuta looked at Kikumaro. "Shadowmaru,"

The other boy nodded "Yeah him, what was so important that he had to get you out of class?"

Yuuta looked up at the sky, wishing he was still helping the Brave Police instead of just now getting out of class. "A dragon was attacking the city,"

Emily gasped. "A dragon, a real live dragon?"

Yuuta nodded. "Yeah, we chased it onto an island where it can't hurt anybody but then Mr. Azuma called us back to yell at us for making a mess during the fight. Everyone else went to the island to finish off Dragowan, that's what we're calling the dragon, while Shadowmaru dropped me off at school,"

Masaki scoffed. "That's lame, couldn't you have just told them 'no'? You're their Boss, aren't you?"

Yuuta sighed. "Yeah but I still need to go to school. And if Shadowmaru didn't bring me back when he did then Power Joe would bring me to school later and he'd get us all in trouble,"

Kikumaro remembered something and pushed his glasses further up his nose. "Speaking of Power Joe, he said we could come meet the new robots after school, didn't he?"

Emily smiled and clung to Yuuta's arm as she jumped up and down. "Please, can we come with you? Pleease?"

Yuuta tried to pull his arm out of the girl's grip. "Cut it out, Emily. Alright, I'll ask if you can come to the precinct to see them,"

The other three kids cheered and he shushed them. "But if Mr. Toudou or any of the other technicians say we can't be there you'll have to leave… and you can't tell anyone; I still don't know if we're actually supposed to tell anyone yet,"

Emily pouted "You told your sisters about them. Why can't you tell us?"

Yuuta face palmed. "I am telling you. I just don't think everyone in town should know about them yet because every time we get someone new someone tries to steal them or just destroy them,"

Kikumaro nodded "He's got a point,"

As they walked, Yuuta took out his badge to check on Deckard. "Deckard?"

After a moment Deckard's voice came through the comm. link in the badge. :Yuuta?:

The mech sounded "out of breath" but otherwise alright and Yuuta let out a sigh of relief. "Everyone okay?"

Super Build Tiger's voice came next :I think Shadowmaru got the wrong island, we've searched this whole place and haven't found a thing!:

Then they heard him say :Whoa, shit!: and they heard a muffled crash in the background. "What happened?" Yuuta practically shouted.

Shadowmaru's voice came next. :Super Build Tiger tripped on a net. The fishing net that Dragowan stole.: he added the last part smugly.

After a moment, Super Build Tiger growled. :Not. One. Word.:

Yuuta rolled his eyes and asked. "Want me to come over there and help look?"

J-Decker answered him. :No, we've got this… but if we're not back by the time Gunmax is repaired have him bring you with him. Tell him I said so or else, he'll know what the 'or else' will be if he doesn't.:

He added the last part darkly and everyone wondered just what the "or else" was but then decided they didn't want to know. "Okay, you guys be careful out there,"

:Roger, Boss!:

Yuuta ended the call and resumed walking with the other three kids. "Come on, I'll introduce you guys to the American bots while we wait for Gunmax,"

Masaki pointed at him "Hey, I don't remember actually meeting this 'Gunmax' guy either,"

Yuuta looked at him "Yes you did,"

Emily pointed at Yuuta. "Nuh-uh, we've seen him but we haven't actually met him yet,"

Yuuta thought about it for a moment and sighed; Power Joe always ran interference whenever his three friends looked like they were getting too close to the temperamental Motorcycle Detective so they never actually introduced themselves.

"Okay, fine, just don't get mad at him if he says or does something you don't like. He has a bit of an attitude,"

The other three nodded and said. "Okay,"

A.N.: Quick shout out to the people that reviewed and/or added; tamersten.

Comments, questions, suggestions and predictions are welcome; any flames will be dealt with accordingly. At this point this story is has no Beta, if you see any mistakes I apologize, just let me know and I will fix them right away.