Kinshiro stared at the bleeding, unresponsive body in front of him. This wasn't right. It had to be some kind of cruel joke. An hour ago, Atsushi had been well and happy and planning to spend the afternoon with him. They were supposed to be having dinner together right now, somewhere safe and far away from all this awfulness. Today was supposed to be a good day. They were supposed to be happy.

"No, don't do this. Stay with me!" Kinshiro could hear his voice going thready with suppressed fear. There was dampness on his cheeks, though he couldn't remember when he'd started to cry. His mind was whirling. He had to get help - the hospital was on the other side of town, but at the rate he could move in his transformed state, it would take only instants to get there, but he wasn't sure Atsushi's battered body could take the strain, and...

"Stop ignoring me!" shouted a voice like the shriek of feedback. Aurite winced. Right. There was a monster. Because obviously what he needed now was more complications.

"You've done enough here!" he shouted at the creature. "Go bother someone else!"

"Oh, so I'm bothering you, am I? That's so typical!" the monster complained. "Every time I try to speak up, I get told to be quiet and go away. Maybe you should have thought about my feelings before you decided to have your little drama here..."

"I don't care about your problems!" Aurite snapped. He snatched up his sword and threw a blast of gold light at the monster, propelling it to the other side of the street. It crushed an ATM when it landed and shattered a shop window with one outflung arm, but the monster itself didn't seem to be particularly damaged. It surged back to its feet and began lumbering toward him again.

Damn it, the Battle Lovers made this look easy, Aurite thought. Where were they, anyway? Why weren't they...

There was a soft swish, as of something moving very fast, and then the patter of multiple hard-soled boots. Aurite looked up, unsure what to hope for. If the rest of his team had arrived, maybe he could get them to stall the monster long enough for him to get Atsushi some help. On the other hand, if the Battle Lovers had arrived, surely they would deal with the monster, but...

The Battle Lovers skidded to a stop to survey the scene in front of them. Then one of them, the blue one - what was he called? Azure? Cerulean? - bellowed "Atsushi!"

Aurite bit back a groan. Of course they would show up now, just in time to see him standing over the broken body of their friend, holding a bloody sword.

"This isn't what..." he began, and gave up, because obviously no one was going to listen to him, and anyway, what could he say? That yes, he had killed their friend but he hadn't meant to? That was obviously going to go over well. He could have screamed. All his life, the one thing he'd sought was control, and this whole situation was spiraling rapidly out of it.

"You take the monster," Cerulean was saying to his friends. "I'll deal with him."

The others nodded and launched themselves at the monster. That was good. Maybe they would get it under control. Cerulean, however, launched himself at Aurite, and that was bad, because as long as they were fighting, no one was getting Atsushi help. There was no time to do anything about that now, though - Cerulean was coming at Aurite with a ferocity he never would have imagined, firing off blast after blast of blue energy that forced Aurite to devote every scrap of attention he had on defending himself.

Distraction, I need a distraction...

Frantically, he raced through what he knew of Atsushi's friends. He'd always done his best not to notice them, up until the past few days - an oversight he was now heartily regretting. The weird filter wasn't making things easier. Still, he could make a few features out, if only vaguely. Who did he know who was tallish, blond, and devoted to Atsushi? Strange as it seemed, there was only one answer possible. Aurite was amazed. He never would have credited Yufuin with the capacity for passionate rage. He barely believed that Yufuin had the capacity for independent movement. But who else could it be? Aurite decided to take the risk.

"Yufuin En, will you stop trying to kill me and just listen for a minute?" he snapped.

Cerulean actually paused for a moment. Aurite took the opportunity to sheathe his sword.

"I don't want to fight," he said.

Even through the filter, Cerulean looked dubious. "How did you know my name?"

"I know," said Aurite, "because you're the only person who cares about Atchan as much as I do."

"You... what?"

Well, blank confusion was better than rage. Aurite pressed on.

"He's not dead yet," said Aurite, "but he will be soon if we don't get him some help now, so stop fighting with me and help."

Cerulean looked stunned for a moment longer, then nodded. "Right."

He scanned the battlefield, looking for something. He must have found it, because he stopped looking and shouted, "Hey, you! Get over here and make yourself useful!"

It took a moment for Aurite to realize who he was talking to. Lurking off to one side was Mr. Tawarayama, the elderly and obviously slightly barmy professor. Aurite blinked, unable to comprehend what the man was doing there. Yes, he had to have had some inkling of what was going on, since he'd been the one to sign the Defense Club's permission slip, but what he was doing here in the middle of a battlefield, or what Cerulean thought he could do to help, was a mystery.

Then the weird pink animal he'd been lugging around since the start of this entire Battle Lovers debacle wiggled free of the man's arms, and Mr. Tawarayama collapsed like a puppet with his strings cut. Aurite blinked.

It's an alien, like Zundar, he realized. Why didn't I realize? And then, Why didn't Zundar say something? He must have known. Why wouldn't he tell us?

No time to think about that now. The pink animal was snuffling around Atsushi's fallen form, flat nose twitching frantically. Aurite and Cerulean crouched down on either side of him.

"Can you do something?" Cerulean asked. "With your high-tech alien whatevers? Can you fix him?"

"I think so," said the wombat. "Maybe. Probably."

"You'd better!" Cerulean snapped. "And not like you did with Mr. Tawarayama, either!"

"I won't do that!" the wombat protested. "He's not dead yet! It's easier if they're not dead!"

He pressed himself against Atsushi's body, and odd greenish lights began to play over both of them. Aurite gasped and instinctively reached to pry the animal off, but Cerulean reached out to stop him.

"Let him work," he said. "He's the only chance Atsushi's got."

Aurite scowled. "I hate it."

Cerulean's voice was grave as he said, "Me too."

The green lights continued to crackle and pop. The wombat said, "His powers have been disrupted by the shock of his injury, but they're still partly in effect. He's de-transformed because all of his powers are being channeled into keeping him alive for now. I'm going to see if I can jump-start them back into full strength. If I can do that, he'll be able to recover. If nothing else, he won't get any worse as long as I'm holding him together."

Cerulean nodded and stood up. Aurite reluctantly followed his example.

"Can we trust him?" Aurite asked.

Cerulean shook his head. "No idea, but what choice have we got?"

"You two aren't listening!" the monster shrieked.

Aurite and Cerulean instinctively dropped into defensive crouches, managing to brace themselves just before the attack hit. Dodging was not an option, not when moving would leave Atsushi in the way of the blast. Aurite gritted his teeth and tried to force himself to stay steady as waves of sonic energy crashed around him.

"This is all your fault, you know!" Cerulean shouted at him.

"Don't you think I know that?" Aurite shouted back. "Do your job and get rid of this monster!"

"It's your monster - you get rid of it!"

"Both of you go do something!" said the wombat irritably. "You're distracting me!"

"Fine," Cerulean muttered. "Come on. Let's get out of here so Wombat can work."

The two of them went bounding across the street to join the other Battle Lovers. Aurite gave Cerulean a sidelong look as they ran.

"Your wombat's name is Wombat?" he asked.

Cerulean shook his head. "No, but if you can figure out what his name actually is, you're doing better than the rest of us."

The fight did not appear to be going well. The monster, in fact, appeared to be having a wonderful time having so many people paying attention to it, and was cheerfully and noisily making the most of the situation. The repeated blasts of sound were making everyone dizzy and disoriented, not to mention rather battered from being hurled into buildings every few seconds. None of their attacks seemed to do more than momentarily inconvenience the thing, and even the addition of two more people to the fight didn't seem to be helping much.

"Why aren't you people doing anything?" Aurite complained. "It never takes you this long to finish off a monster!"

"Yeah, but not when we're a member short!" Vesta shouted back at him. "It takes all five of us to do the Love Shower thing, and that's the only way I know for sure to get rid of a monster."

"Anyway, it's your monster," Sulfur pointed out in a more reasonable tone. "Don't you know how to make it go away if you want to?"

"I've never needed to before!" Aurite replied. "The only one who really understands how it works is..."

Then he trailed off, realizing what he should have thought of sooner. Zundar was the one who had taught them how to create monsters. He had given them the power to do so. Surely he would know how to deactivate one of his own monsters. His free hand strayed to the fold of his jacket where the hedgehog would appear when he wanted to speak to his followers.

"Zundar!" he shouted. "Come here! I need you! Tell me how to deactivate a monster!"

Then he waited, heart pounding. Surely his lurking suspicions had to be wrong. Zundar was on his side and always had been. He had never been anything but supportive and understanding towards his team, always forgiving them when they failed and offering words of encouragement when they were downhearted. Surely he would come through for Aurite now...

"You can't," said a voice.

Aurite blinked and slowly turned around. That had not been Zundar's commanding bass. This was higher pitched, amused, and vaguely familiar. It belonged to a young man with dark hair and glasses, who was standing a few yards away with an MP3 recording device held casually in one hand. Behind him stood a lanky long-haired figure with a camera balanced on his shoulder and, for some bizarre reason, a fishbowl with a large goldfish in it tucked under his free arm. Ordinarily, that would have been enough to command his attention right there, but at that moment, the only thing he could bring himself to focus on was the small green form perched on the smaller boy's shoulder.

"Zundar?" said Aurite hesitantly.

Battle Lover Scarlet shook his head. "His name's not Zundar. That's Kinosaki Kou, from the school's Press Society."

"Press Society?" Aurite repeated, looking quizzically at him. "The school hasn't got a Press Society."

"Then who the hell are they?" Vesta demanded, pointing at the two reporters.

"I don't know, but Binan High hasn't got a Press Society. Not an official one, anyway," said Aurite firmly. "Trust me, I know. There used to be a journalism club, but they only had two members and their advisor quit, so the council shut them down. There hasn't been such a thing at our school in months."

Kinosaki smiled widely. "Yes, and I did warn you that there would be consequences for that. The pen is mightier than the sword, you know, especially when that pen writes the newspaper column. There's no force in the universe more powerful than the press."

Aurite glared. "Zundar, explain this!"

"The time for giving orders is over, da," said Zundar. "You've done very well, da, but now it's time for us to take over."

"What do you mean?" asked Aurite, feeling the blood drain from his face.

"He means we're done with you." The goldfish had hauled himself up over the lip of his bowl and was leaning his chin casually on his fins, looking every inch the spectator. "The boy is right. The monster can't be stopped except by a Love Shower, and the Battle Lovers can't do a Lover Shower without all five of their members. You've taken one of them down, so that means it's a wrap. Game over. Well done, kid, you did it. You conquered the world. I knew you had it in you!"

"What the hell is going on?" demanded Vesta, who was obviously not the type who minced words. Aurite guessed that he was probably Zaou Ryu, the feisty second-year whose lack of manners annoyed Akoya so much. He rounded on Aurite and asked, "Are you guys working together or something?"

"No! I have no idea what's going on here," said Aurite. He rounded on Zundar. "What are you talking about? I want answers!"

"The time has come for the terms of our partnership to be renegotiated, da," said Zundar. "Director Hireashi, would you care to explain?"

"Sure thing," said the fish. "See, kiddo, the thing is..."

The fish explained. Everyone listened. Even the monster was quiet, which, oddly enough, was the only thing that convinced Aurite that what he was hearing was true. All this time, he'd thought he was the one in control, and it turned out that it wasn't him, or even Zundar, but a goldfish that had been calling all the shots, and for a television show,, no less. He'd been made a fool of.

No, be honest. I made a fool of myself. He hadn't wanted to rule the world. All he'd ever wanted was to have Atsushi back, and that had always been his for the asking, if only he'd been willing to bend his pride just a little. He'd only thought he'd wanted the world because it had seemed like the only thing big enough to fill the gulf losing Atsushi had left. But it wasn't. If Atsushi died today, not all the worlds in the universe would be enough to fill that void.

"So what are you going to do now?" Aurite asked dully.

"Well, first we're going to finish this fight scene," said Hireashi casually, "but it doesn't really matter how that turns out. We can clean it all up in editing later. The real showstopper was you stabbing the boy there. That really put our ratings through the roof! Now the only real question is, will you make a heroic stand defending him to the last, or will you destroy your enemies for a dramatic victory? Either way is good by me."

"I am going to rip your fins off!" Aurite snarled.

The fish gave a gurgly chuckle. "Oh no, that's not in the script."

It raised one fin and managed a surprisingly authoritative snap. Aurite had just enough time to wonder how he'd done it without any fingers before a roar behind him he turned around just in time to duck as the monster fired a blast at the place where his head had been an instant before. He turned his duck into a somersault and came up again with sword drawn, but he had his doubts about how effective anything he did was going to be. If Zundar and his friends were telling the truth, and he had no choice but to believe they were, his only hope was that he and the Battle Lovers could keep this monster contained long enough for a pink alien wombat to somehow restore Atsushi enough that he'd be able to fight. Not good odds.

Kinosaki was brandishing his recorder and cheering, "Come on, monster! This is your big chance! You're on intergalactic TV! It's your time to shine!"

Apparently that was just the encouragement the monster needed. It gave a roar that caused every window on the block to shatter and every human to cover their ears. Cracks spread up the sides of buildings. With a great creaking and grinding, large chunks of masonry came raining down on the assembled warriors. In all the dust and panic, Aurite tried to find a safe place to escape to, but there was so much noise and he couldn't see...

A ten-foot wide slab of brick came slamming down on the place where Aurite had been standing. He had a confused image of it receding from him, and realized belatedly that a sturdy silver chain had wrapped itself around his middle and was hauling him swiftly away like a fish on a reel. He came to rest safely in the arms of Chevalier Argent, who deftly untangled him and set him gently back down on the street.

"Sorry we're late," said Chevalier Pearlite, with unusual humility. "We had no idea things were going so badly."

Argent nodded. "We were just relaxing in the student council room, having a nice cup of tea, when this strange red-headed man with an axe burst in and started telling us the most extraordinary things... We didn't believe a word of it until he helped us find the hidden cameras."

Pearlite clenched a fist, looking deeply offended. "Stupid alien technology..."

"Even so," Argent agreed. "But he explained the situation quite throughly and told us that he thought there might be trouble brewing here, and someone needed to come sort it out. So, what can we do to help?" he concluded.

Aurite was still weighing his options when he was interrupted by Kinosaki, who had sauntered up to thrust his microphone into Aurite's face.

"So, now that you're all here, perhaps you could provide us with a few sound bites," he said brightly. "For example, how does it feel knowing you just killed your best friend? Any regrets? Do you feel foolish for not guessing his identity sooner?"

For a moment, Aurite simply could not speak. A small, detached part of his mind was thinking, I don't believe he just asked me that. He took a long, shuddering breath.

"Take your time," said Kinosaki complacently. "This is for your fans."

Aurite turned slightly to face his companions. "Argent?"

"Yes, sir?" said Argent, eyes bright with anticipation at being asked to serve.

"Hurt him," he said. "Hurt him a lot, but don't kill him. I'm going to want to do that myself as soon as there's time."

Argent beamed. "Absolutely!"

He drew his sword and began advancing on Kinosaki. The young reporter, finding himself being menaced by a disturbingly cheerful-looking man with a sword, began backing frantically away.

"Wait, what are you...?" he stammered.

"This will go faster if you hold still," Argent advised him pleasantly. "I'm sure you don't want this to go on any longer than necessary."

Kinosaki emitted a high-pitched shriek and took off running, with Argent in hot pursuit.

Sulfur looked at Aurite quizzically. "Is he really going to...?"

"Yes," said Aurite firmly. "I have learned that when it comes to dealing with him, I should never ask for anything I don't actually want. If I wished for the treasures of King Tut, you'd be reading in the paper tomorrow about a daring midnight robbery at the museum and Arima would be walking around looking pleased with himself."

"That must be very useful," Sulfur observed.

"You have no idea."

Kinosaki, meanwhile, was diving for cover behind his photographer.

"Save me!" he wailed. "Hireashi, do something! He's going to stab me!"

"What do you want me to do about it?" the fish answered. He sounded bored by the whole thing.

"I don't know! Something!" Kinosaki wailed. "I thought we were on the same team!"

"Why would you want to be on their team?" asked Scarlet, momentarily distracted from the monster. "They're the bad guys!"

"I don't care," said Kinosaki. He made a lunge, putting Scarlet between himself and Arima's sword. "He promised he'd make me the greatest journalist on Earth - the only person on the planet to ever have a story with intergalactic coverage! I'm going to be more famous than anyone in the world has ever been!"

"That's a ridiculous reason to do anything," said Sulfur. "Fame alone is worthless unless you market it properly. I really don't think you've thought this plan all the way through."

"That's your opinion!" Kinosaki snapped. "Look, you're the heroes! You're supposed to fight the Caerula Adamas, not let them poke holes in people! Help me out here!"

"Sorry, a little busy right now!" Vesta shouted. "Maybe if there wasn't a monster in our way..."

The monster fired off another blast, and the Battle Lovers scrambled to get out of the way, leaving Kinosaki with no more protection. Arima brought down his sword and narrowly missed him as he dove out of the way.

"Hireashi!" he wailed.

"All right, all right," Hireashi muttered. "Zundar! Help the kid out! You know what to do."

"Yes, sir!" Zundar replied.

He jumped down from the perch on the photographer's shoulder, where he'd been observing the ruckus, and landed in the middle of the pavement. His spines began to bristle, and a faint glow surrounded him. Then two spines rose from his back to spin gently in the air. Kinosaki's eyes widened, and even the placid photographer began to look uneasy.

"Wait!" Kinosaki blurted. "What are you...?"

"You want to be famous, kid?" said Hireashi. "Congratulations! We're gonna make you a star!"

Kinosaki had just enough time to yelp before the needles launched, burying themselves in the throats of the reporter and his partner. Wavering purple and red lights surrounded them, and the Battle Lovers and Caerula Adamas all drew back. Even the monster stopped what it was doing to watch as their forms warped and wavered.

"I didn't know he could do that without our help," Pearlite murmured.

"I think it's safe to say there's a lot about Zundar we didn't know," Aurite answered grimly.

The lights cleared. For a few brief seconds, Aurite could see the monsters standing where two reporters had been. One of them was now some sort of walking video camera, scuttling around on tripod legs, while the other had become a much larger version of the handheld voice recorder that Kinosaki had been carrying earlier. He had only enough time to absorb this, however, before Zundar released a third needle. This one hovered for a moment before splitting into fragments and driving into each of the three monsters. Their outlines began to blur, and then slide towards each other, merging like drops of water rolling down a pane of glass.

"Oh, terrific," Vesta muttered. "Just what we needed - a freakin' giant mecha."

It was indeed a giant mecha. It was three times the height of the original monster, with a camera for the head, the recorder for a trunk, and speakers for its limbs. One of its massive hands wielded a giant microphone as a club. Aurite could honestly not decide if it was terrifying or the most ridiculous thing he'd ever seen. He could be sure of this, though: it was very big, and it didn't look like it was feeling particularly friendly. If the seven of them together hadn't been enough to take down a single small monster, what were they going to be able to do against this?

For the first time, real despair seized Kinshiro as the depth of the trouble he was in began to dawn on him. They weren't going to be able to stop this, and they couldn't run away without abandoning Atsushi, something he wasn't willing to do, and he doubted the Battle Lovers would do that, either. He hadn't just put Atsushi in danger, he'd endangered everyone Atsushi cared about, and it was all because he'd been stupid enough to listen to a talking hedgehog when it told him it would make him ruler of the world. In retrospect, he found himself wondering why he'd ever listened.

I'm sorry, Atsushi. This is all my fault. I've done the wrong thing every step of the way...

Then he set his jaw and adjusted his grip on his sword. So he'd done everything wrong? Fine. So be it.

Now was the time for him to make it right.

To Be Continued...