Me: ^_^ Sad moment!
Gingka: What are you talking about?
Me: Duh, this is the last chapter!
Gingka: It is? Hooray!
Me: T_T You're mean, Gingkie.
Gingka:-sighs- Sorry, but you tried to kill me way too many times in this story.
Me: Just do the disclaimer, and there is a reply to a guest review in the end AN, as well as the announcement for my next project.
Gingka: GalaxyPegasus14 does not own Metal Fight Beyblade.
"At Tokyo, we win or die trying."
That one thought was on everyone's minds as they sat inside the helicopter, on their way to Tokyo. Most of them weren't sure they exactly agreed with Gingka's words, but they were willing to follow him anyway. Ryo thought that they could probably strike, and if it failed, get out, heal their wounds, get back up, and try again. But, upon questioning Gingka and learning their strategy, he saw that if they failed, there would be no escape for anyone.
"Guys, listen up." Gingka's voice came through the speakers of both helicopters.
Everyone looked up from wherever they had been looking and focused on the front of the helicopter. Gingka had said the night before that he would explain the plan on the way from Metal Bey City to Tokyo.
"We need to go over the plan, as you all probably already know. Tokyo will be a much different strategy from what Metal Bey City was. First of all, we are going to land about a mile outside of the city, and stay together in a large group. We will sneak through the city, trying to get to the DNA HQ if we can, but as far as we can make it either way. Once they notice us, we will either make a break for their HQ or turn and fight, depending on the situation. If they don't notice us before we reach their HQ, we will burst through the outer walls at several points, and storm it. Warriors will head straight for Argo's office and the control rooms, even if those turn out to be two different places, which I doubt. The rest of you will go straight to their holding cells and free everyone in them as fast as you can, we will need their help. Has everyone got that?"
"Yeah." Everyone said quietly.
"Then good luck, because there's Tokyo." Gingka said, stopping in midair and dropping silently and carefully to the ground. The helicopters soon landed as well, and everyone got out and gathered into a tight group, heading towards Tokyo itself, a glittering crown on the horizon glowing with the pinks and golds of the sunrise.
"It's beautiful." Anashi whispered.
"Not to mention huge." Arashi muttered.
"And the final battleground. You guys ready?" Gingka asked, walking up next to the twins, his helmet retracted.
"No, but I'm going to do this anyway." Arashi replied.
Gingka smiled. "That's the spirit! Don't worry, this isn't the first time I've snuck into Tokyo, although the other times were by air at sunset when the setting sun hid me completely."
"And then you snuck around it all night smashing DNA robots." Arashi replied with a grin.
Gingka laughed. "And saving you in the process. That injury was worth getting you back and not having to fight you."
The three fell silent again as they approached the city.
"I want you guys to stay with either me or your grandfather." Gingka said suddenly.
"Okay, but why?" Arashi asked.
"Because i don't want you getting hurt. If you want to, you can go back to the helicopters and wait. It's not that i don't trust the others, but you two are my kids, and it would kill your mother if any harm came to you two or me."
"We'll be fine! You'll keep us safe!" Anashi spoke up.
"Glad you're more confident about that than i am." Gingka smiled.
"You're not sure about it?"
Gingka sighed and closed his eyes. "No, but I'm still going to do it. We'll be fine." he strode off for the front of their small army, his helmet slamming shut over his face, eyes casting a blue glow over the ground in front of him, and mouth set into a firm, determined line. Suddenly, he froze, holding an arm out to the side in a signal to the others to stop. The glowing blue eyes on his mask narrowed as he looked slowly around, scanning every bush, every tree, rock, and object within his vision in an intent search.
"Show yourself!" he challenged.
"You have a sharper eye than I thought." Kira sneered, stepping out of hiding. He was closely followed by several other bladers, most of whom Zero and his friends recognized. They all leveled bey launchers at the group, blocking their paths.
"You really think that your beys will stop ours?" Kyoya sneered, the green eyes of his mask narrowing at the group.
"No escape for you, this will stop here and now." Kira replied, launching his bey. At the exact same moment, an explosion from behind marked the destruction of the Warriors' helicopters.
"So, you came prepared." Gingka said calmly, although his mind was frantically trying to come up with a new plan for battle.
Kira smirked. "I said, this will stop here and now!" a group of robots, larger than any they had ever faced, and obviously more complex, suddenly landed on all sides, cutting off any escape route except for up.
To all outward appearances, the Warriors fell silent at this new discovery. But, to the ten bladers wearing the helmets, it was a steady stream of chatter, discussing, analyzing, strategizing.
"Yuki, what do those look like they can do?" Gingka asked the moment his helmet announced that the robots had landed.
"Well, they have tougher armor, and more of it, and they're bigger. I'm also catching a larger amount of bullets than normal, plus two guns instead of one, mounted on their shoulders. I also think those are rocket launchers my suit is detecting on their backs." Yuki replied.
"That would be how they blew up our helicopters so easily." Gingka muttered.
"Great, rockets means that I can't blow them up." Ryuga snarled.
"Not at close range, but if we can get them far enough away from our group, then you can go for it." Chris replied.
Kira pressed a few buttons on his wrist and one of the robots leveled its twin guns at the group.
"They're controlled by the DNA bladers!" Kenta exclaimed.
"We noticed! That means that they can't be slowed down by flying further away, not with the bladers now on them!" Titi and King exclaimed at once as Kira and the others climbed onto the robots and strapped themselves onto special seats inside their outer shells.
"They're like our suits, only bigger, and they have the ability to be moved independently of their controllers." Yuki said.
"Gingka?" Dunamis turned his head slightly towards the blue-clad Warrior standing in front of the group.
Gingka clenched his fist and growled in frustration. "Yuki, you did install those new gadgets that use our beys as part of them, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Activate them, all of you, and we need our heavy artillery." Gingka ordered, half-turning towards the group.
"On it." the others responded.
"This is Stormflight." Gingka's voice came into the headsets worn by the rest of the group, who had been wondering about all the silence.
"I need everyone to not say anything, but on the count of three, I need you all to scatter in groups of two each. I don't care what direction you go in, but get yourselves out of here. Head away from Tokyo until further notice. When I said that we would win or die trying, I'm not sure I meant it, but now we have no choice. This battle has just taken a turn for the worse, and if anyone dies, it shouldn't be any of you, it should be me and the other Warriors. Good luck, and get ready."
"Three."
"Two."
"One."
"Go!"
Everyone except for the Warriors turned and fled, on Gingka's order. Few of them wanted to leave, but they did anyway.
"Looks like your support group deserted you." Kira sneered.
"We're ready Gingka, on your signal." Yuki said.
"Change of plans. Cancel bringing on our heavy artillery, send it all to the base and Metal Bey City." Gingka said.
"What? What are you thinking?" Kyoya exclaimed.
Gingka sighed. "I'm not sure, but I hope this works." he replied.
"Why do you think dad told us to run?" Anashi asked as she and her brother ran through the forest, right behind Ryo and Hyoma.
"I don't know," Arashi panted, "but it must be so they could fight without us getting hurt or getting in their way."
"Stormflight to everyone else other than the Warriors." Gingka's voice came into their ears.
"Yeah dad?" Arashi replied, pausing running for a moment.
"Go back to Metal Bey City, and throw away your headpieces into a bush or something before you do. As soon as Tsubasa and my dad say it's clear, you guys will be headed back to base. Over and out." Gingka replied, his voice calm and serious.
"Dad?" Anashi was surprised, but there was no reply from her father.
"Come on guys, I'm sure he has a reason which he will explain later." Ryo said, trying to remain calm, but obviously startled and worried by this new order from his son. The older Hagane took off his headset and hesitated, then tossed it onto the bushes nearby and resumed running towards Metal Bey City.
By late afternoon, the entire group was exhausted. Zero soon ended up carrying Eiichi on his back, while Ryo carried Anashi and Hyoma carried Arashi. They were no longer running, but walking, some of them stumbling every now and then, wondering why the sudden change in plans, in orders. Every once in a while, Ryo would pause and turn around to look at the distant horizon, hoping to see some sort of battle, some indication of the Warriors. However, he saw none.
"So, you finally gave up?" Argo smirked at the handcuffed, masked Warrior standing in front of him. Glowing blue eyes stared defiantly at him in response as Gingka offered no reply.
"Answer me! What did you think you could gain by surrendering? Your forces have now lost their commander, you know." Argo thundered.
"No, there is still a commander, and plenty of potential for more." Gingka replied, his voice calm.
"And who would that be? Your friends scattered!" Argo laughed.
"Yes, they scattered, so what?" Gingka's voice held a hint of sarcasm in it, audible even through the speakers of his helmet.
"And you are all alone here, you were the only one that surrendered." Kira sneered.
"The others didn't have orders to surrender." Gingka replied, glowing blue eyes narrowing at the pastel-haired blader whose robot was gripping his right arm.
"You should have had them surrender with you, it would have made it easier for us and you. Now, where would they have gone?" Argo asked.
"Oh, I know exactly where they are." Gingka replied. "My helmet has been tracking them this whole time."
"Of course it has, so now you can tell us where they are and we can finish you off quickly rather than having you wait in a cell for them to be captured." Argo smirked.
"Not a chance." Gingka replied sternly.
"Well then, we'll just have to use a bit of convincing. Baihu?" Argo nodded to a younger adult with black hair and catlike eyes, who nodded and left.
"You don't stand a chance." Gingka said.
"We'll see about that." Argo smirked. "Lock him up."
"Stormflight, I sure hope you're sure about this." Yuki muttered as he hovered in the clouds just at the edge of Tokyo, hidden by the colors of the setting sun.
"Of course I'm sure, just hurry up and do some infiltrating. I'm sending you the building scans now, they bothered to help by bringing me in the front door and making me walk up the steps to Argo's office." Gingka's voice came through the younger Warrior's helmet.
"Alright, got it! Dragonfang?"
"You guys know the plan, just go." Ryuga growled.
"Where are you, Stormflight?" Kyoya asked as he flew towards the DNA HQ, high up in the clouds.
"They're taking me to a cell, I think, although we're going down right now… Great, looks like they are going to try to convince me to tell them where you guys are." Gingka replied. "Hurry up, please. This isn't looking good."
"We're on it. Just hang on." Kyoya replied.
"Come on…" Yuki muttered as a loading bar popped up on his screen. "Yeah! Let's go guys!" the blue-clad Warrior took off for the center of the city, along with the others.
"Sir, we have a problem on the ground floor!" Argo swiveled in his chair as one of the agents on the ground floor spoke over the intercom.
"What do you mean, a problem?" he growled.
"The remaining nine Warriors have just flown in, and they headed straight for the stairwells and elevators! They are on their way up!"
"What? Those idiots are running right towards their own doom!" Argo smirked.
"Brother, we have a problem! The Warriors are somehow in the control room! How did they get in here?" Selen sounded panicked.
"What? How did they find it so fast?" Argo half-stood, nearly shouting.
"I don't know!" Selen wailed, as an explosion terminated the connection.
"Stormflight…" Argo growled. "You were planning this all along, weren't you!" the Brazilian blader turned on his heel and ran down the hallway, bursting into the 'persuasion room' as they called it, only to find all of his agents tied up to the equipment inside, and Stormflight nowhere to be found.
"Warning: all cells have been opened, all prisoners have been released." Merci reported suddenly.
"It's over, Argo." a pair of bright blue eyes ignited in the shadows as Stormflight stepped out of hiding. "You have lost."
"Not yet I haven't!" Argo snarled, charging the Warrior.
Gingka leapt nimbly out of the way, firing of his grappling cable and clothes lining Argo with it. The DNA leader landed flat on his back, and was quickly pinned by Scythestrike, who had been waiting in the shadows for that moment.
"What in the world is going on here?" Kira sneered as he stepped into the room. Stormflight finished tying up Argo and stood.
"You're losing, duh."
"Alert in Tokyo. The Warriors are reported to be making a direct attack on the DNA headquarters. It is unknown how far they have gotten, but it is certain that they will be defeated soon- hey!"
Ryo and the Hagane twins glanced up in surprise at the report from the DNA news reporter, looking up just in time to see him get shoved off the screen by a very excited-looking blader, none other than Tetsuya.
"Crab! Just ignore that annoying crab, because we're winning, crab! And I'm free! Crab over and out!" Tetsuya grinned and held up his hand, moving his fingers back and forth in his usual style. Then, the phone rang on the set. Tetsuya looked around for a moment before pressing a button.
"What do you have to say, crab?" he asked.
"Tetsuya! I told you to tell the Metal Bey City group to get back over here, not parade the fact that you were freed from the DNA's clutches!" Kenta's rather annoyed voice came through the speakers.
Ryo laughed. "Guess we'd better get going then!"
"Yeah, we'll take the helicopters on the roof. I was wondering what the plans were, but why did they have us come all the way back here I wonder?" Tsubasa said, standing and heading for the roof of the building which they had all arrived at about thirty minutes before. Less than an hour later, they arrived on the roof of the DNA building, where they were met by Dragonfang and Firearrow.
"You guys need to go to the capitol buildings and make sure everyone there is alright and free. We're keeping the government the same way as it was before." Dragonfang growled before turning on his heel and striding away.
"We're almost finished here, but you're taking these guys with you." Kenta gestured to a couple of other helicopters which were loading with the bladers that had been freed by the Warriors.
"Good luck!" Kenta waved as they took off, then ran back inside after Ryuga.
That evening, crowds gathered outside the capitol buildings of Tokyo, Japan. The bladers who had helped to free the country were standing in two straight rows on the front steps, about halfway down. The Warriors were standing in a straight line behind them, helmets down, slight smiles on their faces and flames in their eyes, as the supreme ruler of Japan, recently freed, gave a speech thanking the Warriors and their allies. Once he was done, the crowd began cheering, and continued as the Warriors and their allies were awarded medals for their actions. Then, Gingka stepped up to speak, and the crowd fell silent.
The redhead thought for a few moments, then began.
"I apologize for how long it took us to free the country from the DNA's clutches, but now it is done. Hopefully, everything will return to the way it was before they took over. However, I have been asked to tell our story, not apologize."
There were several chuckles from the crowd at this, and Anashi and Arashi, as well as the others who hadn't yet heard the story of the Warriors, perked up their ears.
"It all started eighteen years ago." Gingka continued. "The DNA had only reared it's head for the first time, and I was living in my hometown at the time. I got the alert right away, the moment the DNA first appeared, and called Yuki, who was stationed in his laboratory in South America. We looked over the data, and agreed that it would be easier if I just joined him there. Late that night, I left, giving no indication of where I was going or why. The next few weeks were filled with lots of planning, strategizing, and figuring out how to explain to a company why we needed them to ship steel to the middle of the Amazon jungle."
This caused the crowd to laugh.
"After weeks of more planning, and building, and Yuki coming up with more devices and objects than I knew how to work, we had a working plan. Yuki dressed up in an elaborate golden cape and mask, and we went to the DNA headquarters, with me wearing the very suit you saw today. He presented me to the DNA as a prototype robot that he wanted them to test for him, under the conditions that they told him how everything worked. With that, we were inside the DNA itself, monitoring every action.
"About half a year later, the rest of our friends here that were working in Metal Bey City found out that I existed, once the DNA started sending me on missions. A few weeks of furious activity and careful planning, involving busting the other Legendary Bladers out of hiding and making it look suspicious, and our original plan, known as 'Operation Stormflight' was complete. The DNA was defeated, but they showed up again a year later.
"During that time, we began 'Operation Steel Warrior,' which was intended to stop the DNA once and for all. That plan ended up failing, as the DNA overwhelmed our forces and abilities. However, we promised them that we would be back, and then we settled down to wait in the forests of Japan, building our base underground on the slopes of a mountain, where nobody would ever find it.
"For fifteen years, we waited, building up our resources, creating new equipment, and improving our fighting styles. Two months ago, we finally left our base for the first time in years, coming here and to other key areas around Japan to find out just where and what the DNA was up to. In the end, three major strikes were all it took. Thank you for waiting for us, and I am again sorry that it took us fifteen years to accomplish. But now, we have taken back Japan, and as long as we are here, nobody will ever take it away from its rightful place again." Gingka finished and stepped down as the crowd burst out cheering.
That night, the Warriors stood on the top of the former headquarters of the defeated DNA, watching the fireworks going off around the city.
"And with that, our job is done." Gingka said, smiling sadly.
"That part of it, yes. But we still have a responsibility." Ryuga replied.
"Yes. As Legendary Bladers, we have one job: To protect the world from threats like the DNA." Dunamis spoke up.
"And that is exactly what we are doing." Kenta said.
Gingka turned to the group standing behind him and grinned. "Activate helmet and jetpacks." he ordered.
"You can't be serious." Kyoya laughed.
"Well, what else are we supposed to do? We don't have a major strike to do this time!" Stormflight replied, taking off.
"Wait for us!" the other nine quickly followed suit.
"Ahh! Gingka! You're going to get yourself killed!" Madoka yelled as she spotted the group dodging fireworks.
Anashi and Arashi laughed, watching their father as he flew across the sky, perfectly in formation with the others.
Me: ^_^ We're done! I have been working on this story for almost a year now, as I see that Together We Stand was posted on November 19, 2012. It was a really fun story to write, and I hope, although I am sure by all of your reviews (69 as I am typing this) that you enjoyed the story as much as I enjoyed writing it. I would like to dedicate the entire Stormflight series to SkylarkOfTheMoon, for being with it since chapter one, and for reviewing almost every single chapter. Skylark, your reviews were always the longest, and the ones that made me laugh the most. Keep up the Ryuga fangirling, I love it! The fact that you reviewed almost every chapter means that you reviewed almost 36 chapters total. I think you only missed two. You were also the one who came up with the name 'Together We Stand'
On another note, I got a guest review in the last chapter, which I think needs to be replied to, because I need to make this as clear as it is on my profile. I do not, repeat DO NOT read M-rated stories or stories with all of the 'loving in the bed' that you mentioned. You may or may not have noticed that this story, although it might need it, is not even rated T. If you want M-rated, I suggest that you try another author, but thanks for reading and taking the time to review anyway. ^_^ And now, the part that I have been waiting for a long time to talk about! Gingka?
Gingka: Wait, I get to do it?
Me:-hands him a cue card-
Gingka: Oh, okay… Galaxy's next project will be a two-part series with the Hikou brothers, a pair that she created a long time ago. The first story, which will hopefully be posted next weekend, will be called, simply, 'The Hikou Brothers.' it will be followed, upon completion, by its sequel, 'Hikou Rising.'
Me: Yeah, that's it! ^_^ Again, thank you guy so much for staying with this story for the long amount of time, the hiatuses, late posts, and all! Hope you enjoyed it again, wait, I said that… Well, hope you enjoy my next project just as much! Until next time, Let it Rip and God Bless!