I"m back with another update, once again a week later than I meant to be, but oh well. Enjoy the chapter!
"Are you absolutely sure that this will work?"
"Gingka, I tested it by throwing it into the fireplace and it came out not even scorched. Everything you are wearing has been specially made to be completely fireproof."
Gingka still looked skeptical.
"Look, you're gonna be fine this time, alright?" Yuki said. "Now get ready. I'm starting the camera."
Gingka sighed and uncrossed his arms, grabbing onto the straps that were holding the jetpacks to his back once more.
"Jetpack testing attempt two." Yuki said. "Ignition in three, two, one."
Gingka closed his eyes, expecting the searing pain of flames to cross the back of his legs once again, but he felt nothing.
"Turning up the power. I told you you wouldn't get burned." Yuki said as Gingka looked down and back in surprise before grinning sheepishly.
"Stay upright. It shouldn't be hard." Yuki said as the flames grew more powerful. Gingka let out a quiet yelp as he was lifted off the ground, slowly rising upwards as Yuki gradually turned up the power.
"... This is weird." Gingka said, looking around and kicking his feet slightly as he found himself a good two feet above the ground.
Yuki chuckled. "Well, we know that it works. Now lean a tiny bit to the side. I want to see if you can control direction and move around."
Gingka nodded and shifted his weight to the left, beginning to slowly drift towards Yuki.
"So far so good. Turning power down." Yuki said as Gingka straightened and slowly dropped towards the ground.
"And shutoff." Yuki said, dropping Gingka the last few inches. The redhead stumbled forwards slightly and nearly fell over, chuckling.
"You alright?" Yuki asked, turning off the camera and walking over.
"That was… A little bit nerve-wracking." Gingka admitted.
Yuki chuckled. "Well, congratulations, you are the first to successfully use a pair of jetpacks. At least to my knowledge."
Gingka looked back. "If your plan is going to work, we'll need some sort of full suit. Right now I don't look like a robot."
Yuki chuckled. "I'm beginning plans for that. I also want to make these even slimmer, so that they don't get in the way."
"What if you could make them retract?" Gingka asked.
Yuki blinked. "As in slip back into something? There's too much inside them."
"But you're a brilliant mad scientist, remember?" Gingka grinned and ruffled Yuki's hair. "You'll think of something, I'm sure."
Yuki still looked skeptical. "We'll see. There are still physical limits to things. Plus, I also have to make these self-powered. Right now they're connected to this fuel line. I have to make their fuel source internal."
"Let me know if you need help. I'm going to call Dynamis and see if he's seen anything. We'll have to work quickly if this plan is going to work."
"Of course." Yuki said, nodding as Gingka left.
Gingka made his way to the computer room, still shaking slightly from the adrenaline rush that actual flying had caused. Sure, he hadn't really done much himself, but still, the experience had set his entire body on edge.
"This is going to take a lot of getting used to." The redhead muttered as he ascended the stairs into the room where Yuki's computer systems lay. He sat down in the chair and stared absentmindedly at the screen, thinking about what he and Yuki were about to do.
These battles had always been serious Keeping the world free from those who wanted to take it over and destroy it was always tricky, but this time, it was even more so. Gingka sighed and pulled Pegasus out of its carrying case at his side. holding it up to the light and smiling slightly at it.
"Looks like you and I can't solve this one with just our power this time, old buddy." Gingka said, once more admiring the gleaming edges of his bey.
Pegasus sparkled beautifully in the light of the room, Gingka turning it back and forth slightly simply to watch the silver edges gleam.
"It was all so simple when we were younger, wasn't it?" Gingka muttered. "It was always find them and then smash their plans to bits with all that we had in us. This time it's not quite like that. Our time to break through with all our power is coming to an end. Now, mere power will not be able to take away the threat. It's going to take much more than that this time, Pegasus."
The silver and blue bey gleamed as if responding to Gingka's words.
Gingka smirked slightly. "But we'll still win. We have to. We didn't give up when we fought Spiral Core or Nemesis. We've met all of Kyoya's challenges and come out on top. We've won a world championships and plenty of other tournaments. Rocks and snow couldn't beat us. The Garcias couldn't beat us back then, and they won't beat us this time either. Even if I'll be using more technology and tactics this time, you and I will still come out on top, together. And who knows? Perhaps I'll finally fulfill that promise to Madoka and ask her to marry me. I did promise to come back, after all. I just hope she hasn't fallen for someone else while I've been gone."
Gingka sat there for a few more moments before replacing Pegasus in its usual place at his side and standing, reaching for the computer with a new light of determination in his eyes. He and the others would succeed. They had to.
"Gingka. I see that you have recovered from the incident that Yuki told me about." Dynamis said as he came up onscreen.
"... Yeah. And thankfully he's come up with something to keep that from happening again. We had a successful test today." Gingka said, gaining a slight tick mark in annoyance at the memory of what had happened.
"Well that is good to hear. In the meantime, the Garcias' ad in the paper has disappeared. Whether this is due to the paper having a restriction on the amount of time they will print an ad or whether it is due to the Garcias removing the ad, I do not know."
Gingka frowned. "It's more likely to be the latter. That's not good. If they've removed their ads, then that likely means they have what they want, and our plan, in that case, may not work."
"We have a plan?" Dynamis raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah. It's gonna have to involve all of us hiding away though."
"The plan is to hide?" Dynamis raised an eyebrow. "You were never one to hide from a challenge, I thought."
"Well, let me explain." Gingka said. "We think that the best way to take them down would be from the inside. The only problem with that is getting in. Yuki's going to try to make me look like a robot that needs testing, and hopefully the Garcias will be willing to 'test' this robot. Essentially I'm going to be infiltrating them, but we need something that will convince them to take the bait."
"And for that, you want us to go into hiding?"
"We want to make them think that I can take out all of us." Gingka explained. "Because they know that they cannot beat us should we actually attack, or they'll at least be thinking that. But, if we claim to be giving them something that will take care of us for them, then they will be a lot more likely to take the bait."
"Especially if you were to threaten making the same offer to us." Dynamis said.
Gingka blinked. "You mean that they'd be more likely to take it if they think that them not taking it means we get it?"
"Precisely." Dynamis said. "Because obviously, we would have quite the motivation to own something that would be able to take us out, and they wouldn't want us to have that much power in our hands."
Gingka crossed his arms and looked thoughtful. "I had not thought of that."
"Well that's because you're one of the idiots of the group."
Gingka gained a tick mark. "Hey!"
Dynamis chuckled. Tithi could be heard laughing hysterically in the background at this.
"It's not that funny, Tithi!" Gingka called.
Dynamis chuckled. "Relax. I was merely joking."
"That's a new one for you, Dynamis." Tithi said as he came within the camera's view. "Hey Gingkie!"
"Hey Tithi." Gingka shook his head in both amusement and annoyance. "Any more brilliant ideas, Dynamis?"
"If you are going to say that you can take us out, we have to make the evidence of it quite definite." Dynamis said. "And we cannot let anyone outside of our group know about it."
"That won't be hard." Gingka said. "We can group call and make sure that only the Legendary Bladers are within earshot of the conversation. We can all keep secrets."
"Yes." Dynamis said. "It will be harder for those who are not in such remote locations as Tithi and I are, however. He and I can lose ourselves in the maze of the mountain for quite some time and not be found. However, King may have a harder time simply disappearing. The same would go for Aguma."
Gingka nodded. "We'll figure that out with them directly. I've already disappeared, since Yuki called me here. I left without giving any notice to anyone in Koma."
Dynamis nodded. "The rest of us would have to do so as well. However, it must be timed correctly. And, as they would want to take out all nine, excluding Ryuga, who is still thought to be dead as far as I know, we have to create evidence of you disappearing without you being there to disappear in the first place."
Gingka narrowed his eyes in thought. "Now that's quite the puzzle."
"I have an idea for that." Yuki said, entering.
"Fire away then." Gingka said.
"Well, we have to convince them that our claims are true. So, Gingka's disappearance is the proof." Yuki said.
"And how are we going to make that work?" Gingka asked.
"You could temporarily lock up Gingka and show them him there." Dynamis said.
"But then how would we be able to use him to pretend that he locked himself up?" Yuki asked.
"Say that the robot is elsewhere." Gingka said. "Make a false base, lock me up in some sort of cell, but leave a secret door for me to get out and slip into whatever suit that it is that you make. Show me to the Garcias, convince them that I am better kept at that secret base for the moment, rather than their base, and then lead them off to show them the 'robot' that did it. Once they're out of visual range of me, I slip out, sneak around the back, and switch identities."
"But how do you get them to trust Yuki?"
"He's quite the mad scientist already. Just gotta disguise him so that he doesn't look like himself." Tithi said.
Gingka and Dynamis looked at their younger comrade and nodded.
"I can whip up my own disguise. Leave that to me." Yuki said.
"You have to make the 'robot' though." Gingka said. "Someone else should handle the disguise."
"Who then?" Dynamis asked.
"Depending on what, I can probably handle that." Gingka said. "Just tell me what I should get."
Yuki nodded. "I guess I'll let you handle it then."
"Let us know when we need to disappear and we will." Dynamis said.
"Will do." Gingka said.
"Good luck." Tithi said, waving.
"Thanks." Yuki replied, cutting off the connection.
"Did you figure out anything?" Gingka asked, turning to his comrade.
"Started to. Then decided to come up here so I'd be in the loop." Yuki joked.
"I would have told you anything important." Gingka said.
"Well I think I found a good alternate fuel source." Yuki said.
"Oh? One we can easily replace without it costing too much?"
Yuki nodded. "Yeah. And it won't be as hot."
"I'm always for less heat."
"I can't imagine why." Yuki joked.
Gingka rolled his eyes. "That was still your fault."
"Perhaps. But the piranhas were your fault." Yuki said.
"Again, the Amazon was the first thing that came to mind." Gingka said.
"I know, I know." Yuki chuckled. "But still. You keep forgetting about piranhas. You need to get it into your mind that they are there so that you don't go jumping in at the worst times."
"Oh, just shut up about the piranhas." Gingka grunted, throwing the nearest object at Yuki, who laughed and dodged.
"Fine, fine. I can take a hint."
"You'd better." Gingka grumbled, walking off.
I may or may not post another chapter tonight or tomorrow, depending on whether or not I can get it done. Anyway, enjoy! Galaxy out!