The Leader Within

by Mediziner

Two years since their battle against the Fahrzeugs, the Brave Police haven't seen too much in the way of major crime needing their attention. Enter Radiant Prism, a Brave from the German Division seeking Deckerd and his team's help, and soon enough they find themselves dealing with dangerous, foreign criminals targeting their new friend whom was forced to flee her country.

45. Chapter 43

Mediziner's Notes: Not much focus on Radiant Prism in this one, I know, but there is a lot more focus on Bruno. Not much I can say here, but I know I'm getting closer to done. May see more action though in the next chapter. Honestly I would've put more attention to the Scotland Yard than these few chapters I've got planned but I think it's pretty clear that as I get closer to the end, I'm getting more and more burnt out from wanting to genuinely do more of this. Don't worry I will finish it, but I'm just saying. I know that I will NOT do this again...

The Leader Within Cover Art is drawn and commissioned by Erilmadith-Everyoung on DeviantART. You can also find Radiant Prism's full reference there, too. The remaining chapters are also being beta-read by them, too.

Enjoy!

...

Bruno had been skimming through the information that had been given to him by those working under him. None of the information seemed to help, and the last heist had done nothing to cheered him up. The man wasn't fuming, unlike earlier after he'd had his mecha damaged from the fight with Royal Flush. While he would've wanted to gather information on it, the main focus was now on the mysterious form he's aware that they had. Most of all, he was annoyed that he'd had to forfeit any information that his captured lackeys had, but overall they were expendable. Triggering the self-destruct system was no issue but he needed to keep himself off of the Brave Police's radar. "To avoid them using that pathetic form... I'll need to do something about those members the red one combines with." He muttered to himself, then typed a few commands into his computer, displaying each member, with Ace sorely lacking information out of all of them. "Looks like I'll have to take out one of them, enough to the point that there's no way they can combine, and this leaves them with no choice but to attack with their other combined form."

He then noticed movement from behind his monitor. "What is it?"

"Your machine has been fully fixed, boss. I was asked to relay that to you." One of the lackeys told Bruno. "Rather than send one of us out to deal with whoever will be your target on a... More confrontational level, why not have us observe them from a distance? This way we can then tell you without you being left in the dark about the information gathered."

Bruno studied the lackey for a moment, the latter slowly losing confidence and to some degree, caving under the built-up pressure from that stare until when Bruno then dismissed him, saying to begin right away. "And before you go, here are the three specific Braves in particular, whom are the Card Fighters. A green, tri-colour, and yellow coloured robot. Ignore any others and solely focus on them. If we can figure out which one tends to stray far enough from the group, they will make a perfect target and I will personally cripple one of them from taking on that pathetic combined form shown on that day."

Taking the clip boards, the lackey looked over them briefly then acknowledged as he left.

"This will be great fun, Brave Police." Bruno muttered to himself, his attention back on his computer monitor displaying the three Braves of interest. "Mark my words, one way or another you will be forced to use that other combined form and hand over it's information!"

A couple weeks passed and the Braves had little to no luck. Ace had been stressing himself day and night attempting to triangulate Bruno's location through the mostly intact A.I. found in one of the cyborg lackeys. The others were noticing that he'd been missing out on his usual time off to go and relax with the forest animals as he usually did. Ten, while normally he'd ignore what's around him when playing with a few handheld games, had grown uncomfortable seeing how Ace was wearing himself out from lack of proper recharging and even sometimes forgetting to refuel. He tried to push it aside as he played, but eventually sighed and set down his video game. "Okay, I can't take it anymore!" Ten stood up from his seat as Jack snorted.

"Can't beat something in that stupid game of yours?"

"Not the game, Jack! I meant that I can't take the fact that Ace has been wearing himself out since he started what King asked him about!" Ten's outburst was enough to turn helms as everyone had been used to Ten lacking any motivation for his work whatsoever. They could only watch as the yellow coloured Brave moved over to where Ace was and placed a servo down. "Ace, you need to take that break, you can't keep doing this to yourself anymore!"

"I cannot." Ace said, looking over more information among piles of paper that were spread messily all over his desk. "King ordered that I'm to decrypt and decipher this information. I will see it done, no matter what."

"You can't just keep going at it by missing recharge and refueling! I know we still have that big bad criminal to catch but this is ridiculous! Far more ridiculous than you or King chewing my audio out for not getting work done!"

"Lad's got a point, Ace." Pawn said, knowing the lion had been working himself to near deactivation. "This is no laughing matter, either. We all want to see that criminal behind bars but there's no way we can get a step closer if you're missing recharge and proper refueling."

Rook chimed in uncomfortably. "It's even more terrifying when you didn't even react to when I pulled that one little classic prank yesterday..."

"Enough! Orders are orders, I cannot stop until I've fulfilled them."

"Tch, listen to yourself." Jack said after listening to how Ace was responding to Ten and the twins. "You sound less of a... Er... Brave" He finished his sentence awkwardly. "As much as I hate getting orders from you, this isn't like you at all, ignoring your most important basic needs just to kiss Ringo's arse to the point of worshiping the hell out of him."

"Excuse me!?" Ace's lion ear shaped audios pinned back. "And from someone who does what he wants!?"

"C-Can we not fight, please...?" Bishop pleaded to his teammates, frowning when his words fell on deaf audios as the others continued to argue. Jack was continuing to fuel the already raging fire that Ace was building up and because this was going nowhere, Pawn stood up from his seat intending to break things up himself.

By this point that King and Radiant Prism entered the office, finding the chaos that ensued. Alarmed, King tried to gain everyone's attention, but his words were left unheard even if he was in some of his teammates' visual range. "...Radiant Prism, I know exactly what to do, don't worry." Just before King could use his loud firetruck horn he immediately slapped his servos over his audios, Radiant Prism sounded off her harsh sounding siren. The other Braves quickly stopped what they were doing, being forced to cover their audios at the harsh sound and remain that way until Radiant Prism silenced her sirens once again.

"...Lass has some powerful sirens, enough for neighbouring cities and towns to hear them." Pawn complained, feeling a helmache coming on.

"What's going on here?" King asked everyone.

"What do you think? Kitty cat here's working himself to near deactivation due to his 'by-the-book' nonsense of an order you gave him." Jack glared at King unhappily. "Just how long are you going to step on Ace's tail for?"

"What?" King turned his attention to Ace, noticing how tired he looked from how dim his optics looked. "Bloody hell, Ace have you been getting enough rest!?" At King's exclaiming, Ace looked away and explained that orders were orders, and he had to triangulate Bruno's location as soon as possible, which only made the firetruck facepalming. "Ace, we've gone over this. We all need a break every now and then. We can't slave over it until we finally get to what we're looking for. It's going to be a whole lot slower if you do this to yourself."

Ace could only frown. While he'd been so heavily focused he didn't think how much time had passed. When he hesitantly asked King how many days it had been since they found an intact A.I. and the response left him stunned at how long he'd been at his search for.

Radiant Prism watched as things became more tense but thought back to what King told her before they entered the office. 'Should I start jumping in or should I save it for another time...?' She pondered to herself, then stepped forth just before King could say anything more.

"Ace of Spades, Second-in-Command to the Scotland Yard. We're ordering you to take a break." Radiant Prism stepped forth, going into full leader mode. "While we all would like to see Bruno Ackermann behind bars for the multiple crimes he's committed both domestically and internationally, this is not the way to do it. Just because Ringo Diamond King here has requested you triangulate the criminal's exact location, doesn't mean you should wear yourself out to the point of risking a lengthy visit to the repair bay."

Ace could only reset his optics at the sudden burst of leadership a foreign Brave would present to him. "Radiant Prism, you can't just- You're not-"

"Ace." King spoke this time. "Remember what I said?"

The lion remained silent, wanting to voice his opinion that even if she's temporarily part of the group, Radiant Prism still had no authority equal to them but decided against it, he remained silent until eventually standing up from his desk and heading out of the office, going to do as told. After the office doors had shut behind the green Brave, everyone else thanked the two for helping Ace see reason. "You're surprisingly getting better with your leadership skill, Radiant Prism." King said, placing a servo on her pauldron. "You're taking to the lessons relatively well."

"I suppose... If needed, I can help try to take over for Ace? I'm nowhere advanced in technology like he, Shadowmaru, and Kagerou are but I can still help in any way I can."

Ten lit up, seeing an opportunity. "Well, technically King can take over for that but you can help me with-" He didn't get to finish as King gave him a look that he knows that he's intending to skip work and to go flee to his video games.

"Ten, no. I know what you're going to do, and that goes for you too Jack." The tall red Brave turned his attention over to Jack who'd intend to silently move over to Radiant Prism to try a few moves on her. Jack could only curse at King and move back to his desk in annoyance, but then turned a full 180 towards the exit as King snapped, but his voice was left unheard.

"King, where can I begin?" Radiant Prism asked once more.

Turning his attention back to Radiant Prism, he thought for a moment. "Er, I'll pass you some work through email, have a seat and I'll prepare that."

"Understood." The German Brave moved towards the desk she occupied since she'd first arrived at the Scotland Yard's station while King moved over towards his desk, noticing how messy Ace's desk was as he could barely see it with all the papers scattered about. 'Looks like there's a whole lot more work for me to do than normal...' He thought with a sigh, focusing on tidying up the scattered paperwork as he couldn't stand such a sight.

Meanwhile outside of the office, Ace was distraught. He couldn't understand what he did wrong and to some degree it both annoyed and hurt him. He knows he'd been only following everything to the letter as King ordered, but for his work to be seen suddenly as he was in the wrong without warning? He placed a servo onto his helm, feeling a helmache coming on. 'I just don't understand... I know the information is taking incredibly long to decrypt but why does King think I... It doesn't make sense at all...' The lion wasn't able to see nor think clearly of the situation due to lack of proper recharge and refueling. 'I should go and cool my helm off, it's dark out and most of the surrounding area will be quiet... Or at least quiet in terms of nearby manmade noises.' Relocating to the repair bay, Ace intended to bring some fuel canisters with him just to be sure that he has some just in case.

Just as he entered the repair bay, he noticed a shade of red in the corner of his optics, spotting Jack who intended to head out on his own without King's orders for night patrol.

"What are you doing?" Ace spoke as he approached.

"Oh, it's just the mangy cat. Aren't you supposed to be recharging like a good Brave as King ordered?" Jack could see how sluggish Ace was moving, but made no comment on it.

"You weren't given the orders to head out to do night patrol, I know this because Ten and Bishop are assigned that tonight, not you." Hissed Ace.

"Tch, I do what I want, I don't take orders from those higher ranked than me so sod off."

"What was that!?" Just as Jack turned his back to him, Ace immediately broke into a sprint, intending to give Jack what for, but when the tri-coloured Brave ducked, then twisted his body to deliver a punch to Ace's stomach he not only succeeded but also sent him flying back a few meters. To some degree this surprised Jack but at the same time wasn't surprised as he straightened himself up. "Pathetic." He snorted. "You're normally fast and agile, you always kick my ass but you're just as slow as a sputtering old vehicle. You should rest up for your own good, you mangy cat. As King ordered, remember?" Ignoring his words, Ace tried again and again, but was always brought back down to the ground, his current state clouding his judgement to really think of what to do.

Both Ten and Bishop were on their way to go and begin patrol, but stopped when they saw Ace on the floor and seen Jack leave at that moment. "Looks like Ace has been K.O.'ed by Jack like in one of those fighting games." Ten commented as both he and the light blue Brave approached Ace who was slowly picking himself up. "Ace, what are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to go-"

"ENOUGH!" Ace roared as his outburst caused both Braves to recoil. "I'm fine." Getting up to leave in the direction of heading deeper into the station, both Bishop and Ten could only watch even for a little longer when their SIC was out of sight. "...What's with him?" Ten asked.

"I don't know, Ten, but I think we should start getting on that patrol like King asked. First, let's just... Tell him what just went down at the repair bay."

"...Yeah, good idea."

...

The following morning, Ace had taken up on that break that King asked him to take last night, making his way out of the city and into one of the forests. Despite getting plenty of rest, the Brave felt sick and overall groggy from the lack of energy of what he put up with to work on his previous given task had started to rear it's ugly head. When he did arrive at his usual spot, it would be only a matter of time before his little furry friends would arrive and gather to greet him. It would start with the birds, and eventually the land animals that would show up a few hours later which brought a smile to his face.

Unknown to the lion, several people were observing him from a fair distance as to not alert him to their location.

"So this guy is the one who caught our accomplices a while back? Doesn't seem any special." One of Bruno's lackeys commented.

"Yeah that's what I heard, but it looks like we weren't spotted yet, let's be sure we don't end up like them." Another one replied.

As they moved to get a better look at Ace without getting any closer, mainly to see his face, they could notice that Ace looked fairly powered down, the green lights that illuminated from his optics were dim. "That's odd... Unlike the other robots, this one's eyes barely have any light in 'em, like the lights are on but no one's there or something. Make sure our communicating devices are silenced so we don't alert 'em, it's possible this guy's got some sharp hearing."

"Uh yeah, we should..."

The group of criminals studied Ace carefully, looking for anything that seemed out of place aside from what was already noticed. "Thinking about it, look at his body posture... It looks as if he's leaning to one side or angle." the others immediately took notice and seeing how Ace's movement seemed irregular than normal. They spent a few hours observing the Brave until eventually one another agreed it was better to get out of there the moment they saw Ace get up and move. "Let's go meet up with the others at our rendezvous spot." One of them said once they were far enough away from Ace, agreeing immediately. Sometime later the group met up near a secluded part of the outskirts where they discussed about what each member they were assigned to observe did and went over one another's. After what seemingly felt like hours of thinking, they eventually agreed that the green Brave out of the Card Fighters were the better choice to cripple due to their preference to be away from all the constant noise in the city.

They then head out to return back to their place to inform Bruno of their best decision.

"Boss, we made a pick on who's the best one but I hope you won't mind that it has to be done sometime today." One of the criminals told him.

"Hm... Which Card Fighter will I target then?" After his question, only one picture out of the three was presented to him: Ace, the Spade Card Fighter.

"The green one with lion-like features? This should be interesting considering that while information is lacking on this one, it's easy to pinpoint he must be the Scotland Yard's tech in the same manner as the two others from the Japanese division. Now, explain why this is the best choice?"

"He seems to be under performing from what we observed, didn't think these robots can get tired but I guess Super A.I. is really something if the Japanese fleshed out these A.I.s to behave near flawless to that of human behaviour." Another criminal explained. "This might be your only chance, so you could force them to use that other combined form of theirs since the green one looked so worn out that he didn't seem to notice us like he noticed the ones before us. If you played your cards right with that chameleon cloaking we installed hours ago, he might not really pick you up right away even if you get close."

"Hm... Yes... Yes, thinking about it I like this idea. An opportunity that cannot be put to waste." Bruno pondered for a moment, then stood from his seat. "You've all done well, resume your previous tasks." Bruno made his way out as the others joined him for a bit, then moved away one by one to do other things as told. As Bruno made his way to the hangar where his personal machine was being kept and tended to, he pondered about another machine that was being built beforehand, spotting it off to the side mostly hidden by the tarp obscuring it's appearance. It reminded him of the plan he had saved up that could be crucial to his greatest plan. He stopped just at the front of his upgraded mecha just as his accomplices initiated the test runs watching as it phased out of sight, blending with it's environment. Bruno was quite pleased that the tests were a success. 'We'll just have to see just how fatigued the lion will be. This is my greatest upgrade yet, and if everything goes well, they will all be finalised onto my upcoming machine.'

A busy accomplice nearby was moving towards the next set of machine when Bruno called out to him. "You there! Are the upgrades complete?"

"I don't need to hear anymore- Oh, it's y-you B-Boss! My apologies, I thought you were one of my assigned assistants- Err... We've conducted about eight tests total, I think it might be just about done if there's just a few minor adjustments to make. If you're here... It must mean you need it, correct?" The intense stare of Bruno was enough to give him an answer without waiting for a reply. "...Yes, sir. We'll have it prepared immediately!" The man then turned his attention to the others, shouting at them to finish up whatever remains of the test as their boss needs it. At the mere mention of the word, it caused the first crew that were polishing the armour to immediately stop and gather their things to move away, the ones that were in charge of the internal controls quickly ensured everything was performing as it should, before climbing out themselves. "We also made a new addition than what you'd originally requested, and I think it can come in handy in case those robots manage to damage this enough into exploding. Take a look at these particular papers here I have." He said, flipping a couple papers up until they showed one with the escape pod and handed it over. "We've installed the chameleon system onto the escape pod, to better help with the escape."

"An excellent addition." Bruno said as he glossed over the detail, then handed the clipboard back. "Prepare for launch, I'm heading out."

"Right away!" Acknowledged the accomplice.

Bruno proceeded to climb into his mecha while the others prepared for his departure. After everything was set to go and the ceiling doors parted, the criminal activated the boosters to fly upwards and out, changing direction towards the last location Ace was reported to be sighted. With anti-radar and other vital systems activated and performing without issues, he then initiated the chameleon system causing his machine to slowly fade out of sight, blending in with the environment. 'What's this? The engines are quiet...' Bruno thought to himself, noticing as he picked up speed to reach his destination faster, the engines didn't seem to make any sort of noise, or at least from what he could hear. His previous machines made plenty of noise, but not these ones.

Pushing those thoughts aside, he noticed he was almost at the location, bringing his mecha to a slow as he was getting closer. It didn't take him long to spot Ace and from his position he could clearly read how worn out he was. He pondered the best way to attack, for the time being, he first began tiny scrambling drones, intending to prevent the lion from not only making it difficult to detect due to their small size, but to also prevent him from calling for backup.

Meanwhile, on the ground Ace could only sigh as he still felt miserable. Even as time passed, he felt like his fatigue wasn't going away anytime soon. Unlike before, there weren't a lot of animals coming out to greet him which left the lion assuming that perhaps they could have sensed how he didn't feel a hundred percent and thus felt that it wasn't worth spending a bit of time with him. 'I should have known...' He thought, slowly getting up to stand, but staggered to one knee. His lion ear shaped audios suddenly folded back as he placed a servo onto his helm, a sudden wave of pain hit him without warning. 'Argh, what is this frequency!?' He thought, proceeding to scan the area around him then a wider distance but couldn't detect anything. However, the moment he extended his search radius, he suddenly felt a wave of nausea and cancelled what he was doing. Unable to do much nor could he walk and very doubted that he could make it all the way back on all fours, he proceeded to call for both Rook and Radiant Prism.

"Rook, Radiant Prism, this is Ace. I'm going to need some assistance in returning to the station. I'm not feeling too well to return on my own."

After he finished his sentence, he flinched when he could hear only static.

'Static? No, this can't be, normally I'm immune to most scramblers but- Wait...'

"King? Pawn? Bishop? Jack? Anyone? Can anyone hear me?" The static became louder as Ace put both servos on his helm in agony. The frequency was overwhelming as this was enough to tell him that he's in trouble, deep trouble. Bringing out a single dagger and his set of throwing knives, he stayed still and listened for anything, waiting for the opportunity to strike. He cautiously looked around, using most of his willpower to ignore the stinging pain that was slowly growing. "I've got you!" Ace swiftly turned to the left and threw one of his daggers, but it only flew, cutting nothing but air until it hit the ground. "Tch, where are you- AGGGHHHHKKK!"

Ace was sent flying meters from where he was, then struck again but this time more towards the ground as he left a trail behind him. Recovering, he dug his retractable claws into the dirt, slowing himself but was suddenly pinned, yelping in agony.

"How does it feel to be alone and at the mercy of a criminal, Brave Police?" Bruno laughed as Ace tried to use his dagger to get himself free. "Oh, trying to escape? Why leave so soon when I think we should have a bit of fun together? Such as... Tearing you apart! I'll force your friends will be forced to use that other form!" Revealing himself in full, the leg of his mecha began stomping into Ace as the lion yelped in agony, trying to get away but he was starting to weak with each stomp. He yelped once again when this time he was picked up from the ground by a large, slender clawed servo. Ace coughed up fuel, his body cracked and dripping with fuel and hydraulic fluids. He snarled weakly at his enemy, but couldn't move as in the midst of being stepped on repeatedly, his motor systems had been completely mangled in the process. He was nothing more than a ragdoll in Bruno's servos.

Not too far from their location, Pawn had just reached the surface, having spent most of his time just underground in one of his tunnels as he'd sense a disturbance not far from his previous locations. He quickly spotted an unknown machine, and quickly spotted his mangled teammate. "Ah, you've done it now!" Reaching for his axe, Pawn charged towards the large mecha. "Bruno Ackermann! You've gone too far!" He snarled. Leaping towards his target as Bruno quickly dodged the incoming attack. While it's large size wouldn't be damaged as much, he was mildly sour at how he dared to damage his mecha in the last fight. "So you're the one who managed to deal quite a bit of damage previously. But I wouldn't think about it." He held out Ace's body in front. "Attack me and you'll be seeing your friend in an even worse state than what you see now!"

When Pawn continued to charge, he heard Ace make a pained sound as he skidded to a stop. "Ace!"

"Pawn, get the others! Can't... Contact..." Rasped the lion. "Get out of here...!"

"Ace! I can't just leave you at the mercy of this monstrosity!"

"Get... Going!"

Conflicted with what to do, Pawn was torn between doing as told or find some way to get the criminal to let go of Ace. He then made the difficult decision to quickly change form and burrow underground just before he could be stepped on, he didn't want to go too far from the criminal, but he wanted to at least continue to try contacting his teammates as he moved away. "King, this is Pawn. I could use some backup!" Pawn tried to contact King multiple times, and by the time he'd gone far enough from the location, he was able to reach King. "Everyone, we have a problem. It's that criminal from before, he's got Ace and we can't contact anyone the moment we get close to him, he needs help and fast!"

-Sounds like the time has come to use Chess Master.- King said unhappily. -Radiant Prism and Rook will join you as soon as possible to help provide backup until Bishop, Jack, Ten, and I get there.-

"Sending those coordinates now. I'm returning back to try and do some damage... Somehow." Cutting the communications, Pawn looped around until he was facing the other way of the hole he'd been burrowing through. He made his way back to the location where he could feel that now his communications weren't usable once more. 'There has to be something that's causing this frequency, but nothing I can do until the others get here.'

It didn't take long for Pawn to re-emerge from underground, but noticed that the criminal was gone. "What the hell? Where did he- AGGGGHHHHHKKKK!"

"Heh, sturdy little one aren't you?" Bruno stepped off of Pawn after having dropped on top of him partially. While mildly dented, he was impressed that the gold coloured drill tank was still fairly intact. "Don't think I wasn't aware to your plan to call your friends, I willingly allowed you considering your horrid speed while underground."

Pawn narrowed his optics, then the sounds of two jets indicated that Rook and Radiant Prism were here as expected, both of them firing their gatling guns in the direction of him but ceased when Bruno held Ace in front of the line of fire, causing them both to break away. 'Tch, they can't fire... Judging from how some of their bullets accidentally grazed Ace, he's unconscious from all that damage.' Pawn knew his other teammates would take time to drive all the way to their location and seeing how the two aerials can't do anything with the criminal holding Ace up like a shield, he knew he had to do something. 'Why do I have to do almost everything...' He thought to himself and began to examine the mecha body, knowing he can't aim for the feet like last time, which were now heavily armoured, and so did the rest of its body. 'The arms don't look as sturdy as the body and legs... Maybe if I aim for the one Ace is on, I can distract the criminal long enough for the aerials to do some sort of attack. But the lad's also making a critical mistake, focusing on the aerials and forgetting about me. This is my chance.'

Gripping his axe tightly, Pawn ran towards the criminal, making sure to sharply dash out of the criminal's view as he commed Rook and Radiant Prism to try not to make the criminal turn too much as he has a plan to try and get Ace so they can do some sort of damage. The other two acknowledged and avoided turning Bruno around too much as instructed. While he was no adept climber, Pawn leapt up towards the criminal, burying as much of his axe into the tough exterior as he could to help him climb, though this of course alerted Bruno, now torn between dealing with someone on his mecha and keeping the aerials from firing by using Ace's unconscious body as a shield. He began to turn around sharply, intending to shake Pawn off. "Get off of me you damn insect!" Snarled Bruno as he continued to turn sharply to shake the gold coloured Brave off.

Pawn held on as best as he could, managing to keep a tight grip as he climbed towards one of the mecha's arms that held Ace, intending to go for the shoulder joint as while it was heavily shielded, he knew that he'd have to aim for the underside and try to hack it off to get them to let Ace go. Bruno observed one of the cameras showing Pawn while the two aerials were diving down at him, intending to do a double kick. "Don't think you can easily get your way out of this one!" He shouted, quickly twisting his body enough that both Rook and Radiant Prism landed a double kick right onto Pawn, causing the gold coloured Brave to yelp out in agony. Before the two aerials could recover, Bruno was able to smack them both away, and then reach for Pawn who was stunned from being kicked in by both aerials, and easily ripped him off and threw him onto the ground. "You try my patience, but I can see the fun has finally arrived."

Having had enough with Ace, the criminal threw his unconscious corpse right onto the ground in front of them, which alarmed and angered the Scotland Yard.

"You're not getting away with this. Bishop! Pawn! Rook! We're becoming Chess Master!" The other three acknowledged and joined King as they began their combination sequence as each one combined into their respective parts, combining to eventually form Chess Master. While the combiner still had a knight's appearance that complimented well with Royal Flush, Chess Master's entire lower body was more horse-like, making him a centaur knight by appearance. With the four Scotland Yard members completing their form, Bruno was delighted to see what the other form looked like. "Yes! At last, I'll have all sorts of fun with you. Time to dance, Brave Police!" Bruno laughed maniacally as he brought out a flaming sword, immediately piloting his mecha forward to engage the new combiner before him.

As the two colossal robots clashed, Radiant Prism was quick in retrieving Ace from the area, not wanting to risk him getting stepped on during their fight. She quickly glided over towards Jack and Ten who were observing the fight from a safe distance as neither were keen on getting stepped on during the fight, or worse, get torn to shreds like what happened to their SIC. "Jack, Ten, I need both of you to get Ace back to the station to be repaired." She told them.

"We just got here and now we have to go back? Hm... Well, only if I can get a kiss from 'ya. Then perhaps maybe I'll drag the kitty cat's arse back to the station as intact as possible." Jack smirked as Ten could only make a disgusted face as Ten gave Jack an annoyed shove.

"Are you nuts? This is a serious situation and you're just going off with the flirting? Gross!"

"Nothing you should worry about, Ten." Jack scoffed. "You're just a kid who doesn't think of the world outside of your video games."

"Wha- HEY!" Ten's optics widened and was quickly angry, bringing out his halberd. "I'll show you what I know about the world!"

"ENOUGH!" Radiant Prism snarled, shoving Ace into Ten. "I need both of you to work as a team and get Ace back to the station, now." The German Brave's optics narrowed. "That's an order!"

Considering both King was busy with the criminal and Ace was out of commission, Ten could do nothing but follow Radiant Prism's orders, Jack on the other hand leaned in close to Radiant Prism asking if he could still have that kiss, but Radiant Prism brushed him off and told him to go help Ten, leaving him grumbling as he shouted at Ten that it'd be his fault if any pieces of the cat breaks off from his body. Once the two left with their SIC, Radiant Prism unfortunately could do nothing but watch the fight in the background. A part of her made her regret having sacrificed her combined form to some degree yet did not regret saving most of the Japanese Division to then strike back at the criminals.

...

Refusing to let his legs buckle under him, Chess Master ached all over from the damage he'd received over the course of the fight. While he's done a fair amount of damage to the combiner in front of him, there was barely any visible damage even from where he stood. 'Damn... Bruno's mecha armour feels akin to the material our bodies are made out of.' He cursed to himself. 'I'm not sure what I can do in this current state, but I need to find a means of putting him in a position where I can checkmate his arse and end this fight...' Tightly gripping his Chess Lance, he had to think of what he could do. Bruno on the other hand could only laugh. "What's wrong, Brave Police? You're looking worse for wear. I'm quite disappointed that despite what you've thrown at me, you don't seem to compare to the other form."

'I can't understand a thing he's saying... But I have a feeling that I need to better steel myself unless I end up like what he did to Ace, if that's possible while I'm combined with the others.' He thought, narrowing his orange coloured optics. He briefly glanced in the direction of where Radiant Prism is, internally frowning. 'I could certainly use her assistance, yet she doesn't have a combined form. I wonder when will the Japanese division complete the repairs I've been told about, considering that their lead mechanic can impressively get a new combined form or even a Brave built in just under half a year.'

Breaking into a gallop, Chess Master positioned the Chess Lance to be aimed, intending to strike the joints which Pawn had relayed previously. However the mecha was quick on it's feet, easily dodging as it flew just overhead and reappearing on the other side it was previously at. He knew Bruno was studying his every move so he had to try and change things up at random to trick the criminal from time to time. While not a fan of playing dirty, Bruno for him would be an exception to some degree. He tried over and over to strike Bruno with his weapon but his target gracefully dodged every single attack.

'Tch, it looks like he's switching between being on the ground and up in the air. Chess Master is not built for aerial combat, at least not in the same way Royal Flush is.'

Chess Master quickly reared and sharply turned around to get out of the way of an incoming attack, but quickly found himself stumbling to the floor from the shockwave of the impact. '...So fast!' He thought, quickly scrambling back up on all four legs. "You're an easy target, far too easy to allow me to land a few hits with how much more massive it is in comparison to your previous form!" Chess Master quickly brought his guard, blocking the sword with his own weapon the moment that Bruno skydived right onto him, his ankles partially under the surface from the massive impact. The combiner had to use all of his strength to quickly push Bruno away, then used the aid of his thrusters to give him a quick boost backwards, then quickly charged but Rook was quick to notice how quick the criminal leapt over him. "Look out, he's going to get us from behind and-!"

"I know!" Quickly repositioning his weapon, Chess Master quickly boosted backwards just enough to then use his back legs to deliver a swift kick, successfully making contact as the combiner quickly broke into a gallop a few meters away to take advantage of the criminal's stunned state, then turned around and galloped at top speed. "CHARGING LANCE!" The head of the weapon glowed a bright light blue. Despite being stunned from the combiner's powerful kick, Bruno was quick to dodge the incoming attack, then delivered a swift kick to Chess Master's side with a boosted kick. "Tch, nearly got me that time but now I know to prepare for our next fight. Our fight has given me time to think about the many plans to wrestle that information out of you if I have to. But now, our time is up." As Chess Master attacked once more, Bruno unleashed a bright flashing light as all he could hear was the sound of Bruno's voice. When the light faded away, he was long gone causing Chess Master to curse at letting him get away. He then calls for Radiant Prism to translate if she overheard what he said as the German Brave approached.

"He says that the whole fight has given him many ideas to wrestle the information out of Chess Master..." Radiant Prism began to ponder his words for a moment. "Hm, what he means by this, I'm not quite sure... But I think right now there's nothing to do with him having fled, but we should return to the station to get our repairs done."

Back at the station as the four Braves were being treated alongside Ace, King felt both frustrated and angry that they never got to take down Bruno. One of the successful ways at times of taking down a criminal was stunning them with a powerful kick that usually bought them enough time to perform their finisher, yet this criminal despite being stunned had managed to narrowly dodge. He was thinking about what Radiant Prism explained and he couldn't help but internally admit that this whole thing had to be a fight that was far too dangerous for either the Scotland Yard or Japanese Brave Police. A part of him wondered if somehow maybe they could team up to work on dealing with Bruno together for just this one particular time. Yet he knew that attempting to deal with a criminal foreign to both of them was going to be a mess to set up in the first place.

He started to feel a helmache coming on from even thinking about such a thing and how messy and complex it would be to set up.

Rook only had a few things that needed fixing compared to the others while the other three had a bit more than the green jet. Rook undocked himself when he was given the all clear and moved out of the way to let the mechanics work. Once he left the room, King's optics quickly fell onto Ace, and while most of the damage was slightly less than what he last saw, it was still horrible. He'd need to ask Ace some questions once he recovered enough to talk, but pondered about if he should look into what he last saw before the attack. '...No, I think I should ask Ace rather than pry into his memories.' He thought, slightly shaking his helm. He stopped when a mechanic asked him not to move as he apologised, didn't really think about that he'd done so.

The Brave turned his attention towards Radiant Prism, addressing her to speak with him over private comms, which she nodded in response.

-Radiant Prism, there's something very important that I need to discuss with you.- King began, facing his helm forward. He had to think his words out, not sure how he could truly word them out if he could. -I don't think this is a fight that my team and I can help deal with, and while for now the criminal is focusing on stealing the data of my combined forms; Particularly Chess Master since he's gotten mine and the rest of my team's information outside of our respective combined forms. I believe you might find yourself in a fight that neither my team nor Deckerd's team would be able to tackle let alone interfere. I think... As best as we're doing to protect our country from Bruno's attacks, the only thing I can think of for his reason to attack us is that he might be intending to use the information for a much more powerful machine. A machine I fear might have something to do with the current situation going on in Germany, it could be stored there and intends to possibly put an end to the Brave Police project as a whole.-

-What? You think Bruno...- Radiant Prism frowned, trying to find a logical reason to this, but couldn't seem to understand any sense of it. -No, King... That can't be... It's Gustav that's putting both Dortmund and most of the western quarter of the country along with Berlin and most of the eastern quarter on lockdown. Blazer and Surge can't touch those areas even if they want to try and ask Redlight what's going on.-

-I will tell you this, not too long ago I received a notification from Commissioner Saejima. The mechanics have been hard at work with rebuilding your combined form and should be done sometime by today or tomorrow as I've been updated every now and then about it's status. I believe it will help you get an advantage over him once you fully readjust to your restored combined form.- He paused to think for a moment, then continued. -If my suspicions are correct, it's highly possible that he might be planning on trying to destroy the component Bishop has considering he chose to be the one to carry the temporary upgrade. Chess Master is not built with that same system that Royal Flush has, which is carried over to the combiner by Ace, whom forms the left arm. You've seen that Chess Master is a more combat based combiner rather than Royal Flush who is more built for a stealthy approach. Neither Rook, Bishop, Pawn, nor myself have the same equipment Ace carries. I know that if I'm not careful, he may target Bishop entirely and if he somehow pinpoints where it is, I'll be left crippled as I need both arms to fight, I can't just use my hooves constantly.-

Radiant Prism wasn't sure how to handle this sort of information, it was a whole lot to take in from the suspected criminal's plans if they were confirmed to be true, and then the thing about that Bruno might have a far more powerful machine somewhere back home in Germany. It gave her a reason to warn Blazer and Surge ahead of time, and perhaps maybe start some sort of investigation into this, if possible. -Then... I'll have to contact the two teams I still have contact with.- Radiant Prism placed a servo onto her helm, this was far too much for her to process. Everything felt like it was coming down on her far too fast to be able to handle all at once. King assured her that he trusted her to know what to do, as he and Ace had taught her all that they know, the same way that Deckerd had taught them both when they had to work twice as hard to earn the trust of the public back. -It's not easy to know what to do right away, but as you work and piece things together overtime and with patience, you'll find more opportunities to a solution than you'd think.- King could only internally smile. -You're a proven to us that you're a fine leader, even if you don't have a team of your own to lead yet. You especially did the right thing in ordering both Jack and Ten to take Ace out of the scene and back to the station.-

-I... Thank you, King.- Radiant Prism then turned her attention towards a mechanic who held up a device which was a small but simple scanner that allowed the mechanic to scan without the use of a dock. "Hm, nothing but a few scratches that can be easily buffed out, but I hope you won't mind that we're going to do that later once we've repaired most of the others here."

"Not at all." Radiant Prism slightly shook her helm, then watched as the mechanic gave her a thumbs up and moved away to attend to the other Braves alongside his co-workers. Radiant Prism thought for a moment, then got up. -King, I'm going up to the office. I think the best thing for me to do right now is warn Surge and Blazer about this possible threat.-

-Go right ahead.- King replied.

Relocating herself into the office, Radiant Prism quickly found her desk and booted it up as Jack was about to make a snarky comment but stopped himself when he saw Radiant Prism entered rather than King or another of his teammates. He instead threw a few flirtatious comments, but was met with no response, nor did Radiant Prism look in his direction. "Hey, I'm talking to you, you know that?"

"I'm amazed that you're brushing off what happened earlier as if it never happened to begin with. To let you know, we didn't catch the criminal." Radiant Prism replied as she was typing her letter to both Surge and Blazer.

Jack could only frown and sniff at the lack of attention. "I already know about that, Little miss 'Princess' told me about that just as you guys were coming back. Anyways, who are you sending the letter to? Deckerd and his boring crew?" When he received no answer this time, he started to grow annoyed and got up to see what sort of message is being sent. "...Surge, and Blazer...? Who the hell are they?"

"Blazer is the leader of his own team stationed in Munich, while Surge commands her own team up in Hamburg." Radiant Prism replied. "Unlike the team in Japan and here in the United Kingdom, Germany has four teams assigned to four different locations of the country since we're a much bigger country in comparison. Redlight, who is the first, is stationed in Berlin while I'm stationed in Dortmund... Even though I lack a team of my own." Jack could only ask how could she be the only one of her own team when she bears the mark of a leader like King and Deckerd do. "All I can say that I never knew the answer myself, but Redlight was the only one who extended a servo to me when neither Surge nor Blazer did. My apologies Jack, but I'd prefer if I don't go into full detail, as it will be quite lengthy and I don't know you that well enough to say anymore than what I've already said."

Jack could only stare at Radiant Prism, and since he had put his usual flirty behaviour off to the side, it somehow opened his optics that, even though he didn't know the exact details, it was enough for him to puzzle it together that she's been through hell and back with whatever happened. He then moved away to go back to his seat and resume looking through his magazines, but eventually he lost interest in them. After stuffing the magazines away, he then decided that he'd watch some of his favourite entertainment shows, leaning back to put up his feet on his desk as he leaned back. 'I wonder if Ringo knows about how bad this girl's background is...' He thought, glancing over at Radiant Prism. 'Deckerd would be the likely Brave to tell him everything since we're so close ever since he and that little squirt helped us all those years ago...' Jack pondered with a frown, now losing interest in his own favourite show.

'Just who the hell is this Bruno guy? After making one hell of a mess in Japan, now he's messing up the Yard's own turf... What if we can't get him? What if he somehow did destroy all of us with whatever he's got planned!? Damn, someone needs to puts a stop to that crazy criminal's destruction.' Jack placed a servo to his helm, a helmache was the last thing he needed but felt that he might've deserved it for overthinking too many things all at once.

With the message sent, Radiant Prism slumped in her seat. She was thinking too much of what King had told her and to some degree, she can't help but feel scared about it all. It was even scarier than when she was put through that firewall that made her a trembling, submissive coward who could barely say no to anything. She stood from her seat, staring at her own desk in thought, then silently cursed to herself as she balled her servos into fists. 'Tch... What if I can't... I don't know if I even can, King is acting way too much that I may have to... To... But, will Blazer and Surge even help me though? They never helped me the same way as Redlight when I was just activated back then...' Radiant Prism lowered her helm, the fact only stung her and to some degree it was making her feel like she might be alone in this. A part of her regretted sending that e-mail to both of them, but if she may have to truly fight alone, then she would have to do what she can to confront Bruno, and to some degree Gustav.

...Even if it meant getting herself killed.

Radiant Prism only flinched when Jack placed a servo on her shoulder, causing her to turn sharply as Jack backed off, servos up in yield. "Whoa there, I was just checking to see you were alright, nothing about wanting to get in your trousers- Or lack of trousers there of."

The German Brave could only lower her helm in response, then without saying anything, turned to leave the office after shutting down her desk computer.