Alarms sounded across the Castle of Lions as the Nindroids ships began firing at us. "Man your battle stations you two!" Coran ordered Allura and Shiro. Allura and Coran rushed to their defensive stations and immediately began to use the castle defenses to fire back at the Nindroid ships. Coran pushed a button on his control panel which engaged the castles shields. I slowly walked up next to Coran to watch them while still having a little pain flow through me.
Inside one of the Nindroid ships, Tatenashi was commanding the attack. "Focus your fire on the left side of their ship." she ordered the Nindroid fleet. The Nindroid fighters grouped together and flew around to the location Tatenashi commanded them to.
"Ninety percent power to port side Coran!" Allura ordered. Coran quickly typed commands into his console to increase the shields power on the left side of the ship. The Nindroid fighters began bombarding the Castle of Lions with their weapons, but to no effect. Tatenashi smiled from her ship, we had quickly fallen right into her trap. The Nindroid fighters were just a distraction.
A large canon formed on the front of her ship which was pointed right at the bridge of the castle. A large red light started to form from it, as it was getting ready to fire at us. "Princess, port side shields at twenty five percent! They have us pinned!" Coran panicked. The Nindroid fighters continued bombarding the castle's left side with their blaster fire.
Tatenashi's canon began to fire a large blast at the castle's bridge. "Coran, focus all power on the bridge shields quickly!" Allura shouted. Coran quickly did so as the blast of power struck the castle.
"Board them." Tatenashi commanded the Nindroids. Out from her ship came several dropships carrying squadrons of Nindroids. The dropships began to speed up as they flew toward the castle and in an instance, they pierced the castle's hull. Nindroids quickly began offloading to hunt me down within the castle. A single dropship followed shortly after the others. It was Tatenashi's personal ship. It soon had breached in the castles hull as well.
Smoke billowed out of the ship as its doors opened. Out walked Tatenashi; a purpose in her possessed eyes to hunt me down. Tatenashi looked around at her new surroundings, intrigued with the ship's layout. "Find Hunter and eliminate him." She ordered the Nindroid army over her comms.
The cameras of the castle picked up the Nindroid's beginning to scatter across the castle in hunt of me. Coran began swapping from camera view to camera view, with almost every camera showing the Nindroids running around the ship. "We've got to protect the kid!" Shiro spoke to the others. Without hesitation, he got up from his station and exited the bridge to go fight the Nindroids.
"I'm going too!" I told them. I turned around and ran out of the room.
"But you're injured, you can't!" Princess Allura said to me.
"Injured, not helpless!" I retorted halfway down the hallway.
Shiro, still ahead of me, ran down a corridor where he was met with several Nindroids. Charging at them, his robotic right arm began to change into a pinkish color. He raised his arm and stuck one of the Nindroids with it. A ring of energy emerged from that hit, knocking me down as I turned the corner to meet Shiro and making my head smack against the floor. As I sat up rubbing the back of my head, I saw Shiro with his arm still in the same spot he struck the Nindroid, but the Nindroid was unscathed. Shiro's eyes widened. A chuckle left the Nindroids mouth as it pulled a fist back and punched Shiro in the gut, sending him all the way down the hallway and on top of me.
Shiro moved as fast as he could off me, allowing me to get up as well. The Nindroids then noticed me. "It's Hunter!" One of them shouted. "Blast him!" The Nindroids raised their blasters and began to shoot at Shiro and I. Using my Techno Blade, I blocked a few shots.
Shiro quickly tackled me around the hallway corner so the Nindroids could not hit either of us. "Run!" Shiro shouted. The two of us began sprinting down the hallway away from the Nindroids, but they were hot on our tails.
"We've found Hunter, ma'am." A Nindroid reported to Tatenashi as it chased us. "We are on the 20th floor's hallway."
"I'll be there shortly." She replied. Tatenashi summoned her IS unit and began to break through the ceiling to get to the 20th floor.
Shiro and I continued to run down the hallways. "How come I couldn't hurt those guys?" He asked me as we ran.
"I have no idea! They weren't that strong before!"
Suddenly, as we reached an intersection of hallways, right in front of us Tatenashi crashed through the floor. Shiro and I grinded to a halt. "At last, the Creator. Time to finish what the Destroyer started." Tatenashi's spear manifested in her IS units' hand, and she swung it at Shiro and I. The two of us ducked just in time and out of instinct, I pushed her back with a ball of wind from my hands. Her IS tried to regain balance but fell to the floor.
Shiro looked at me. "Nice hit!" He gave me a thumbs up.
"Thanks!" I smiled. "Glad to see I've at least got the element of wind on my side." Suddenly the group of Nindroids appeared from behind us.
From the bridge of the castle, Coran and Allura were still watching us on the cameras. "We've got to get those machines and woman away from them!" Coran panicked.
Allura's eyes dashed around every camera to help find a solution to the crisis in the hallways. Suddenly she noticed the hanger. "Coran, are the weapons in the hanger side still functional?" She asked Coran.
Coran typed on his keyboard to check the status. "Barely, your highness. If anymore input is sent to the weapons generator there, it'll cause an energy overload. I'm currently diverting power from them."
"That's it, Coran! If we get those machines into the hanger, we can send an energy overload into them!"
Allura raised her hand to her ear to contact Shiro over their communication devices. "Shiro," she began, "if you get those robots to the hangers, we can get rid of them for good!"
"Got it!" He replied. Shiro looked at me. "Hunter, those robots seemed to be only interested in you! If you can get them into the hanger, Allura says she can get rid of them!"
I nodded and turned my attention to the Nindroids. "Hey tin cans! You want me? Come and get me!" As quick as I could, I turned to one of the other hallways in the intersection and dashed down it. The Nindroids, ignoring Shiro, continued to chase me down.
Tatenashi was finally up and shot a glare at Shiro. "You will not get in the way of the Destroyer's plans!" She shouted at him. Her IS units' fist raised in the air and crashed down towards Shiro. Thinking on his feet, Shiro quickly jumped to his left and dodged her attack. His arm began to glow a pink color again and let out a battle cry as he jumped to attack Tatenashi.
Shiro punched Tatenashi in the gut as hard as he could sending her back. Tatenashi grinded herself to a halt and did not move. All she did was stare at Tatenashi with no emotion on her face. "This is your first and last warning, little girl. Get off this ship with your little robots and don't come back." Shiro commanded her. Tatenashi let out a chuckle. Without saying a word, she raised her hands and pointed them at Shiro. Nothing was happening. Shiro looked around and laughed. "Wha-what is this? Are you like using some mind stuff on me or something?" Tatenashi did not speak, her smile only grew larger. "Ok then." Shiro took one step, and suddenly a mist began to form around him. He looked at Tatenashi. Her smirk faded, and she clenched her hands into a fist. In just a matter of seconds, he could not see her face anymore, as his front was engulfed in an explosion that sent him flying down the hall, hitting a wall, leaving a dent in the structure. Tatenashi walked down the hallway to view Shiro. Shiro's damaged body lie on the ground, unconscious. A victory chuckle left her mouth as she turned to follow where I had run off.
I had reached the hanger as I was instructed, laser blasts whizzing past me from the Nindroids that followed close behind. Quickly, I got to cover behind a large group of crates. Nindroid laser blasts flew into the crates, slowly damaging them. Allura and Coran watched the hanger cameras intently as one-by-one the Nindroids entered the castle hanger. The crates around me were slowly withering into nothing with all of the Nindroids slowly moving in on my position.
Finally, the last Nindroid had entered the hanger. Coran quickly typed onto her keyboard and she closed the hanger doors, trapping the Nindroids and I in the hanger. "Now Coran!" She ordered.
"Yes, Princess!" Coran then sent all the energy he could into the hanger weapons generator.
Sitting down behind my cover, I noticed the generator begin to light a bright blue color. However, the Nindroids did as well. They stopped shooting at me and moved their attention to the generator, but it was too late. "Uh-oh." One spoke with unease. A surge of energy shot all around the generator, crashing into the Nindroids and I and knocking me down.
The Nindroids began to jitter with energy overflowing their system. Suddenly, the red light left one of the Nindroid's eyes. Then another, and another, until finally, they had all short circuited their systems and fallen to the ground.
The generator powered down, and the sound of silence filled the air. Slowly, I got up and looked over what little cover I had at the Nindroid army. "We beat them?" I was shocked. "Looks like your fancy armor can't protect your electronics from electricity all that well! Take that!" I cheered as I ran over to a Nindroid and kicked it. A sharp pain engulfed my foot after kicking it, and I lifted my leg to grab my now in pain foot.
I may have celebrated too soon. A bang came from the hanger doors, and I looked up at it. Another bang followed, with a large dent now appearing in the door. "What is that?" Coran asked watching the hanger camera. The ground shook after each large bang in the door, with a dent to match the strength appearing. Suddenly the banging and dents stopped. I reached for my Technoblade behind my back, my eyes not leaving the hanger door. My blade was activated and the chain shot out from the hilt, smacking the ground. Still there was no sound coming from the other side of the door. Out of nowhere, the door broke free from the frame and began flying toward me. Thinking fast, I jumped out of the way, and the large hanger door slid to a halt far behind me.
I rushed to my feet to see what had caused the hanger door to do that. There, standing in the hanger door frame, was Tatenashi. She stood proudly as if she had already defeated me. My eyes widened from surprise. I had totally forgotten about her. With out hesitation she flew at me in her IS Unit, her spears point leading the charge. I put my hands to my right, and swung them to my left as if I had walked up to a desk and decided to clear everything off it. A large gust of wind followed my motions, and Tatenashi was sent into a stack of barrels. As they fell on top of her, she didn't move. "That was easier than I thought." I shrugged.
Just then, a barrel flew out me and I quickly dodged out of the way. Tatenashi stood up and began chucking barrels at me. I dodged and cut up a few of them with my elemental powers, but one eventually hit me, which knocked me back into a column. I slid to the ground and sat there in pain. Rubbing the back of my hand, I looked up to see Tatenashi charging at me again. I quickly backflipped and landed on top of her as she ran into the column. I vaulted off her IS unit, and landed behind her. "Tatenashi stop this! It isn't you!" I pleaded.
"This is the new me!" She roared back at me, creating a ball of water from her IS. Tatenashi sent the water ball toward me and then her spear. I smacked the water ball with my Technoblade, and the ball burst, losing its shape. Then I turned my body and watched as her spear barely missed my head.
"Holy cow!" I panicked. Though I had evaded her attacks, what I did not see was her flying toward me after her spear throw. Before I could even think, her IS' fist collided with my face, sending me flying back. As my face followed the end of her fist, I had a feeling as if time was slowing down, and a sudden wave of memories was hitting me. This had happened to me before with Tatenashi.
Not too long after Lloyd, Nathan, and I fought with the mad scientist's daughter, Shiori Tomisuki, I realized that in most of my fights, I had been against large creatures or machines, so as such, I had asked the IS Academy to help me train against these things. Tatenashi was assigned to teach me how to defend against and IS Unit. I typically had verbal lessons with her, where she explained more in depth the capabilities of an IS pilot, but one day, she thought it would be a good idea for us to train in the Academy's arena.
"As you know," She started with me, "IS Units are very fast and powerful pieces of equipment. So, to get you proper training against these devices, you will be fighting me one-on-one." She smirked and activated her IS Unit.
"So, are we like, going to gradually move into the combat, or are we…?" I began to ask, but before I could finish, she flew at me with her spear in hand. I quickly jumped out of the way, and turned around. I created a large orb of orange energy and shot it at her, hitting her with it. She flew down and crashed into the sand. As dust soar, I stood at the ready. Even I knew an attack like that couldn't beat her, and I was right. A ball of water flew through the dust towards me, along with her spear.
I quickly pulled out my katana and blocked the water ball. As the water ball burst, Tatenashi's spear flew right at me, I turned to my side as it just barely missed my head. Once I turned back to face Tatenashi's dust cloud, I saw her fly at me. Her fist clenched as it connected with my face, sending me flying straight into the arena wall.
I painfully got up. With the wind knocked completely out of me, and me trying to maintain my balance, I looked at Tatenashi, who stood laughing. "That was a good try, you masterfully skilled ninja."
"If I was masterfully skilled," I scowled, "I wouldn't have come here." Tatenashi began to calm down a bit. Surely, I shouldn't have been bested by quick moves like that. A ninja should be more prepared than that. Frustrated, I marched over to her.
"You wanna know how to beat that move?" She snickered.
"Of course!"
"It's kind of difficult. Most people can't stop the punch from happening, so to not be sent back and to beat your opponent, you've gotta grab the arm they punched you with, then flip 'em back over your head, so that land on their back. Even in an IS Unit, it would sure smack the wind out of anyone." I was in awe at how knowledgeable she was with moves as strange as this. "It's a move my dad taught me when I was young." She could clearly see how surprised I was. A smile appeared on her face. "Let's try it again. This time, beat me." I nodded, and got back in a fighting stance.
I remembered that training as clear as day now, and was shocked Tatenashi tried to use it on me now to beat me. It was like her subconscious knew that I could beat this move and she did it so that I could beat her.
My mind snapped back into reality, as I now was feeling the full power of her punch. I reached out and grabbed Tatenashi's arm. "I…won't…be…. beaten!" I scowled. I began to whip her back over my head. Tatenashi's back slammed into the ground. Now was my chance, I spun my Technoblade around and wrapped her body in it. "Ninja Go!" I shouted. Before Tatenashi could even think about what was happening, I activated my Technoblade. An orange light emanated from the blade, and engulfed the hanger. The light was so powerful even Allura and Coran had to cover their eyes.
Once the light as faded, I turned to see Tatenashi no longer covered in metal, and in her IS Unit. "Tatenashi!" I called as I ran to her side and held her up.
Her eyes began to slowly open, and a small smile grew on her face. "Nice work, you masterfully skilled ninja." She reached up and put her hand against my cheek.
"It's good to see you too." I chuckled, relieved that Tatenashi was now back to normal.
I lifted Tatenashi up, and carried her to the bridge. Shiro was there with Allura, and Coran. "That was some fancy fighting there, Ninja." Shiro complemented as Coran was bandaging his wounds. "It looks like you've saved your girlfriend too."
"Yes, he did!" She teasingly hugged me.
I smiled and rolled my eyes. "Thanks, but we aren't boyfriend and girlfriend."
"Whatever you say." He chuckled.
"What's your plans now?" Allura asked me.
"I don't really know. The ships the Nindroids came on are basically destroyed, and would take to long to repair and get home in. I don't have that kind of time. What I do know is, I can't stay here. The Destroyer knows that I am still alive, and as long as I am here, those Nindroids will keep coming for me."
"We can't just leave you by yourself." Coran said.
"It's alright, he's got me now, and I know how to get us home." Tatenashi snickered. I finally set her down in one of the chairs for her to catch her bearings.
"You do? How?" I asked intrigued.
"You forget that I was connected to the Destroyer while I was under his control. I know everything he knows. From what I remember, we can get home by finding the Temple of the Creator on the tallest mountain. It can take us to any dimension. So, we can get you home and have you stop him from destroying everything."
"I see one flaw in your plan Tatenashi." I looked at her. She caulked her head in curiosity. "We're in a dimension with thousands of planets. How are we gonna know where to even find the tallest mountain?"
"I've got no idea!" Tatenashi gave me a big smile.
"I think we can help with that." Allura chimed in. The Castle of Lions has a database on all planets in this galaxy, it surely has the tallest mountain out of all those planets in it somewhere." She began typing on her control panel, and the database began searching for the tallest mountain in their galaxy. Finally, the system had stopped. "Found it!" She cheered. "It's on the planet Arus. We've been on that planet before, and it should be safe for you two. It says here that it absolutely towers above any of the mountains on the planet."
"Shouldn't be hard to miss then." I smiled. "Now about getting there…"
"If you are so adamant on leaving us, we have a ship that you two can take. It's not large, but it'll get the job done." Coran informed me.
"Then I think it's time to leave." I reached my hand out to Tatenashi. She grabbed my hand and I pulled her up.
We went to a small pod room, and made our way to a small gray egg-shaped ship that had just enough space for a pilot and passenger. "We've got some supplies for your journey." Coran handed me a backpack full of food and water. "I also took the liberty of putting the mountains coordinates into the ship. The ships autopilot will take you two to the mountain you're looking for.
"Thank you all for everything. You've truly been so kind to me, and I don't know how to repay you. If it weren't for you three, I'd be dust right about now." I chuckled.
"No repayment necessary. It was our honor, Master of Wind." Shiro smiled as he, Allura, and Coran bowed.
"If you ever need our help again, you know where to find us." Allura said to me as Tatenashi and I boarded the small craft. I nodded in acknowledgement. It was reassuring to know that I had allies in this dimension.
Tatenashi sat in the pilot's seat, and I in the passenger seat. "Time to go home." I smiled at Tatenashi. She nodded, and pressed the engine button on the ship. The ship launched out of the castle and off into space. Tatenashi grabbed a lever and began to push it forward, where a gate opened and our ship jumped into. Our adventure home had finally begun.