He'd been given his new orders: to report in to General Colbert on a weekly basis, with any news that might help the ADF to build a case against Tekkaman Blade. Tekkaman Varis wasn't of such immediate interest to the General, at least insofar as building a court case against him; what the General wanted out of that particular freak was the opportunity to take him into "protective custody", so his job from now on would be two-fold: find what he needed to get those two freak-brothers separated, and get Tekkaman Varis under the control of the ADF in general and General Colbert in particular; and at the same time, find out just what it was that Freeman was hiding. He didn't think it was going to be particularly easy, since those two freaks were clearly determined to stick together, almost like they were trying to be a normal family.
After this, though, who knew; any sensible person would know to be wary around someone who'd done their level best to kill him.
With that thought in mind, Balzac started getting ready for sleep. Tomorrow, after all, was going to be one hell of a busy day, he could just tell. As he settled down into his bed, Balzac made a mental note to make some time to talk with Tekkaman Varis; if he could separate those two freak-brothers, he'd have a much better chance of getting General Colbert what he wanted.
And that would get him what he wanted.
I
As he came out of the grip of his latest nightmare, Takaya held Shinya tighter, burying his face in his younger twin's chest; listening to the reassuring, steady beating of Shinya's heart, Takaya tried to calm his own. It had been a nightmare, nothing more; just one more in a long sequence of them. It hadn't been real; he wasn't a killer.
When he felt Shinya begin to stroke his hair, Takaya let himself relax.
(Are you feeling better?)
(I am, a bit,) he said, settling into his younger brother's touch. (Just… don't stop.)
(All right,) Varis said, and Blade felt more than heard his younger twin's chuckle.
(Thank you, Shinya,) he said, looking out over his younger twin's left shoulder.
He could see the moon over Shinya's left shoulder, and even though it wasn't full it still drew his attention. It was like some kind of a beacon, drawing his attention to it no matter how much he tried to avoid thinking about it; he didn't know why it drew him in the way it did, or why he wanted to avoid the sight of it at the same time. It was so confusing.
(Are your all right, Ta-kun?) Shinya asked, and he smiled slightly as he felt his younger twin's fingers running through his hair.
(Are you?)
(I am,) Shinya said, pulling back to look at him, bright blue eyes curious. (Why?)
Takaya could remember a time when his younger twin's eyes had been just the same shade of green as his; but that was a lifetime ago. (Your eyes.)
(What?)
(Everything's different now,) he said, glancing back down at his younger twin before turning his gaze back to the waning moon. (We're not who we were.)
(Yeah,) Shinya said, a whimsical smile playing about his lips. (But you were looking at the Moon again, Ta-kun.)
As Shinya hauled himself up and out of bed, Takaya followed his brother with a weary smile on his face; his younger twin seemed to have recovered from the... events of yesterday, even if Takaya wasn't about to let them go. He needed to remember what had happened, needed to, so that he could make sure that it would never happen again. So that he could make sure that he protected his younger twin in the future.
He was the older brother, that was what he was supposed to do.
As he met up with Shinya on their way out of his younger twin's room, Takaya wrapped both his arms around Shinya's right arm. He was still a bit shaken up from his nightmare, and the closer he could get to Shinya right now, the more he'd be able to reassure himself that it was just a nightmare. He still needed that reassurance.
When they stepped out onto the balcony, one just like the one that he'd had just off of his quarters, too, Takaya sighed. Looking up at the moon, Takaya curled a bit more tightly against Shinya's right side; his younger twin's body was radiating heat, and in the slight chill of the desert night without his vest or shirt on, Takaya was grateful for it. The waning moon exerted just as much force on his mind as it seemed to when it was full.
He still didn't understand it, but that was the way it was.
II
When Aki came out of her quarters, padding out onto the balcony that was attached to all of the standard crew-quarters in her pajamas, she yawned deeply; she had already tried all of the ways to get herself to fall asleep that she could manage while she had been staying inside her quarters, and none of them had seemed to work at all. Now, though, standing and staring at the twins – well, at D-Two, who was looking at someone on his right – Aki realized that she hadn't been the only one unable to get to sleep at this hour.
Given the clear worry in D-Two's body-language, and the way he was obviously keeping an eye on someone, Aki would have been willing to bet at least a few weeks' pay that D-Boy was just out of her line of sight, perfectly hidden by his twin brother's body. She looked a bit closer, not wanting to intrude on what was clearly a private moment but curious to know if D-Boy was there all the same, and saw D-Boy's body just visible behind – or rather on the other side of – his brother.
Turning to head back into her quarters, knowing that the twins would appreciate the privacy, since that seemed to be what they had come outside for in the first place, she left as quietly as she'd come. Well, they would appreciate the privacy, and the chance to look up at the moon, she mused, making her way back into her room. Maybe she'd go have a cup of tea; that was supposed to help people get to sleep.
III
His forays into the hidden places of OSDG Headquarters were bearing fruit in spades now, Balzac mused, as he carefully pushed the safety grate on the maintenance-tunnel up and out of his way. He'd been discreetly tailing Freeman on the excursions that the Space Knights' Chief made on a bi-weekly basis; the man was good, he had to admit, following no set schedule that anyone less observant than him would have been able to discern. Still, there was no one better than him at tailing people.
He'd learned from the best in the ADF, after all; no one could give him the slip.
Watching as Freeman made his way into the elevator, Balzac climbed down onto the top of it and waited. He felt more than heard the large, hydraulic motors engaging, and he smirked slightly. Right on time.
As the elevator began to descend, he settled into his crouch to wait; he didn't know just how long the Space Knight Chief would be riding this elevator, there was no real way for him to know just how deep the secret storage area that Freeman was obviously maintaining was, but that was what this trip was for. If Freeman was concealing something from his own Space Knights, then he would want to keep whatever it was deep enough within the base to be unnoticeable to them; somewhere that he thought only he could get to.
Somewhere Freeman thought that his allegedly infallible security system would be able to protect it; somewhere he thought that all of his secrets would be safe.
Nothing was safe; not from someone who had the kind of training that he had, not when he was equipped with the best stealth and surveillance – not to mention counter-surveillance – technology that the Allied Defense Force could provide. He was going to find out just what Freeman was determined to hide. And maybe even why he seemed to be so determined to hide it from his own people.
It seemed like something General Colbert would do, but everything about the Space Knights' Chief suggested that he didn't approve of the General at all; Freeman wasn't the kind of man to keep secrets solely to preserve his own power; then again, every man had his vices.
When the elevator he was riding stopped suddenly, Balzac barely had time for a surprised blink, before he saw a clear, most likely Plexiglas-topped, tunnel extending from the elevator that Freeman had entered at the start of this little excursion. It was almost surprising for him at first, before he realized that this was most likely why he thought no one would be able to find just whatever it was that he was keeping so secret from all of his people. He knew that Colbert suspected what it was, and he was starting to agree completely.
No one would go to these kinds of lengths unless they were protecting something incredibly sensitive, not to mention highly classified; Colbert would love getting his hands on this.
Ah, who knew you had such a device? he mused, waiting until the Space Knights' Chief had entered the other elevator, before springing forward from his crouch to land on the other elevator. Pretty clever of you… Now I'm even more anxious to learn your secret!
As the second elevator slowly descended, carrying him deeper into the recesses of the Space Knights' OSDG Headquarters, Balzac smiled; things were definitely getting interesting now.
Soon enough, this new elevator had stopped, he carefully pushed himself back up into a crouch and crawled over to the maintenance hatch in the elevator's ceiling. Opening it as quietly as he could, Balzac carefully peeked inside. After he'd searched the elevator as well as he could from his current position, he opened the hatch fully and stuck his head into the elevator car. Just as he'd suspected, Freeman was leaving the car and making his way down yet another corridor.
Dropping down into the car itself, just as Freeman was about to pass out of sight around a bend in the corridor, he quickly dodged out of sight behind the curved wall of the car. He knew that there was always a chance that Freeman would look back over his shoulder; admittedly there wasn't much of one, but Balzac hadn't gotten where he was today by being careless. And he wasn't about to start now.
Moving up to the absolute threshold of the elevator, he paused. Scanning the walls and ceiling for any signs of alarm-systems that might be triggered by something so simple as his walking out into the corridor, Balzac froze in his tracks. He's very cautious. I guess I'll have to cause some kind of commotion.
Pulling his enhanced, multi-spectrum visor out of his equipment-belt, Balzac raised them to his eyes and took a long, good look. It was an anti-personnel system, and a pretty airtight one from the looks of it. Still, there were always other ways to go about getting what you wanted out of life; this job was just going to be a bit more involved than most.
But, the more involved the job was, the greater the rewards would be.
Leaping back up into the elevator shaft, Balzac retrieved the small electromagnets that he had been provided with for just this kind of an occasion. Making his way back up the elevator shaft, Balzac carefully retraced his steps as well as he could considering his new location. As he climbed back up the shaft, Balzac considered how he was going to deal with that freak, Tekkaman Varis.
He'd have to be a bit leery around his brother, considering that he'd been nearly killed yesterday by that very same guy; he'd just have to use that to his advantage when he met with the kid during breakfast. Of course, he'd have to make some time for a nap before going off to breakfast, since he'd taken advantage of the so-late-it-was-actually-early hour of the morning to tail the Space Knights' Chief on his little excursion.
Still, he'd been checking his watch when he got the opportunity, so he knew that he had at least a few hours to get in some sleep before he'd have the chance to hunt down the little blue-eyed freak and get him to at least start thinking about a change of venue. Who knew, the freak might even be willing to come back to ADF Command with him when he left this place tomorrow. Balzac had to swallow a chuckle at that idea; it wasn't very likely, considering the fact that Varis had clearly signed up as a member of the Space Knights and that he seemed to have a lot of friends in the organization, but still, a man could dream.
Making his way back to his quarters, he went inside and settled himself down on the bed; not to sleep, of course, since there was still some work he had left to do, but just to have something soft to sit on while he was typing up his latest report.
"The test of the new experimental missile for the attack on the Orbital Ring is scheduled to take place at Area 11, Section 47," he muttered, talking just to hear his own voice, the way he usually did when he was alone on a particularly involved job. "That should do it," he continued, even as he composed a message that, he thought, would be sure to bring the Radam, or at least their Radam monsters, down in droves. "If I blast this information over the ADF's channel, well…" he said, as the wifi-modem on his bed went to work transmitting the message he'd just whipped up.
Putting his computer away, after he'd carefully shut the computer down and stored all of its components, he sighed. "I'm counting on you, Radam, to swallow this bait," he said, feeling a sense of satisfaction as he stared up at the ceiling. "There's bound to be an uproar soon!"
Sure, there were a few other things that he needed to take care of before he could finally leave this command center and all of its Space Knights behind, most of them relating to getting Freeman's secret, and seeing just how he could manage to get that Varis kid to at least consider going over to the ADF. Sure, he might've had friends in the Space Knights, but the kid had nearly been killed yesterday. Something like that was bound to have an effect on a man.
No matter if they were a freak.
Settling back into his bed, aiming to get what sleep he could while he could, Balzac removed his jacket and his boots, then did the same for his khaki pants, folding the jacket and setting it down on the nightstand on top of his computer. Then he flung the thin, white cover over his body and settled down onto the mattress. The thing was just about as comfortable as his old one back at ADF Command, but he'd never really had anything better, so he wasn't complaining.
IV
When morning rolled around, without him having to use any nerve-pinches to get Takaya to go back to sleep after they had spent an indeterminate time just staring up at the moon the way that Takaya had seemed to want them to do. He wasn't about to mention it to his brother, since it seemed to have fallen to him to be the sensible one when Takaya was going off in his head, but the moon had seemed to exert some sort of pull over him; a strange one, to be sure, since he'd also been a bit unnerved by the sight of the moon overhead, but a pull all the same. It was strange, but easy enough to avoid in the future.
He just wouldn't talk about it, that was all.
Takaya was walking closer to him today, even closer than he had that first time that the two of them had faced Kengo. Shinya knew why, of course; the only real hitch was that his older twin seemed to shy away slightly whenever Shinya tried to actually touch him. He pretty much understood the reason for that, too, and it made him entirely too eager to belt his bonehead of an older brother upside that thick skull of his; the only thing that kept Shinya from acting on that urge was the bone-deep knowledge that it wouldn't do any good.
Some things needed a more delicate touch.
As the two of them continued on their way down to the cafeteria, with him greeting the people they knew, and Takaya seeming to be doing his best to ignore the fact that there was anyone else in OSDG Headquarters aside from the two of them, Shinya sighed as they made it into the large, bustling room. Shinya could only hope that no one who wasn't his older twin was going to try his patience today. The way he was starting to feel, that would have... unpleasant consequences.
As they got their food, and Takaya kept shooting him worried looks when he thought that he wouldn't be caught out at it, Shinya tried to reign in his urge to smack his older twin upside the head. It still wouldn't do any good, but the way he was feeling at the moment, Shinya was starting not to care quite so much. He'd probably be stopping by the gym after breakfast to work off some of the tension that was starting to get to him.
He didn't know what Takaya would be doing with the rest of his day, the day that he was hoping wouldn't be interrupted by a Radam attack, but at this point he was annoyed enough not to care.
When the two of them finished their meal, and he'd taken to kicking the table at odd intervals so he didn't end up kicking Takaya when his moron of an older twin gave him yet another of those worried looks, Shinya got up from the table with a deep, annoyed sigh.
"If you didn't want me here, brother, you could've said," he said, shooting his moron of an older twin a Look.
"Shinya…"
"Idiot," he said, as Takaya trailed off.
Leaving once he was at least reasonably sure that Takaya wasn't going to be saying anything else, Shinya made his way out of the cafeteria after he had taken his dishes over to the counter so one of the staff could wash them. He wasn't going to worry about Takaya, since his brother would either get over whatever it was that was bothering him or he wouldn't, but he did take one, last look over his shoulder at where his brother was sitting. Takaya was still sitting there, just staring down at his tray in a way that made Shinya long to walk right back over there and slap some sense into him.
That wouldn't have helped anything, though, much as it would have broken the tension that was humming in Shinya's nerves; besides, Takaya's messed-up head was his business, and maybe it was just best to give him some time to pull himself together.
Continuing on his way to the gym, still a bit tense from the morning's annoyances but with his usual good-humor beginning to reassert itself, Shinya smiled slightly. He really should have expected something like this; Takaya had always been kind of an idiot. Still, it was in the past, it had happened; sure, they were going to have to be sure to stay on their respective toes, to make sure that something like that didn't happen again, but the only thing that Takaya's being dull and broody was going to accomplish was getting him punched in the head when Shinya's patience for it finally ran out.
"Oi, Tekkaman Boy!" he heard someone call out.
"Yeah?" he answered easily, before he had completely noticed that it was Balzac. "What is it?" Sure, the man had been pretty quiet over the time he'd spent with the Space Knights, not pestering him and Takaya for interviews; not after he'd gotten slapped, at least.
"I was just thinking; you had kind of a tough time yesterday, didn't you," the other man said, looking like he was about to reach out and clasp his shoulder; Shinya looked at him and he pulled back.
He might have been willing to hear the man out, but that didn't mean they were friends. "What of it?"
"Oi, oi, Tekkaman Boy, you don't have to play tough with me," Balzac said, grinning at him in a way Shinya didn't like. "All of the other Space Knights might be acting like nothing big happened yesterday; just sweeping it under the rug, and hoping that nothing else like this happens in the future. But you and I both know that nothing's really the same as it was."
"What do you mean?" he asked, not liking the implications of Balzac's words but wanting to give the man a chance to commit himself before he did anything.
"You can't expect me to believe you're okay with what happened," Balzac said, turning a sidelong look on him as the two of them fell into step beside each other; or rather, as Balzac tagged along with him on his way to the gym. "In fact, I'd bet that you're sporting some pretty interesting bruises under that collar of yours."
Swatting the blond's hand away as he made a grab for said collar, Shinya glared. "You're assuming too much."
"Seems you're a little touchy about what almost happened back there," Balzac said, sounding like he was smirking; Shinya tried all the harder to ignore him. "Still, I can't really say I blame you," the man said, clearly trying to sound like a friend. "After all, your own brother tried to murder you yesterday. That's goingto have a profound effect on a man."
"Yeah?" he asked, giving Balzac a sidelong, slightly annoyed glance.
"I just wanted you to know that, if you ever want to get away from these people, or at least from your unstable brother, you can always come to ADF Command with me," he could see the look on Balzac's face, and he didn't like it. "After all, they wouldn't let someone as clearly unstable as your brother out of sight. Not like the Space Knights seem so willing to do."
"Yeah?" he asked, in the clipped tone that would have let anyone who knew him know that he was severely annoyed with the person that he was talking to; too bad for Balzac that he didn't know that.
"I'm sure you know how General Colbert takes his responsibility to defend the Earth seriously," Balzac said. "But, he also takes his responsibility to take care of his people seriously. He'd never let your deranged brother out of his sight after the stunt he pulled yesterday."
"That's nice," he answered, his tone flat and almost excessively pleasant; anyone else would have probably expected the punch that slammed Balzac's head into the wall opposite where they had both been standing.
As the blond crumpled to the ground, covering the eye that Shinya had just punched him in, Shinya himself turned and started for the gym again. With any luck, he wouldn't encounter the annoying blond for the rest of the day.
V
As he sat there, hand over his right eye, watching as that blue-eyed freak walked calmly away, Balzac smirked slightly. Well, I guess you're tougher than I thought, Tekkaman Varis. Either that, or the little freak was stuck more deeply under his older brother's thumb than he'd first thought; he pretty much doubted that, though. Whatever else you could say about that blue-eyed freak, he was stubborn as all hell when he wanted to be.
Hauling himself back to his feet, Balzac made his way back to the room that Freeman had assigned him for the duration of his stay at the Space Knights' OSDG Headquarters. He was going to be sporting one hell of a shiner later, but since he could afford some downtime before he made his announcement to the main corps of the Space Knights themselves, he wasn't too worried about it. As he continued on his way down the corridors between the place he'd met up with Varis and the room he was going to be vacating soon, Balzac smirked slightly.
He hadn't honestly been expecting the freak to just break off from the Space Knights, cut ties with his brother, and leave the place where he'd been staying these past months all in one day; it would've been one hell of a coup, though.
Once he was back in the room he'd been given, Balzac got out some supplies to tend to his eye. He hadn't figured on needing to actually use the med-kit he'd found in the attached bathroom, but then again he also hadn't expected to end up getting punched in the head. At least, not when he wasn't actively fighting.
Tending to his bruised eye, Balzac laughed softly; whatever else you could say about what had happened today, it was one hell of a send-off.
VI
Within Omega's vessel, inside the tekkapod that had captured her so long ago – snapping her up like Kengo's little brother with a cream puff – Feng Li tried to hold herself together. She'd sensed Kengo sometimes, coming and going within the vessel; but it hadn't really been Kengo that she'd sensed.
Kengo Aiba was human; he hadn't been telepathic, and he most certainly hadn't been serving an evil overlord who was bent on conquering the Earth and enslaving all of her people to serve the Radam and their Empire. Feng Li almost wished that she had been one of the ones killed during some stage of the Tekkaprocess; her fiancé might as well be dead, and she herself was slowly losing her mind.
Her eyes were already closed, and had been for an interminably long time, or else she would have closed them now. She didn't quite know where she was within the ship, nor did she particularly care, but it would have been nice to have something to focus on. Something that she could use to focus on in an effort to hold her mind together as the Radam influence tried to wear away at it.
She wasn't Tekkaman Sword, she was never going to be Tekkaman Sword; Sword was the name of a slave, one of the Radam's weapons, to be used in their endless effort to subjugate every other species in the galaxy.
Still, Feng Li didn't know just how long she was going to be able to hold herself together in this constant sensory-deprivation she was being subject to. She also had no idea how many of the others were still themselves. Her mind was still human, even in spite of all the ways that Omega was trying to change it, and she wasn't going to start using powers that no human being had ever had.
That would be the first step toward losing herself entirely, Feng Li knew.
VII
Twitching inside the tekkapod, trying to keep at least some awareness of his body, Shinji Mabashi breathed deeply in and out; Mr. Goddard had implied that that kind of thing was important when you were trying to meditate, and that meditation was good for keeping one's thoughts in order. Shinji didn't know if that kind of stuff was meant to work in these conditions: when you were a captive inside an alien ship, being turned into a living weapon to be set loose on your own planet, but he was still going to try to hang on. It was really the only thing he could do, under the circumstances.
Even if he was essentially trapped in the tekkapod, with the Radam picking away at his mind, intending to turn him into Tekkaman Lance, he could at least delay them somewhat. He knew that the others would be doing just the same. The ones who'd managed to survive the initial horrors of the transformation process, at least.
Shinji just wished sometimes that he hadn't been one of them.
VIII
It was finally time; he'd packed up his few belongings, gotten his reports in order, and sent out the message that would bring the Radam down in droves so that he would have the time he needed to investigate that secret room that Freeman had been hiding for who knew how long after those two freak-brothers had shown up. He'd be able to leave after he took care of the few things keeping him here. He'd have to let the Space Knights know that he was going, of course, just so they didn't get the idea that he was somehow responsible for what was about to happen, not that he really expected any of them to; some of them still might not have liked him, but he didn't think any of them would suspect him of being a spy. Not even Freeman seemed to have picked up on his activities, and he was the one that Balzac had been concerned about the most.
His eye had healed up well enough that anyone who didn't know he'd been punched in the first place wasn't likely to notice the bruising at all. So, no one but him and that blue-eyed freak, Tekkaman Varis, were going to be aware of it. He certainly wasn't about to tell anyone.
Leaving the assigned room, picking up his small duffle so he could take it back out to his car, Balzac slung the strap over his left shoulder and continued on his way out into the corridor. Someone was bound to notice, and he was already cooking up a story. It was a simple one, of course, nothing that any of them would really be inclined to look too deeply into, but a few of the main corps would probably object just on general principle.
Milly and Levin, to be precise.
As he continued on his way, greeting the other members of the Space Knights as he ran across them – the ones that General Colbert hadn't been interested in, and hence neither had he – Balzac wondered for a moment if he was actually going to make it out to his Jeep without running into any of the main corps of the Space Knights. That could have both good and bad repercussions; good insofar as he would have extra time to get himself settled for moving back into his own quarters, bad because it might make some of the more suspicious people curious about the Radam attack that was going to happen later.
"Hey, Balzac! What's that bag you've got there?" he looked down slightly, grinning when he saw Milly tagging along with him. Perfect. "Are you going somewhere"
He laughed. "This is all of the things I brought with me, plus the information I collected for my article while I was staying with all of you."
"You're leaving?" Milly asked, looking at him with an expression he took to be slightly reproving; he ignored it.
"Yeah," he said, reaching down to ruffle her hair a bit. "I'm going to head out to my Jeep now to pack up. I'll see you when I get back?"
"Yeah," Milly said, looking like the idea he'd planted in her head had taken root pretty nicely.
"All right, then," he said, making his way past her.
It probably wouldn't take Milly all that long to tell the other members of the Space Knights, and then he'd be able to take care of that last, little thing that he wanted to get done.
Making his way out of this sub-section of the OSDG Headquarters, Balzac quickly found his Jeep and tossed his duffel lightly inside. There was nothing particularly delicate inside it, and he'd made sure to pack the thing well enough that it could take a bit of rough handling. Tucking his hands into his pockets, Balzac fiddled with his keys a bit as he turned and made his way back into the OSDG Headquarters.
When he made it back to the place where he'd left Milly, he found that, just like he'd been expecting, a good number of the Space Knights were looking for him now.
"You need to explain this," Honda said, grabbing his left arm and gently pulling him along; he wondered for a few seconds just where they were going, but he'd find out soon enough.
"I'd wager you're right, Honda," he said, grinning slightly. "Can't just leave without explaining myself, now can I?"
Chuckling deep in his throat, as he let Honda lead the way toward wherever it was that the Space Knights' main corps was planning to meet him for their little chat, Balzac worked up his façade again. Not that he'd ever really dropped it, not while he was here of all places, but he just settled a bit more into the role. It never hurt to make things look as natural as possible.
When Honda finally let him go, Balzac took a look around. Surprisingly enough, he found himself standing on the catwalk overlooking the repair bay. If there was one place that he wouldn't have been expecting an interview, it would have been this place right here.
Still, there were chairs set up in a little circle, and there was a clear space obviously meant for him, so he settled himself down in this odd little meeting place.
"What?" Levin asked, clearly wanting to hear it from him rather than just second-hand. "You're leaving tomorrow?"
"That's right. I pretty much have everything I need for my article," he lied.
"But," Levin said. "Can't you stay a little longer?"
"I wish I could, but my workload's really backed-up," he lied. He took a bag out from under his left arm, setting it in his lap. "Honda, here are your pictures," he said, trying to sound like it was just generosity on his part that had persuaded him to do it. It wasn't like he, or anyone else, had a real use for these things, though. "You're sending them to your family, right?"
"Oh, right. Thanks," Honda added, and even if he hadn't been able to see the man's face, Balzac would have known that he was grinning.
"Hey, don't mention it," he said, digging the photos out of the bag so he could hand them over.
"My pictures turned out great, too!" Milly exclaimed, and he smiled briefly at her enthusiasm.
"Hey, not bad at all," Honda said, sounding pleased. "You made me look pretty sharp in these."
He might have been willing to take the photographs necessary to get his job done, but that didn't mean that he was going to take up photography as a hobby. He had much better, more interesting things to do with his time.
"Oh, what a bummer," Levin said, settling back into his seat with what Balzac thought was an exaggerated expression of discontent. "I wanted you to be the cameraman for the photo collection I'm going to publish."
"I appreciate that," he half-lied; sure, he appreciated the compliments, but he still wasn't remotely interested in photography.
"Want me to take them, instead?" Honda asked.
"Thanks, but no thanks," Levin said.
"You guys look like you're having fun. Did something good happen?" When he heard that voice, it was all Balzac could do not to smirk openly; seemed like the gang was all here, now.
"No, just the opposite," Milly said, in response to Noal's half statement, half question.
"Balzac's leaving us tomorrow," Honda said.
"What? You're leaving?"
"I owe you people a lot," he said, putting on an appropriate expression. "Especially you, D-Boys!"
"Come to think of it, Balzac didn't take any candid photos of our D-Boys," Levin piped up, drawing his attention back. "You should have him take at least a couple," he looked back at the other man, and saw that he was looking directly at the freak-brothers. "For when you regain your memories and are reunited with your family!"
Whatever effect he'd been expecting that line to have on those two freak-brothers, it definitely hadn't been the one he was witnessing: Blade seemed to freeze for a moment, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly.
"Our family…" the freak repeated, something in his eyes that Balzac couldn't readily identify; he didn't get much of a chance, though, since Blade turned and left without another word.
Varis winced. "Sorry," he said, before turning on his heel and quickly following his brother.
The whole sequence couldn't have taken more than half a minute; and if that kind of behavior didn't just scream "secrets here; investigate now" he'd eat the damn beard after he'd finished shaving it. Tracking the freak-brothers before they could get too far ahead of him, not paying much mind to what the rest of the Space Knights were saying, he stayed just far enough out of their range that they wouldn't be likely to hear him, while at the same time being careful to keep the both of them in sight.
Neither of them seemed to have any particular destination in mind, so he wasn't surprised when they stopped at the first open, unenclosed space that they found. Finding himself standing out in the open air, Balzac looked around for a few moments, before turning his attention back to the freak-brothers. They were all standing on a high, steel plateau, and those two were staring out into the canyon, just in front of the railing.
The two of them had their backs to him, but the subtle differences in their hairstyles let him tell them apart: Varis' right arm was wrapped around Blade's waist, Blade's left arm was wrapped around Varis' shoulders, and both of them had their heads leaning against the other's. Although, given the way that Blade's head was neatly tucked into the crook of Varis' neck, it seemed that their little family dynamic was just a bit different than what he'd been expecting.
From all that he'd seen, Blade had seemed to be the big talker; but it looked like Varis was the man behind the man, so to speak. That was an interesting angle to consider. It might just mean that breaking those two freaks up could actually have some side-benefits to it.
Moving forward, Balzac wasn't surprised to see those two snap right back into their usual, stoic roles; they'd have probably done just the same for anyone else who'd come out to see them at this kind of a moment.
"Balzac?" Blade growled.
"What's giving you two such a headache?" he said, smiling in an effort to put the freaks at ease; probably a futile gesture, but whatever. "My lonely Tekkaman Boys?"
"What?" Blade demanded.
"Just a thought," he said, coming out to join them at the railing. He moved to stand next to Blade, since being punched in the face once today had been more than enough for his taste, thank you very much. "Let's leave it alone for now, huh? Why don't you tell me what that armor of yours is made of?"
"Some kind of crystal-lattice structure," Varis said, drawing Balzac's attention. "More durable than anything on Earth."
Yeah, I'll say, he mused, thinking back on the tactical-nuke that Tekkaman Blade had shrugged off just yesterday. "Well..."
"Balzac," Blade said, flashing him an icy look from those green eyes of his. "What are you getting at?"
"After thirty minutes, you switch from being a hero to a demon, Dangerous Boy," he asked, putting what he hoped was just the right amount of shock and curiosity into his tone; Varis was giving him a harsh stare from over his brother's left shoulder, but he didn't think that either of them particularly suspected anything. "What about your brother? Is he a demon, too?" he elucidated. "If we humans could just find a way to create a Tekkaman without that flaw, it'd be a load off your backs, Tekkaman Boys."
"Is there even a way to do that?" Blade asked, standing upright and turning around. Blade didn't sound particularly interested, but then that pretty much figured; they were talking about the thing that would make him and his freak of a twin brother obsolete, after all.
"Hey, we can't be sure of that unless we try. Really, I envy you, Tekkaman Boys. You're the only men on Earth who can fight the Radam. I wish I could trade places with one of you!" he said, folding his arms over the railing as he leaned out over the canyon; Varis, who'd turned so that he had the railing at his back and rested his elbows on it, gave him a long, considering stare.
"I'd trade places with anyone, if I could bring brother with me!" Blade almost growled; Balzac found it kind of funny how Blade was the last one of them to actually remain standing upright: Varis was leaning back against the railing, and now he was leaning forward over it.
It was funny, especially given that they were all looking in the same general direction.
"Really?" he asked, staring out over the canyon that the various portions of the OSDG Headquarters had been built on. "To me, it seems like you Tekkaman Boys revel in your status… Am I right?"
"No, you're an idiot," Varis drawled, sounding fairly annoyed. "Do you have anything to say that isn't stupid?"
He laughed. "We could really be friends, Varis Boy." He even meant that. For a freak, Varis wasn't half bad; he'd have fit right in with their little gang back in the slums. He didn't know if Malraux would feel the same way, but it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that they would meet. Malraux would insist on being there to test the fruits of his labor, naturally. "Your fate as the only people able to fight the Radam..."
"How dare you…" Blade snarled.
Just then, the base-wide alarms went off. Right on schedule, he mused, as both of the freak-brothers snapped to attention. Varis muttered a word that he hadn't suspected any of the Space Knights even knew; the little freak would have definitely fit in down in the slums. Too bad they hadn't met sooner.
"Sorry. I just got a little excited, that's all," he said, unable to stop himself from smirking ever so slightly at Blade; while Varis might have been all right, considering what he was, Blade was a different story. "Shouldn't you both get going? I think the Radam have shown up again," he jerked his thumb back over his right shoulder, in the general direction of the Radam's latest landing-site.
Just as the two freak-brothers had turned to go, but before they were out of hearing-range, he called out: "Good luck to both of you! My 30-minute heroes!"
If looks could have killed, the one Varis gave him would have splattered his corpse all over the artificial plateau, probably leaving chunks of him dripping down into the canyon below them. It didn't last long, though; Varis grabbed of his brother's vest by the shoulder, and the two of them hightailed it back into the Space Knights' OSDG Headquarters like a pair of racing greyhounds.
"Looks like the Radam took the bait," he said, looking over to the trio of vultures that had been circling in the sky while he and the freak-brothers had been talking. "Just like I planned."
IX
As the two of them ran back into OSDG Headquarters, Takaya tried his hardest not to think about what Balzac had last said to him. He couldn't have known what had happened yesterday, what had been tormenting him for just over this entire day; what he was going to do everything in his power to prevent from ever happening again. A sudden, sharp pain in his head caused Takaya to look over at Shinya.
"Come on, idiot," Shinya said, a slight tightness in his younger twin's voice giving the only clue about Shinya's mental state; his younger twin was obviously annoyed.
"Sorry," he said, making more of an effort to control himself; even if he couldn't get over this kind of thing quickly, he had to at least hide it better.
Bypassing Comm. One, since it was obvious that they didn't have the time for one of Chief Freeman's briefings and because it was even more obvious what the Radam were doing, he and Shinya headed for the Blue Earth's hangar at their top running-speed. Meeting up with Aki and Noal on the way there, both he and Shinya passed them by fairly quickly on their way to the Blue Earth itself. Dashing through the body of the ship, Takaya grabbed one of the ration-boxes that had been stored in the aft-section for them and saw Shinya grabbing the other one out of the corner of his eye.
The two of them quickly settled down into their respective seats, and Takaya dug into the rations as he waited for Aki and Noal to catch up to them. He didn't have to wait very long, since his two fellow Space Knights had been running just the same way he and Shinya had.
He wondered for a few moments if his younger twin was really as calm about this latest mission of theirs as he was trying to seem; Shinya had nearly been killed yesterday, and now here he was joking around with Noal like everything was normal again. It didn't make sense to him, but then Shinya – even back when he'd just been Aiba Shinya – had always seemed to be... stronger than he was, that way.
The powerful rumbling of the Blue Earth's engines served to focus Takaya's mind on what they were heading into. The Radam were attacking again, and Takaya wondered for a long moment just what they could be planning now. With the attack on the power plant, he'd at least known in a general sense what they'd been up to; even if Kengo had managed to turn it all against him in the end, he'd at least had an idea of what he and Shinya were facing.
This time, though, he didn't have a clue; Takaya was flying blind, and he hated it.
"I don't get it," Aki said, sounding just as confused as Takaya felt. "Why are the Radam heading for Area 11, Section 47 when there's absolutely nothing there?"
"It was small-scale, but there used to be a military research facility there," Noal said. "I'll bet the Radam found out about one of the ADF's covert operations."
"Boys," Aki called softly.
"We're fine, Aki-chan," Shinya said, laughing softly; Takaya clenched his jaw, wondering again if that was true. "Don't worry."
"This may not be necessary, but keep it in mind," Chief Freeman said, speaking to them over the comm., since they'd gone directly to the Blue Earth instead of making a stop in Comm. One the way they usually did. "Both of you, be careful of your time-limits. Noal, Aki, you also have to keep their time-limits in mind, while Tekkaman Blade and Tekkaman Varis are fighting."
"Roger!" everyone in the Blue Earth acknowledged; Takaya knew better than anyone just what kind of horrible things would happen if he allowed himself to overstay his time limit.
"Don't worry, D-Boy," Noal said, then he chuckled. "If the two of you aren't back in twenty-two minutes, I'll let you know by blasting some lasers."
"Thank you very much, Noal," Shinya said, his tone dry as desert dust.
As they continued on their way, Takaya couldn't help but wonder just what he and Shinya were going to have to face this time; what they would have to do to survive.
X
Making his way through the corridors of the OSDG Headquarters, knowing that every one of the main corps would be distracted by that Radam attack that he had just arranged for, Balzac greeted the few people that he passed on his way down to the elevator. It would have seemed strange for him not to, and even with his departure immanent, he wasn't going to let up on the cover that had served him so well.
Finally inside the elevator, he hit the "down" button and waited. He'd counted the floors that Freeman had gone down when the Space Knights' commander had made his own descent, so as he watched the floor-indicator count upward. When the elevator reached the eighth level of OSDG Headquarters' clearly extensive sub-basement, Balzac pressed the stop button on the elevator's control pad; not the emergency-stop, since that would have alerted technicians and repair crew all over the base about what he was doing, but the dull green button just under the "down" button.
Once the elevator was stopped on the eighth sub-basement level, he took out a small, flat-head screwdriver and his mini-computer. Using the screwdriver, he removed the cover-plate from the floor-indicator; underneath was a blank length of composite metal, but with scuff-marks indicating that it wasn't the only thing to be hidden back there. Just like I thought: a set of hidden controls, just out of sight. Clever, Freeman.
He could almost respect a man who was willing to go this far to protect his own investments; this mission wasn't about respect, though. And besides, this was probably his ticket out of the Space Knights' OSDG Headquarters. No matter how much Freeman's dedication to preserving his own secrets, and hence his own power, he'd had more than his fill of the Space Knights.
Setting the detached cover-plate atop his mini-computer, Balzac detached a pair of datataps from the top right side of his mini-computer, and tucked his screwdriver back into his pocket. Plugging them into the newly-revealed keypad, he booted-up the program that he and Malraux had designed together. Well, Malraux had been the one to actually get the program to work; he'd just been the idea-guy, and the one responsible for fetching coffee and sugary treats when his old friend had wanted them. It was one of the things that came of not being a genius.
Once the program was up and running, trying tens of thousands of different random-number combinations a second, all Balzac had to do was wait for it to discover the exact sequence of numbers that Freeman had used to call that other elevator that he'd used. He didn't have all that long to wait, fortunately. Entering the code into the now-revealed keypad, Balzac watched as the elevator's doors opened.
Whistling softly as the same Plexiglas-and-steel tunnel that he'd seen just this morning extended out from the other elevator to meet him, Balzac put away his mini-computer and made his way down the tunnel. It was time to find out just what it was that Freeman had been keeping secret from everyone for so long.
XI
The Blue Earth swooped in, thrusters powering it ever deeper into the swarm of Radam monsters that had showed up just a couple of minutes ago. Not particularly in the mood to stay behind and watch, or to have Noal getting on them for taking so long to move out, Shinya levered himself up and out of his seat. Looking back over his left shoulder, he found that Takaya was doing the same, so that was one less thing he had to worry about. One less thing that he'd have to yell at his idiot of an older twin for when they made it back to OSDG Headquarters.
Takaya had pulled out ahead of him as they ran, and since he was perfectly aware that he'd have to wait until Pegas had dropped out of the Blue Earth's cargo-hold before he would have the chance to fly out of the ship himself, Shinya let him. At least this way, he didn't have to head for the secondary air-lock.
When Takaya stopped dead in his tracks, just after he'd activated Pegas and the both of them had started to make a run for the launching-platform, Shinya was forced to dig in his heels in an effort not to end up tackling his brother from behind. Not only would that kind of thing have been particularly embarrassing, but it would have cost them both more time than Takaya was already using up.
"Brother," he called, when he'd waited for a handful of seconds to see if Takaya was going to start moving on his own again. "Oi, brother!"
Reaching out to touch Takaya's shoulder, Shinya wasn't entirely surprised when Takaya whipped around to face him.
"Shinya," Takaya muttered, grabbing his right shoulder; Shinya noticed that his brother's hand was trembling slightly, and considering the way Takaya had his head tilted forward so that his longish bangs shaded his bright green eyes, Shinya wasn't entirely surprised when his older twin wrapped him up in his arms.
Takaya was shaking, though Shinya only realized that once he'd wrapped his own arms around his older twin in an effort to comfort him. He thought it was kind of funny, sometimes; here he was the younger of the two of them, and Takaya was the one to lean on him as an unfailing pillar of emotional strength. Still, if that was what his brother needed him to be, then that was what he was going to give him.
The soft chirp of the comm-screen activating prompted Shinya to open his right eye slightly, his left being hidden by Takaya's hair and so not in much of a position to be opened; not without certain consequences, at least. Noal stared at the two of them for a few seconds, blinking as he took in the sight in front of him; Shinya swallowed a chuckle as Noal sunk his face into his right hand. He didn't really want to disturb Takaya, but it was just so funny seeing Noal looking like that.
"D-Boys, now's not the time for this," Aki said, sounding like she was trying to be annoyed with them, but Shinya could tell that the Blue Earth's navigator was more amused than anything. "The Earth needs you fighting."
"I'll see what I can do," he retorted, turning so he could smirk over Takaya's shoulder at Noal. "What do you think, brother?"
He felt more than heard Takaya's chuckle. "Yeah," he said, and when his older twin looked back up at him, Shinya could see his smile. "Let's go."
Takaya clearly hadn't been crying, but it was clear that he'd needed that bit of comfort all the same. As Takaya resumed his run at Pegas' interlock-chamber, Shinya pulled out his tekkaset. Calling upon the power that the Radam had forced on him, Shinya followed his brother out into the cargo bay. Once more unto the breach, as usual.
"Teksetta!"
XII
Finally in a position to finish this whole investigation, his multi-spectrum vision-goggles affixed to his face and all of his belt's pouches filled with all the tools that he thought he would be needing to make this little trip, Balzac found himself smiling slightly as he stood in front of the long, dark hallway that the Space Knights' Chief had walked down just this morning. As he began to assemble the grappling-pistol that would enable him to take the first step toward getting through this latest and greatest of the obstacles in front of him, Balzac finally let his smile show fully. There were few things that could stop him, after all, and he had all the tools he would need to bypass pretty much every one of them.
With his grappling-pistol fully assembled, Balzac fired his first magnetic-grapple line at the ceiling, tugging on it to make sure it had anchored firmly before he retracted the slack, then he affixed the thing to his tool-belt, taking care to ensure that all of the connections were functioning properly. When he was certain that this phase of his preparations was as complete as he was going to be able to get it, Balzac rose back to his feet, pulling in the excess slack in the grapple-cord as he did. Closing up the case that contained his remaining tools for this job, Balzac slung it over his body diagonally; best to have his tools close at hand.
Once he was back on his feet again, with his first grapple-cord as tight as it was going to get, Balzac fired a double-ended grapple-line at the far end of the hall, anchoring the other end to the elevator that he was still standing in; all the while taking great care not to cut any of the laser-tripwires that he could see so clearly through his multi-spectrum viewer. Hooking his boots onto the line, Balzac began to calmly make his way across the floorspace that he'd have otherwise been completely unable to cross.
He'd been trained for this, and trained well; he'd performed just this kind of insertion time and time again under controlled circumstances, but that didn't mean it wasn't exhilarating. After all, these circumstances were about as far from controlled as you could get; one mistake here could cost him the entire operation. Besides, who knew what kind of defensive measures Freeman would have in place. Sure, General Colbert hadn't seemed to think that the Space Knights' Chief would be the kind of man to have a lethal defense-system set up inside his own headquarters, but Balzac had long since learned not to trust second-hand intelligence.
Even the kind that General Colbert's network provided.
As he began to notice the line he was climbing down starting to sag ever so slightly, Balzac took out one of the many magnetic grapple-cords that he had stored in his tool-belt. Fixing it to the ceiling, he clipped the other end to his cord and then continued on his way. The space between the laser-tripwires was starting to feel a bit narrower, but he knew that that was only his mind starting to play tricks on him; he'd trained to deal with just this kind of thing in the past, under those controlled conditions that he remembered so well, if not entirely fondly. He was a professional; he kept moving.
He'd find what he was looking for at the end of this hallway, or at least he'd be closer still to his goal.
XIII
He could sense Tekkaman Varis behind him, and as much as he would have preferred that his younger twin stayed back in OSDG Headquarters – as much as he worried that something might happen to him out here – Blade knew that if he'd suggested that kind of thing, Shinya would have punched him. He knew that Shinya had been annoyed with him, back during the earlier hours of the day, back when he'd had a bit more time to remember the dreams he'd been having last night, but he hadn't known quite what to do about it. He wasn't strong like Shinya; he couldn't just brush aside the dreams, the memories of what he'd almost done yesterday.
Still, Tekkaman Varis was here with him now, and there were enemies in front of them; he didn't need his brother to tell him what was more important.
Pulling out his lancer, even as he sensed Varis doing the same, Blade spun it to deflect the sprays of Radam monster venom that were being fired at him. Varis was riding behind him on Pegas, or at least he had been the last time Blade had seen him. Looking back over his shoulder as he began to hear familiar battlecries, Blade saw that Varis had started making his own way through the mass of Radam monsters threatening him.
(Don't overreach yourself, Shinya,) he said; it was as close as he could get to telling Varis to be careful without his younger twin getting annoyed with him, and even then he had to make sure not to sound too serious.
(What, do you think I'm you, Ta-kun?) Varis retorted, and Blade could hear his younger twin's laughter over their link. (Don't underestimate me.)
That doesn't mean I can't worry about you, brother, Blade mused, behind the mental walls that he'd put up. Shinya wasn't the kind of person who liked being fussed over; still, Blade was determined to do all that he could to spare his younger twin unnecessary suffering. It was all he could do, considering all that Shinya did for him.
Hacking, slashing, and continuing to drive through the ranks of Radam monsters in front of him, all the while wondering just what it was that Omega had in mind for them to do here in a sector that Aki had said was unimportant to either the Military or the Space Knights, Blade wondered if Omega could have had something else in mind. Still, whatever it was, he, Varis, and the others were going to stop it. No matter what.
XIV
He'd clipped on two additional grapple-cords as he'd made his way down the hallway, and now Balzac was happy to note that he'd finally come to the end of the laser-tripwires. Well, nearly so, since there were still a few stragglers that he could see looming in front of him. It was a welcome sight; sure, he might've been tough enough to deal with the maze of laser-tripwires in front of him, but tiring himself out climbing wasn't going to do him any good here.
Once he was sure that there was nothing else in front of him that he'd be required to deal with, Balzac happily removed his multi-spectrum viewing-goggles and dismounted from his grapple-line with a calm forward-flip. He would be needing it again, at least if he didn't find a way to deactivate the security system from the room that Freeman was obviously hiding at the end of end of this corridor. He wondered for a moment if he would, before he took off at a run down the remaining section of corridor in front of him.
When something popped out of a recess in the ceiling, something that oddly enough bore a striking resemblance to the old sprinkler-systems that he'd seen on some abandoned buildings back when he and Malraux had lived in the bad part of town, Balzac was surprised for a few, crucial seconds. When the faux sprinkler-head began to rain down laserfire on him, he quickly got over his initial startlement and dodged them. Guess I got a bit cocky, there, he mused, even as he let his deeply-trained reflexes carry him out of the path of the beams raining down on him. I have to remember not to do that.
Reaching into his tool belt, Balzac pulled free one of the few pieces of standard equipment he carrier that could have easily been considered a weapon. Hell, it pretty much was a weapon, under any set of definitions that wasn't the ADF's. Firing off four of the razor-sharp, serrated discs, Balzac let himself breathe more easily once they had severed all of the power-lines and control-cables to the laser-array that had been taking shots at him; the last shot fired, obviously drawing on the sort of reserve-power that these kinds of systems always had, nearly singed his right ankle then, and he scooted back slightly just in case the weapon's reserve-power wasn't quite as depleted as it seemed.
"They've got some hardcore security here. Man," he muttered, once he was completely sure that the power in the turret was gone and there were no other unpleasant things just waiting to pop out and ruin his day.
Looking back behind him, having felt the buzzing tingle of a near-miss – a bit too near for his taste, considering just where that laser had been aimed – Balzac grabbed his multi-spectrum viewing-goggles, tucked them back into their pouch on his tool-belt, and stood back up. He'd finally come to the end of the corridor; now all that remained was to see what was on the other side of the door he was facing.
XV
As she watched the twins rip their way through the Radam monsters, Aki was careful to keep a strict watch on their respective time-limits. She knew that both Varis and Blade looked out for each other, but she was also fully aware that neither of them had any way of fully keeping track of the other's time-limit; to say nothing of their own. She'd watched out for Blade before, when he'd first told her about the constraints that he and Varis operated under; neither she nor Blade had had any reason to suspect that Varis had been, in his own strange way, even more constrained. But now that all of them knew the risks that Varis ran every time he left the Blue Earth in his Tekkaman form, Aki was determined to do her part to help him cope with them.
It was the least that she could do.
"Man, they're really into this fight," Noal said, sounding pleased and a bit awed. "I know our D-Boys have always been motivated, but..."
She was, too; she just worried about them. She could help it: even as strong as they were, as tough-minded as they both tried to be, Aki knew that both of them were still mortal. She'd seen them standing out under the moon last night, D-Two's body-language tense and worried, and she knew that he only reacted that way when D-Boy was the one in danger. She knew that it probably wasn't healthy for D-Two to do that, but then he knew D-Boy better than she did; he also knew himself better than anyone else.
Aki would just have to trust D-Two to know his limits.
Tekkaman Blade had twenty minutes left before he would have to return to the Blue Earth, Tekkaman Varis fifteen; she knew that Noal thought the both of them were completely back to normal, better than ever, she'd heard him say, but she wasn't going to take anything for granted. Not when a friend and the man that she… cared for were out there risking their lives to protect them.
Not when their time was as limited as it was.
XVI
Standing in front of the control panel, Balzac took out his mini-computer and calmly set to hacking the thing. He was starting to feel a bit more confidant now; this had to be the last threshold between him and whatever kind of breakthroughs the Space Knights' Chief was hiding. No one sane would have gone to the kind of trouble of setting up the kind of defenses he'd run across down this corridor just to protect another elevator, or even another corridor.
Muttering under his breath as Malraux's program went about hacking the electronic lock, Balzac pulled his hood back and hit the 'Enter' key. The sequence of electronic chirps and bleeps emitted let him know that the program was working, and the flashing of lights on the main control panel once he'd input the commands signaled that everything had gone over smoothly. When the doors in front of him parted, however, spilling light from the hallway into its darkened interior, he was honestly surprised by what he was seeing.
"Is this it?" he muttered to the empty room, staring up at the nearly-complete set of armor displayed almost proudly in the center of it. We knew Freeman was developing synthetic Tekka-armor, but even I didn't think he'd gotten this far.
There were other prototypes in various states of assembly stored neatly all around the room; some of them consisting of nothing more than limbs, and others looking as if all they needed to be combat-ready was a good coat of paint. All told, there were two near-complete units, with several assembled limbs dangling from various cables and wires, seemingly just waiting to be assembled into a new armored suit.
"I was right on the money," he said, making his way over to the suit at the center of the room.
"I've been waiting for you, Major Asimov," said a familiar voice; the voice of a man who shouldn't have even been there in the first place. "I assume this is what you're looking for: the analyses of our Tekkamen?"
XVII
He held up a small, gold-colored flash-drive, about the size of a playing card. He'd been careful to edit out the mentions of the crystal-substance he'd taken a sample of; that substance could only be cultivated inside a living structure, otherwise it would crumble into something that strongly resembled fine-grained sand. It would not, however, become completely inert, and if restored to the tissue it had been removed from it would begin to grow once more. He himself had used laboratory-grown tissue-cultures to study the substance as it grew; however, he wouldn't put it past Colbert to inject any samples he was provided with into the bodies of unknowing members of his own organization.
Knowing that the substance could repair itself under certain conditions, as well as how durable it clearly was, Freeman knew that Colbert would do anything he deemed necessary to ensure that he was provided with a steady supply of it if he became aware of its existence; best not to invite trouble from that quarter. Even letting the man have this data, Freeman's collected information about Tekkaman Blade and Tekkaman Varis' powers, was a difficult thing.
"So, you were onto me from the start, huh?" the spy said, obviously well-trained enough to maintain discipline. "Pretty sneaky of you! I see you have an extensive information network." Freeman wondered for a moment if Balzac's poise was natural, or if it was simply a trained reaction. "So, are you going to press charges against me? Or perhaps use me as a hostage against the ADF?"
He lowered the gun. A light, underhand-toss startled Colbert's spy momentarily, but not enough for him to miss catching the flash-drive. "Take it with you."
"Are you serious?" the spy said, obviously having come to some sort of conclusion; however, given who he worked with, it was likely not the correct one. "What do you want, money?" he paused for a moment, clearly thinking. "Or a position in the ADF itself? Or… is this a cheap act of humanism, for the sake of all mankind? No; I doubt that. You've never been a sentimental man."
"Take it any way you like," he said calmly, knowing that his motives were unlikely to make a true impression on the kind of man that Balzac was likely to be, and not feeling the need to say aloud for that very reason. "At any rate, your mission is accomplished now."
He could see the clear lack of understanding on Balzac's face; just as Colbert would have failed to understand his reasons if he had ever tried to explain them to the other man, it was clear that Balzac was of the same mind. Not surprising, considering that Balzac was Colbert's trusted officer. Still, it was something to remember in the future.
He'd no doubt that they would all be hearing from Balzac again; and likely his compatriot Malraux, as well.
XVIII
"If that building gets destroyed, the whole facility will go up!" Noal informed them over the comm.
"Roger," he responded quickly, contacting Shinya over their link just as his younger twin was about to go after another knot of Radam monsters. Tekkaman Varis acknowledged him readily, and Blade smiled as his brother joined up with him on Pegas.
(So, we end this now?)
(Yeah,) he returned, smiling slightly.
Moving out of Tekkaman Varis' line of fire, Tekkaman Blade began charging up his Voltekka. He didn't know just how much time he had left, and more than that he didn't know what Varis' time looked like, either; so he just focused on ending this fight as quickly as he could. It was better for everyone that way, anyway.
"Voltekka!"
As he fired, feeling as much as seeing the energies of Tekkaman Varis' Voltekka joining up with his on the way to the facility, Blade wondered for a moment if that had been what Omega had been interested in when he sent his creatures out to attack it. But, if that had been the case, then why hadn't he sent Tekkaman Spear, too? As much as Blade hated the idea of fighting his brainwashed older brother again, he knew that Spear really was Omega's best asset.
Still, he'd probably done a lot of damage to the evil Tekkaman when he'd fired that Voltekka at him… maybe that was why he hadn't shown up.
(Thinking deep thoughts, Ta-kun?) TekkamanVaris asked, as Blade directed Pegas back to where the Blue Earth was poised waiting for them.
(No,) he said, resisting the urge to sigh. (I was just… it's nothing,) he said quickly, remembering just what Varis had been put through yesterday thanks to Spear.
(What is it really?) Varis asked, sounding like he was starting to become irritated.
(It's not important,) he said, as he flew Pegas underneath the belly-hatch of the Blue Earth and prepared to dock.
(I'll talk to you later, Takaya-niisan,) Varis said firmly.
Sighing, Blade let Pegas settle back into his place on the special launch-platform that had been built for Pegas to use. It was good that Shinya was so observant, and he would have been lying if he said he didn't appreciate his younger twin's being there for him, but sometimes… he just wished that Shinya could be a bit less quick to intervene. He didn't want to be any more of a burden to his brother than he probably already was.
As he climbed into Pegas' interlock-chamber, letting the energy of his transformation fade, Takaya tried to relax. This wouldn't be the first time Shinya had tried to get information out of him, and it probably wouldn't be the last. He'd just have to reassure Shinya that he could handle it; preferably in some way that didn't make Shinya feel he had to punch him in the head on general principle.
As he swayed briefly in the wake of the lack of energy that his transformation had provided for him, Takaya felt Shinya reaching out to catch him. "Thanks," he muttered, leaning into the comfort of his younger twin's strong arms.
"Always, brother," Shinya said, and Takaya could tell that his younger twin was smiling gently at him.
He was careful to move in tandem with Shinya as his brother walked back into the Blue Earth's cockpit. With Shinya's right arm around his waist, his own left arm around Shinya's shoulders, and Shinya's left hand holding his own, Takaya was confidant that he wouldn't fall over. No matter how weary he was beginning to feel.
"You did a good job, D-Boys," Aki said, smiling; the both of them had turned their chairs around, probably so that they could get a better view of him and Shinya as they came in.
"You were even on time, today," Noal said, still grinning.
"Ah, Noal was expecting us to be late," Shinya said, in that tone he used when he was pretending to think deeply about something.
"Funny," Noal said dryly, still sounding like he was grinning.
"I'm glad we made it," he muttered, even as Shinya helped him back over to his seat.
Gratefully slumping down into his chair, Takaya closed his eyes as he heard Shinya settling into his own seat just behind him. There were still things that he wondered about, and a few that he would have to take care of when they had all returned to OSDG Headquarters, but for now Takaya was content to get what sleep he could. With the kind of life that he and Shinya lead, even something as seemingly simple as sleep couldn't be taken for granted.
XIX
With Balzac dealt with, and on his way back to General Colbert to make his report, Freeman made his own way back to Comm. One. He still had his own duties, to make sure that his people were taken care of. And if that required him to work with a man that he found as personally distasteful as General Colbert, then that was what he would do.
The doors parted before him as the proximity-sensors detected his approach, and as he made his way deeper into the room, Freeman's eyes settled on Milly.
"What's the situation?" he asked.
"Oh yes, Chief!" Milly said, turning her chair to the side to that she could face him more squarely. "The Space Knights successfully repulsed the enemy. The Blue Earth and our Tekkamen don't have any damage. They're on their way back right now."
"Understood," he said, breathing more easily for the knowledge.
He was always pleased to know that his Space Knights, his people, were as safe as they could be during these difficult times. To know that they were as safe as he could make them, even when, as now, he was forced to cooperate with distasteful people like Balzac, and by extension General Colbert. That satisfaction was worth a great many things to him.
XX
Finally out of the Space Knights' OSDG Headquarters, though no less confused about what Chief Freeman's motives for just giving him the data he now held possession of could possibly be, Balzac continued his drive down the road. When he stopped at the checkpoint, idling his engine as his clearance was checked and vaguely registered the fact that one of the guards was speaking to him, Balzac turned over the events of this eventful day in his mind.
Looking back over his left shoulder, seeing the main hub of the Space Knights' OSDG Headquarters spread out behind him, Balzac narrowed his eyes slightly as he considered the man who oversaw it. I appreciate your kindness, Freeman. But, I'm not the kind of man to be manipulated! Don't forget that. I'll return this favor of yours.
"Goodbye, Space Knights. Next time I see you, it'll be on the battlefield," he muttered, taking out the pair of mirrored sunglasses that he used when driving during days like this. As he pulled away from the checkpoint, and OSDG Headquarters behind it, Balzac heard the high, harsh whine of aerospace engines.
The Blue Earth was obviously coming home to roost. Looking up at the ship as it swooped back in for a landing, Balzac smirked slightly. So long, Tekkaman Boys; I've got a feeling that the three of us will be seeing each other again soon.