Their boys were zonked out in the seats reserved for them, and as he brought the Blue Earth back down to a smooth, safe landing, Noal smiled. He'd been a little worried about them, or at least about D-Boy, since D-Two usually seemed to have his head on straight even when his brother was freaking out. Still, after he'd seen those two out there, he wasn't going to worry anymore. Whatever D-Two had said to his idiot of a twin brother while the two of them had been cuddling, it'd clearly done the trick to get him back in the game.
He'd have to thank D-Two for whatever it was, in some subtle way that wouldn't get the kid's attention and likely end up with the kid giving him one of the "what are you, stupid?" looks that he tended to give D-Boy just before whacking his brother upside the head; maybe a good game of racquetball… he'd have to think about it, though.
Once the Blue Earth was settled nicely back on terra firma, and he and Aki had finished with the shut-down sequence, Noal climbed out of his seat and headed over to where D-Two was sitting. Aki had subtly edged him out every other time that he'd tried to scoop D-Boy out of his seat, ever since she'd started getting closer to the kid. So, he'd started focusing his attention on getting D-Two back to his room.
He thought it was kind of cute, the way she wanted to spend as much time as she could with D-Boy, even when the kid was clearly determined to be an idiot about something that no one but the most oblivious of people – or someone who didn't spend very much time around them, but D-Boy definitely didn't have that kind of excuse – would have been able to ignore. Maybe he could use the game of racquetball that he was going to see about arranging with D-Two to hash out just how they might be able to get Aki and D-Boy to admit how they felt about each other.
Smiling slightly as he lifted D-Two out of his seat, even as Aki was gathering D-Boy up into her arms, Noal watched as she left the Blue Earth. Making his own way out of the ship once Aki had moved out of the entrance, Noal took a look down at D-Two when he'd gotten back on more stable footing. The kid was doing all right, sleeping like the kitten that he and D-Boy looked so much like when they curled up together.
He wondered, sometimes, if he'd have found D-Boy in D-Two's room – or the other way around – if he'd have been able to look without fear of inviting D-Two's reprisal. He figured that he probably would have, since what had gone on yesterday would have been practically guaranteed to freak D-Boy out but good. Still, there was also the chance that – given that it'd been D-Two who D-Boy had attacked in the first place – that whatever kind of comfort that D-Boy got from having his brother with him wouldn't have been nearly as comforting as it'd seemed to be the last two times that he'd seen it in action.
Who knew, maybe the two of them had slept separately last night; there was no real way for him to know, particularly since D-Two would probably punch him if he tried to bring it up in conversation.
When he'd gotten D-Two back to his room, settling the kid into his bed after he'd taken his boots off, Noal sighed. Sure, those boys seemed to be all back to normal – ripping right through the Radam's monsters just the same way that they had always seemed to do – but somehow he got the feeling that there was more to the situation than either of the twins was letting on. Even he couldn't have been expected to just get over something like what had happened to the twins in just a single day, and he wasn't even the one expected to spearhead the defense of Earth the way both Tekkaman Blade and Tekkaman Varis were.
Of course, that meant that there was yet another thing that he'd have to subtly bring up while he and D-Two were playing racquetball; this was starting to look like a bigger job than he'd planned on in the beginning, but since those two crazy kids were just as much his friends as he was theirs, he wasn't going to half-ass it just because it was hard. If anything, he'd do a better job because of that. D-Boy and D-Two had done everything that they could to repel the Radam, their monsters, and even those other Tekkamen that the enemy seemed to be keeping in storage somewhere.
Really, it was the least he could do, making sure that the twins keep their heads straight after all the crap that was being shoveled on them.
I
As he pulled back into his reserved parking space in the parking-lot of ADF Command, at least the one that operated in this area, Balzac smiled. Not only did he have one hell of a lot of data to share with the General, not only could he get rid of the damned, annoying beard that he'd been sporting for the duration of his stay at the Space Knights' OSDG Headquarters, but he also had one hell of a story to tell Malraux when the two of them managed to find some time for themselves.
All in all, he was more than happy to be getting back to a place that he felt he could belong; the one place that had taken in a pair of street brats with no family, no real last names, and no connections, and given them a future.
Rolling his eyes a bit at the direction his thoughts had taken, not really wanting to think about depressing things – the past was gone, he and Malraux had gotten away from it, and so there was no point in thinking about anything that had to do with those days – Balzac continued on his way deeper into his home base. Continued into the only real home that he had ever known.
He had to make an appointment with the General so that he could give his report before he did anything else, even in spite of the fact that he wanted nothing more than to head back to his room for a long, hot shower, after he'd shaved off every last scrap of the damned beard he'd had to grow for this job. Still, he'd learned long ago to put business before pleasure if he wanted to get anywhere in this world.
Flagging down one of the many, many junior officers in this section of the base, Balzac gave him instructions to report his presence to the General. After he was done, Balzac made for the room that he'd been assigned when he first got here; the one he'd spent a fair amount of his formative years in, the closest thing to a home that he and Malraux had ever had. Once he'd gotten inside, tossing his hat onto a convenient table on his way into the bathroom, Balzac removed his shirt and tossed it in the hamper.
He'd wash up once he was done shaving, but there was no way that he was going to wait that long to get rid of the damned beard.
Lathering up his favorite shaving-cream, Balzac covered the beard with it – making sure to work it in between all of the niggling little hairs at the edges of the beard – and began to shave the thing. It felt so good, to slide the razor down his face, slicing away all of the longish, itchy hairs that he'd been allowing to grow on it. Continuing with his work, glancing up at the mirror occasionally to check that he'd gotten what he'd been aiming for, or to see where he needed to move to next.
When he was finally finished, rinsing the remains of the shaving-cream off of his face and toweling himself dry, Balzac smiled at his reflection in the mirror. That's more like it, he thought, squirting a handful of aftershave into his palm. Smoothing it over his face, feeling the accustomed, cool tingle as he rubbed the stuff on his cheeks, chin, and along the base of his jaw, Balzac let his smile curve upward into a smirk.
Knowing his actions were being observed, and also being perfectly aware of just where the alleged hidden-camera was located – having been thoroughly acquainted with the tools of the espionage trade well enough to know the tell-tale signs of a hidden-camera when it was spying on him – Balzac turned around and headed over to the painting behind him. It was an abstract; something that bore a slight resemblance to something else, but not really enough to tell you what the hell it was at first glace.
It was also, in this case, the perfect place to hide a camera.
"Hey, Operator! Do I look hot without my beard?" he asked, smirking a bit wider as he imagined the person on the other side of the feed.
He really hoped it was Sylvia who'd been assigned to monitoring duty during this shift; she was such a cutie.
Flicking his razor a few more times to get the last of the water off, Balzac put it up neatly and then began to wash up. He had a lot of things to do today, starting with making his report to the General, and then finding some time to catch up on things with Malraux. After all, there was a lot of ground to cover, for both of them.
II
Once he'd been given the data that Balzac had gathered from those Space Knights, Malraux hadn't wasted any time in uploading the data from the flash-drive into his personal mainframe. After going over the gathered data as thoroughly as he ever did, Malraux had presented it to the scientific division that he had been placed in charge of and ordered them to get to work on a prototype.
There were times, even now after all he'd done and seen them do, that Malraux couldn't quite believe that he was in charge of an entire Sci-Division. Times when he was sure that he was going to wake up and find that all of this had actually been a dream, that he and Balzac hadn't really escaped their lives in the slums. That the two of them were right back where they had started.
Still, there were more important things to think about today than the tricks that his subconscious seemed to want to play on him whenever he let down his guard for too long. Things like the fact that General Colbert himself had taken an interest in the work he and his Division were doing, and hence would be arriving to meet him shortly. With that in mind, Malraux had had his underlings working twice as hard as he had ever had.
Malraux liked to see that all of his underlings understood just how important it was that General Colbert saw just how dedicated his Sci-Division was to the cause; it wouldn't do for the General to see them slacking-off on something so important, so he was glad that none of them had done so.
Checking the clock, one of several that had been synchronized to the time-readings in the master-mainframe of this base, Malraux saw that General Colbert would be there momentarily. Knowing that it was always best to be prepared when the General was involved, Malraux activated his mainframe and began calling up the data that he and his Sci-Division had compiled while they had been working toward building their own, working prototype.
Malraux often thought that they would have made better progress on that front if they had been given access to the prototypes that the Space Knights' Chief Freeman had been working on; still, for starting work with only the raw data that Balzac had provided for them, his Sci-Division had done very well.
Just as he had finished bringing the specifications for the prototype that was being built, General Colbert himself came striding into the room.
"The monitor lens is set to 0.2 lux," he said, nodding and beginning to run through the data that he and his Division had compiled. "There's no malfunction in the auto-focus system, or each unit's motor functions or relays," he continued with a slight, pleased smile. "The simulations' data has proven the efficiency of the powered suits."
"I see," the General said, making his way over to a convenient opening in the wall; something that Malraux himself often used to observe the activities within the laboratory. "I can hardly wait for those suits to be completed. What about your development of the antimatter code-named "fermion" mentioned in the datafiles that Major Balzac retrieved on the Tekkamen Blade and Varis?"
"That will also be completed shortly," he said calmly.
"That's god to hear. That means we'll have the ultimate weapon to combat the Radam in our hands," the General said, after a few minutes spent watching the laboratory technicians and engineers at their assigned tasks.
"What about the particle accelerator we'll need to produce fermion particles?" he asked, knowing more than well enough by now that such a thing would prove to be an irresistible target for the Radam.
"That's the crux of the problem. Once the Radam detect the energy of the fermion being produced, they're sure to come swarming to it; either to destroy it so se won't be able to make any use of it, or to take it back to the Orbital Ring for themselves. But, don't worry about it, Doctor, I already have a plan in motion," the General said, sounding thoroughly pleased with himself.
He didn't have anything in particular to say to that, so Malraux kept his thoughts to himself. There wasn't really anything for him to say; the only things he knew about those two was the fact that Balzac thought that he might like Varis, and that the two of them worked for the Space Knights. And, given how the General had sounded at the prospect of not needing either of them anymore, Malraux now understood that General Colbert wasn't particularly fond of either of them for one reason or another.
Of course, it wasn't really his business what the General felt about the Space Knights, so Malraux made up his mind not to think about it anymore.
Nodding even as the General left, Malraux turned his attention back to his technicians, watching as they continued building the prototype. Seeing one of his own designs, admittedly based on the work of the Space Knights' Chief Freeman, coming into being definitely provided him with a feeling of accomplishment. With a last look into the laboratory, Malraux turned and made his way back to the computer.
While his underlings had their own duties, he knew by now that he could trust them to take care of their own assignments.
III
He was inside OSDG Headquarters; it felt like there was something clawing at his mind, forcing him onward and deeper into the building. There was also someone in front of him, running from him as he continued forward. He didn't know why, but he almost thought that this person was somehow familiar to him.
They were running, whoever they were, running away from him. Why, though? If he and they were both supposed to be friends, then why was this person running from him?
He thought, or else he remembered, that the running figure in front of him was a girl; could be a girl, or in any case it-she was female, at least. He couldn't see the look on her face, couldn't know if even she knew why she was running from him, but she still was. It was frustrating!
Was she the enemy? Was that why she was running from him? It had to be.
Lunging forward, he swung the weapon in his hands with a growl. If she was the enemy, then she was going to die just like every other enemy! Someone else, a boy, or a man, came up from behind him; another enemy, probably wanting to attack him for what he'd done to that woman, came running up from behind him.
Turning quickly, more quickly than his new enemy probably realized he could move, he stabbed forward. It was kind of strange, though: none of these new enemies seemed to be reacting right; neither of them seemed to know how fast he could move when he was under pressure, and not one of them had moved to attack. In fact, the two new ones who had just shown up, most likely in response to what he'd done to their compatriots, weren't even moving forward at all.
It was like they didn't even want to confront him. But, that was impossible, wasn't it?
He could sense something else, now; something- someone that felt very familiar to him. Something that all of his instincts told him was a friend. He thought that he might have even been able to put a name to it; still, he was surrounded by enemies. But then, maybe that was why this new person was coming; he hoped so.
When the new person placed themselves between him and his enemies, though, he didn't really know what to do. This newcomer wasn't supposed to be an enemy; his instincts were telling him that, and he'd only gotten as far as he had into this place – a place that he could no longer remember the name of – by following them. On the other hand, his allies weren't supposed to be siding with the enemy.
That would have to mean that he was the enemy too; he didn't want this newcomer- someone who was familiar to him in so many little ways, to be the enemy. That meant that he would have to deal with them the same way he'd dealt with all of his other enemies, and he didn't want that. Still, when another enemy came running up from behind the newcomer, an enemy that began to feel maddeningly familiar when he turned his attention to them, he realized what he had to do.
It was a strange situation, but the only explanation that made any sense was that his enemies had managed to find a way of tricking his own instincts into thinking of them as friends. That meant that the newcomer wasn't someone that he knew, someone that he'd worked closely with and would therefore want to protect. It was just another enemy, and that meant that he didn't have to hesitate anymore.
He'd deal with them, just like he dealt with all of his other enemies.
Pointing his weapon forward, he drove it deep into the center-of-mass that his enemy – the one that had tried to trick him into thinking it was a friend – presented to him. When the enemy fell, blood dripping from its mouth, into the arms of another enemy that had been trying to disguise itself from him, he hadn't expected to feel anything but vindication in the fact that he'd managed to see through their disguises and deal with them like any other enemy.
Instead, it felt like he'd lost something; something important to him, something that he'd never wanted to lose. Wait, how had his enemy known that name? Where had he heard it, and why was he saying it as if it meant something to him? He was just an enemy!
They both were, right...?
Lunging up and out of bed, Takaya tried frantically to regain his bearings. Seeing the familiar edges of the objects in his room, their forms momentarily obscured before his eyes adjusted to the level of light in his room, Takaya tried to control his frantic breathing. That had been the first time that he'd ever seen Miyuki in one of his dreams, and he wished he hadn't seen anyone.
He hated those; the nightmares that haunted him almost every time that he tried to rest, driving him from sleep and making him feel like he was losing his mind.
He'd told Shinya that he was all right, and the two of them had slept in their own rooms. He was glad for that; Shinya would have worried too much about him, especially if he'd heard Takaya shouting his and Miyuki's names the way he'd done just a few seconds ago. That dream, that nightmare, had been horrible, but he was coping.
It was what he had to do.
The next thing he knew, the screen in his room, the one on the right-hand side of his bed that he hadn't had much cause to think about until now, blinked on suddenly. Milly was there, smiling at him as if she hadn't a care in the world; besides Shinya, Takaya couldn't think of a person that he'd wanted to see less at this moment. After all, she had been in his dream, too.
"D-Boy, the Chief wants to see you and D-Two!" Milly called cheerfully. "Don't blame me if they both yell at you for oversleeping."
"Okay," he muttered, turning away as he tried to gather his wits. "I'll be right there."
"What's the matter, D-Boy?" Milly asked teasingly, smiling at him with closed eyes. "Did you have a scary dream?"
The screen turned off after that, and Takaya was glad not to have to answer Milly's question. He didn't want to tell anyone about the dreams he'd been having; that would just make people worry, and he didn't want to be anymore of a burden than he was.
Climbing out of bed, Takaya headed for the bathroom attached to his personal quarters. He'd have to wash up quickly, especially since Milly had implied that the Chief was waiting on him. Well, him and Shinya, but the way Milly had said it had seemed to imply that Shinya had already gotten ready. So, really it was just him that needed to hurry up.
Washing up quickly, Takaya dressed in yet another Space Knight uniform and made his way out of his quarters. He could still remember what he'd seen himself doing in that nightmare, still remember blood dripping down Shinya's chin and the way his tekkalance had stuck up out of his younger twin's chest. Shaking his head to clear the memories, Takaya zipped up his vest and made his way out of his quarters.
Looking down the hall, Takaya caught sight of Shinya. He tried not to think too much about what he'd dreamed just last night; he didn't want to break down in front of his brother, or really anyone else, but he didn't want Shinya in particular to worry about what was happening to him. As he caught up to Shinya, falling into step beside his younger twin, Takaya looked over at him.
Shinya looked like he was doing all right, there were no signs that his younger twin had been having any nightmares, or that he'd been having any trouble sleeping at all. Takaya was glad to see that; he didn't want his brother to suffer the things that he'd been going through. Shinya would probably have punched him if he'd known how Takaya was worrying about him, but Takaya couldn't stop himself from doing so.
Neither did he want to.
"Good morning, little brother," he said, after looking over Shinya to make sure that he was all right.
"Good morning, big brother," Shinya responded, as they both headed down the corridor toward Comm One.
There was no real need to say anything after that; both of them knew the other well enough to know if the other wasn't doing well. When the both of them reached Comm. One, running down the down the corridor to save at least some time, Takaya found that all of the other Space Knights were already there waiting for them. When he and Shinya joined up with the rest of them, Takaya breathed more easily.
Even though there was probably something unpleasant in store for them, he would at least be doing something; it would help keep his mind off of his nightmare.
"Hey, you're earlier than usual," Noal said tauntingly. "Lazy D-Boy."
"Noal," Aki muttered, just loudly enough that they could all hear her.
"All right, I'll be brief: I want you to go to Texas," the Chief said, his sharp, pinkish gaze taking them all in.
"Texas?" Noal echoed; Takaya could understand why the other Space Knight was so incredulous about the idea, since Texas was quite a bit out of their way, and the Radam mainly seemed to be attacking in either the surrounding area or on the Orbital Ring.
"That's right," the Chief stated. "Milly."
"What's that?" Honda asked, in response to the image that appeared on the main screen after it had displayed what seemed to have been the Blue Earth's projected course.
"That's a seriously ancient machine," Levin said; Takaya tried to think of where he might have seen something like that, the machine almost seemed like something Aiba Takaya would have seen in a history book or something.
"This is a particle accelerator, made for producing antimatter," the Chief said; Takaya could have sighed, of course it would have been something that he wouldn't have paid that much attention to back then. "Built in the 21st century."
"It makes antimatter?" Shinya said. "What would someone need that for?"
"I can't get over how gigantic that thing is," Honda said; the Chief still hadn't answered Shinya's question, and Takaya was almost tempted to repeat it, though he knew it wouldn't do any good. "I guess that's how big a facility it took to produce antimatter back then."
"It hasn't been utilized in years, but recently the ADF commandeered it and they've started putting it back into operation," the Chief said. "However, since the facility is so old, the automatic defense-system is inoperable."
"Well, no wonder," Levin said. "It looks ready to fall apart."
"The massive energy produced by the antimatter will very likely entice the Radam into attacking the facility," the Chief said. "Your mission is to protect this accelerator from a Radam attack. Noal, Aki, D-Boy, D-Two: prepare to counter the Radam attack. Milly, you'll be here on standby. Levin and Honda, you're going to repair the automatic-defense system. That's all"
He paused for a moment, Milly's face sticking in his mind and reminding him all too forcefully of the nightmare that he'd been having not so long ago. He stared at her, seeing her holding the bleeding, gasping, dying form of his younger twin, right up until he felt a sharp, sudden tug on his right shoulder.
"Oi, D-kun," Shinya said; he was smirking slightly, and there was a knowing look in his eyes. "We're going."
"Yeah; sorry," he said quickly, nodding.
As he let Shinya lead him out of Comm. One and down the corridors toward Hangar Three, Takaya hoped that neither of them would end up having to deal with Tekkaman Spear again. Takaya didn't think he could handle it, and he didn't want Shinya to suffer any more than he already had.
IV
When he'd gone to Malraux's room, he hadn't been surprised to find his long-time friend standing in front of the large, bay windows that dominated the room. That was the main reason his old friend had chosen this place to spend the time that he wasn't working on one of his projects. Balzac was just glad that the two of them had had enough clout to pick their own quarters now rather than having them be assigned the way they had been in a few of the other bases they'd stayed in.
"It's just a coincidence," he said, not even pausing to announce himself. "But I never thought we'd be this close to our old hometown. I can almost smell it from here: the smell of the good ol' slums."
"True," Malraux said, looking out over the broken-down, decaying cityscape that he could see through his old friend's window. "Whenever I hit a dead-end in my research, I often come here and look out over the slums. And the stench of the slums reaches me even through these windows; it's enough to make me puke. After that, I can throw myself right back into my work."
Malraux made a soft sound of nostalgia, and Balzac continued to stare down into the city that was laid out before him. He remembered living down there in the allies, together with Malraux; always looking for a bit of fast cash, or an easy mark. They'd had their own little gang and everything, just them against whatever the city and its denizens could throw at them.
Right up until Mailer had sold them up the river; whenever he thought about that, Balzac would find himself hoping that his and Malraux's ersatz friend had gotten himself eaten by a Radam monster.
"When the rest of the world is covered in Radam trees, I almost hope these slums are left intact," he sighed, a sign of weakness that he would only show in front of Malraux.
He thought that they could both use one; him because he needed something to steady his nerves after being so suddenly reminded of Mailer and all the shit they'd been forced to put up with because of him. And Malraux, well, his old friend might have been willing to put all of his time into overseeing his Sci-Division, both since he'd found his passion in life and because he was just as indebted to the ADF as Balzac himself was; but everyone needed some time off once in awhile.
"Come on, why don't we head back down there," Malraux said, as the two of them left the room on their way out; they'd have to stop at least one of the checkpoints and clear their leave with security so they wouldn't get hauled back in for any infractions. He'd gotten used to the system, but it still seemed like kind of a hassle when he thought too much about it; that was why he tried not to. "Just… see it again."
Shrugging, since anyone knew that he didn't pay much attention to what was going on down there in their old haunts, Balzac let Malraux lead him. He'd joined the ADF to get away from all of the bullshit that he'd had to put up with when he and Malraux had been surviving together on the streets; no way in hell was he ever going to give this hellhole any more of his attention than was absolutely necessary.
As he and Malraux made their way out of the base, stopping periodically to flash their identity cards at the various personnel manning the security-checkpoints, and finally explaining to the soldiers at the last checkpoint just what they were going to be doing on their short leave, Balzac smiled softly. He might not have been overly fond of the fact that Malraux wanted to take him back into the very place that the both of them had fought so hard to escape all those years ago, but there was some nostalgia value to it.
They'd both been born there, after all.
Leaving the base and their compatriots behind, Balzac fell in behind Malraux as the two of them made their way into the decaying cityscape that they had both called home such a long time ago. The place hadn't changed from how he remembered it, at least if you didn't count the giant, purple trees that the Radam had seeded all over the damn place. Nothing was really different than it had been when they'd left.
Nothing, that was, except the people who were coming back.
As the two of them continued on their way through the slums, and Balzac began to become particularly curious about just where it was that the two of them were going to end up when they finally made it to their ultimate destination, he couldn't help but take note of the people around them. Not because he particularly wanted to, but because one of them had just made himself known in the usual fashion.
It was a kid; not much older than the two of them had been when Mailer sold them out, and with that same lean, hungry look to him that Balzac had become entirely too familiar with during the years that he'd spent down in this pit.
"Here," Malraux said, leaning down so he could hand some money to the urchin.
"Hey," he said, calling attention to himself after taking a few moments to think. "How about this?" he said, handing over what he could spare from his wallet. The kid scampered off without another word, but since he'd been in that same situation more times than he honestly wanted to remember, Balzac didn't take it personally.
"Just like us," Malraux said, as the two of them continued on their way through the slums. "Back then."
As they passed a few more run-down buildings, and another intersection that would likely never see any cars in either of their lifetimes, Balzac began to recognize some of the few landmarks that remained in the decaying cityscape around them. They passed beneath a broken neon sign on the wall on their way down a flight of stairs that was just wide enough for the two of them to walk down side-by-side. They came up to a pair of saloon-style doors.
"The smell really brings back memories," Malraux said, sounding a bit nostalgic.
Balzac would have never voluntarily admitted it, and not to anyone at all besides Malraux, but he himself was starting to feel at least something for this place. This one in particular, if not the city at large. Pushing open the right door, Balzac found that the room beyond was indeed as busy as Malraux's earlier words had made it out to be; probably because there wasn't any other particularly accessible watering hole in this shithole of a town.
No way in hell was anyone coming down here for the ambiance.
He smirked. "It's not something you could forget, even if you wanted to," he said, digging out his wallet and counting out the cash he needed. "After all, it's practically in our bones by now," he handed the cash to Malraux.
Malraux nodded, taking the cash from him as he moved through the crowd.
Tensing a bit as he felt someone's hand on his left shoulder, Balzac was just about to shrug the offender off when they spoke. "Hey mister, those are fine clothes you've got on," it was a man, old-looking; white-haired with an unshaven, stubbled chin. "Buy me a drink, will ya?" the man asked, obviously trying to sound ingratiating but really only coming off as annoying. He grinned widely, revealing several missing teeth.
"Mailer," he said, recognition having snapped into place. "It's me," he cut into Mailer's spluttering, pointing to his face; while he might have been a bit irked that Mailer hadn't gotten himself killed by a Radam monster, he'd have been lying if he said he didn't welcome the chance to get a little payback of his own. "Don't you recognize this face of mine?"
"Balzac!" Mailer babbled, knocked off his feet by sheer disbelief.
"Do you remember now? The three of us used to do burglary jobs together," he pressed, getting in close to the old, broken-down bum even in spite of the stench; it was one he remembered very well.
"That's right," Malraux added, clearly drawn by the confrontation.
"Back then, Malraux would think up the plan, I'd do the breaking in, and you were always the lookout," he needled, savoring the sheer, delicious terror on Mailer's stupid-looking face.
"What was it, maybe thirteen years ago?" Malraux said, and he could feel his old friend – his true friend – leaning in closer.
He could still remember the job that they had been working: a small shop in what could have almost been called the better part of town, if one had a sick sense of humor. The three of them had been about thirteen, he thought; an estimation he made, but without the use of calendars and with no way of knowing his real birthday, he'd never know if it was true or not. Mailer had been on lookout, keeping watch for the police that patrolled the area so that none of them would be picked up.
To this day he didn't know how, exactly, Mailer had been persuaded to rat them out the way he did; he didn't really care, but this opportunity was just too good to pass up.
"Forgive me," Mailer said, shaking like the terrified rat he so obviously was. "I was so scared back then… I didn't know what was going on!"
"No need to be afraid," Malraux said, sounding nearly as amused as Balzac felt. " We just wanted to thank you."
"Right," he added. "If it hadn't been for what you did, we wouldn't be who we are now."
He remembered that night particularly well: Colbert had come into the prison, smiling down on them in their little cell like they were the most amusing thing that he'd seen in a long time The both of them had already started planning their breakout once the guards had left them alone, but they hadn't gotten very far before the General arrived. He didn't know what rank the General had had when he'd taken them out, most of the niggling details of the night his life began not having stuck around through all of the intervening years, but the big events – his training, Malraux's evaluation, their shared promises – would be something that he would remember for the rest of his life.
"That man was in charge of covert military operations," he continued, setting in behind the bar as he and Malraux brought Mailer over, looking into Mailer's dull, frightened eyes so that he wouldn't end up getting lost in memories; those were some of the best times of his life, even if they had been some of the hardest. "How about that? Are you surprised?" he added, smiling in what anyone else would take to be an expression of happiness; and he was happy, just not about what Mailer had been lead to believe, having just noticed Malraux "fixing" Mailer's drink.
"Yeah…" Mailer said, not suspecting a thing; the rat was about to get what was coming to him.
"We were put in a military institution, where they ran all kinds of tests on us," he said, beginning to feel a bit nostalgic; he concealed it carefully enough that only Malraux was likely to notice. "They discovered that Malraux had an IQ of 180, so he was sent to the Science Division. They liked my nerves of steel and skill as a pick-pocket, so they sent me to Special Operations."
"Thanks to you, two orphans with no family and no way to escape the constant hunger and cold of the slums were given the chance at a new life," Malraux said, smiling in that way that would have let anyone with a working brain know that they were in trouble.
"Yeah, that's right. So, go on, drink as much as you like," he said, as he, Malraux, and a certain dead rat toasted.
"Ah, that hit the spot," Mailer said, having finished his glass in one gulp; watching as Mailer started choking on the little "pick me up" that Malraux had slipped into his drink, Balzac smiled.
"Hey, you're not drunk already, are you?" he asked the corpse.
"What are we going to do with you?" Malraux asked, holding up his own glass of whiskey.
"That's what you get for selling us out all those years ago," he said, smirking down at the corpse.
"He's a very unlucky man," Malraux said. "If he hadn't run into us here, he could've gone on living."
"But, thanks to him, you and I had a very productive vacation! Come on, here's to the completion of the Sol-Tekkamen!"
Barking a harsh chuckle, morbidly amused by the circumstances of their meeting here but amused all the same, Balzac smiled over at Malraux as the two of them toasted each other at last.
V
Muttering to himself as he continued checking the archaic systems that made up the defense-grid for this Texan antimatter-plant, Levin sighed. He and Honda definitely had their work cut out for them.
"Oh man, what the hell is this? This whole thing's ready to fall apart," Honda groused, from his position underneath one of the large banks of controls.
"The chips they used are unbelievably ancient," he said, looking into the open panel at the top.
"Let's not get too surprised at every little thing, there'll be no end to it," Honda answered.
Continuing to mentally catalogue the wires, circuits, and conduits of the array he and Honda were currently working on, Levin sighed. Most of them were hopelessly out of date; in their day they would have been easy to repair, but considering both the depletion of resources due to the war, and the fact that technology had inevitably advanced in the years since these plants had been shut down, Levin knew that he and Honda were going to be doing one heck of a lot of improvising while they worked.
He just hoped that it would be enough.
VI
Listening to Shinya's deep, quiet breathing coming from behind him, Takaya reflected that it had been a good idea for them to sleep in shifts: nothing had happened so far, but with the threat of Radam monsters attacking at any time, Takaya knew that both of them needed to be in good condition to be able to fight them. And, even though they hadn't had time to have a meal in the cafeteria like he knew the both of them would have honestly preferred, both he and Shinya had both taken an extra box of rations when they'd come into the Blue Earth.
Now, with the ship patrolling the skies over the antimatter plant, and his younger twin dozing behind him, Takaya found himself wondering just when the Radam were going to come. He knew they would; the energy that Honda and the Chief had said that this plant would be generating during its operation notwithstanding, the place was an obvious target for attacks. The fact that he and Shinya were both right there would only sweeten the deal.
"How's the automatic defense-system?" Aki asked, continuing a conversation that Takaya hadn't been paying much attention to.
"Well, since they've discontinued production on all the parts," Honda reported. "We'll need at least two more hours."
"Since the ADF will be showing up to take over soon, it'll all depend on those two hours, huh?" Noal said, not sounding particularly happy about the situation; Takaya didn't blame him a bit.
"Yeah, but if the Radam attack from all sides, it'll be difficult to protect them," Aki said.
"Hey, we're going to do the best we can, so just try to hold them off, all right?" Honda asked, sounding as serious as Takaya had ever heard him. "We're counting on you, D-Boys."
"I'm counting on you, too! I'm always rooting for my cute D-Boys!" Levin exclaimed, having shoved Honda aside as he leaned in closer to the comm. screen. "Where's D-Two hiding?"
"Brother's sleeping," he said.
"So cute," Levin cooed, smiling widely. "Can I see him?"
"You don't look very happy," Aki said, before Takaya himself could think of a way to respond to that.
"It's just…" he said, looking over his right shoulder at the Blue Earth's navigator. "If I get taken over like I did the other day… If I start to lose control, then brother…" he couldn't say it, didn't want to even think it.
Levin's laughter was cut off when Honda terminated the connection. Settling more comfortably in the chair, at least as well as he could given the materials it was made of, Takaya looked back out the forward windows. The sun was setting, spreading oranges, pinks, and reds into the sky, and he wished for a moment that he and Shinya could have been watching it together; somewhere far away from anything that would try to hurt them. Somewhere far from the Radam and the war raging all around them.
"Thanks, D-Boy. We'll both keep that warning of yours in mind," Noal said, bringing his focus back to what was happening here and now.
Here and now was all that he and Shinya really had, anymore; Takaya forced himself to remember that again, still looking up into the darkening sky.
Turning his chair around so he could get a better view of his younger twin, Takaya paused for a second just to look at him. Shinya looked so peaceful when he slept, and for all that Takaya didn't want to disturb him, he knew that Shinya wouldn't be particularly happy with him if he let himself get too tired. Shinya never liked it when Takaya tried to protect him, at least not when Takaya forgot to look after his own health in the process.
For a moment, Takaya was almost tempted to wake his brother by flicking Shinya's nose; that was really more like something Aiba Takaya or Aiba Shinya would have done. Shinya might have done it, too, just because that was the kind of harmless thing that his younger twin would do to brake up the tension. And Takaya was starting to get a bit tense, knowing that he and Shinya would soon be facing more of Omega's Radam monsters; after the dream he'd had this morning, Takaya still felt a bit uneasy.
He knew dreams weren't real, but he couldn't help how he felt.
"Brother," he called, reaching out to shake his brother's left shoulder. "Brother, it's time for us to change shifts now."
Shinya yawned, blinking and tilting his head a bit as he stretched. "All right," Shinya said, rising from his seat as the two of them traded places.
Settling himself down in Shinya's usual seat, Takaya leaned back and tried to relax. His memory of the dream he'd had made it harder, but Takaya did as best he could. Closing his eyes, Takaya tried to block out everything that might keep him from relaxing. It wasn't as easy as he would have preferred, but he was eventually able to do it.
VII
As he made himself as comfortable as possible in Takaya's recently-vacated seat, Shinya stifled a yawn. He'd still need a little time to wake up completely, but he was at least reasonably sure that he would be able to get the chance. He hadn't been sensing any Radam activity while he'd been dozing in his usual seat, and while he knew that that wasn't the end of things, Shinya was willing to let himself relax as much as he could.
"All right- D-Two?" Noal asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, shifting his seat so he could stretch his legs a bit more. "Thanks, Noal-kun."
"Yeah," Noal muttered.
"The moon, again," he muttered, watching as the last of the light faded from the sky.
It was full night by this time, the stars starting to blink on in the sky one-by-one as the sky around them grew darker. Turning his chair a bit so he could look over his right shoulder at Takaya, Shinya found that his brother was sleeping, though he didn't look entirely peaceful. But then, Shinya would have been hard-pressed to name a time when his brother had looked entirely peaceful these days.
Something else that could be blamed on the Radam, he knew; they had a lot to answer for.
As the Blue Earth continued on her appointed patrol rounds, Shinya found himself wondering if – for once – the ADF's forces were going to get to them before the Radam had the chance to start falling out of the sky to kill them all. It would have definitely been a welcome change of pace, even if they did all seem to share Colbert's personality problems.
"It's so calm, like the lull before the storm," Noal muttered, and in front of him, Shinya winced; that wasn't ever really a good thing to say.
And then, almost as if they'd just been waiting for someone to say something stupid like that, Shinya began sensing a large swarm of Radam's monsters descending rapidly. Seconds later, the warning alarms tied into the Blue Earth's radar went off, and Aki's voice rang out: "A number of flying objects, probably Radam, are coming toward us! This is the Blue Earth! Radam sighted! Radam sighted! We're going on the Attack, over and out!"
"Well then," Shinya said, already rising from his seat. "Brother," he called, grabbing his brother's shoulder and giving it a good shake. "We have to go."
Takaya's eyes opened, and his older twin paused for a moment, looking at him with an expression that Shinya didn't really have the time to stop and puzzle over. "Now?" Takaya asked after a blink, though it sounded more like a statement.
"Yeah," he answered, nodding once.
"Roger."
His older twin seemed to have gotten over whatever it was that had been bothering him a lot quicker than he had the last time he'd been having trouble, but as the two of them made their way into the Blue Earth's airlock, Shinya made up his mind that he would keep an eye on Takaya as best he could. It was always possible that Takaya was shoving his problems aside so Shinya wouldn't know to worry about him. Ta-kun, what would you do without me? Shinya mused, rolling his eyes briefly.
When the airlock doors had sealed shut behind them the way they always did, Shinya concentrated briefly, retrieving his tekkaset from its usual resting place; wherever the hell that was. Taking a few seconds to make sure that Takaya was getting into Pegas, and finding that his idiot of a twin brother actually was, Shinya breathed a short sigh of relief; it looked like he wasn't going to have to knock some sense into Takaya the way he'd been starting to think he would.
"Teksetta!" he shouted, holding up his crystal the way he always did.
Pacing Pegas as his brother's battle-robot made its way out among the Radam monsters that were basically raining out of the sky, Varis landed on the back of it in his full armor, just as the top hatch burst open and Blade flew out. Watching as his older twin did his usual pre-battle flip, landing on Pegas' back just in front of him, Varis drew his tekkalance just before Blade did the same.
(Shinya, are you all right?)
(I'm fine,) he said, trying to sound calm; Takaya had sounded a bit too tense for his peace of mind. (You?)
(I'll be fine.)
(Good,) he said, as the two of them riding Pegas made it into the main bulk of the descending monster swarm. (Let's go.) Leaping from Pegas' back, aiming for a particularly thick knot of Radam monsters, he tossed off a salute with his tekkalance.
Hacking and slashing his way through the knot of Radam monsters in front of him, Varis darted through the air quickly, seeking out particularly thick-clustered groups of Radam monsters; he knew that Blade wasn't at his best for the moment, so Varis was going to do what he could to support him. It was what they always did for each other, and he wasn't about to start slacking off now.
VIII
Watching Tekkaman Varis, as his younger twin ripped through the Radam monsters all around him like cheap cloth, Blade once again found himself amazed by his brother's resilience. They'd both had a bad time with Omega's forces, and Varis had nearly been killed just a couple days ago, but there he was, taking on the Radam monsters like he didn't have a care in the world. Thank you, Shinya; I won't waste this strength, he vowed silently, gripping the shaft of his tekkalance all the tighter.
Directing Pegas into the main swarm, making sure to stay out of Varis' way as his younger twin darted all over the sky in his pursuit of the Radam monsters he was hunting, Blade raised his own tekkalance and began to attack. Shaking off a flash from his nightmare last night, having seen Aki in place of one of his targets, Blade bisected the Radam monster and quickly moved on.
The sight of a nearby Radam monster exploding when he wasn't near it, and Varis was clear on the other side of him, prompted Blade to look back down along the trajectory of the shot. He didn't know just what he'd been expecting to see down there, but he was still surprised to see Levin sitting behind a large anti-aircraft gun, waving up at them.
(Well, Levin's getting into it now,) Varis called, sounding amused. (Look, Ta-kun.)
(Yeah; funny,) he said, waving to Levin from his position on Pegas' back; he might not have needed the help, but it was always nice to have someone else on his side.
Turning his attention back to the Radam monsters that were still swarming all around them, occasionally pausing to shake off yet another flash from his nightmare – it seemed like they were getting worse, but since Varis was still fighting, he wasn't going to say anything – Blade continued to batter, slice, and slash his way through the still-descending swarm; the only thing that he could really find it in himself to be thankful for was the fact that Spear wasn't attacking right now.
Moving a bit slower as his mental fatigue began to take its toll – even with his personal vow not to let what he was seeing affect him, cutting through what looked like his friends and fellow Space Knights was still difficult for him – Blade stopped dead in mid-swing as he saw Shinya right in front of him. His younger twin was bleeding out through a deep gash in his stomach, and there was blood spilling out over his lower lip and down his chin.
Just as he was about to reach out for Shinya, to carry his younger twin back to the Blue Earth and demand that Noal fly them all back to OSDG Headquarters as fast as he could, something ripped through his younger twin's body. When cloud that had been thrown up around Shinya and whatever it was that had just murdered him – whatever Blade was going to kill next – Blade saw… Tekkaman Varis, in full armor and with his tekkalance still bared.
(Ta-Kun?) Varis asked, as Blade heard armored knuckles rapping on his helmet. (You're not dreaming again, are you, Ta-kun?)
(Sorry,) he said, feeling sheepish for falling for another hallucination when he'd been doing all right against them beforehand.
(You're hopeless, Ta-kun,) Varis chided; Blade looked down slightly, embarrassed. (My hopeless Ta-kun.)
(I guess,) he said, sighing briefly as he turned his attention back outward.
(Come on, Ta-kun.)
Steeling himself again against what he was going to be facing, Blade glanced back down at Levin just in time to see the anti-aircraft gun that he had been manning explode spectacularly. "Levin!"
(I'll take care of him,) Varis called. (Good luck, Ta-kun.)
(Right,) he said, nodding sharply as he raised his tekkalance.
IX
As he dove down to where Levin was laying after he'd been blown free of the anti-aircraft gun he'd been using to take out some of the swarming Radam monsters, Tekkaman Varis decided that it would be better for him if he transformed back. He was starting to feel a bit worn out, and while he could have continued fighting for a few more minutes more before he really started to run out of strength in any meaningful way, but Levin looked injured, so it was probably better that he shed the armor; both so that he would have more energy, and so that he wouldn't have to deal with the extra bulk while he was trying to work.
Landing on the tarmac about ten or so feet from where Levin sat, not having wanted to risk drawing the attention of any of Radam's monsters that might have tried to follow him down to where he was, and not wanting to chance him getting burned by Varis' own thruster-backwash as he landed, Varis let his transformation fade and ran over to where Levin was sprawled. Shinya was just about to call to him, to ask him if he was more injured than he looked, when he saw the blood leaking from the other man's knee.
"Don't worry, Levin," he said, trying to project calm with his voice as he knelt down next to Levin's legs. "I'll take care of you," he smiled, feeling reassured when Levin smiled back at him.
"Oh, my sexy D-Two," Levin said, clearly more focused on him than on the injury to his leg that Shinya was checking out as they spoke. "Are you here to nurse me back to health?"
Shinya laughed; he couldn't help it, that was Levin for you.
Taking off his Space Knight vest, tossing it to Levin with a quick request for the other man to hold it, Shinya shucked his shirt and grabbed the bottom of it. Tearing a few strips off, since there was nothing else for him to use for bandages out here and no real way for him to flag down the Blue Earth in time for anyone onboard to be of much help, Shinya tossed his shirt over once he was finished with it.
When he'd made what he felt was at least a passable bandage, at least something that would hold until they all made it back to OSDG Headquarters where Levin could have his wound checked out by one of the doctors, Shinya looked back up to ask for his shirt back. That was when Levin pounced.
As their lips met in a very aggressive kiss, Shinya at first thought that it was Levin's way of thanking him; it really was something that fit with the kind of person that Levin had shown himself to be. Still, after a few moments, when Levin had wrapped his arms around Shinya's neck, pulled him close, and more than that when he seemed to be trying to count Shinya's molars with his tongue, Shinya started to think that he really shouldn't let Levin take this whole thing any farther than he obviously was intending to.
X
When D-Two had transformed out of his large, shiny, glossy, elegant Tekkaman form in front of him, Levin had been so happy to see him. Sure, there were hundreds of Radam monsters in the air all around them, descending down on them like the walls of any number of collapsing buildings, and the Blue Earth and Tekkaman Blade were both circling over them in an effort to fight them off, but with D-Two in front of him – even outside of his beautiful Tekkaman form – things didn't seem so bad.
Then, when D-Two had sat down next to him and started ripping his vest and shirt off, he'd been even happier to see D-Two there; his milky pale skin almost shone under the moonlight. Watching as D-Two bandaged his bleeding knee, Levin's right hand resting on the clothes he had taken off, Levin glanced down at the white shirt that D-Two had tossed into his lap. While D-Two continued to work on patching up his leg, Levin picked up the shirt that D-Two had left with him. Inhaling the soft, musky scent that he'd left on the piece of clothing that he'd been wearing, Levin smiled; he'd never had the chance to get this close to D-Boy.
When D-Two looked back up, obviously meaning to ask for the rest of his clothes back, Levin leaned forward and gave him a deep, long kiss. Moving forward slightly, Levin wrapped his arms around D-Two's neck and pulled him in a bit closer so he could kiss the Tekkaman more deeply. D-Two's lips were so soft. Opening one eye as he heard the shrieks of Radam monsters and the distinctive sounds of the Blue Earth's laser-cannons firing, Levin caught sight of something that was completely, utterly out of place.
It looked like some kind of a Tekkaman, but that wasn't possible; Tekkaman Blade was still in the air, though it looked like he was more interested in keeping an eye on them than in hunting down the rest of the Radam's monsters circling around them; and D-Two couldn't have flown away without his Tekkaman armor, anyway. The not-a-Tekkaman was shooting down any Radam monster that got in its range, occasionally stopping to look down at them.
When Levin, slowly, reluctantly, loosened his grip on D-Two, his attention having been effectively distracted by the strange, inexplicable apparition in front of them, D-Two sat back on his knees and gave Levin himself a lopsided sort of smile.
"That…" D-Two laughed softly. "That was my first kiss," he said, then he seemed to notice what Levin was staring at.
D-Two narrowed his eyes, having turned around to look at the not-a-Tekkaman that was standing atop the building behind them. Levin didn't know where it had come from, or what it wanted, but since it had been destroying Radam's monsters, that meant that there wasn't much chance that it was affiliated with the Radam. Still, that did beg the question of just where this not-a-Tekkaman – whatever it actually was – had come from.