He hated to see them there, just sitting there on D-Boy's bed like that; he knew it wasn't really D-Two's fault, since it looked like D-Boy had just shut down completely and the only things that were likely to get through to him in this condition were exactly the kind of things that D-Two wouldn't do to him under the circumstances. He sure didn't know what any of them were going to be to do at this point. There was one thing he was sure of, though: the Radam in general and Spear in particular weren't going to just let this kind of an opportunity pass him by; he'd be sending down fresh hordes of his Radam monsters just as fast as he could cook them up.
It would be like when D-Two had been injured, or when Tekkaman Blade's crystal had been shattered, only worse because back in those days they'd at least had one of the twins to bolster their defenses. But now, with Tekkaman Blade completely out of commission, and D-Two doing what he could to get his dope of a brother to stop moping and get back on his feet, they were sitting ducks for any of the Radam that got it into their heads to attack them. And the Radam would attack them; they always took whatever opportunities they got to launch an attack.
He knew that just as well as either of the twins, as well as anyone who had lived under constant threat of Radam attacks did, so he wasn't particularly happy about having to leave all of this up to D-Two. Oh, he knew that the kid was good at dealing with D-Boy and his moodiness, what with all of the things that Aki had told him and all that he had already seen D-Two do for his occasionally-moronic brother. But, this wasn't the kind of thing that they could wait for; there were going to be Radam monsters descending on this base.
He might not know when that was going to happen, but he wasn't stupid enough to believe that it wouldn't; he'd lived in the world for too long to be so stupidly optimistic.
And, even if he hadn't known all that he already knew, the fact that the base that they were all standing in was starting to shake and rumble – not to mention the sounds of far-off and not-so-far-off alarms that he was starting to hear – would have let even a completely stupid person know that there was something going on.
"Don't tell me!" Aki exclaimed.
"The Radam are planning to destroy the ADF," he grumbled, as the lights in the room flickered and another alarm went off. Another shockwave shot through the floor, leaving him and Aki stumbling in its wake.
"If this keeps up, Headquarters will be destroyed, too," Aki said, clearly worrying about all of the people that were still inside this base; not just the four Space Knights who'd gone a bit AWOL, but all of the ADF soldiers who were trying to hold off the Radam monsters.
"All right," he said, as they both turned back to the twins.
"You know what's going on out there. Both of you!"
D-Two, who'd up to that point had his chin resting on top of D-Boy's head as he cuddled his moron of a twin brother, was now staring at the ceiling with a look of worry on his face. Still, at least he was responding to the changes in their situation; which was more than he could say for D-Boy at the moment.
"You boys are the only ones we can depend on, right now!" he said. "Come on, D-Two! You have to get D-Boy back up!"
D-Two gave him an annoyed look for that one, a sort of silent 'do you think I'm stupid?', but all he actually did was sigh. "I don't know how," the Tekkaman said flatly.
"Come on! I really hate asking for help, but I'm begging right now!" he blurted, finally at the end of his patience as far as D-Boy's antics were concerned.
"Beg all you want, Noal, but if I don't know, then I can't help," D-Two said acidly.
"I know D-Boy's useless right now, but you-"
"Useless?!" D-Two demanded, cutting him off before he could really work up to a tirade. "After all we've done, you go and call my brother useless?! You idiot! You don't know what Spear did, what we've been through, so shut up and let me solve this! I will find a way!"
By the end of D-Two's little speech, the blue-eyed Tekkaman was glaring at him, his teeth clenched and his expression as fierce as Noal had ever seen it. As the room started shaking again, and just as Noal was trying to work out what he could say to D-Two to get the kid up and back in the game – since it was completely obvious that D-Boy wasn't going to be getting off his butt anytime soon – he saw D-Boy brace his hands against D-Two's chest and shove the two of them apart. D-Two was clearly just as surprised by that as he was.
"Go," D-Boy said, staring down at the bed but clearly addressing D-Two all the same. "Please, go."
D-Boy folded in on himself after that, curling up against the far wall of the cell the same way he'd once been curled up against D-Two's chest. That same spot of blue light appeared on D-Two's forehead again, letting Noal know that he and D-Boy were using that telepathy of theirs again. Noal wondered briefly what the Gemini Boys were talking about, and why D-Boy felt like he needed to use his telepathy when Varis was right here with them and all of them could hear each other.
But then, all of them could hear each other; maybe whatever D-Boy had wanted to say to his brother was something he wanted to keep private. He didn't know just what it was that D-Boy wanted to keep between the two of them, but he figured that he'd have to respect it. If nothing else, D-Two would punch him in the head if he didn't.
"You're hopeless," D-Two said, though the look on D-Two's face didn't match up with his harsh-sounding words. Neither did the gentle tone of his voice, or the way he reached out to stroke his brother's hair.
Just as Noal had been about to clear his throat, though, to draw D-Two's attention back to the crisis they were all kind of in the middle of right now, D-Two climbed off the bed and stood up. There was still a kind of uneasy expression on the kid's face, but Noal didn't blame him for it under the circumstances; he was worried about D-Boy, too. Finally, just as he was about to see if he could do anything for the kid, since it was obvious that D-Two was trying to work up the nerve to leave D-Boy behind, D-Two stepped back.
"Take care of him?" he asked Aki, before Noal could say anything else to him. Then he turned to Noal, wearing a slight, not particularly happy looking smirk. "Noal-kun?"
"Yeah," he grabbed D-Two's left arm and the two of them made tracks. "Let's see what we can do about those Radam monsters."
Taking D-Two's silence as an agreement, he let the kid go as the two of them sprinted out of that depressing cell and away from its even more depressing occupant. As they both made their way down the corridor and out of the section of the cell-block, Noal cornered a bit too late to do anything but dash through the space between a pair of techs, one of whom was carrying a clipboard. Noal hoped, in the corner of his mind that was still free to notice the things around him, that he hadn't made the guy drop his clipboard when he blew past.
Him or D-Two Noal amended, when he remembered the currently-untransformed Tekkaman running right along beside him.
Just as Noal had spotted the end of the corridor they were in coming up fast, and was about to signal D-Two that they were going to have to corner again soon, the ceiling right above them was blown in. The force of the explosion blew the both of them backwards, but Noal could feel D-Two bracing him so the two of them didn't fall to the floor. He was glad for it, but the air was just a bit too thick with debris and the fumes from a broken pipe to let him express that kind of gratitude in any meaningful way.
As the debris from the explosion settled at last, leaving him free not only to breathe properly, but to talk without worrying about choking, Noal started to open his mouth. But then, just as he'd opened his eyes, Noal saw that there was another hole, this one torn in the wall. Through the hole he could see another room, one filled with lights and machinery, but that wasn't really what caught his attention at first. All he noticed about the room in front of him at first was the Sol Tekkaman standing front-and-center before the hole in the wall.
That was all that mattered right now: this was a way to fight off the Radam monsters that were attacking.
"Oi, oi, you all right?" he said, gently tugging D-Two's arm as the two of them helped each other back to their feet. Looking over at the kid as the two of them made their way through the debris-field that had once been as normal a stretch of corridor as any he'd ever seen, Noal decided to clarify something. He probably didn't need to, since D-Two had already demonstrated that he had a hell of a lot more sense than D-Boy, but it would make him feel better; even if D-Two would probably think he was a moron for saying it. "I'm not about to let you go out there on your own."
"Thanks, Noal," D-Two said, though the kid still sounded a bit distracted.
Noal smirked slightly. "You know, D-Two, if I didn't know better, I'd swear you were the older brother."
D-Two laughed. "Brother's kind of an idiot, so I take care of him."
And then they were inside the room with the Sol Tekkaman, and there was no more time for banter.
"Sol-Tekkaman," he muttered. "Figures they'd build one for maintenance. Lucky for us it's here."
"Yeah," D-Two said, keeping his voice low so he wouldn't alert the two techs that they had both seen when they'd first made their way into this room. "It even matches your eyes."
Turning back to D-Two, he found that the kid was wearing that same, sly smirk on his face that he always did when he was yanking someone's chain. "Funny, D-Two."
"No, it's not possible!" The voice of one of the techs drifted over to them, once their brief conversation had concluded. "Launch it? We haven't even taken it for a test-flight yet!"
"All right! Launch it at once!" General Fatass himself said, cutting the tech off.
"But we don't have a pilot, sir!" the tech who'd been doing all the talking so far said; this was looking better and better.
"Anyone will do!" General Fatass sounded particularly pissy, and under the circumstances Noal could understand. "Just get someone to operate it! Otherwise, we'll all be in grave danger!"
Perfect, Noal thought, feeling a grin worthy of the Cheshire Cat tugging at his mouth.
"Brigadier General! Brigadier General!"
"I'll do it!" he called, sprinting over to the Sol Tekkaman and climbing into the thing, all the while hearing D-Two's laughter behind him.
"Who are you?" the other tech, the one who hadn't said a word up until now, shouted at him.
"He just said anyone would do!" he retorted, seeing D-Two starting to make his way across the floor to where the three of them were standing over the techs' shoulders.
"Oi, oi, Noal-kun, you want to be a Tekkaman, too?" the kid asked, that same, sly smile on his face.
"Tekkaman Varis? What are you doing out here?" the blond tech, the one who'd been talking to General Fatass over the comm., asked as he turned to the kid making his way over to them.
"I'm leaving. Are you going to stop me?" the kid asked, in that light, airy, I-will-punch-you-across-the-room-if-you-disagree-with-me tone that he didn't have much cause to use around the Space Knights; Noal almost pitied the techs here, since they probably wouldn't have the sense to back off when D-Two used that tone.
Balzac hadn't, and look what happened to him.
"No," the blond tech said, looking more surprised than intimidated. "The General said you were a flight-risk; I thought you'd already be gone."
Deciding that he'd better start getting ready for the fight if he was going to be of any use, Noal started fiddling with the Sol-Tekkaman all around him to see if he could get it to activate. As it turned out, leaning back against the carapace of the thing triggered the armor's activation-sequence, and Noal soon found himself surrounded by the armor of his own, personal Sol Tekkaman. It was a bit on the bulky side, but it didn't restrict his movement nearly as much as he'd been expecting; nor did it have Tekkaman Varis' outrageously huge shoulders, but Noal honestly doubted that any human-made armor would have that kind of thing.
Still, he'd be able to at least keep up with D-Two in battle now, so that was a good thing; the more Radam monsters that they could take out while Aki was trying to get D-Boy back on his feet, the better he would feel about things. Once he was as fully-armored as he was going to get, with all of the systems having been checked out to the best of his ability at the moment, he made his way back over to the two techs.
They seemed a bit intimidated to be facing their own Sol Tekkaman, which was really kind of funny considering the fact that they had made the thing in the first place, but they rallied soon enough. That is to say, before D-Two would have gone over and slapped the both of them for being idiots.
"What weapons do I have?" he prompted.
"The Fermion Gun," said the blond tech; he seemed to do most of the talking.
"How do I use it?"
"The right arm."
So, you just have to move my right arm, and this baby does the rest. He grinned under the armor. I wonder if this is what it feels like to be a real Tekkaman. He might ask D-Two about that later; once they'd managed to get back to Headquarters, but now wasn't the time to think about those kinds of things. Now, it was time to go deal with those Radam monsters.
"I see," he couldn't resist commenting, as the rifle and its assorted paraphernalia folded out onto the Sol Tekkaman he was wearing. "And where's the exit?"
The sound of a launch-tunnel opening made the question itself a bit moot, and the sound of D-Two's chuckling reminded Noal that he wasn't the only one who was going to be putting his ass on the line today.
"All right," the kid said, wearing his usual smirk. The thing Noal was most focused on at the moment, though, was the crystal in the kid's hand; it matched his eyes, but that wasn't important. What was important was what that crystal could do.
"Teksetta!"
When D-Two raised that magic crystal of his, calling upon whatever kind of powers it was that those kids of theirs used when they transformed into Tekkamen, Noal grinned widely. They might not have had Tekkaman Blade with them, but with him and Tekkaman Varis working together, they might just win this without him. Or at least do enough damage that those Radam monsters that were piling in on them would be forced to break off their attack.
Either way, he'd be satisfied with the outcome.
"Right," he said to the two silent techs, both of them having been staring at him and Tekkaman Varis ever since the kid himself had transformed. "Come on, D-Two!"
No one said anything, but that was just fine with him; he hadn't really been expecting anyone in the ADF to have a sense of humor, and this really wasn't the time to be joking around, anyway. As he and Tekkaman Varis made their way up and out of the launch-tunnel, catching sight of the huge swarm of Radam monsters that were descending on it, Noal couldn't help but smile a little at the irony of the situation. Here they were, racing to the rescue of the very same group of people that he and Aki had come to rescue the twins from.
It was kind of funny, when you thought about it that way.
I
Watching as all of the Radam monsters that she had seen coming down from the sky now making their landings, she couldn't help feeling sorry for the people working for the ADF. Even if they had been jerks to D-Boy and D-Two, even if they had sent Balzac to spy on them, no one ever deserved to be facing Radam monsters. Especially not so many of them.
"The battle situation hasn't changed," she said, unable to resist the urge to speak up anymore. "The ADF is in full retreat."
Before the Chief could answer, the door to Comm. One opened and someone else came in. Milly didn't have much time to wonder who it was, before Levin came up to lean against the empty chair next to her.
"Where are Noal and Aki?" he asked.
"They're still inside," she said, knowing that things would have been a whole lot different if those two had managed to get D-Boy and D-Two out of whatever cell in the complex they were being held in. "With D-Boy and D-Two."
"Oh, what are those two still doing in there?" Levin mused, putting a hand to his chin as he looked down slightly; Milly had seen it enough times to know that that was his usual thinking-pose. "Why don't they transform into my gorgeous Tekkamen?"
Just then, as if they'd been listening in on the conversation and just waiting for the most dramatic moment to make their entrance – which was something she wouldn't have put past D-Two, but D-Boy didn't seem like the kind of person to do things like that – two armored figures burst out of the ADF's Headquarters and flew up into the air with a pair of big, probably rocket-assisted jumps.
"There they are!" Levin said, a wide smile on his face.
Milly smiled, too. That is, right up until she began to notice something odd about one of the figures. Oh, Tekkaman Varis was right there, but that didn't really look like Blade beside him. The colors were wrong, for one thing... "Wait, there's something strange."
Zooming in on the image, until the two figures flying low over the ground filled the large screen that they were all using to observe the battle, Milly began to pick out the differences. Sure, Tekkaman Varis was right there, but...
"What's that? That's a Sol-Tekkaman," Levin said.
"But, it's not the same one as Balzac's…" she said.
"Most likely, it's the no. 2 unit," the Chief said, sounding as calm as he ever did.
"Number 2?" she asked, at the same time as Levin did.
Who could it be in there, and why was Tekkaman Varis so willing to fight with them the way he was doing?
II
"There's more coming now, Noal-kun," he said, linking with Noal's comm. so that the other man would be able to hear him.
Catching his lancer as it spun back towards him, Varis collapsed the thing back into its standard form, then launched both ends into the mass of Radam monsters bearing down on them. Noal had already shot the two that had been creeping up on them, so that was one less thing that Varis had to worry about; that was good, since he had entirely too many things to worry about already.
"Is this what it's like for you?" Noal demanded, sounding annoyed; Varis knew him enough to know that it was more for show than anything at this point.
Still, show or not, Varis appreciated the gesture. "On better days. Boring, huh?"
"In this case, D-Two, I like boring!" Noal responded, in a tone that meant he was probably wearing a wide grin at the moment.
The two of them waded back into the fight, Noal firing blasts from his fermion rifle – the thing he'd once called a death-ray-blaster when he'd first seen Balzac using it – and him carving through the descending ranks of Radam monsters with his lancer. He spared a momentary thought for Takaya, wondering if Aki had managed to get his moronic, moping twin brother back on his feet, before the needs of the battle pushed those thoughts right out of his mind. Now wasn't the time to think of anything but what was right in front of him.
Now wasn't the time to do anything but fight.
III
When Noal and D-Two had left, Aki had wondered for a moment if that would be all that it took; D-Boy had reacted to what Noal had been saying, but he'd only reacted in the sense of talking to D-Two, telling him to handle things. Sure, D-Two was just as strong as he was, but it wasn't good for D-Boy if he just relied on D-Two to do everything for him. D-Two seemed to understand that, too; but he also seemed to be as confused as she was about what they could do about that.
She didn't like it, it wasn't a good situation, but it seemed to be true all the same.
When her commlink went off, reminding her again that there were other people besides Noal and D-Two who were counting on her to get D-Boy back on his feet.
"Yes? This is Aki," she said, knowing that he was the one most likely to be contacting her under the circumstances.
"Is D-Boy with you?" Chief Freeman asked.
"Yes, but Noal and D-Two…"
"What happened to them?"
"You see," she said, wishing she had the answer to that very question; not just for the Chief's sake, but for her own peace of mind as well. "The two of them ran off."
The Chief made a thoughtful sound. "Sol-Tekkaman and Tekkaman Varis are fighting the Radam directly above you now."
"Tekkaman Varis is there?" she echoed, surprised. "He hates Balzac. Why would he fight with him?"
"No, it's another suit," the Chief said, and Aki realized right then and there just who the pilot of that new Sol Tekkaman had to be.
"Another one…Then Noal is-!"
"That's right!" her fellow Space Knight said, over the open comm.
"Noal!" she heard Levin gasp over the open link, and she understood perfectly how the man felt; she wasn't particularly happy with Noal, either.
"How did you get in that Sol-Tekkaman?" Milly demanded, a chiding tone to her voice.
"It just happened that way," Noal said, with his usual nonchalance. "Anyway, Aki, D-Two and I can drive off the Radam. Don't worry about it!"
"Noal, what are you thinking? D-Two, keep him alive, please?" she implored, knowing that Tekkaman Varis would have been listening in on their conversation and that he'd have something to say about it.
"I won't let Noal-kun die, Aki-chan," D-Boy's brother said, sounding gently amused. "Besides, things are boring now; Sol-Tekkamen do best when it's boring." Tekkaman Varis paused for a moment, and Aki wondered why until she remembered that he and Noal were in the thick of a fight with the Radam's monsters. "How's brother?"
"He's… all right," she said, looking back over at D-Boy; he'd shifted slightly on the bed where he and D-Two had both been sitting, but that was all.
"He's still being an idiot, yeah?" Tekkaman Varis asked, and from the sheer exasperation in his tone Aki got the feeling that he was rolling his eyes. "I'll punch him when I get back."
She knew that D-Two would have been winking at her when he said that, if the two of them had been facing each other, and she smiled. "All right, D-Two. Good luck."
"Than you, Aki-chan," Tekkaman Varis said warmly. "Take care of yourself and my idiot brother."
The comm. went silent after that, and Aki sighed as she turned her attention back to D-Boy. She might have wanted to reassure D-Two that his brother was going to be all right, but she still didn't quite know what to do about D-Boy. He seemed to have completely closed himself off from the world; she didn't know why, and she didn't know if she was ever going to find out, either.
Making her way back over to the bed where D-Boy was curled up, she sat down and moved in close; she might not have known why he had collapsed like this, but the least she could do was try to make him feel better. He'd seemed to react well enough to being held by D-Two, at least up until the point where the Radam monsters began descending on them in force and he had pushed his brother away so that Tekkaman Varis could help protect them all. So, it stood to reason that he would want to have someone with him now that D-Two had left.
Scooting closer, Aki gently rested her right hand on D-Boy's head, the same way that D-Two had done while the two of them had been sitting together. D-Boy shuddered, but only briefly and he didn't shrug her hand off, so she scooted in closer. Aki knew that she couldn't afford to spend too much time like this, since Tekkaman Varis still had his time-limit, and Noal's Sol Tekkaman wouldn't be able to hold off all those Radam monsters forever.
"Did you hear that, D-Boy?" she said, moving almost as close to D-Boy as D-Two had been. "Everyone's risking their lives in battle. You don't want to just leave D-Two alone out there, do you?"
She felt it when D-Boy shuddered, and as she stroked his hair, she noticed how badly he was sweating. Aki couldn't help but feel sorry for him, but she also knew that she had to get him back on his feet; she knew that the Radam monsters attacking them couldn't be driven off by just Tekkaman Varis and Noal alone. They would need Tekkaman Blade's help if they were going to be able to survive this.
IV
He was actually starting to get the hang of this, funny as it would have sounded to him earlier; but really, it was just like firing any normal gun, really. Easy, he reminded himself, remembering just what kind of limits normal guns had. Ammo might be limited, here; I'd better make every shot a bull's-eye.
With that in mind, Noal took another, carefully-aimed shot... and missed! He was just about to take another shot, when a spinning, silver object bisected them both. As they exploded into innumerable chunks, he grinned.
"Thank you, D-Two," he said, setting himself up for another shot; he didn't miss that time.
"Of course," the Tekkaman chuckled.
"It's not so boring out here anymore," he said, moving and shooting the way he'd done since he'd gotten into the Sol Tekkaman; it was pretty much the only thing a Sol Tekkaman could do, turning to watch Tekkaman Varis as he moved among the Radam monsters, hacking and slashing with that oversized lance of his. "Eh, D-Two?"
Tekkaman Varis laughed, just a bit. "No, it's still boring."
"Oi, oi, then leave some fun for me," he groused good-naturedly, rolling his eyes even though he knew that Varis couldn't see it.
"You don't even know what fun is," Tekkaman Varis said, with such exaggerated stuffiness that Noal couldn't help but laugh.
"Brat," he said, teasing the kid right back.
After that, though, the thick of the swarm descended on them again, and there was no more time to talk.
V
Sitting with D-Boy on the bed that he and D-Two had shared for the short time that they had been together on this, one of the darkest days in recent memory – even if the only ones who would remember it properly were her, Noal, and D-Two – she took a deep breath. Nothing was going to be solved if she just sat around waiting for something to happen, so in spite of the fact that she didn't really have any better ideas than D-Two had had when he was trying to talk D-Boy around, Aki gathered her composure and spoke.
"D-Boy," she said, gently curling her fingers into his hair; he seemed to respond better if he was in physical contact with someone.
With a soft, muffled sound of protest, D-Boy pulled away from her hand with a speed that almost suggested he'd been burned by the contact. "No," he gasped, curling up on himself again, knees shielding his face and head. "Please."
"Why, D-Boy?"
"I'm afraid," he said, pulling in his knees like he was trying to shield himself from the world.
Now, that was something she could completely understand; especially under the circumstances. Still, even that wasn't a reason for D-Boy to have completely frozen up like this. "You're afraid?" she said, being a bit more stern than she would have been under any other circumstances.
"I'm afraid of turning into a demon," D-Boy said quickly, cutting her off before she could do anything more to reassure him; she could see his haunted green eyes, visible now over his knees, if only just. "A monster, when the 30 minutes are up," he continued, pulling his knees in just that much closer. "I'm not strong enough. I can't fight it," D-Boy paused, a flash of something indefinable passing over his face.
"You're not. You've never been a monster, D-Boy. You don't have to be afraid."
"I'm too weak," D-Boy said softly, and she could see a shudder run through his body. "I can't protect him anymore; I can't protect anyone. I'm weak; useless."
Her mouth was open, and though she wanted to say something to D-Boy, she couldn't make the words come. She hadn't known just how deeply he'd been affected by everything that had been happening; she hadn't known just how he would take it. "Is this because the two of you were separated while you were here?"
The look D-Boy gave her, raising his head only slightly from his knees, was all the answer she needed.
"You're not weak, D-Boy," she said, settling back down on the bed next to him and gently resting her right hand on his back. "And you're not a monster." She decided against mentioning D-Two, since D-Boy had already been comparing himself to his brother; he already knew what D-Two was capable of, she just had to remind D-Boy what he was capable of. "You're one of the Space Knights, and you're done so many wonderful things for the world. You're our protection, D-Boy."
Before she could say anything else, though, her commlink went off again; knowing that it was one of her fellow Space Knights, and that none of them would have contacted her unless something new had come up, Aki stood up and turned her attention to it. Most of it, anyway; since she couldn't forget about D-Boy; she wouldn't forget him.
"This is Aki," she acknowledged.
"What's going on?" the Chief asked, and although he sounded as calm as he ever had, she got the feeling that he was concerned about D-Boy, too.
"Send Pegas here, please," she said, looking back at D-Boy, curled up on the cell's bed like a child who had been having a nightmare; she sympathized, but at the same time she knew that this wasn't the time for any of them to let their fears run away with them. Especially not one of the twins.
"All right."
If nothing else, that got D-Boy's attention; he raised his head from his knees, haunted green eyes pinning her with their gaze. "Do you… do you really want me to turn into…" he said, so clearly terrified by what she was suggesting that Aki was almost tempted to take it back. Almost. "Aki, please!"
She knew; and more than that, she knew that D-Boy himself needed to know that, too. He needed to know that he didn't have anything to fear; he needed to know that he could handle what would come.
VI
The horde of Radam monsters bearing down on them had thinned quite a bit, though most of that had to do with Tekkaman Varis and that killer lance of his. Still, considering the fact that this Sol Tekkaman he'd borrowed might not have a full combat load-out, he wasn't going to risk running out while Tekkaman Varis was still in the game. He knew perfectly well that the kid had a time-limit he had to watch, so he was saving his shots for when Tekkaman Varis was forced to pull out.
He wasn't going to count on Tekkaman Blade's getting out to them before Tekkaman Varis' time was up; they were going to have to look out for each other, that much was obvious.
"There's a way for me to get rid of them, Noal-kun," Tekkaman Varis said, and he could hear the kid's ragged breathing; that and the sheer exhaustion in his tone let Noal know that he wasn't going to be able to count on the Tekkaman's help for much longer.
"Voltekka?" Noal asked, though he was pretty sure of the answer.
"Yeah," Tekkaman Varis said wearily, and Noal turned to watch as the kid dodged out of the way of another incoming Radam monster and then threw that lance of his again.
Noal knew that he would have to make the choice soon, he knew that Tekkaman Varis wasn't going to be able to hold up under this kind of strain for much longer; hell, he'd been conserving his maybe-limited ammo for just this occasion.
"All right," he said, moving in closer behind the Tekkaman so he could catch him when he lost his hold on that transformation of his. "I'll protect you, D-Two."
"Thank you, Noal-kun," Tekkaman Varis said, and Noal could practically hear the weary smile on his face.
Tekkaman Varis planted his feet, and Noal primed his fermion rifle, fully ready to defend the kid from any Radam monsters that might take this as an opportunity to attack him. The power that he could detect Varis putting out while he was transformed began to go up, and Noal smirked. Almost time for the big one, he mused, pleased at the sight.
"Voltekka!"
It might not be the big finish, since he was pretty sure that this last shot that Varis had in him wasn't going to be quite enough to deal with all of these Radam monsters, but they'd at least have a bit more breathing-room. Once Tekkaman Varis fired, his six beams spreading out, whipping and curving through the air as ribbons of energy; almost like they were alive or something, Noal let himself breathe a bit. It had always been kind of weird for him, watching as either Tekkaman Varis, Tekkaman Blade, or both of the twins at once fired off those beams of theirs.
But now, standing just a few inches away from the kid, Noal realized that he hadn't really seen anything from back there.
The beams of bright, glowing blue energy slammed into the ranks of Radam monsters descending on the two of them, and Noal grinned as they disintegrated. He liked to think that, maybe, just maybe some of them were feeling the kind of helplessness that everyone on Earth had felt during those long, terrible months before the twins had literally fallen to Earth.
When Tekkaman Varis' energy ran out, Noal caught the kid before he fell to the ground. He couldn't do much for the fact that the kid's armor was gone now, but he could at least try to protect the kid while he recovered. It was the least he could do, after the kid had protected him so well.
Wrapping his left arm more securely around D-Two's waist, Noal pulled the kid in close to his side so he'd be more stable while Noal was moving out, then he shot down a lone Radam monster that had either been missed by Tekkaman Varis' attack or had broken away from one of the groups farther out. The ones that had been outside the range of Tekkaman Varis' Voltekka were starting to close in now, and Noal took a few seconds to check on the kid himself and make sure he was as secure as he could be before he started moving out again. Once he was satisfied that D-Two was as safe as anyone could be under the circumstances, Noal shot down the pair of descending Radam monsters that he had spotted and made for a clearer patch of ground.
He wanted as much room to maneuver as he could manage, and he also wanted to keep those things from doing more damage to the ADF's Headquarters while D-Boy and Aki were still in there; he knew that he probably wasn't going to manage to do both, but one out of two wasn't bad under the circumstances.
VII
He didn't know what Aki had been thinking, telling the Chief to send Pegas; really, he still didn't. She had to know how weak he was, how useless; she'd been there when he had tried and failed to save Shinya from Balzac. More than that, though, she'd seen the way he had nearly killed his younger twin during that horrible night in the rain; trying to strangle Shinya even though his younger twin hadn't posed any sort of threat to him at that moment.
Shinya hadn't even been Tekkaman Varis then, and the sight of his younger twin's blue eyes slowly falling closed was one that Takaya knew would haunt him for a long time to come.
So, even though he couldn't help but know just what it was that Aki wanted from him, Takaya knew that he wasn't going to be able to do it. He couldn't protect anyone, anymore; it was better for them all if they just counted on Shinya. He had to make Aki see that, somehow.
"I don't want to be a monster again," he said, looking at her in the eyes, since that seemed to be the only way that he could make her understand.
He had to make her understand; everyone was in danger if he didn't.
"D-Boy… even after this, I still believe in you." She seemed more certain than he ever would have believed; she had seen what he was capable of, just the same as Noal. Noal had never really trusted him; he just hoped that the other man would be able to keep Shinya and Aki safe when he couldn't. "I believe in you!"
She didn't understand; why didn't anyone understand?
VIII
Dodging more of the Radam monsters that were coming down on him, Noal checked his gauges and sighed. He'd been right: he did have limited ammo. And, while normally he loved being right about stuff, in this case he would have been perfectly happy to be wrong. He had had eleven shots left, but that had been before he'd had to shoot down a pair of Radam monsters that had tried to bushwhack him.
Sure, he'd taken them both out with one shot, but that still left him with a grand total of ten; ten Radam monsters out of that swarm, twenty if he was both very lucky and very good, but even twenty Radam monsters wasn't going to make a dent in that swarm that was descending on them.
And, to make things just that much more interesting, he still had to watch how he moved, so he wouldn't jostle D-Two and risk injuring the kid somehow. It was annoying as all hell, even moreso since he knew it didn't have to be this way. He knew that, if only Tekkaman Blade would get his armored butt back in the air, the two of them would have a much better chance to drive off all of the Radam monsters bearing down on them.
Times like this, he wished it was possible to punch someone over a commlink.
Shooting down two more Radam monsters, Noal sighed again as his gauges changed to reflect the two shots he'd spent downing them. Only eight left, now; he really hoped Aki was making some progress with D-Boy. They could all use the kid's help, right about now.
IX
Hearing D-Boy talking about himself like that, as if he was some kind of animal that needed to be put down, it hurt. Even the shaking and rumbling of the walls around them couldn't quite distract her from the shock of hearing just how little D-Boy thought of himself at the moment. Even the loss of power to the lights, casting the room they both remained in into what felt like almost pitch blackness, wasn't enough to let her forget what D-Boy had said; what he felt to be true about himself.
She had sat down beside him on the bed before the lights had gone out, and now she reached out almost blindly to touch his shoulder. Her eyes were starting to adjust to the almost complete lack of light in the room, but as D-Boy raised his head again, she caught sight of something strange. D-Boy's eyes, those bright, deep green pools that she probably would have found it easy to get lost in if only he would look at her more, glowed softly in the darkness.
She couldn't even dismiss this as a trick of the light, the way she might have otherwise, because there wasn't enough light to make anything like that possible. Still, Aki knew that, if she reacted to the soft glow, D-Boy was likely to take it the wrong way. Especially considering the way he was feeling right now.
"D-Boy, what's a demon, anyway?" she said, speaking a bit more pointedly than she would have to someone in D-Boy's condition under any other circumstances. D-Boy needed to understand this. "It's true that you'll turn into a demon if you pass the 30 minute time limit. But, even if it's only for 30 minutes, there's a human heart inside of you."
D-Boy seemed to be responding to what she said, or maybe it was just the tone of her voice, but in either case he raised his head a bit more from his knees, staring at her with eyes that she thought might not be so frightened as they once were. So, she decided to continue on that track.
"You're not weak, either," she said firmly, reaching out to cup D-Boy's right cheek. He'd raised his head just that much more, so she knew she had to be doing something right. "A weak person wouldn't be able to do anything you've done. You're just as strong as your brother, D-Boy. He'd tell you that himself, if he was still here."
D-Boy leaned his head into her hand slightly, as if there were parts of him that wanted believe what she was saying, but on the whole he was still too scared of might-have-beens. That was all right, though; she could have enough faith for the both of them. Moving closer, both so that D-Boy could take a bit more comfort from her presence than he had perhaps been doing, she moved the hand she had placed on his cheek up into his hair, stroking it the way she remembered D-Two doing before.
"I believe in the gentle heart that lives inside of you. We both believe in your loving heart, D-Boy! That's why your brother was so willing to go out and fight with Noal: he believed that you would be coming out to help him! That's why you have to believe in yourself now, D-Boy! You're not a demon at all! You love the human race; that's why you and your brother can fight against your fate, and the Radam! You've been our hope for so long; our own people, that we can depend on."
She could feel tears spilling out of the corners of her eyes, but she ignored them in favor of speaking to D-Boy. She knew what they were from: she was pouring her heart out to a man when she didn't know if he returned her feelings, it was only natural, really.
As she continued stroking D-Boy's hair, damp with the same fear-sweat that she had felt dripping down her cheeks, Aki saw him slowly beginning to unfold from the fetal position that he had folded himself up into. She was glad to see it; D-Boy was a lot stronger than he gave himself credit for, she knew, and now all that remained was to make him understand that.
The sudden sound of concrete cracking, of stressed metal giving way at last, distracted Aki from the progress she had been making with D-Boy. She didn't have time to do much more than look up at the piece of ceiling that at come loose and begun falling towards the two of them, before she found herself yanked up and off the bed that she had been sitting on, and carried across the room fast enough that everything became a momentary blur. By the time Aki found herself settled back down on the ground, she was breathing harshly.
That had been too close for comfort, but it might have been just the thing she needed.
The collapse of the ceiling over their heads evidently hadn't been the only part of the building to fall, because there were now shafts of bright sunlight illuminating the room where the two of them had been trapped. Or, really where D-Boy had chosen to imprison himself because he thought there was something wrong with him. She could see his face now, though with the light shining from behind his head, most of his features were still cast in shadow.
She didn't care. "D-Boy," she said, smiling up at the man who had just saved her life; the man she had fallen in love with, even if she didn't know how he felt. "D-Boy, please give your 30 minutes to me," she said, reaching up to cup his right cheek with all of the gentleness that she could see he needed right now.
"Even if you turn into a demon, even at the moment you kill me…" she continued, looking up into his shadowed face even as her eyes began to adjust to the stark contrast between the sunlight behind his head and the shadows on his face. "I'll still believe in you!" Taking a breath to steady herself, not wanting to become too hysterical; she wasn't the kind of person who did that. "So please, give your thirty minutes to me!"
"Aki…"
She cut him off before D-Boy could start running himself down again; the last thing any of them needed was for him to start that again. "Please!" she said firmly, tears beginning to leak from her eyes; she wasn't sure if it was from the dust in the air or the emotions she was feeling anymore, but it had a definite affect on D-Boy.
"Yeah," he said, and she could see his expression regaining the resolve that it once had; the determination that made him who he was. He held her close, and she smiled, wrapping the arm that she hadn't been using to support herself around him in turn. Then, she heard the oddest thing: D-Boy chuckled softly, and as she felt the vibrations from his chest in her own, she wondered just what he was thinking. His laughter had sounded more rueful than anything, almost like he'd been laughing at himself. "Brother said that, too."
"Yeah?" she said, smiling wider as she held D-Boy a bit closer.
"He said that he'd still love me, even if I killed him."
D-Boy began to pull away then, and reluctantly Aki let him go; she knew that he needed to leave, knew better than most that he had work to do, but this was the closest that she had ever been to him. She thought that most people would have been able to understand her reluctance, but even as reluctant as she felt, Aki knew there were more important things than her feelings. Now wasn't the time for selfishness.
X
As he ran from the room, what remained of it after the ceiling had nearly fallen in on them, Takaya couldn't help feeling like kind of an idiot. Shinya would probably glare at him for it, or smack him upside the head the way he did when he felt his older twin was being particularly idiotic; and he'd fully deserve whatever Shinya decided to do to him for that. He'd forgotten; he'd forgotten that there were other people who needed his help, forgotten that even as strong as he was, Shinya couldn't fight alone.
It might have been just been for a short time, but he'd still have to apologize for doing it; both to Shinya and to Noal.
He knew that Pegas was nearby, and the sense that he had always had of his tekkaset helped to guide him through the crumbling halls and corridors of the ADF's Headquarters; moving as quickly as he could, Takaya soon found what he was looking for.
"Pegas, Teksetta!" he shouted, feeling the familiar thrill of power through him as his crystal responded.
"Roger," the mech said, and Takaya couldn't help but smile slightly.
As the familiar energies of his transformation rushed through him again, Takaya felt the subtle motion that meant that Pegas had launched; he was that much closer to being able to help Shinya and Noal, and he was glad for it.
Once his transformation into his Tekkaman form was complete, Tekkaman Blade burst up out of the top of Pegas' interlock-chamber and backflipped onto the back of his and Shinya's combat-partner. He obviously had a lot of work to do if he was going to clear out the rest of the Radam monsters, so Tekkaman Blade figured it was best if he got to it. Spinning his tekkalance in front of himself to deflect and break up the sprays of venom that a small group of descending Radam monsters fired at him, Blade continued on his way.
He owed it to his friends, to his younger twin brother, to keep moving; so that was what he was going to do.
There were too many for him to handle using conventional methods, however, and he could see perfectly well that a swarm this size wasn't going to be handled by something so linear as his Voltekka. At least, not yet; they were too numerous and too spread-out at this point to be caught up in something like that. Still, someone like him always had other options.
"Crash Intrude!" he shouted, feeling the rush of energy through him as he did so; he didn't know, exactly, if all the shouting he was doing was completely necessary, but at the same time it felt like something his old sensei had taught him.
"Roger!"
Almost like he was back where he started, sparring with Shinya; it helped to remind him of better times.
As his armor folded down into that slimmer, streamlined, more dynamic form that it always did when he was using this secondary power of his, Tekkaman Blade rejoined Pegas in the air and the two of them ripped through the Radam monsters in their way. When he began to feel his energy running low, Blade let go and transformed back into his normal form; there were still Radam monsters hanging in the air, but they were beginning to mass for a charge.
He was going to have to show them just why that kind of thing was a bad idea... Grinning behind his armored mask, feeling a thrill of energy through him as he began to charge up his energy-condensers.
"Voltekka!" he was fleetingly pleased by the fact that he couldn't sense Tekkaman Spear anywhere in the vicinity, but then he was firing his Voltekka and there was no more time for any other thoughts.
As even more energy rushed out of him, and the mass of Radam monsters that had been threatening to overrun this base burned in its wake, Tekkaman Blade let himself breathe more easily. This wasn't the end of things, he knew; not anything more than a temporary respite from the attacks that Omega was going to launch against the Earth. But it was a respite all the same, and Blade was determined to enjoy it; there were few enough things that he could truly enjoy in his life.
"What took you so long?" he heard Noal say over his connection to the comm. nearest to him that he always seemed to establish. "D-Two and I almost finished everything without you."
He chuckled briefly, then turned his attention to Noal; he'd finished scanning for any other Radam monsters that might have been in the area and found nothing, so he was more than happy to shift his attention to more important things. Things like seeing how his younger twin had been doing during this battle. The sight of Shinya unconscious in Noal's arms, or rather under his left arm, didn't disturb Blade so much as it might have once; he knew that he could trust the other man with something that was as important to him as his younger twin's welfare.
Just like he knew that he could trust Shinya to take care of himself. Still, that didn't mean he was going to stop looking out for him; that was their promise, that was who he was: Shinya's Blessed Protector. Damn you, Radam! I'm not a demon at all! I am Tekkaman Blade. Shinya and I will never let you take over the Earth; as long as we live, and people believe in us, we'll always protect them!