Settling back into his room after spending so much time out of it, in more ways than one Shinya reflected with some amusement, was nice. He hadn't gone out those three days ago thinking that he'd end up staring down the business-end of a Voltekka, but given everything that had happened lately, Shinya honestly couldn't have said he was surprised to end up doing just that. Annoyed as all hell, and determined to pay Spear back in full for it, yes, but not surprised in the least.
(Shinya?)
(Good morning,) he said, grinning as he levered himself up and out of bed.
(Spar with me?) Takaya asked, after a long pause.
Sighing, knowing the real reason for Takaya's sudden interest in sparring and also just why his brother wasn't particularly interested in talking about it, Shinya continued with his morning routine. (I'll be there soon, brother.)
(Thanks.)
Smiling softly as the link between them went dormant again, Shinya shucked his clothes and made his way into his attached bathroom. He still had a day to begin.
I
The exhaustion that she had been steadily pushing away couldn't be denied anymore, so Miyuki carefully settled herself down in the sand and tried to make herself as comfortable as she could. She'd been following the mental links that connected her to Takaya and Shinya. In spite of the fact that she knew that neither of them were quite the older brothers that she remembered, they were still essentially human. Better them than the Radam; better them than what Kengo had become.
Just have to keep moving; I'll find them. I have to, she mused, closing her eyes as she tried to settle herself down to sleep. There was still the chance of Kengo finding her while she slept, since shielding her mind from the telepathic-link that all Tekkamen shared with one another was a conscious decision, but there wasn't really any help for that. No one, not even a Tekkaman, could stay awake all the time.
She'd learned that all too well during the long days and nights since her escape; she wasn't about to forget it.
II
He'd decided to take a more direct hand in helping Tekkaman Blade and Tekkaman Varis to deal with this new threat that the Tekkaman Spear so obviously presented to them. Knowing that, even with two of them facing him, Spear had been able to not only incapacitate Tekkaman Blade but to render D-Two unconscious for nearly three days was not a comforting thought. Nor was it a situation that he was going to let stand; there had to be an answer, and he and Milly would find it.
Or, if it was not able to be found, then they would create an answer. Just as they had when Tekkaman Blade's transformation ability had been disabled by that other Tekkaman, Dagger.
"Darn," Milly muttered, seemingly to herself.
"Stay focused," he advised, continuing his own efforts to find the answer to the problem of Tekkaman Spear.
However, it was beginning to become clear that, as they had done once before, the Space Knights would have to create their own solution to the threat of Tekkaman Spear.
III
Staring at the blasted, scorched, battered form of Pegas, Levin couldn't help but remember watching his poor D-Boy and D-Two being carried unconscious from the Blue Earth. Sure, it was a sight that he'd seen on several occasions, but he could also clearly remember the reports of D-Two's condition; he could remember the way D-Two had lain so still, for the two and a half days he'd been sleeping the sleep of the grievously injured. And now, now Levin was helping to fix up Pegas so that the twins could leap back into battle with the same creep who'd injured them so badly in the first place.
It wasn't something Levin liked to think about, but he couldn't very well avoid it, not when he was working on the very mech that Tekkaman Blade used to transform. Everyone knew that, when D-Boy transformed, D-Two would always be right there with him. Barring the occasional bout of unconsciousness, of course.
"Levin, give me a hand, will you?"
"I'm really not in the mood, you know?" he asked, knowing that it was likely a rhetorical question; all of the mechanics had jobs to do. And there was the invasion to consider, beyond that.
"Levin…"
"Our Tekkamen's Voltekka won't work on the enemy anymore, right?" he said, remembering poor D-Two laying in the medical-bed, and the way D-Boy had stayed with him for the two and a half days he'd been convalescing. "No matter how hard we try to fix it, it'll only be destroyed by Spear. I feel so sorry for Pegas!"
"Relax, this time we'll be set!" Honda said; the confidence in his voice prompted Levin to look up at him, surprised.
"How can you say that?" Levin retorted, not really seeing the reason for Honda's new confidence.
"Haven't I told you yet?" Honda asked.
"Told me what?" he asked.
"About Freeman and Milly," Honda said simply.
"No, you never told me," he said; the fact that the Chief himself had taken an interest in the situation had both good and bad implications.
On the one hand, the Chief was one of the top minds in their organization, but the fact that he was personally involving himself also meant that things were more serious than Levin had thought. And he'd already known that they were fairly serious.
"Well, the thing is…" Honda said, smiling as he began to detail just what it was that was going on.
There was no avoiding it, anymore; he had to get back to work on Pegas, even though she wasn't particularly happy about the idea of sending D-Boy and D-Two back into battle with Tekkaman Spear. Spear had nearly killed them on several different occasions, and he wasn't particularly happy about sending them off to face that crazy, evil Tekkaman again. Still, he didn't think that anyone could be particularly happy, under the circumstances.
Even with the Chief and Milly hard at work, Levin couldn't find it in himself to have the same faith that Honda seemed to exude.
IV
Ducking a high-kick from Shinya, Takaya crouched and tried to tag his younger twin in the gut. Then, he was forced to dodge backwards as Shinya flipped himself into a handstand and nearly slammed his feet into Takaya's chin.
"How many times does that make, D-Two?" he heard Noal laugh; Shinya laughed right along with him.
"A million," Shinya said, and Takaya could see his younger twin's smirk, upside-down though it still was.
He remembered, for a few moments, Grant Goddard making the same kinds of comments that Noal had, when he and Shinya had sparred in front of him; his younger twin always had been surprising. Blinking as Shinya flipped back to his feet, Takaya forced those thoughts from his mind; now wasn't the time to think about the past. Really, it never would be again; the past was gone, and nothing was going to bring it back. The sound of light footsteps, the same kind that he'd heard so many times before, brought Takaya's attention back to the present again.
"I found you," Aki said, and he paused for a moment to look over at her. "Um, do you really think either of you should be fighting like that? I mean, after everything that's happened…"
Sighing briefly, knowing that Aki wasn't likely to respond very well to what he was trying to do, Takaya shoved that out of his mind and tried to concentrate on what he was doing.
Noal was the one who spoke, in the end. "D-Boy says he doesn't want either of them getting out of shape from lying around so much," he paused, and Takaya could almost hear him grinning. "Especially since D-Two is so lazy."
"Lazy?" she asked. "What do you mean?"
"Well, someone has to keep brother from working too hard." (Right, idiot?)
Stifling a chuckle of his own, Takaya found himself remembering the one time – and it had only been one time; whatever else his younger twin might be inclined to say about him, he wasn't stupid – he'd put in too much time in the gym, and then in the dojo with Mr. Goddard, and ended up having the muscles in his legs spasm and cramp up so badly that he couldn't even bend any one of the three joints below his waist. Shinya had taken care of him then, too.
He'd always be grateful to Shinya for looking out for him, the way he seemed determined to keep doing; they would need each other more than ever, now.
"Well, make sure he doesn't work himself to hard, all right, D-Two? His body's isn't just his to use," Aki paused for a moment, seeming to trip over her own tongue.
"Oh," he heard Noal say, obviously about as amused as Shinya was by what she'd just said.
"Well, all I meant to say was that D-Boy's body is important to Earth, too!" Aki exclaimed, sounding like she was trying to regain her composure, but falling a fair bit short.
"No, no, Aki-chan," Shinya said, grinning slyly. "What you said before was fine."
"I guess I can leave the rest to you then, eh Aki?"
Noal began to leave the room, still chuckling, and as he took his stance again he heard the man crashing headlong into Levin. Shinya's stance loosened up a bit as his younger twin laughed at the scene, and Takaya looked back just as Noal yelled in obvious pain.
"Hey, do you and D-Boy know what the Chief is doing now, D-Two?" Levin asked, standing between him and Shinya and putting a hand on each of their shoulders.
"I haven't seen them since yesterday," Aki said.
"But it seems like you know, Lev-chan," Shinya said, his eyes half-closing in a knowing expression. "Will you share?"
"Oh, I just found out!" Levin said, winking at Shinya as his younger twin grinned back at the man. "I came here to tell you, right away!"
"Yeah, Levin?" he asked, putting his own hand on Levin's shoulder so he could get the man's attention more quickly.
"Don't tease us like that. Just spit it out!"
"They're working on something to increase Pegas' power! Something that can let you really fight together, my sexy D-Boys!"
"Oh, really?" Shinya said, grinning in that fierce way he did when something was going well for them; Takaya could feel the same kind of grin pulling at his own lips. "That sounds good."
"If they succeed, we'll finally be able to defeat Spear! That's a guarantee from Honda!" Levin reached out to cuddle them both. "My sexy D-Boys will finally be able to beat Spear!"
He and Shinya shared a fierce, determined grin.
"Really," Aki said, though she didn't sound particularly pleased about the idea.
"Um, aren't you guys happy, too?" Levin asked, just before either Shinya or Takaya himself could make any kind of comment; or not.
"Noal, wait!" Aki called, turning and heading out to catch up with the man in question.
"What was that?" Levin wondered aloud.
"I don't know," he said; Aki certainly hadn't been given any reasons to worry about Spear's well-being, especially given the way she had reacted to him in the church and the fact that he had tried to kill her not even half an hour later. Deciding to drop the matter, since it wasn't particularly pressing in light of the fact that Spear was still out there and likely planning his next attack, Takaya turned his attention back to the present; back to Shinya and their sparring session. "Want to start again?"
"Oh, you want to get beaten again?" Shinya asked, his expression almost perfectly serious; only Levin's laughter and the slightest twitch of his younger twin's lips betrayed Shinya's façade.
"You won't beat me, little brother," he deadpanned, half-closing his eyes in amused annoyance.
V
Walking out of the gym, having heard all he could stand of Levin's enthusiasm – not that he begrudged either of the Gemini Boys their desire to get back at Spear for what he'd done – Noal clenched his teeth in a brief effort not to grind them together. He'd tried to break himself of that habit, ever since he'd started noticing his jaw getting sore when he was particularly angry.
"Noal?" he heard Aki ask.
"To the Chief, our D-Boys are nothing but weapons for battle, after all!" he said, after loosening his jaw enough that he could actually make himself understood. "Spear's our D-Boys' older brother, for God's sake! It pisses me off, because the only thing that's on the Chief's mind now, is how to get them back into battle."
Standing in Comm. One, Noal decided that he would speak to the Chief himself about how the man was treating the twins. At the very least, it'd help him to understand just what the man thought he was doing; and, just how he could help their boys cope, if that turned out to be necessary.
"Where's the Chief?" he asked the woman in charge of inter-base communications for this shift.
"The Chief hasn't arrived here yet."
"Is he in his room?" he asked, surprised at the suggestion that the Chief wasn't hard at work.
"No. I called him, but he wasn't there," the woman said, sounding almost as calm as the Chief himself; Noal wasn't particularly pleased with the comparison at the moment.
"Where could he be?" he wondered aloud.
It wasn't like the Chief to be so completely unreachable like this; he'd have thought the man would have been somewhere close by, considering how interested he obviously was in getting the Gemini Boys back into combat as soon as he could. Not that he was particularly concerned about the man, not when it was blatantly obvious that the only thing the Chief really cared about was being able to toss Tekkaman Blade and Tekkaman Varis back into the meat grinder ASAP.
His friends deserved better than that.
VI
The grating sound of the computer's error alarms, combined with the white words flashing on the red background, let Freeman know that he had stumbled upon yet another solution that was not going to pan out.
"The amount of necessary fermion energy exceeds that of a single Voltekka," he paused for a moment, narrowing his eyes in contemplation; he was not willing to leave either of those young men defenseless against this new threat posed by the Tekkaman Spear, particularly considering the fact that the Radam seemed to concentrate their efforts on splitting the twins' focus and separating them from one another. No, D-Boy and D-Two would need all the advantages he could provide. "In order to defeat Tekkaman Spear by regulating the antimatter particles, Pegas must be equipped with a shock-proof, heat-resistant antimatter regulation unit, designed to safely store such an amount of fermion particles."
"I'll try running the circuit exchange simulation again," Milly said.
Nodding slightly, Freeman narrowed his eyes in thought. "Good."
There were always other matters that one had to consider when they were working with unfamiliar technology, and particularly when that technology was so alien as the Tek-Set System had proven itself to be.
VII
The heat of the day seemed to suck all of the moisture out of her body even through the dark brownish cloak that she had found to ward off the sunlight, and for a moment there was nothing that Miyuki wouldn't have done for a large, cold glass of water. With some nice, big ice cubes, and maybe even a parasol and some maraschino cherries for flavor, she mused, toying with the idea for a few moments.
She'd never really understood how anyone could like having lemon slices in their water; she'd never really liked lemonade, no matter how much sugar she had tried adding to it, it just never tasted good to her. Biting down on her lower lip to bring her attention back to the present, Miyuki focused on the mental link that she shared with Takaya and Shinya. It was getting steadily stronger as she continued to move, so Miyuki at least knew that she was on the right track.
Still, she would have liked to know how far she had left to go; the endless stretch of rolling dunes on all sides of her, dunes that ranged from cold enough that she had to bury herself in them to sleep at night to so hot that she felt like she was roasting the top layers of skin off her feet when she walked over them during the day, made it all but impossible to keep track of her progress in any real way. Combined with the hunger that she now felt gnawing almost constantly at her, even in spite of the fact that she had only transformed to fly back down to Earth and find the last of her family – hunger that had driven her to eat things that she never would have considered ingesting before – and Miyuki was hoping more than ever to be able to find someone in this endless desert.
She'd read that there were people who lived out in the desert, and while she had once thought that they were all varying degrees of crazy, she was hoping to run across at least a few of them.
Finally, her strength temporarily at an end and her feet feeling like they had been repeatedly set on fire, Miyuki fell to her knees and then collapsed to the still-hot sand. At least I'm closer; I know that much. I just have to keep going. For a moment, as she stared at the seemingly-endless expanse of desert that she still had to cross, Miyuki felt for a moment the same, crushing despair that she had when she had seen Sasuke for the last time. Still, it's not much of a homecoming.
VIII
With his energy fully replenished, after having spent so much time searching for his wayward sister that he had exhausted almost all of his reserves and been forced to return to the Orbital Ring, Spear scanned the wide expanse of desert beneath him, while at the same time searching for Miyuki through their telepathic link. The sense he had of his sister's mind was far weaker than it had been when he'd left for the Orbital Ring, but that was only to be expected considering what she had done in the first place.
He knew, now, why Miyuki thought she had to leave: she was still thinking like a human, just like Takaya and Shinya. For a few moments, Spear considered letting her make contact with their wayward brothers so that he could at least know where all of them were, and so that he would be better able to gather the three of them – well, four counting that woman, Aki – up and bring them back to Omega-sama in one, fell swoop. Then, he remembered the power that Takaya and Shinya could bring to a fight, both separately and together – the way they so obviously preferred – and decided that he would make a concerted effort to head Miyuki off before she met up with Takaya, Shinya, and those troublesome humans they were working with.
Three-to-one odds could be rather troublesome, even to a Tekkaman; but, more important to Spear was the fact that Miyuki's transformation would extract a high price from his little sister's central nervous system every time she used it. He was not about to let his little sister – the only sister he had – suffer from that. He would take her back to Lord Omega, so that he could plead her case before the Warlord and thus obtain whatever help he could for her.
He wouldn't allow himself to think of any alternatives; he would find a way to help Miyuki, to bring Takaya, Shinya, and Aki into Omega-sama's fold; his family would be complete again.
Turning as a strange sound, sounds rather, drifted to him on the wind, Spear raised an eyebrow at the sight that was presented to him. Nomads? He narrowed his eyes, considering the humans he was observing and what their presence might mean. I've read about them; they truly seem to have adapted themselves perfectly to this harsh environment. Perhaps, during the initial stages of Radam colonization, they will be able to survive mostly unchanged. For the first stages, at least.
After all, once the tekkaplants on this planet began to bloom, the environment of the planet would be altered to suit them while the human race was being prepared to take their place with the other races within the Radam Empire. But, after that, the biosphere would be allowed to recover, so as to support the humans who had survived the transformation.
Dismissing his moment of contemplation, Spear turned his attention back to the matter of Miyuki; her mental signature had weakened again, likely meaning that she had fallen asleep again. She wouldn't be moving anymore, and she would no longer be able to block him from sensing her, so it would be somewhat easier for him to find her. He couldn't help but to smile softly in relief; he would be able to bring Miyuki home soon.
He would find a way to bring his family back together.
IX
It wasn't something he saw everyday, so that was the first thing that drew his attention; it wasn't just a dune, he knew that since it was a different color than any of them, but it also looked like some kind of cloth. So that meant that it was probably a person!
Grandfather called his name, just as he jumped down from the camel they had both been riding and went running up to the person that was lying on the ground. Pulling up the hood of the cloak, he found that the person under it was young. Well, they were a bit older than he was, but maybe he'd actually have someone close to his age to talk to!
"Grandson, what are you-" Grandfather demanded, pausing as he looked down at the person sleeping in the sand. "Malik, Abbas, come here at once."
"Yes, sir," the two of them responded at once, coming over to the sleeping person and starting to lift them up.
He watched as his two brothers picked the new person and carried them over to the camel that he and Grandfather had been riding on. Grandfather helped him back up once he'd gotten that other person settled, and Achmed tried not to fidget too much. He really wondered who they were, and what they had been doing out in the desert. He'd find out later, though; Grandfather was going to bring them home, and then he would get the chance to talk to them all he wanted!
X
The first thing she was truly aware of feeling was the sensation of something wet on her face, almost like the time she had been lying under the old tree in their family's front yard while a light rain had been falling; the broad leaves had dripped water on her face in just the same way as whatever it was that was dripping on her face now. Someone rubbed a handful of water on her face, making her shiver slightly at the change in temperature. Opening her eyes slowly, Miyuki found that she was surrounded by people in clothes that she had only seen before in pictures.
Nomads, she mused, eagerly drinking from the water-satchel that the eldest of them was offering her. Maybe a little too eagerly.
"You don't have to drink so fast, there's plenty of water!" he said. She resisted the urge to tell him just how wrong he was, since he had shown her such kindness. Taking his advice, she finally managed to slake her burning thirst. "Are you all right?"
"Thank you very much," she said, laying back down to conserve her limited strength and stamina. She also concentrated on rebuilding the mental walls that she had been forced to relax when she had fallen unconscious; she didn't want Kengo tracking her down here, of all places.
"You shouldn't be crossing the desert alone. It's too dangerous!" the youngest of the nomads in the tent – a boy even younger than Sasuke, but with enough of a superficial resemblance to the youngest of her former family members to both make her slightly uncomfortable, and to give Miyuki the urge, however small she was trying to make it, to protect this boy where she hadn't been able to protect her younger brother – said, blinking at her. "Where did you come from?"
It wasn't something that Sasuke would have asked, more out of a sense of politeness than the shyness that most people seemed to ascribe to him; Sasuke had always been polite, and he was more quiet and observant than shy, really. Blinking, Miyuki forced her attention back to the present. She wouldn't ever be seeing Sasuke again, if she was lucky, so it was best to forget about her younger brother.
Just forget about the people she couldn't save, and focus on getting to Takaya and Shinya so she could help them save everyone else.
"There are some things people just don't want to talk about," the old man said, and Miyuki was thankful for the interruption even if he was a bit brusque.
"All right," the little boy said, as he turned and raced out of the tent, white robes fluttering behind him.
"I'm sorry… I just…" she said, not knowing quite what to say, but also knowing that people like this lived on the edge of their supplies already; with a Tekkaman's hyper-accelerated metabolism, she would be straining their already-limited supplies of food and water just by staying here. Even if she didn't transform.
Miyuki didn't know just what she could have done differently, since she had been at the limits of her strength when she had collapsed, and there was no way that she was ever just going to let Kengo catch up to her; not with what she knew had happened to her eldest brother. Not with what she knew he'd be trying to do to her if she ever let him find her. Letting herself relax for a moment, Miyuki checked the mental walls that she had built to keep Kengo from being able to track her.
A sudden shout, coming from outside, distracted Miyuki before she could properly assess the state of the mental defenses that she had been forced to set up for herself.
The old man was the first one out of the tent, which she had already been expecting since it sounded like the person in danger – whatever danger could threaten people this far out in the desert… something that Miyuki devoutly hoped was not the danger that she had been fleeing from, since it would be difficult to forgive herself if she brought Kengo down on people who had shown her nothing but kindness, people who would have no chance at driving off the creature her eldest brother had become – was his grandson. It was nice, to see someone so concerned about their family, especially without the ulterior motives that Kengo had now.
Racing out after the old man, the pain of the hot sand on her feet forgotten in the wake of the unpleasant familiarity that she was suddenly aware of – it wasn't Kengo, but for all that it still wasn't good – Miyuki soon found herself nearly at the forefront of the group of people who were all staring down at the swiftly-spreading sinkhole that had engulfed Achmed and swept him down to the bottom of the in-falling sand. Far worse, though not as bad as it could have been under the circumstances, was the sense she was getting of what was under all of that shifting sand.
None of the people around her, worried as they so clearly were for Achmed given what was happening, had the kind of power she did; none of them could make the kind of difference in this situation that she could. The problem was that if she acted, here and now, in the only way that she would be able to make a difference, she would inevitably be drawing Kengo's attention back to her. She wouldn't be able to help it: the transformation would be a beacon to any Tekkaman close enough to sense it, and there was really only one person close enough to do that right now.
Still, she couldn't just leave him, a little boy even younger than Sasuke, to be killed by the Radam monster that she could so clearly sense underneath the sands; not and still call herself a human being. In the end, there was really only one choice that she could make; only one that she could live with.
"Teksetta!" she shouted, tekkaset held high above her head.
The energies of her transformation rushed through her, washing away the hunger and thirst that she had been suffering from while she had been making her way across the desert; Miyuki knew better than to think it was anything more than the most temporary of reprieves. Her transformation was going to be burning up energy the longer she remained in it, and couple that with the fact that she was going to be fighting – even if it was only a single Radam monster – that would cause her to lose energy even faster. She would have to do this quickly, for both her sake and that of the Nomads she was trying to protect.
Jumping high into the air with a burst from her thrusters, Miyuki flung out her laser-wire, aiming for the boy's wrist so she would be able to pull him free of the sinkhole that the Radam monster was carving out even as they all watched.
Diving through the air, she pulled the boy free of the sand still falling to the bottom of the pit, and slung him over her left shoulder in a fireman's carry. A sudden spike of pain, burning from the inside-out in a grotesque parody of the way her transformation had felt, caused Miyuki to stumble and fall onto her back. The Radam monster, clearly unwilling to give up its prey, burst free from the sand, looming over the Nomads who had been kind enough to take her in when she had collapsed in the sand after running out of energy.
Knowing that the Radam monsters always exploded violently when they were killed – one last, unpleasant surprise that had been built into them by the Radam – Miyuki fired her laser-grappling line, wrapping it around the Radam monster's right foreleg, and pulled the horrible creature back into the sinkhole that it had crawled out of. Pulling her laser-grappling line in as fast as she could, Miyuki managed to brutally fold the Radam monster in half. It exploded just after that, scattering its vaporized remains over the desert, and Miyuki allowed herself to relax.
Things weren't finished, of course – she still had to find Takaya and Shinya, and tell them what had happened after Father had freed the two of them from the Radam – but at least Miyuki could say that she had managed to save some people from becoming the latest victims of the invasion.
Making her way out of the dust-cloud that had been thrown up by the explosion, Miyuki scanned the crowd to see if anyone had been hurt by the attack. All of them looked fine, though they also looked scared by what had almost happened. She couldn't really blame them; Radam monsters were meant to be scary; they were the shock-troops of the Radam Empire, designed not only to sow chaos and destruction wherever they went, but to break a population's will to fight.
And, that wasn't even mentioning their third stage of metamorphosis: becoming yet another one of those awful spoor-trees.
The little boy, the one who had reminded her of Sasuke when the two of them had seen each other for the first time in his grandfather's tent, was huddling in the arms of an older boy; someone who looked like he could easily have been the same age as Takaya and Shinya. But, when Miyuki looked into their eyes, and more than that when she saw the way Achmed's eyes widened as he stared at her, she began to realize that these people – people that she had just saved – weren't so much afraid of the Radam monster as they were afraid of her.
"No!" the little boy shouted, burying his face in the chest of the older boy who had been standing with him; the one who thought he had to protect him from her.
"Stay way," one of the older men, one standing at the back of the group and staring at her with a clear expression of horror on his face. "Stay away, you monster!"
The pain from her transformation spiked again, burning her from the inside out and feeling all the more horrible for the fact that she had expended so much energy wearing her armor. Gulping air into her burning lungs as fast as she could take it in without choking, Miyuki fell to her knees and screamed. Nothing else existed except for the pain, no time passed; and so, even though she didn't like to think about the Nomads and the way they had been so cruel to her after she had risked herself to save them, she held that in her mind in an effort to keep herself from going insane from the pain.
Screaming into the desert sky, Miyuki could only hope that Kengo wouldn't be able to track her down through the link all of them shared; she could only hope that, whatever he was doing, the creature that had once been her older brother would be drawn off. Somehow, someway.
XI
He'd been unable to find even a trace of Miyuki, even in spite of having searched the desert until his energy-reserves had come perilously close to running out a second time, and so Lord Omega had told him in no uncertain terms that he was to search out Takaya and Shinya, and whatever their allies that had gathered at their side; to find them, and to deal with them before Miyuki could join up with them.
That was how he found himself staring down at the headquarters of the Allied Defense Force, watching as the humans scurried around – antlike in their persistence, and in the end nearly as insignificant in the level of threat they posed to the Radam Empire – in an attempt to rebuild their facility after it had been devastated by the Radam monsters that Lord Omega had dispatched. I suppose that one could come to respect their persistence, annoying as it is at times. Still, he had work to do; work that did not involve watching the efforts of his enemies – pitiful and ultimately futile as they were – to recover from their losses.
Making his way down from the cliff he had paused atop, Spear chose a path that any human would have been hard-pressed to follow him down; both to make certain that no human could have tried to follow him, and just to say that he had.
Once he stood back on level ground, Spear made his way past the humans going about their meaningless and ultimately futile repair work, by the rather simple expedient of moving when none of them were looking his way, staying high and out of sight for as long as the terrain would permit such an action, and then ducking into an unwatched area so that he could slip into the building in the breathless moments between two patrols.
Taking a moment to compose himself, since it wouldn't do to appear as if he had been in a hurry to enter this place; civilians were not entirely welcome in places such as this, and for all of his power, that was what he was going to have to appear to be, if he was going to be able to find Takaya and Shinya without alerting the ADF to his presence.
Subtly inserting himself into the back of a group of humans, Spear followed them as they made their way deeper into the facility.
As the small group dispersed slowly into the facility, Spear scanned the corridor in front of him, looking for a human who seemed as if they would be amenable to helping him. He soon found what he was looking for: a young human – older than Sasuke, but still seeming younger than Takaya and Shinya; about sixteen, if Spear was any judge – standing in the corridor just ahead of him. Moving forward, Spear paced himself so that he would not appear too intimidating; his purpose here was to find out just what branch of the humans' military that his misguided younger brothers had associated themselves with.
He could deal with this human, and all of the others like him, when Lord Omega finally gave him the order to destroy this facility once and for all.
"Are you lost?" the human asked, and for a moment, when he saw the boy's earnest, concerned face, Spear was reminded of Sasuke.
"I'm looking for someone," he said, making his tone gentle; human this boy may have been, but there was no call to be rude to someone who could offer him assistance in this mission.
"You think they work here?" the boy asked, his expression becoming more curious than eager.
"I think so, yes," Spear said, left hand reaching into the left pocket of his jacket to fetch the photograph that he had brought with him from the Argos; both for just this kind of situation, and for more personal reasons, as well. "These are my younger brothers." Unfolding the photograph and showing it to the young human produced the expected recognition.
"Wow!" the young human exclaimed, dark gray eyes darting from Spear's face to the photograph that he held out. "That's D-Boy and D-Two! But, sorry, you don't look like them, so I didn't know."
"You don't need to apologize; I've been told that I resemble my father more than my brothers." It was true, and while it had once been alternately a source of pride as well as exasperation for him, Spear didn't enjoy thinking about that fact anymore. The human named Kouzu Aiba was long dead, and Spear was glad to be rid of him.
Still, the fact that he had been left to clean up that man's mess was infuriating to him when he thought of it; biting down on his anger, Spear focused on his mission. Nothing would be solved if he allowed himself to become emotional.
"You'll want a ride to the Space Knights' base," the boy said. "If you're looking for your brothers, sir."
"Space Knights?" he echoed, mildly confused by the term; he'd arrived here in search of his younger brothers, but he'd thought to find them working with the Allied Defense Force.
"You didn't know?" the young man said; curiosity piqued, Spear decided to let the human talk. "About the Space Knights, I mean?"
"I've been… away, for some time now," Spear said, as he paused for a moment to watch a pair of soldiers pass them on their way to some unknown destination.
"You were hiding from the Radam?" the young human asked.
"Something like that," he said.
"What about your father?" the human paused for a moment, seeming embarrassed. "I mean, your guys' father. Where's he?"
"He died before the invasion," Spear said flatly, trying not to think of Kouzu Aiba and all the trouble he had caused; he could ill afford displays of negative emotions in this place.
"Oh, I'm sorry," the young human said, sounding abashed. "I didn't mean to bring up any bad memories for you, sir."
"It's all right," Spear said, deciding to give the human the benefit of the doubt; he was helpful enough to be tolerable in spite of the fact that he was still, in the end, a mere human. "I don't really think about it. Tell me more about the Space Knights; I'd like to know what my younger brothers have been doing lately."
"Well, there's not really much more I can tell you, sir," the young human said, seeming sheepish. "I'm only a cadet, you see. I joined up with the ADF mostly because of them."
"It's nice to know that my brothers have managed to inspire you," Spear lied, folding his arms and resisting the urge to narrow his eyes. "Do you think you could take me to them?"
"Well, not me… but, I think I could help you find someone who can," the young human said, hand on his chin in a thoughtful pose. "If you'll follow me?"
"Very well," Spear said, falling into step with the young human and allowing him to lead the two of them deeper into the complex. "Thank you, for helping me with this; I don't know how I would have been able to find my younger brothers, otherwise."
"Don't mention it," the young human said, sounding cheerful but subdued; as if he was thinking about something terrible, but trying to be happy in spite of that. "A lot of people end up separated from their families in… all this, but if I can help even one person to find people that they care about, then I'll be satisfied."
"That's a good policy," he said, smiling softly; this human was – like Aki – someone he could tolerate, and one that he knew would benefit from joining Lord Omega's forces.
Still, he was not so naïve as to think that he could preserve the life of this particular human; best to concentrate on what he could preserve. Such as the lives of his younger brothers.
The two of them had soon exited the facility, and Spear found himself staring at rows upon rows of planes. Making a mental note to suggest to Omega-sama that they send Radam monsters to deal with them, Spear turned his attention back to the young human who had been assisting him. Said human was speaking to an older human, this one wearing something that Spear could easily guess was some kind of uniform.
Making his way over to the two of them, Spear stopped just behind the young human, watching the older human – older even than him, Spear realized – as he and the young cadet spoke with each other.
"So, that's the story," the cadet said, clearly finishing a longer conversation. "Do I have permission, sir?"
"All right."
"Sir, it's all ready!" the cadet exclaimed, turning back to speak to Spear.
"Thank you," he said, gently clapping the young cadet on the right shoulder. "You've been a great help to me."
"Of course; I mean, I wouldn't wish what happened to you and your family on anyone," the cadet said earnestly. Spear smiled softly; something like that could easily have a double meaning. "I'm sure D-Boy and D-Two will be happy to see you."
"Yes," he said, in spite of the fact that he knew that such was far from the case at the moment; until he was able to bring his younger brothers and that woman Aki back to Lord Omega's ship, so that his younger brothers could complete their transformations and Aki could begin her own, his family would never truly be whole.
"Come along then, sir," the pilot – a Captain, Spear recalled – said, beckoning him forward as the cadet left. "I'll help you get settled in."
"Thank you for your consideration, Captain," he said; the man was polite enough, for a human.
It was almost a shame that he would have to die, but orders were orders; and Spear knew his duty.
XII
"I wonder where the Chief and Milly went," he said, looking out over all of his fellow Space Knights; they'd all gathered together in Comm. One when it had become completely obvious that no one really knew where their illusive commanding officer had had gotten himself off to.
"That's what I'd like to know. Uncle Honda, are you sure you don't know?" Levin asked, arms folded over his chest.
"I don't know," the rotund head-mechanic, sitting in one of the room's only chairs, said. "I didn't ask them where they were going."
D-Boy and D-Two – the former leaning lightly against the monitoring console, and the latter balanced on his left foot as he leaned his right against the base of the console itself – gave each other one of their infamous 'twin' looks. D-Two shrugged, and D-Boy shook his head slightly. For a few seconds, Noal wondered if the two of them had been using that selective telepathy of theirs, but since he probably wasn't going to find that out anytime – soon or otherwise – he decided to concentrate on what was actually important to the situation.
Namely, finding out just what their illustrious Chief thought he was doing. "They shouldn't hide important things from us! What are they thinking?" he demanded, his fist almost unconsciously clenching.
"Don't get so hot under the collar," Honda said, sounding just as calm as the Chief did under these kinds of circumstances; Noal wasn't too pleased with the comparison. "Let's just sit back and wait."
"I can't believe you're saying that!" he shot back, annoyed.
"We did it!" Milly exclaimed, bursting into the room before anyone else could say a single word. "This is it!"The youngest of the Space Knights stopped just before she would have plowed into their head technical specialist.
"You did it? So, this is it?" Levin asked, with far more enthusiasm than he would have had; especially considering the way he seemed to have a thing for D-Two. "This is wonderful! It's done, D-Two!" he turned to look at the twins, still wearing that happy grin of his. The way he wrapped his left arm around D-Two's neck, pulling him in for a kiss while still holding up the external hard drive Milly'd given him in his opposite hand, made Noal wonder if anyone but him actually understood the wide, deep disconnect between caring about someone the way it was starting to look like Levin cared about D-Two, and all but sending them to their death the way the Chief seemed to be trying to do. "If you're armed with this, Spear won't stand a chance against the two of you!"
Judging by the slight twitch of his mouth, and the all the time that Noal had spent working with the kid, D-Two was holding back sarcastic commentary by sheer force of will. It would probably have been better if he didn't, though; god knew that most of the people around here could use the wakeup call.
"Honda, Levin, I'm leaving the rest to you," the Chief said, calm as usual; there were times when Noal honestly hated that cold-blooded reserve of his.
Levin and Honda were off and running after a quick acknowledgement, Levin even laughingly challenging Honda to a race, and leaving the rest of them with the Chief. No one else seemed like they were about to say anything; not even D-Two, and he was one of the ones whose life was on the line, in the end. Noal didn't know just what the kid's deal was, but he wasn't just going to let this crap stand.
Commanding officer or not, no one had the right to just toss another person into the meat-grinder; no matter how powerful they – or even the people in question – were.
"Chief, I don't get it!" he began, pausing for a moment as Freeman's wine-red eyes turned to regard him. "Chief, what do you think of our D-Boys, really? They're humans, not some kind of war machines! Besides, Spear is the older brother of our D-Boys! Or, are you just concerned with getting the three of them to fight again?"
It wasn't the Chief who answered him, though.
"Don't criticize the Chief!" Milly shouted, standing in front of Freeman, spreading her arms slightly; it was like she thought he was going to haul off and deck the guy. And sure, the thought had crossed his mind for about a half a second or so, but he wasn't about to go doing stupid things just because he was angry. "Don't you understand, Noal? If anyone thinks of D-Boy and D-Two as Space Knights, it's the Chief."
"We think that, too!" he said, not particularly wanting to get into an argument with her.
"No, I don't think you do!" she snapped, sounding sharp without – quite – shouting. "Because, the best thing that comrades can do for each other, is to help out wherever they can. That's what the Chief has been doing! I think, the only way we can managed to help out D-Boy and D-Two is to boost their battle power. And, that was what the Chief thought, too. That's why he deliberately handed our data on the Tek Set System to the military!"
That hadn't been something he'd been expecting to hear; and he wasn't the only one, judging from the surprised noises coming from everyone else in the room.
"Chief, is that true?" Aki asked.
"I gave Balzac the data concerning the Voltekka," Freeman said, his tone only slightly more emotional than he ever did. "The Defense Force analyzed it, and developed Sol-Tekkaman. Then, I used the Fermion Cannon data as a basis for Pegas' new upgrade. I thought that it was the best way to aid D-Boy and D-Two in their battle against the Radam."
"And now, the Chief has developed the High-coat Voltekka," Milly said; it looked like he'd misjudged the Chief this time. Freeman really wasn't as cold-blooded as he'd been acting. "As well as the Dual Strike Voltekka, for when D-Boy and D-Two are together."
He felt like a heel; just like he'd felt back when those two crazy kids of theirs had first joined up, and he'd been such a complete and utter ass to D-Boy when D-Two had ended up in the infirmary with a cracked skull. In his more reflective moments, those times when he could stand to think about the early days and what his relationship with the twins had been like, he reflected that it had probably been a very good thing that Aki hadn't been the one injured during their journey back to Earth. Who knew what he would have done, given the way he'd felt about those kids back then; Noal didn't like thinking about those times, but he really doubted that anything good would have come out of that.
"High-coat? Dual Strike?" he asked, wanting to know more than just the names.
"What?" Aki asked, sounding about as curious as he felt, right about then.
"Chief, I really appreciate this," D-Boy said, standing up from his place on the console.
"Yeah. It was really thoughtful of you, going to all this trouble for us," D-Two said, standing up and slinging his left arm around D-Boy's shoulders as he gave his twin a light shaking.
D-Boy laughed softly, though he sounded more rueful than amused, really. "Yeah; thank you, Chief."
The Chief nodded, but before another conversation could even get started, their Headquarters' proximity alarm went off.
"That's a military helicopter," Aki said, sounding surprised; they hadn't been notified of any incoming personnel or anything like that.
"Why am I not surprised?" he muttered; the Allied Defense Force always seemed to want something, these days.
XIII
The hum of the craft's engines, a sound that would have been too subtle for a mere human to hear, was starting to become distinctly annoying. Still, the landscape passing by underneath him provided Spear with at least something to distract himself from the thrumming engines. Their family had made plans to visit the Grand Canyon, perhaps after their voyage to Saturn and back had been completed, but he had never seen the place in anything but pictures and videos. Seeing it up close was fascinating, but that wasn't what he was here for.
"See? That's the base, down there."
"Thank you," he said absently, tracing the lines and angles of the base where Takaya and Shinya had been staying with his eyes; OSDG Headquarters, apparently. "You've been a great help to me."
"Think nothing of it, sir," the human said, as calm as anyone ever was when they didn't know that they were going to die. "We'll be setting down in a few minutes."
No, we won't be doing anything of the sort, he mused, the sharp edges of his tekkaset digging into his hands as he held it more tightly. "I do appreciate all of your help, and for what it's worth, I am sorry."
"Sir?" the human's voice held a wary sort of curiosity, now.
Seated just to the human's right, in the VTOL-enabled craft that had delivered him to the place where his younger brothers and their human allies worked, Tekkaman Spear closed his eyes; concentrating…
XIV
If the sudden explosion of the craft that Noal had been the first to identify hadn't been a clear sign that something was in the processes of going Very Wrong, the sudden sense that Shinya had of another Tekkaman – an unpleasantly familiar Tekkaman – washed over him like a proverbial tsunami was the clincher. Out of the corner of his left eye, Shinya could see Takaya getting as tense as he felt, right then.
"What?" Noal wondered aloud, proving that things weren't quite as obvious as he had thought at first.
Noal trailed off quickly, as the view on the screen zoomed in on the bright red sphere of light hanging in the sky, surrounded by the wreckage of what had once been a VTOL transport.
"Spear," Takaya said, sounding like he was just two inches away from snarling.
"He's coming here," he said, narrowing his eyes up at the huge image of Spear – harpoon-looking tekkalance clutched in his left hand – in a steep dive and plunging toward their Headquarters at incredible speed.
"So, he's discovered our base! Milly, issue a first-class defense alert!" the Chief ordered.
"Roger!"
Shinya could hear the sounds of buttons being pressed, but until he saw the lines of yellow light spreading out and connecting into a web that encompassed the entire Headquarters, Shinya wasn't sure just what was going on. Once he was, though, he could only hope that it would hold.
XV
A forcefield? How quaint, he mused, continuing his dive. He was not about to be diverted by something so simple, but he had to admit that it was rather audacious of the humans to rely on such a simple thing to save them. Still, this was the group that had dared to hold two of his younger brothers captive; those who had dared to think they could turn two – if not more – of Spear's own family against the one they had all been ultimately reborn to serve without suffering the consequences of their actions. In that light, Spear supposed that it was only to be expected that these humans would be an audacious sort.
When he finally made physical contact with the forcefield covering this OSDG Headquarters, forcing his mind to focus past the initial rush of purely physical pain, Spear found himself in the rather odd position of being forced back by a human-made construct. It was not a situation that he had ever expected to be in, but Spear found that he could not quite manage to force himself to endure the crackling electricity that prolonged contact with the forcefield was forcing through his body.
Clearly, he would have to take a more proactive stance in dealing with the defenses that this OSDG Headquarters boasted.
Withdrawing to just outside the range of the forcefield's rather unpleasant physical effects, Spear scanned for the emitters that such a thing would be bound to have. Soon enough, he had found them. Throwing his tekkalance at the bank of emitters nearest to him, Spear felt a definite sense of satisfaction as that part of the forcefield collapsed; smoothly drawing back his arm and throwing his tekkalance almost in one, fluid motion as he searched for and then found the other two emitters, Spear allowed himself to breathe more easily.
He had not yet managed to make it inside the Space Knights' Headquarters, but breaching their defenses was an important first step, all the same.
XVI
Pelting down the corridors of Headquarters, following both the familiar path that he had been shown several times before and the sense that he always had of his tekkaset, Takaya soon arrived at the machine shop where Pegas was maintained and repaired. he registered the gantries and technicians swarming over the large mech only peripherally, as his long stride carried him closer.
Stopping just before he would have bowled Levin over, Takaya paused for a moment to catch his breath. "Let me in!"
"Not yet! Don't go yet, D-Boy!" Levin exclaimed, wrapping his arms around Takaya in an effort to hold him back; he was completely aware of the fact that, with his enhanced strength, he could have gotten past Levin without the need to slow down; but, he was also aware that Shinya and Levin were getting closer, and if he hurt him, his younger twin would be extremely unhappy with him.
He didn't know just what Shinya would do, if that happened, but he wasn't particularly eager to find out in any case.
"Spear's coming!" he said, trying to be reasonable; he wasn't feeling particularly reasonable at the moment, not with Spear just outside the walls of their Headquarters, battering down their defenses and planning to kill them all, but he tried to sound that way.
He knew that Levin might say it; hell, he knew most of them were probably thinking it: why didn't he just let TekkamanVaris go out there while Pegas was repaired? But Shinya had nearly been killed facing Spear, and while Takaya knew that his younger twin was tough enough to handle himself in combat, that didn't stop him from worrying. Shinya had nearly died twice now; Takaya wouldn't have been able to forgive himself if he just sat back and waited while his younger twin went off to face their brainwashed, psychotic older brother alone.
Especially since he'd already failed to protect him twice.
"You have to do as we say, D-Boy!" Honda said, even as Headquarters rumbled and shook under the force of whatever weapons that Spear was currently using to attack; he didn't know how Honda could remain so calm in the face of Spear's onslaught, but it might have just been because the mechanic had never faced the ruthless, deadly, determined Tekkaman before.
No one who had faced Spear head-on could have ever been so calm when he was attacking.
Lifting Levin slightly off his feet, Takaya set the other man down just out of his way as he began to climb the gantry just outside Pegas' open back. He heard running footsteps, but since he didn't sense Shinya's presence, he figured that it was probably Aki and Noal. It was important that he got out to intercept Spear before his and Shinya's brainwashed older brother could do anymore damage, but there was also another reason that he wanted to get out there as quickly as he could: he didn't want to force Shinya to risk his own life in combat, especially after what had happened to him those four days ago.
He was the older brother; it was his duty to protect his younger siblings, and just because he only had one left to protect didn't change that fact in the slightest.
(Takaya, Shinya; if you're not coming out of this Headquarters of yours, then I'm coming in.)
The room shook again, as if to emphasize Spear's threat, and Takaya steeled himself for what was to come next; he'd fought for his life against Spear before, this time would be no different. He wouldn't let it be.
"Don't be impulsive!" Honda snapped, looking angrier than Takaya had ever seen him; at least when that anger wasn't directed at someone like Colbert, anyway.
"We don't have time, the base will be destroyed!" he shot back, biting the tip of his tongue before he could end up stating the obvious: if he didn't go out there and confront Spear, then Shinya would have to.
His younger twin had nearly died once, facing down their brainwashed elder brother; Takaya wasn't about to let that happen again.
"We know that, that's why we're rushing now," Honda said flatly.
"D-Boy, don't ruin Mr. Honda and Levin's hard work!" Aki called; for a moment, he wondered what Noal was going to say, but when he looked out at the catwalk bordering the machine shop, Takaya saw that she was the only one standing there. "How are you going to defend yourself against the Psy-Voltekka? If you go out there now, you'll only get beaten again. Don't you remember what happened last time?"
Before he could begin to answer, to tell Aki that he wasn't doing this for his sake, but for everyone else in the Headquarters, Takaya sensed the briefest flash of a familiar presence. Then, suddenly, he found himself spun around, picked up by both his collar and his belt, and unceremoniously tossed off the gantry he'd been standing on. The sound of someone landing next to him as Takaya landed back on the floor caused Takaya to whip around.
He wondered just how someone had managed to sneak up on him, even while he had been distracted talking to Aki, but when he saw Shinya smirking at him, and more than that when the sense he'd always had of his younger twin came rushing back, Takaya felt a bit stupid. He also worried that his younger twin would do just what it seemed that Shinya was planning.
"D-kun, what were you thinking?" Shinya asked, in his light, calm, I-am-seriously-annoyed-with-you-right-now tone.
"Shinya… he'll kill you."
"Brother," Shinya said, still smiling; that smile, the one that anyone who had known Shinya Aiba in the past would know was covering severe annoyance, and more than likely to earn whoever had been unfortunate enough to make themselves the target of Shinya's annoyance a punch in the face – if not something more drastic – Takaya tried to make himself calm down. "You're not that much of an idiot, D-kun. Just let me handle this; I promise I won't die."
He didn't know what to say; just how to explain to Shinya that – while he knew his younger twin was strong enough to take care of himself in combat – Takaya still worried about him, not to mention the fact that Shinya had nearly been killed facing Spear the last time they'd fought. He didn't know how to say that without provoking Shinya to punch him, and all that would accomplish would be to get Shinya annoyed with him while he was facing Spear.
He just didn't know what to say.
XVII
The sudden shock that raced through her mind, carrying an equally sudden awareness of just what Takaya and Shinya were currently doing, nearly sent Miyuki to her knees. She couldn't help the feeling, as irrational as she knew it was, that she had somehow contributed to the trouble they were in. Wishing for Kengo not to find her where she was, after she had transformed and saved those nomads from the Radam monster that had been attacking them, hadn't meant that she had wanted him to go haring off in the opposite direction to attack Takaya and Shinya.
She hadn't wanted anything like that to happen, but it was clear that that was what was happening, all the same.
What made things worse, though, was that the strain on her mind from sensing the battle that just seemed to be beginning, combined with the oppressive heat of the sun, combined to make Miyuki feel like she was being both crushed under the mental strain, and slowly roasted alive in the heat of the desert.
It wasn't a good feeling, but if there was any comfort to be had, it was the fact that having such a clear sense of where Takaya and Shinya – and even Kengo, though she didn't like to think about what that meant – were, meant that she was getting closer. And, in the end, that was what really mattered.