It'd been some time since the two of them had found their way to this church to settle down in while they trained and made their plans to deal with Ness and Cain; he wasn't so concerned with the humans who tagged along with them, since humans in general weren't particularly of interest to the Empire unless they were being transformed into Teknomen.
Looking down at Sam where he lay, curled up on his chest and breathing softly, Axe smiled softly as the younger Teknoman slumbered on.
(Good morning, Sam,) he said, sitting up slightly as the younger Teknoman shifted in his arms. (I'm glad to see you're settling in so well, but I hope you're not going to start neglecting your exercises.)
(Right,) Sam said, fully opening his eyes and tilting his head up as Axe raised them both back into a sitting position. "You wanted me to work on balance-exercises today, didn't you."
"That's right," he said, lifting the youngest of Lord Darkon's forces up and setting him gently on his feet again. "I want five laps around the pews, and make sure you stay on top of them while you run," he said, giving Sam a stern smile even as he reached down to ruffle the boy's soft hair. "And, let's also see how fast you can manage it, too."
"Yes, sensei," Sam said, bowing to him before turning to leap lightly to the top of the nearest row of pews to begin his first laps of the day.
(Axe, I would speak with you.)
(Yes, Lord Darkon,) he said, turning away from his observation of Sam as the young Teknoman continued the routine that Axe himself had set him on and making his way out onto the balcony so that he and Lord Darkon would be able to speak without distracting Sam from what he'd been asked to do.
Taking a last look back at the youngest of his students as he stood before the large, glass doors that would take him out onto the balcony, Axe smiled as he watched Sam jump from one pew to the one just on the opposite row. It was good to see that the young Teknoman was so diligent when asked to work like this. But he didn't have any more time to reflect upon those matters.
Lord Darkon had called on him, and like any loyal servant Axe would answer.
Standing outside on the balcony, overlooking the wide expanse of swiftly-growing teknoplants, Axe turned his attention towards the sensors that Lord Darkon had planted the edges of this church when Axe had informed him that he and Sam would be staying here while they enacted his plan. He didn't quite know how the plan would work out, not with the twins both seeming bound and determined to force a confrontation, but Axe was duty-bound now to carry through with it.
And, unlike Ness and Cain, Axe still understood his duty.
(Axe,) Lord Darkon greeted, and Axe bowed slightly to the sensor that was now aimed at him. (All goes according to plan?)
"Yes, Lord Darkon," he said, knowing that his words were being received and transmitted back to the Moon, but not quite the specifics of how for the moment; maybe, if he was given the time later, he'd ask how such a thing was done. He knew it had to be some kind of bio-electric converter, and electronics had been one of his passions, aside from martial arts.
(There are two items which most concern me at the moment,) Lord Darkon said, his tone sounding as calmly calculating as it ever had. (First: the dispersal of the hive trees; there are still some target areas that have not been have not been sufficiently saturated. See to it that this oversight is corrected with all speed,) Lord Darkon continued, his tone becoming ever so slightly more urgent. (More importantly, see that this plan of yours succeeds in its aims. We can no longer afford all these delays the traitors cause.)
"Those two will be taken care of soon," he said, pitching his tone to be reassuring, and wondering for a moment just how it was coming through on the other side of their connection. "Since they and those Space Knights of theirs believe that the only way to defeat us is to launch a direct assault on your ship, they have to know that they won't be able to get there without some extra power. They'll know by now that the only way to get that extra power is by obtaining another pair of teknocrystals. Sam and I have been encouraging the pair of them to pursue us, drawing them closer to this confrontation."
More amusement from Lord Darkon, though his next question didn't relate to the twins at all. (How has Rapier's presence been serving you thus far?)
"Quite well," he said, smiling fondly at the reminder of the youngest and most loyal of his students. "He should be finished with his training, if you want me to call him out here."
(Do so; I would see the young one's progress for myself.)
(Sam, come out,) he called, turning back to look through the glass doors in the direction of the pews; he couldn't see them all that well from where he was standing, but he could see when Sam began making his way over. (Lord Darkon wants to see you.)
(Yes, sensei.)
It wasn't long before Sam was making his own way out through the glass doors and onto the balcony.
"You wished to see me, Lord Darkon?" Sam asked, bowing respectfully as he came into sight of the apparatus that their Warlord was using to communicate with them.
(Yes, child, I did. How are you finding it here?)
"The mission is going well, and Axe-sensei says I'm progressing in my training better than he expected at first," Sam said, though all told he seemed a bit confused.
(That is good to hear,) Lord Darkon said, and Axe smiled wider.
A good teacher always enjoyed having the fruits of his teachings acknowledged.
10100100101
The steady rumble of the Green Earth's engines usually served to relax him, but now it only served to remind Slade of just what the people he could be said to be closest to in the world were about to be getting themselves into. He didn't like the thought one bit, and would have even asked Saber to stay out of it if he hadn't known full-well that his younger twin would have punched him in the head for suggesting it. But, even if it was doomed to failure, Slade found that he had to at least make the attempt.
"You know, none of the rest of you have to come along," he said, mind still open in order to be able track Axe and Rapier's mental signals; they were both growing steadily stronger as they closed in. "This is going to be dangerous; Saber and I aren't going to be able to protect you while we're fighting."
"Hey, we've got a stake in this fight, too," Maggie said, her tone sounding like she wasn't particularly happy with him. "Besides, what would you do if Pegas had a malfunction, or a breakdown?"
"I'm not planning to have any breakdowns," he said, trying not to snap; no one really understood what he was trying to do for any of them, not even Saber.
"Who does?" Maggie asked, though her tone made it sound like she was asking a rhetorical question.
"Look, this is going to be a very messy fight," he said, trying to make the more vulnerable members of their fellow Space Knights – everyone but him and Saber, in this case – understand what they were potentially getting into, and why he didn't want them getting into it in the first place. "Axe is extremely dangerous, and if Rapier's been training as closely with him as the two of them have been working together, then you shouldn't be underestimating him, either."
"It's that bad?" Maggie asked.
"Worse," Saber said, in a softly terse voice.
With their mental-link in the state it was while they had been using that link that all Teknomen shared with one another to be able to track down Axe and Rapier, Slade could sense his younger twin's thoughts on the matter almost as clearly as though they were his own. Neither of them was particularly happy to have the rest of the Space Knights tagging along for this. Not with what they both knew Axe and Rapier were capable of.
"I don't think any of you really know what you're going to be getting into," he said, trying again to explain just what made him so edgy about potentially having them around during the kind of fight that he and Saber were about to get themselves into. "Axe is one of the most dangerous Teknomen out there," he said, reaching into his left pocket and wrapping his fingers around the remains of Shara's teknocrystal; it'd become something of his personal talisman over the time he'd carried it.
Narrowing his eyes as the Green Earth continued on its way, Slade leaned into Saber as his younger twin wrapped his right arm around his neck.
"It's nice of you to think of us and all," Balzac said, though he didn't much sound like it. "Going in without any backup isn't anything even approaching a good idea."
(Well, I guess he should know, eh brother?) Saber deadpanned, though Slade could see his younger twin's brief smirk.
Slade tried to swallow his own chuckle, knowing that now wasn't really the best time for riding Balzac about what had happened to him. They were all supposed to be on the same side now, and he was at least trying to be civil to the man. Not only because of that, but in deference to all that they had both lost.
"I know, but at least that way we won't be taking the chance of any of you guys getting caught in the crossfire," he said, still making a game attempt to get his fellow Space Knights to understand why he didn't want them straying too close to whatever battleground that Axe had chosen to meet them on. "You know… how I feel."
No one really had anything to say, not to that, anyway; but it wasn't all smooth sailing.
"What is it, Ringo?" Saber asked, as the Green Earth rumbled to a stop.
"I don't like the look of this; those Radam trees are awfully thick up ahead," Ringo said. "We might not be able to make it much farther."
"Axe is just up ahead," he said, fists clenching at his sides. "We have to keep moving. There's too much at stake to turn back now."
110100100101
Clasping his hands on Sam's narrow shoulders, Axe continued calling out to Ness and Cain as he observed the path they would inevitably make their approach from, considering the direction he could tell they were moving in.
(It's been such a long time since the four of us spoke in person,) he said. (Sam and I have both missed you for such a long time. Come to meet us soon, won't you?)
He rather suspected that that was precisely what the two of them were doing, since their mental signatures had both been growing ever clearer – and hence closer – the longer he and Sam stood on the balcony waiting.
"Are they going to be coming soon, Goddard-sensei?"
"They'll be here soon enough, Sam," he said, smiling as he reached up to ruffle the younger Teknoman's soft, short hair.
Looking back out, down the path that Ness and Cain would be taking on their way up to the ground that he had prepared for them – the path their mental signatures were still on – Axe found that that strange vehicle of theirs hadn't yet come into sight. He knew that it had to be only a matter of time until it did, since Ness and Cain weren't at all likely to ignore the baits he'd kept setting out for them every time they chanced to run into each other. Or, at least that was what he allowed Ness and Cain to think.
01000100100
The road in front of them didn't look particularly promising, but if Ringo knew one thing about the Wonder Twins, it was how stubborn they both were. Neither of them were likely to let a little thing like being hemmed in on all sides by the Radam's forest get them down, or stop them from what they were clearly bound and determined to do, so Ringo knew it'd be up to him to get them all moving again.
"Looks like we're taking the Jeep from here," he said, already standing so he could make his way out to where their secondary transport was stored. "Come on; let's get ready."
There was a general agreement on that point, so Ringo led the way to where the Jeep and some of the other peripherals were stored. There was no way in hell that he wasn't going to haul his and Balzac's Tekno-suits out to wherever it was that Axe was calling them from; no way in hell he was going to let those two go off on their own with all the trouble they always seemed to get into.
Once they had all made it to the vehicle-bay at the back of the Green Earth, Ringo was just about to start discussing what they had all come here for, when he noticed Star and Maggie had already started lashing the flatbed haulers to the trailer-hitch. So, with that particular job out of the way, Ringo called Balzac over so that the two of them could start getting their Tekno-suits ready to travel.
Neither of the Wonder Twins seemed particularly happy about that, but there were just some things a man needed to do when his friends were in danger; wasn't his fault that Slade kept missing that. Saber understood, so that was at least one of the Wonder Twins whose neck he didn't want to wring. It was a start, at least.
Once he and Balzac had finished loading up their respective suits and getting them secured, with Slade's disapproving gaze boring into them the whole way – something Ringo was getting more and more used to ignoring – Ringo hopped into the Jeep's driver's seat and waited as the rest of his friends and fellow Space Knights all climbed in and made themselves as comfortable as they could.
"All right, everyone all buckled up?" he asked, drawing a smirk from Saber and mostly unamused looks from the rest of his fellow Space Knights.
Starting the Jeep without another word, Ringo hit the gas and guided her and their long string of trailers out of the Green Earth so they could continue on their way. The forest of teknoplants all around them wouldn't have let them get the tank through in any case, but given how thickly-clustered they were in this area, Ringo wasn't entirely sure if even the Jeep was going to have an easy time navigating the terrain. Still, it was a quicker alternative than setting out on foot, and better for keeping all of them together for what they were going to be doing whenever they got to wherever it was that Teknoman Axe and his little crony were baiting them to.
If it'd been anyone else insisting they walk into this kind of a trap, particularly with two Radam Teknomen who were obviously going to try to kill them all for it, Ringo would have insisted on finding a different plan; still, in this case, doing that would have probably just ended up with the pair of them sneaking off to deal with Axe and Rapier. On their own, with no one to back them up when things inevitably went south. That was one of the things he was hoping to avoid, especially under the circumstances, so Ringo made it a point to keep his misgivings to himself.
Everyone already knew that he wasn't generally in favor of the plans those crazy kids had made, especially the kinds that involved the pair of them walking into the jaws of a trap that had been set up by an evil Teknoman, so there wasn't really much point in going over and over that kind of thing again.
"I don't know," he said, after he'd had to steer carefully past a pair of bubbling pools of goop – Radam-goop, no less – in the narrow path they were all traveling on. "Are you boys sure about this?"
"This is the direction Axe's mental signals are coming from the strongest," Slade said, sounding as determined as he ever did. "We have to keep going."
Saber didn't answer, but from the look of concentration on the kid's face, he might not've heard the question in the first place. It was smooth sailing for awhile linger, but Ringo knew that this wasn't the kind of terrain a guy could afford to be careless on. The Jeep nearly bounced over the ridge of a sudden drop-off that he hadn't seen nearly in time to avoid, causing them to end up with the right-side wheels of the rugged vehicle sunk right into a pool of the bubbling much that Ringo had been hoping to avoid.
"Guys, I think we got a little problem here," he said, as his fellow Space Knights groused and muttered and tried to sort themselves out.
1010010010101
Tuning out the complaints from the other Space Knights, Slade turned his attention to Saber, even as Ringo tried to get them loose from the pool of shimmering ooze that their Jeep had fallen into.
(Well, looks like we're walking the rest of the way,) Saber commented.
He could hear the soft click of his younger twin's seatbelt as Saber removed it, and the clatter of Saber's footsteps as his younger twin jumped down out of the Jeep. After he'd given Pegas orders to follow them as they moved, Slade caught up to Saber and the pair of them began making their own way along the path that would lead them to… to wherever it was that Axe and Rapier wanted them to come to.
To their next battleground.
"So, where do you think they're hiding out?" he heard his younger twin mutter, over the distant shouts of their fellow Space Knights.
"We're going to find out soon, so there's not much point in speculating."
The shouting was getting more than a bit louder, so by mutual agreement he and Saber both picked up the pace. It wouldn't be right to go leading their fellow Space Knights into the kind of danger that Axe and Rapier posed to anyone who wasn't a Teknoman, and if they managed to lose them by the Jeep then that would be all to the better. At least they would have a way to retreat before Axe and Rapier came down on them.
For a moment, even though he knew it was useless, Slade wished that he'd managed to talk Saber into letting him handle the pair of evil Teknomen alone.
Then they were standing outside the large, tall, imposing building that Axe had selected for their battleground, and there was no more time to think about things like that. It was something Saber would have probably thought was funny, that every one of the evil Teknomen they had been forced to face had taken shelter in an abandoned church, but if Saber had anything to say on the matter he kept it to himself. Now really wasn't the time for that kind of thing, anyway.
Slowing back to a walk after they'd run so far for so long, Slade could already feel his stamina beginning to recover. He knew it was an effect caused by all of the nutrient-gas the teknoplants were putting into the pair around them, and so while he wasn't particularly happy to be the beneficiary of anything the Radam had set up for him, Slade didn't grumble about it. There was already plenty he hated about the situation; he wasn't going to waste time complaining about the small things.
(All right, Axe,) he snarled over their mental link. (We're here.)
(Why don't you come inside, then?)
The large, dark wood double-doors creaked as they opened, and Slade quickly found himself staring into the dimly-lit – or it would have been dimly-lit to someone who wasn't a Teknoman – interior of the church. He also found himself confronted with the very Teknomen who'd drawn them so deep into this place to begin with, but the two of them seemed content to wait for him and Saber to come to them rather than the other way around. Slade didn't know quite how he felt about that.
He did know that he would have felt a lot better about things if Saber would have been the type to agree to stay behind, however.
(You don't know how much Sam and I have been missing you boys since you left,) Axe said; Slade clenched his fists at the sentiment in Axe's tone, even as Saber looped his left arm through Slade's right. (I'd been meaning to talk to you boys about that. Now's as good a time as any, don't you think?)
He wasn't about to give Axe the satisfaction of getting a rise out of him, even if he said he didn't want that. When Axe and Rapier both came out, Rapier looking small and almost fragile next to Axe's stocky, well-tanned, broad-shouldered, imposing bulk, Slade leaned a bit more into the comfort of his younger twin's body. God help him, he still couldn't quite resign himself to the thought of dealing with Rapier the way he was going to have to.
No matter how many times Slade told himself that this was just another evil Teknoman like Spear, all he kept seeing was his and Saber's younger brother Sam.
"We didn't come here to chat, Axe," Saber said, his voice a little tight with the tension that Slade could still sense over their link; he hadn't shut Saber out again, knowing that he would need his younger twin's support for what was going to come. "You know what we're here for."
"Look, I know you're both very busy people," Axe said, a slight smile on his weathered face; it almost looked like the one Spear tended to wear, and Slade ground his teeth at the memory. "So, I'll keep this brief: Lord Darkon is willing to forgive your previous transgressions, if you'll simply return to the Space Ring with Sam and me. You could even bring along some of those humans you both seem so fond of."
Clenching his fists tight enough that he almost felt his finger bones jamming together, Slade tried to force himself to calm down before he did something even more drastic than just running flat-out to confront Axe and Rapier on ground they'd already had time to prepare.
"How many times, in how many languages, do we have to keep saying no before you people finally get the message?"
"Don't be so hasty, Cain," Axe said; Slade tensed as the evil Teknoman stepped closer to the pair of them. "Why don't you two come inside. Then we can talk."
"We've been talking," he snapped, though he still couldn't tear his eyes away from where Sam – where Rapier – was standing, right beside Axe; the Radam Teknoman had his muscular right arm around both of the younger Teknoman's shoulders and was gently guiding him to stand in front of the pair of them.
It helped, looking at Axe's arms; it help to keep his attention off the sadness on… on Rapier's face.
As a small, soft hand curled around his own left hand, Slade tensed nearly to the breaking point when he looked down into Sam's – into Rapier's – upturned face. The youngest of Darkon's Teknomen was staring up at him with such a sad, hopeful expression that for a moment – a single moment in time; a moment of weakness that Slade wasn't eager to admit to even Saber – Slade wished that everything could go back to the way it had been. But, even he and Saber working together couldn't turn back time.
And he wasn't about to sacrifice Earth to the Radam just for his own comfort.
As he walked, stiff-legged and tense, into the darkened interior of the church, lined with chipped pillars that lent the place an even more profound aura of abandonment and disuse, Slade mused bitterly that this was the perfect place for this kind of a confrontation to happen; the perfect metaphor for what was about to happen. This empty place, that had once been filled with light and color and life and song… he and Saber had once had those things.
Now, all that was left to them were the sad, broken remnants of what had once been their lives.
Axe had been talking, and Saber had been keeping up their end of the conversation for the both of them, but until he saw the pair of evil Teknomen settling themselves down on a pew in front of them – until he knew that the two of them weren't going to go any farther – Slade couldn't allow himself to relax enough to listen.
"Finally back with us, Ness?" Axe asked, smiling gently in the same way that Spear always had.
"Axe, why are you doing this?" he asked, wanting to have at least some answers, before everything crashed down on his head again.
"It's only right, offering someone a chance to change their ways," Axe said, his hands on Sam's shoulders as their younger brother sat down in front of him. "Lord Darkon has been observing your work, and even though you've both done a lot of damage to our efforts, he still recognizes your potential. Both of you are perfectly welcome to rejoin our ranks."
"You both already know we're not going to come with you," he said, already starting to feel worn down from the constant repetition; Spear had done just the same, and it had been just as exhausting then.
"Ness, why do you hate us so much?"
Turning away, before he could give in to the temptation to respond to the sadness in Sam's voice – Rapier, Slade reminded himself again – Slade leaned lightly against Saber as the two of them stood against Axe.
111001010010
"They're meeting up with those two in a cathedral?" he demanded, narrowing his eyes incredulously at where the trail of deep footprints that Pegas had so considerately left for them to follow ended.
It didn't make a lick of sense to him, how two of the most evil creatures currently on the planet could think of taking shelter inside a holy place like this. At least without bursting into flames, or being thrown out once they crossed the threshold or something. Sure, he knew they weren't vampires or anything like that, but he still couldn't help the thought that a Radam Teknoman shouldn't be able to set foot on holy ground like that.
He wasn't going to mention it to any of the Space Knights, of course, but he couldn't help the thought that that kind of evil shouldn't have been able to set foot on holy ground.
"It used to be beautiful," Star said, a haunted, reflective tone to her voice.
"I'm glad it's still standing," Ringo said, and Balzac could help agreeing with him. "There aren't many left."
"Let's go," he said, reminding all of them of the job they were still trying to do.
Just as they were all about to start moving forward again, however, some kind of eerie giant eyeball – red as the eyes on all of the Radam Teknomen he'd been unfortunate enough to encounter – turned toward their group with a baleful glow to it. He didn't know what to expect, but the burst of that same, sticky purple fluid from the iris still came as a nasty surprise.
"Scatter!" he called, nearly at the same time as Ringo shouted his own warning to the group of them as a whole.
He could only hope both their warnings had come in time…
0001010001000
Sighing softly as he saw the pure, stubborn determination on Ness and Cain's faces as they stared him down, Axe felt Sam shuddering slightly as the younger Teknoman leaned into his loose embrace.
"Well, it seems you're both just as stubborn as you were when I taught you," he said, gently rubbing Sam's left shoulder in an effort to comfort him; probably a wasted one, considering that his older sister was dead and his middle brothers were spitting on the offer of clemency that Lord Darkon had so generously made, but there was ultimately no harm in simply making it. "I respect that," he said, tightening his one-armed embrace around Sam so that the youngest of Lord Darkon's soldiers wouldn't feel as though he was being neglected in favor of his elder brothers. "I admire your determination, boys, I really do. It's a trait I admire about your whole family," he said, helping Sam back to his feet so that the two of them could stand on roughly equal footing with Ness and Cain; so that the both of them could face what was coming head-on. "The difference is, you boys are on the wrong side!"
Rushing them with Sam at his side, Axe quickly found himself facing Cain, as he stepped out to counter Axe's charge with one of his own.
"That's just like you, Cain: any time anything comes for Ness, you throw yourself right in its path!" he said, grinning as he met the snapping blue eyes of the younger Teknoman standing against him.
Cain scoffed. "Someone has to look out for him."
"You mean, the way that Conrad was always looking after the both of you?" he asked.
Cain sneered in response. "Not remotely the same thing."
11010010010111
He could hear Saber fighting Axe what seemed like only a few steps away, exchanging both blows and words it sounded like, but Slade found that he didn't have eyes for anyone but the Teknoman in front of him. Sam- Rapier was as vicious as he was fast, and Slade knew that he couldn't afford the distraction that trying to talk would inevitably be. That was one of the reasons he was trying to ignore what the Radam Teknoman was saying to him.
Slade also knew that, if he stopped to answer any of… the younger Teknoman's desperate questions about what they were all going to do now that they weren't a family anymore… he wouldn't be able to start again.
"Ness!"
Freezing at that sudden, desperate shout – Sam! – Slade ground his teeth as he stood poised to ram his right fist into… into the Radam Teknoman's face, Slade found himself abruptly thrown out through the stained glass window that the pair of them had managed to maneuver themselves in front of during the course of their fight. He should've known better than to trust sentiment from an evil Teknoman.
It was just like Spear: just words that didn't really mean anything to the one speaking them; he should've remembered that.
Dragging himself up before Rapier slammed a heel-kick into the top of his head, Slade ducked under another sweeping high-kick and then tackled Rapier back into the side of the church they were both fighting in front of. Forced to brace himself as Rapier kicked him in the gut, Slade gasped for breath as he steadied himself. It was insane enough that he was being forced to deal with Rapier when the two of them were both outside of their respective armors, but if the two of them were forced to transform…
Grinding his teeth as Rapier's fist slammed into his crossed arms, Slade braced himself for whatever was going to come next.
0100010001001
As the purple ooze that'd been spat out by the freaky Radam eyeball-plant – man, that was weird to think about – slammed into the ground, Ringo couldn't help but notice that it seemed to be heading somewhere, rather than just splattering all over the ground around them like something that resembled normal goop would have done. Still, this was Radam-goop, and Radam-goop could always be counted on to cause problems.
Just like the Radam themselves, really.
"Great, looks like that stuff's after Pegas!" Ringo shouted.
They'd have to do something about that, if they were going to be able to give Slade a fighting chance against Axe and his crony.
101001011101011
"You did very well, Cain, to stand against me for so long," he said, smiling gently as his wayward young student struggled in his grip; Cain was tenacious, no one who met him could deny it, but with his arms effectively pinned behind his back the younger Teknoman could no longer fight against the sleeper-hold that Axe had him in.
Cain would lose consciousness soon enough, and then he and Sam would be able to attend to Ness all the more simply.
"Damn it, let me go!"
He chuckled. "Cain, you know that's not going to happen," he said, tightening his grip as his wayward student's struggles became all the weaker with the lack of oxygen he was suffering from. "You know, it's funny: this boosted metabolism of ours makes it so much easier to recover from injuries, I'll bet no one else has realized it has downsides like this."
Cain's attention was clearly no longer on him, however; his wayward young student was clearly using what remained of his conscious moments to let Ness know what was going on. It was an admirable use of the resources that were still left to him; yet another reason that he and Lord Darkon were willing to forgive these little rebellions of theirs. All other things aside, Cain and Ness both knew the value of discretion.
Though admittedly Cain was the one most willing to be discreet when the time came.
As he felt Cain starting to go limp in earnest, Axe caught sight of Sam kicking Ness under the chin hard enough to knock the elder of his wayward students off his feet for just a few moments before he managed to recover.
(Good work, Sam,) he said, knowing that his youngest student wouldn't have been able to hear him if he'd simply called over to him, considering all of the other noises in the area.
(Thank you, Goddard-sensei.)
He could feel Cain, already so very weak from having his oxygen steadily cut off, still attempting to buck him off through some means. He was all the more proud of Cain's tenacity in the face of the kind of odds he was up against; it was truly the mark of how far his teachings had taken root in Cain's mind, that he was still willing to fight even under these kinds of circumstances.
"I really am proud of you, you know," he commented, though Cain was unconscious now and couldn't hear him say it.
Ducking out of the way of Ness' sudden, reckless charge, Axe smiled softly as he shifted Cain's body out of his way and signaled Sam to pull back.
"You, on the other hand, could use some more training," he said, shifting so that he could pass Cain to Sam without giving Ness any absurd ideas.
He didn't want Cain being injured now that he and Ness were being forced to escalate the level of their own battle.
"Tekno-power!"
The familiar rush of energy as he transformed into his armored form was rather comforting, and Axe smiled as the bright crimson light cleared from his senses and he was able to see the dismay on Ness' face. The elder of his wayward students clearly hadn't expected him to escalate to this level, but there were few other ways to truly determine if Ness measured up to Cain, after all.
"Now, Ness, let's see just how your skills hold up," Axe said, grinning as he raised his lancer and prepared to engage Ness in earnest.
0010010100111
Calling for Pegas, and feeling an echo of the power that his teknocrystal held, Slade tensed and jumped back as Axe stepped forward, his armored feet clanging against the floor of the church. Flicking his eyes over to the place where Rapier was sitting, the younger evil Teknoman with his thin, pale arms wrapped around Saber's chest. He'd been pushing against his younger twin's mind when he had the time between clashes, but he couldn't actually reach Saber's mind.
He knew that Saber would recover, but for now he would have to fight Axe on his own.
Calling for Pegas again, Slade felt the same echo from his teknocrystal.
"Maybe your robot is having trouble," Axe said, sounding like he was smirking at him.
Grinding his teeth, Slade ducked Axe's sudden slice for his head, diving over to where Rapier was keeping Saber. A hard straight-punch had the little Radam Teknoman throwing himself backwards as Slade grabbed Saber's shoulders and pulled his younger twin out of Rapier's slackened grip. Running for the exit, shifting Saber as he moved so that he was carrying his younger twin on his back, Slade heard Axe's heavy, clanging footfalls behind them.
He also heard the sound of Axe's thrusters as he lifted off, so Slade pushed his tiring muscles for everything they could give him; unfortunately, that turned out to not be quite enough to get the pair of them beyond the row of Radam vines that punched their way through the floor right in front of them.
(Nessie?)
(Welcome back to the land of the lucid,) he said, trying to make a joke even as he wondered just how in the hell he was going to be able to get the two of them out of here.
(We in trouble again?)
(When aren't we?) he asked, feeling Saber slowly reviving as he turned around to face Axe again. (Think you'll be up to standing soon?)
(I might be a bit wobbly, but I'll make it.)
When he was setting his younger twin back on his feet, the two of them were forced to turn suddenly at the sound of Axe landing just behind them.
"Did you two really think you were going to be able to get away so easily?" Axe chuckled. "We'd spent a long time setting this up; don't think I'm going to let it all go to waste now."
Before Axe could say another word, however, two very familiar bolts of Z-tron slammed into the wall on the right side of the door.
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Breathing more easily when he'd managed to blow a hole through the wall of the building – he tried to ignore the fact that it was one of the few cathedrals that'd remained standing for the duration of the invasion – Ringo called to Balzac to get Slade out of there so the kid could transform.
"All right, Saber?" he called, having noticed that the kid looked a bit unsteady on his feet.
"I'm still a bit light-headed, but I'll manage," the kid said, and Ringo looked back to see the kid with his crystal already out, wearing that same look of fierce determination he'd always had when he went into battle.
When Saber transformed, Ringo sighed in relief to know that he wasn't going to have to fight alone against a crazed Radam Teknoman. When the little Tekno-thug that'd been tagging along with him came running at the pair of them, in full armor and with his sword up and ready to bring down some heavy punishment, Saber kicked him hard enough to knock the little armored thug back against the far wall.
"Thanks for the help," he said, grinning in relief even though he knew that Saber couldn't see him doing it.
"Anytime," the kid answered, and Ringo would have sworn that he was grinning, too. "Well, shall we try this little scene again, Axe?"
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When he'd finally managed to transform – using Pegas, even though the big mech had practically been encased in some kind of chemical mixture made by the Radam – Slade felt better about the situation than he had since the whole thing had started.
(Saber, I'll be with you soon!)
(Good to hear, big brother; Axe isn't too happy about you leaving,) Saber said tersely.
(He'd better not be taking it out on you,) he muttered darkly.
Saber chuckled. (Well, he kind of is.)
Growling deep in his throat, Slade drove himself forward with his thrusters, but only found himself on the wrong end of another of Axe's shoulder-barges.
(Ness, you really need to learn to control your temper,) Axe said, the evil Teknoman sounding amused. (It's always been a weakness of yours.)
Trying to push himself back to his feet, Slade found himself stuck in the same purple goop that'd bound Pegas until he'd managed to use the big mech to transform. The energy-surge had cleared it, causing it to crumble intro dust, but the only thing he could use now that he was transformed was his Tekno-bolt, and that took time to charge.
Also, he could only fire it once per transformation, and there were too many people he cared for in the area for him to risk a shot.
(Looks like you boys aren't going to be collecting any new teknocrystals today, Ness,) he could almost hear Axe's amusement when he spoke, though his link wasn't open far enough to feel echoes of the evil Teknoman's mind anymore. (Really, did you think I was blind, Ness? That I didn't see the way you and Cain were practically salivating over Sam's teknocrystal when I had him show it to you?)
Slade growled, feeling himself sink deeper and deeper into the muck no matter how he struggled to pull out of it. It seemed almost like quicksand that way, but under the circumstances Slade didn't have the time to see if laying back and trying to swim out of the stuff would do him any good…
