There was a collective roar through the campsite and through Guy's intercom as the Mobile Unit acknowledged their captain's command.

"ROGER!"

Immediately, two large robots, green and yellow in the color of their armor, emerged from the doors of the repair/storage building, looking like mirror images of HyoRyu and EnRyu, though with the major differences of the large, cement-mixer cannon attached to the green robot, FuRyu's, back, and the large dump truck bed attached to the yellow robot, RaiRyu's, left arm. That same dump truck bed detached and hovered on the ground as RaiRyu leaped up on top of it, and using electromagnetic waves, raced towards the battlefield near the J-Ark. The cement mixer swung up on FuRyu's back and spun, firing a concentrated wave of air that propelled him alongside his brother as they readied for battle against the silvery creatures.

Renais found herself getting close to surrounded by the creatures, and was alternating targets with each gun she held as the fired again and again at them. One was coming up behind her, too close for her to attack with her guns and not get struck. "Shit!" she growled as she narrowly avoided the beast's attack, only for one of her guns to be sheared into pieces by its claw. Leaping backwards, she saw something light green in color blur by, and the creature fell apart as J stopped and turned, the Radiant Ripper held firmly in his hands.

"Let's go!" Guy grabbed the handle extending from his brace, and drew it, producing a dark green blade. "Will Knife!" He leapt into the mass of monsters, slashing through them and avoiding their strikes. Undeterred, the creatrues reassembled and continued their attack.

Meanwhile, Matt practically skidded into the command room. "Chief!" He grabbed the edge of the doorway. "Those monsters are attacking the camp!"

Taiga's eyes widened. "What?!"

"Yeah! Guy and Renais are holding them off!"

"Are KouRyu and AnRyu ready to deploy?"

"They might be good enough to go on their own, but they've still got a lot of damage to repair," Matt said, glancing at Hyuuma. "You think they're ready?"

"No," Hyuuma said, shaking his head. "We still need to reinstall the spare weapon parts from Chasseur, and then let the self-repair systems on the A.I. finish and reactivate them."

The door open, admitting Papillon inside, behind Matt. She was breathing a bit heavy, as if she came from running, which she likely had. "Dr. Liger's having the weapons installed on HyoRyu and EnRyu's Pencil Launchers, but it'll take some time," she said. "Are we able to hold off the creatures long enough for them to get ready?" she asked the Commander.

Outside, Renais and J battled against a rising tide of silver monstrosities, holding them back alongside Guy. Soon, however, dangerous tines of lightning blasted into the field of creatures, followed by a series of bullet-shaped wind projectiles, smashing through a swathe of the skeletal creatures as RaiRyu and FuRyu unleashed Lai and Feng Dao Dan on them.

"We'll have to," Taiga said, with a frown.

Matt raised a clawed hand, clenched it. "I'll go help."

"It's too dangerous, Matt!" the chief said. "Let Guy and Renais handle this!"

Matt grinned. "What, you think I'm gonna stand around and let Renais have all the fun? I've worked too hard for this, I'm gonna go MAKE SOME NOISE!" With a whoop, he dashed out of the command room.

Taiga raised his hand, almost shouted to stop Matt, but didn't. Matt never was his crewmember, it wouldn't be right to order him to stay. Besides, that courage that burned in the boy's eyes...he wouldn't stand in the way of that.

***

Guy waved to RaiRyu and FuRyu for their assistance. Still, there were way too many. He lifted his brace. "Matt! Have you informed the Commander yet?"

"Yeah!" Matt shouted, panting. "Liger's installing the Pencil Launchers on HyoRyu and EnRyu, we gotta hold them off until he gets ready! I'm comin'!"

It was becoming obvious that they were being forced away from the camp, and from the J-Ark. Renais' cybernetic-enhanced legs propelled her high into the air away from a swarm of the silver creatures, just as a horizontal cyclone from FuRyu tore through them beneath her, shoving them back to splatter on the ground. Landing on a high rock, she took aim just as they began to reform and fired again and again, trying delay them.

She heard something behind her and jumped, performing a backflip as another creature leaped at her. Aiming downwards as she fell, she detonated its skull-like head with a single round. Throwing one gun up in the air, a grenade appeared in her hand, and she armed it before tossing it upwards. J suddenly appeared in a dash and lashed out with his armored boot, kicking the grenade across the battlefield to explode into a group of monsters that was rushing at Guy. Elsewhere, lightning blasted out from RaiRyu's hands and tore into another group of monsters.

Renais brought her own golden hand up to her mouth and shouted into the intercom. "Are you guys ready yet with that blasted weapon!?"

"We're almost ready!" Liger garbled from the other end. "Just hold them off a little while longer!"

Matt appeared at the edge of the ramp, and suddenly couldn't move any more. His eyes glazed over the countless silver feuding with Guy and Renais. Oh, lord. What had he gotten himself into now?

"Matt, watch out!" shouted Guy, and a monster slashed at him.

"ORYAAH-!" Matt's armored fist shot out and blew the creature in half. He scrambled down the ramp, his fists and feet striking whatever came in his way, until he and Guy had fought their way over to each other.

Back to back, Matt raised his hands, and threw together a cocky grin. "One hell of a fight, huh?"

"Don't let your guard down!" Guy stabbed, then cut to the sideways, through a silver creature's suggested ribcage. "It's not over yet!"

With renewed cries, they both took to combat.

J's armored form seemed to blink from one area to another as he charged into another group of the creatures, his quick movements disorienting them and preventing them from knowning where he'd attack. Disengaging his wings, the J-Jewel cyborg plummeted sword first at the lead creature in the group, cleaving it in two. A powerful claw swept over at his back, and he ducked, spinning about and slashing off the beast's legs in one fluid motion. After that, he took to the air once more, only for a claw to grab his foot.

Growling in frustration, J turned and readied the Radiant Ripper, only for the arm to blast apart in a spray of silver as Renais fired a bullet through the skeletal arm. Quickly shaking free, J took to the air once more. More gunfire erupted from the barrels of Renais two pistols, tearing into the monsters but failing in stopping them completely. Lightning blasted the group apart suddenly as RaiRyu unleashed his trademark attack, leaping off of the dump-truck scoop he used as a hoverboard, the device reattaching to his back. Turning to another group, he raised his arms again and cried out, "Lai!" causing more lightning to emanate from his hands and tear into the silvery monsters.

"Uncle!" Guy shouted, kicking at a creature's head.

"We're ready!" the doctor answered. "EnRyu and HyoRyu are on their way!"

"Just a little bit longer, then!" Matt's fist slashed the air, followed with a sideways elbow. Two dropped. Guy sliced through another that had been approaching his flank. "Thanks!"

Guy noted how many of them were still swarming. Just a little bit longer, all right.

HyoRyu and EnRyu raced out of the hanger using their Ul-Tech Engines, each Vehicle Machine carrying a long rifle-type weapon, looking hilariously like standard yellow pencils one would find in a school. The barrels were tipped with blue and red ends, respective to the Vehicle Machine wielding them. The two elder robots sped towards the battle, arming and aiming the Pencil Launchers at the horde.

Seeing their elder brothers arrive at the scene, FuRyu and RaiRyu aimed their weapons to route the creatures into a single mass, as FuRyu's mixer weapon blasted a massive cyclone of wind at them, forcing them back. As J and Renais fled, J taking to the skies as Renais dashed out at insane speeds, RaiRyu ran over to Guy and Matt with heavy footsteps, leaning down and scooping both up in large hands before running out of the battlefield.

The route cleared, FuRyu disengaged his weapon and jumped back as HyoRyu and EnRyu skid to a halt, training their weapons on the horde. Pulling the triggers, the Pencil Launchers opened up and expelled a viscous red fluid at the creatures, much like lava as it splashed across the creatures, spreading quickly as HyoRyu and EnRyu waved the nozzles back and forth, spreading the fiber-destroying material across the horde in its entirety.

The monsters folded under the relentless crimson. Like acid it ate through them-they sank into pools, trying to gather themselves, but could only manage parts of limbs before surrendering to unnatural death.

"HA HAAAAAAA!" Matt whooped, raising a fist. "Nice one, guys!"

"It looks like the Sky Shard turned out something good after all, huh?" Guy said.

Matt's smile faded, but stayed on. Guess the Omega Core fragment didn't cause doom and gloom like he thought it would. Maybe it was safe to use after all. And if that was the case...

In the distance a great rift tore in the air, spiralling gold, and the pools were drawn to it, rippling, like the earth spawned a black hole of its own.

HyoRyu and EnRyu soon ended their onslaught on the creatures, grinning satisfactorily as the weapon quickly eradicated the foul creatures, just as they had hoped. FuRyu and RaiRyu approached, the yellow robot lowering Guy and Matt down to the ground level next to Renais, just as J soared down and landed beside his old rival. The Radiant Ripper was stored away, and he held his arms crossed over his chest. Renais guns were nowhere to be seen, like usual. Lowering the Pencil Launchers, HyoRyu announced, "Mission complete."

In the confines of the J-Ark's massive structure, hidden within the front bow of the ship, a single, spherical device not unlike a burnished gold eye floated between two pedestals, surrounded by various lights emanating from the black walls. The main computer of the J-Ark, Tomoro-0117, had been analyzing the surrounding area relentlessly, even through the battle, intent on fulfilling the orders Soldato-J had given. And when the spiraling golden portal blazed into existence, every sensor on the J-Ark went off, alerting the computer to the Gateway's existence.

The bridge of the Kushinada blared with sound as Tomoro's override took effect, and the screens in front of Mikoto, Papillon, Entouji, Swan, and Stallion spewed out data and coordinates on the portal that opened. Tomoro-0117's monotone voice came clear over the speakers:

"Dimensional anomaly detected."

"Chief!" Mikoto said. "I think this is it!"

Taiga spread a hand. "All right! I want every crewmember at camp to evacuate! Mobile Unit, stand by for battle!"

"These readings..." Mikoto stared, absorbing all the data that rushed down the screens-her Evoulder nature caught all of its horrifying implication. "They're unlike anything I've ever seen!"

"Oh my God!" Swan cried out.

"Stay calm, everyone!" the chief's voice issued, to his comrades before him and over the comlinks. "We've been preparing for this moment! Now we must make our stand and combine all of our power to face this threat head on! Stand tall, and with courage in our heart, we will prevail!"

"ROGER!"

Matt stood to full height, glared at the storm. His wings rattled under its pull.

Bring it on, motherfucker.

Tomoro quickly downloaded the information directly into the active Mobile Unit members, as well as into Guy's ID Armor and Renais' Library. Linked to the J-Ark, J already knew of the information Tomoro-0117 provided.

Hyuuma quickly issued the order. With an extravagant motion, he bellowed, "Ultimate Brave Corps, deploy!"

Four engines exploded into action as HyoRyu, EnRyu, FuRyu, and RaiRyu took off towards the Gateway, each carrying one of the four humanoids with them.

A massive claw of dripping metal burst from the gate. The portal twisted and shuddered as the rest of the monster pulled itself onto solid earth. It matched the height of any one of the Brave Robots, and from its skull and spine, spines rose in jagged directions.

It saw them coming and it roared, shrill, unyielding.

Matt's eyes widened. What the hell was he doing anyway? He didn't have any weapons, any powers, and here he rushed into battle against that thing. How was he going to fight it? He had to help protect everyone, but how?

"The Brave Corps are in visual range of the enemy!" Mikoto reported, and an image of the great monster appeared on the screen, backed by the dusty wind.

"Very well!" Taiga said. "It will be known as the Giant Silver Creature, or GSC!"

"No!" Matt shouted, all of a sudden as it came back to him. "That thing...that thing is called The Flux!"

The Flux made the first move and shot its claws toward the Mobile Unit.

The four robots scattered, taking off in different directions to avoid the claws coming at them. HyoRyu and FuRyu took off to the left, aiming their weapons at the Flux. Torrents of compressed air blasted out of FuRyu's mixing cylinder at the Flux's right shoulder, while the crane detached from HyoRyu's back and became a rifle, a barrel extending from the end of the crane as the hook shifted into the length of the weapon. Taking hold of the weapon, the blue robot aimed the rifle at the Flux and began firing a series of blue bolts of cold energy, freezing rounds to make the beast's body brittle to attack. He quickly began counting the temperature drop as he fired the weapon.

EnRyu did the same with his ladder, as well as arming a pistol like weapon in the opposite hand. Flaming projectiles launched out of both barrels, streaking out at the Flux with a resounding, repeating cry of "Ora ora ora ora ora!" Even as EnRyu added to the barrage, RaiRyu took off on his scoop, rising into the air as he unleashed the Lai attack, summoning lightning down on the gigantic creature.

Like with its smaller brethren, the attacks from the Brave Corps easily tore through the Flux, and it rebuilt just as quickly, maybe even quicker. It shot spears of bending steel toward them that extended from the spines on its back.

Matt braced himself against EnRyu. "Dammnit, guys, use that liquid stuff on him already!" It had to drop this guy, it had to.

"Hold on!" EnRyu said, returning the rifle to his back and taking up the Pencil Launcher. HyoRyu quickly did the same, aiming the weapon down at the Flux.

"Ready?" Renais said, holding on to HyoRyu's shoulder. The robot nodded. "There's not much left in the Pencil Launcher," he warned, before the two brothers pulled the triggers. Once more, the crimson streams blasted out of the Pencil Launchers, streaking down at the Flux's gigantic silver body.

The fluid splashed across the Flux, and, like the others, its body sank as it was dissolved.

Then a familiar reading passed through Matt and Guy, and a light briefly shone in the creature's monstorous, empty eye socket, like a new star with the fall of night.

The Flux's body reformed as if it was never hit with the acid at all.

"It's regenerating?!" Mikoto shouted. "How?"

The Flux stabbed into the ground. Underneath the Brave Corps, a multitude of spears shrieked up to strike them at multiple points.

"Watch out!" RaiRyu said, maneuvering out of the way of the spikes as they ripped out of the earth. The other three Mechanoids rocketed out of the way, taking minor scrapes as the spikes cut up at them.

J stared down through the beak-shaped helmet he wore, then took off from FuRyu's shoulder, the green scarf hardening into long wings as he soared down at the spikes. Instead of taking out the Radiant Ripper, he activated its alternate function, causing the red blade to lance out of his wrist.

He dashed between the rising spears at insane speeds, slashing repeatedly at the spikes to cut off their growth. Dashing out of the forest of spikes, he turned and hovered in the air as HyoRyu, EnRyu, and FuRyu landed safely on the ground. Aiming the rest of the fluid weapon at the Flux, HyoRyu fired a long stream of the crimson liquid at it, just as grenades appeared in Renais hands moments before she armed and threw them at the gap that'd appear in the creature's body if the stream hit.

The Flux weaved to the side-the stream grazed its inconsistent flesh and the grenade exploded harmlessly. Mass built in the monster's arm, forming a muscular limb, cracked HyoRyu across the face from a distance. It followed up by slashing the air with its other arm, casting a salvo of pointed spears at the Brave robots.

HyoRyu cried out as the Flux struck him, sending him to the ground. Immediately, EnRyu counterattacked, turning a dial on his black chestplate before taking the edge of it and opening it on a hinge, revealing brightly-glowing coils. "Chest Warmer!"

The coils ignited the air, sending a stream of blazing fire out at the Flux, just as HyoRyu pushed himself up. Repeating the same action as EnRyu, crying out "Chest Thriller!" The coils in HyoRyu's chest blasted out a stream of cold energy, chilling the air as it shot out at the Flux.

Even as the hot and cold energies streaked at the Flux, FuRyu and RaiRyu swooped in, and RaiRyu lashed out with Lai at the incoming spears, and FuRyu's cannon fired missiles repeatedly at them.

Edited by RisingDragon on July 31, 2008 at 19:08:14.

"Yeah, how do you like THAT?" Matt shouted, trying to keep his mind in the fight.

The Flux crossed its arms as the flames and cold flowed over. Its spines extended, bent at jagged angles and rushed HyoRyu and EnRyu, tearing through their limbs-random injuries, some serious, some not.

Most of the spears were shot away, retreating to the Flux, but a few survived the elemental attack, and pierced the younger Brave Robots.

"No!" Guy shouted.

HyoRyu and EnRyu cried out as the spears struck them doing damage to their limbs and knocking them to the ground, dislodging Matt and Renais from their frames as they hit.

The spears that hit FuRyu and RaiRyu did little damage, only glancing scrapes on their armor. The two of them landed on the ground, RaiRyu's scoop reattaching to his back. Looking at each other, the brothers nodded. On Mikoto's screen back on the Kushinada, green and yellow lines intersecting each other and connected names to percentages interlocked and created one large window, the percentages on FuRyu and RaiRyu's SympaRate jumped to 100%.

Movements synchronized together, the two yelled out together as they stared out at the Flux.

"Symmetrical Docking!"

Rocketing into the air, FuRyu and RaiRyu soared closer together as the mixing cylinder cannon and the electromagnetic scoop disengaged from their backs and flew off. Lifting their arms up, their hands retracted and armor plating shifted around, locking into place before the back weapon mounts swung up on a hinge, causing restraints to unlock and their entire upper torsos to shift upwards, covering their heads. The plating swung up the rest of the way and the arms moved over the place of their heads. Armor locked down on either side of the arms, and panels moved down on one side of the armor block.

FuRyu and RaiRyu's legs locked together and swung back at right angles, as their airborne bodies turned towards each other, before suddenly slamming into each other and locking into place. From the shifted legs, compartments opened up, and on RaiRyu's side, a long object with a folded gun barrel shot off, attaching to a joint that had emerged from a compartment beside it, and a metallic hand swung out from it. On the opposite side, FuRyu's large mixing cylinder attached to an identical joint. The scoop detached a large panel and attached to the yellow arm.

A golden object attached to silver paneling slid into place over into the space between the folded legs, and the entire body flipped over, revealing an angular golden face with pink optical units and a large green G-Stone embedded in the forehead. The massive combined robot landed hard on its feet, cracking the earth below it. A large plate, looking much like a truck's front grill, shot down and slid into place across the robot's chest. With a powerful cry, the Symmetrically-Docked robot roared out its name, aiming the cylinder cannon arm at the Flux.

"GekiRyuJin!!!"

Matt plummeted toward the hard end for brief, fearful seconds before he jarred-Guy had caught him, and set him on his feet. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Matt looked up at the colossal combination, GekiRyuJin, facing down the Flux with wind cannon.

It had to be enough. It had to be.

The Flux screeched and lunged at GekiRyuJin, slashing toward his shoulder with the whip-like sword formed from its limb.

Swinging the scoop out like a shield, GekiRyuJin caught the sword-like appendage in it, blocking it from hitting his jutting shoulder. Stepping back, he through the limb back off of him, then backed up another step.

His turn now.

Furious zephyrs swirled around the wind cannon's barrel as GekiRyuJin thrusted it forward, forming a powerful cyclone. "The howling wind!"

Lightning lashed out around the lightning scoop as it was thrusted forward in sequence, irradiating the air. "The roaring lightning!"

Swinging his arms overhead, GekiRyuJin swung back down and thrust out, lashing out with concentrated wind and lightning energies as cyclone and thunder roared, becoming twin serpentine dragons of light, mouths agape in a silent roar as they swirled and dived, streaking at the Flux's limbs at frightening speeds. "Xiang Tou Long!"

The dragons sliced through the Flux-what attack hadn't? But then the distant shine, and the Flux pulled itself together. Its claws rotated, spinning on wrists unbound by the limits of muscle, and they shot at GekiRyuJin from extended arms, to try and strike his chest.

Bringing the energy dragons back quickly, the serpents raced around GekiRyuJin's frame, creating an intricate barrier around him. Despite their power, the Flux's claws slammed into them and after several moments, shredded through and smashed into his shoulders, their trajectory deflected by the Xiang Tou Long.

Bracing himself on the ground, GekiRyuJin shoved the spinning claws off of himself and aimed his right-arm wind cannon at the creature. A powerful cyclone of untold strength blasted out from the barrels and swept out at the Flux, striking the ground and circling around it into a massive tornado.

The tornado was strong enough to coerce chunks of silver from the Flux into its swirling path, but the creature didn't react to that. It dove its claws into the ground.

"Dammit, we can't just STAND here!" Matt shouted.

"It's frustrating...but we have to believe they can win," Guy said.

Points burst in all directions at GekiRyuJin-the Flux had split its claws underneath to form a cage of metal around the combined robot, trapping it underneath a cone-like structure of spikes.

"What the!?" GekiRyuJin sputtered, looking about the cage in surprise. Before he could move, however, twin voices cried out.

"Chest Warmer!"

"Chest Thriller!"

Once more, fire and ice tore through the air from HyoRyu and EnRyu's chests, streaking at the sides of the cage in an attempt to free their combined brother.

J flitted down beside Guy, looking at him. "Guy," the cyborg warrior said, "We cannot stand here! We have to act--the Brave Robots may be too large to effectively combat this creature."

"Are you nuts?" Matt shouted. "You can't hurt that thing, it'll just knock you around!"

Guy brandished his knife. "We have to try." He leapt up. "Come on, J!"

"Wait, dammit!" Matt shouted, extending a hand.

In response, the cage developed spines that shot out at GekiRyuJin from all angles. The Flux swung its other arm back and flung. Mid-flight, its limb changed to mimic a spiked ball and chain, and it flew over to collide with the elder brothers.