"Yeah! What he said." Leave it to R.D. to cut to the point. "You've been given this power to help people. I say you use it to do what's right."

After a few more moments, Ileyna looked up at the two of them and clenched her hands, nodding once. "Okay," she said, trying to strengthen her voice. "I'll do it."

Colleen leaned back. She didn't quite think the two would manage to convince Ileyna so easily. "So, R.D., do you think the two of you can take care of her?"

R.D. nodded. "It won't be a problem. We can take care of ourselves and we can take care of anyone else with us."

"Alright, if you say so. Just remember that fancy weapon of yours isn't gonna save you if you get her hurt, because I will kick your ass."

R.D. nodded, unsure if she wasn't joking. It was hard to tell with this woman. Colleen on the other hand nodded in satisfaction. Now, she had other things to take care of--she instantly felt the barrier being breached, and that two dark lifeforms were now in the vicinity of the city grounds.

And then she blinked when she felt them both vanish.

===

The feeling of power that Zhatsuroth could feel was indeed only a few yards away--standing up on top of a streetlamp was another young man, clad in simple black slacks and a white button-up shirt. A mop of silver-white hair covered his head, and his blood-red eyes danced with amusement as he saw Zhatsuroth look about.

Michael extended some of his power, and everything around him and Zhatsuroth melted into blackness. In the shadowed realm, he dropped down in front of the being of power. "Hey now," he said in greeting, "Didn't anyone tell you its not nice to break into other people's property?"

Matt nodded curtly. "Don't worry. I'll make sure nothing happens to her."

Colleen stepped back a little, looking at R.D. for a moment. He wondered just what in the world she was contemplating this time, but soon she spoke.

"So, tell me," she said, looking at his outfit. "Did you get into a fight with a wolf or something?"

"... something like that, yes." She had no idea how truthful her statement was, he decided.

"Well, might as well do something about that," she said, lifting a hand up and snapping her fingers. Almost like fluid, R.D.'s clothing began to regenerate, soon becoming whole once more.

"That was a neat trick," he said, looking at his outfit.

"I get the feeling that you're really gonna have a problem if you keep picking fights with things with claws," Colleen said. She closed her eyes and concentrated. After a few moments, strands of energy wove through the air into a single point, wrapping around until something was formed.

A silver-colored, octagonal gem dropped into Colleen's hands. Looking at it with satisfaction, she tossed it over to R.D. who caught it with ease.

"Okay, what is this?" R.D. asked after a moment, bewildered.

"Its in case you decide to ruin your clothing again. Just wave it over the damaged spots and it'll repair it, just like I did."

"Ooooh! Lemme see." Matt took the gem, then promptly ripped a tear along the sleeve of his coat. A wave of the gem, and like Colleen said, it was good as new. "Heh heh." Another rip, another repair. "I can do this all day."

Ileyna giggled slightly at his antics, and R.D. snatched the gemstone back from Matt after the statement. "Let's not," he said, putting it into his satchel. "We do have things to take care of."

Matt scoffed. "I know, I know." He rubbed his chin. "Hmmm. I suppose we need to find a way out of here, to begin this epic journey that we have been assigned to do."

Edited by The Helldragon on October 10, 2008 at 20:21:39.

"Here, as in the city, or here, as in the planet?" Colleen asked, cocking her head to the side. As she did, R.D. spotted Jordan returning. He also suddenly noticed that there were a good number of kids playing at a nearby park. How did he miss that?

"Good question." Matt glanced at R.D.. "How about we jaunt over to where Alasea is so we can meet her and help us figure something out?"

"Sounds like a good idea," R.D. said, looking about for a certain spot. "I think I know of a good way of getting there, too."

"You do?" Colleen said, crossing her arms underneath her breasts. "Mind I ask what?"

"You'll see," R.D. said, looking over his shoulder at her as he walked up the pavilion, towards a particularly wide street. "Wait here for a moment."

Once R.D. was in the middle of the street, he looked up into the air. He was pretty sure it'd work. Relayia did say he was his to command...

"Tamaran!"

Only seconds after R.D. made his call, the sounds of jet thrusters roaring could be heard in the air, as if from a distance. It steadily grew louder at a quick pace, and soon everyone was looking around for the source of the noise, except for R.D., who only looked smug. And then, something fell from the sky above him, crashing into the ground on four metal legs.

The mecha dragon Tamaran raised up his head from the landing, towering over R.D., and turned his neck, looking at the three people in front of the Pillar of Dawn. Its optic sensors flashed yellow as his gaze touched upon Matt and Ileyna, who was once again hiding behind Colleen.

Matt's reaction was as expected. "HOLY SHIT!" He pointed feebly at the gigantic metal dragon. "What the hell is THAT supposed to be?!"

"Yeah, um," R.D. mumbled, walking back down to the Pillar of Dawn as the mecha dragon surveyed the area--everyone was staring at it, now. "I forgot to tell you that when I beat Sheena, I had to use a giant robot to do it."

Looking back at his newest ally, he explained. "This is Tamaran. He was created by the Dragon Tribes god only knows when. He was put in stasis, but he woke up after Sheena kicked my rear and dumped me in the ocean. He saved my ass, and we were able to combine into a Super Mechanoid called KishouDoragon. As KishouDoragon, we were able to defeat Sheena pretty easily."

After a bit, Ileyna came out from behind Colleen, staring at the colossal robot. Somehow, she could feel... something coming from the dragon. Something familiar. She didn't realize it, but the Ao-Gem hanging from her neck was flickering to life, reacting to Tamaran's own internal Ao-Gem.

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa," Matt said, shaking his hands back and forth. "Why did you not tell me about this sooner? You know I love kicking butt with giant robots. With this guy on our side, this should be easy."

R.D. paused for a moment. He hadn't thought about that. Enemy appears? Take it out with a giant robot. It would be easy. There was just a little catch.

"Yeah, uh, we don't even know how we're gonna get ourselves off-world," he said, looking at Matt. "How in the heck are we gonna get him off-world?"

Good point. "Well, that's what we're gonna go see Alasea for, right?" Matt said. "Let's get on your giant death machine and get on with it."

R.D. nodded, and, as if hearing what Matt had said, Tamaran turned towards them and lowered his long neck until his head was on the ground. It slowly opened its mouth, as if beckoning them to get on. As R.D. made his way to Tamaran, Ileyna hesitated for a bit. However, she didn't feel afraid of this creature, and soon trotted afterwards to catch up with them, and like R.D., stepped up into Tamaran's mouth.

"You want me to give her a head's up?" Colleen called out.

"Nah, I'd like to surprise her," R.D. replied. "Thanks anyway."

Because he normally didn't make it a policy to crawl into the jaws of a giant mechanical dragon, Matt approached with caution, easing himself into the throat of the beast. Well, that's one more thing he accomplished before he died, at least.

The three of them sat themselves down as comfortably as they could, and Tamaran's jaws closed down, blanketing them in darkness. Almost instantly, R.D. channeled energy to create a sphere of light, brightening up the dark interior of the mecha dragon's mouth.

"It shouldn't take us very long to get there. Tamaran's pretty fast."

Outside, Colleen and Jordan watched as Tamaran's head lifted up from the ground. The thruster units on his sides turned to face down, then ignited, lifting the mecha dragon up into the air. Once it had cleared the buildings, the thrusters turned, and Tamaran soared off into the direction of Japan.

"Well, this is the second weirdest thing I've done this week," Matt announced, keeping himself busy by twiddling his thumbs.

"If this is the second weirdest, I'd hate to know what the weirdest thing is," R.D. muttered, causing Ileyna to giggle.

Within an hour or so, Tamaran caught sight of Japan's coast, and the Pillar of Dawn at its end. Its sensors quickly picked up Alasea's lifesigns near it, and the mecha dragon flew overhead, turning in the air and settling down on the grassy slope, while Alasea watched. Tamaran's jaws opened up upon landing, and R.D. jumped out of his mouth before the head could settle down on the grass.

"You're back early," Alasea said, smiling at him as he approached.

"Yeah, I bet," he said, looking back at Tamaran, "But, I had to come back. I have a surprise."

"A surprise?"

It didn't feel easy. It was likely that R.D. told Alasea what had happened. Never was nice to drop this kind of bombshell on someone, but what could you do?

Silent, Matt walked out from the maw of Tamaran, hands in pockets. The wind kicked up.

Alasea felt her heart stop when Matt stepped out of the jaws of Tamaran. Her eyes went wide, unbelieving at the sight.

"Matt?"

===Darkness===

The darkness quickly swallowed the opening, closing off with a shudder.

"Oh no you don't," Michael said, the amusement gone. "You can leave when I say you can leave."

Edited by RisingDragon on October 10, 2008 at 19:34:25.

Matt lifted his head with a bare smile of acknowledgement. "Hey."

She ran up to him, stopping in front of him, refraining from the urge to tackle him. "W-when did you get back!? Where were you?!" she demanded, though not angrily.

Like he'd tell her. "Long, boring story. I just wanted to let you know that I'm all right."

"Okay," she said. Alasea took a step back, trying to get a hold of herself. After a moment or two, she nodded. "Matt, I'm sorry about what happened. I wish there was something I could do."

===Darkness===

"Cold shoulder treatment, huh?" Michael said, leaning back against... nothing. Nothing visible, at least. "Guess we'll be here for some time."

And so the waiting began. Michael began to hum the victory theme to Final Fantasy VII.

"It happens." Clearly he didn't want to talk about it. "We can't dwell on the past because there's things we gotta do now."

Matt explained the situation to Alasea. "So we need a ride to get this thing started."