Shit!

The card, unbelievably sharp, shredded up the side of his gauntlet, cutting deep. He deactivated the arm cannon and activated the boot thrusters, skating across the floor and activating the Godhand in both hands. He struck hard with the left using a knife hand aimed at Oswald's head, following up with a pivoting side kick, thrusters still activated.

The knife hand smashed Oswald one way, then the side kick sent him barrelling into the grand piano, and it toppled in a cacophony of sound and wood.

"Not bad." Oswald stood. A splintered board clattered on the ground. "But I hate spending too much effort for a check."

He flushed a deck in each hand and threw them up. The cards stopped in midair, twirling. One by one they fired like machine gun bullets at R.D..

"Shit!" R.D. cried out, crossing his arms over his body as the bladed cards raced in. He could feel them shredding into his armor, leaving gouges in the silver-blue plating. Glaring through the visor, R.D. brought his arms back out and activated the matter converter. Behind and around Oswald, the remains of the grand piano disappeared into prismatic mist.

Around R.D.'s hips and back, the four cannons appeared; two on his back and one on either hip. Activating the arm cannon, he locked on. The two back cannons swung over onto either shoulder and locked into place, and the hip cannons swung up.

"Here's the question," R.D. said, locking onto Oswald with the scanner. "'Do I feel lucky?'"

Energy began to charge in the barrels.

"Well, do you feel lucky, punk?"

Edited by RisingDragon on October 23, 2008 at 20:44:40.

Oswald didn't react. Not even tensing. Just standing there, frozen. He was staring at the guns.

Then he leapt to the right, and threw a row of cards at R.D..

Thrusters in the boot armor activated, and R.D. skid to his own right, turning his body and the cannons with them at Oswald, even as the blade-like cards tore through the armor on his left side and arm. One command, and all four cannons fired simultanously.

The entire house was rocked as the outer wall on the third floor of the mansion exploded outwards in a plume of smoke and fire.

R.D. found himself propelled backwards down the stairwell by the blast, slamming hard into the opposite wall and sliding down. Shoving himself off of it, he ran back up the stairs, the guns folding back into their standby position.

Oswald pushed himself up from the floor, now stained with brick and other rubble. He had avoided it. Barely. For a moment he stayed there, balanced on his arms, until he pushed onto his feet and barrelled at R.D., card flashing.

The smoke being filtered by the visor in his helmet, R.D. quickly spotted Oswald barreling out of it, card in hand. R.D. dove under the attack and rolled, pivoting the moment he landed on his feet, and grabbed the discarded Phase Blade nearby.

Yanking it from the ruined floor, R.D. threw the sword at Oswald, blade first, so it'd pierce the man's suit sleeve and embed into the wall--R.D. noted him talking about a paycheck, and wanted to know who he was working for, and how he knew of the Omega Essence.

The Phase Blade hit home, driving the man into the wall. As a reflex, he dropped his card, and it shimmered into nothingness. He quickly reached for the weapon driven through his shoulder.

R.D. quickly snatched up his second Phase Blade and ran towards Oswald, bringing the blade up to his neck.

"Checkmate," he said, grabbing the man's arm. "Alright, Oswald, time for you to tell me what you know. Who hired you?"

Oswald shied his head back, eyes on the blade dangerously close to his throat. Still, he spoke calmly. "Geese Howard."

"Why did he send you after the Omega Essence?" R.D. demanded, keeping the blade steady.

"No reason. I'm more interested in the pay, to be honest."

"Alright then," R.D. said. "Tell me where I can find this Geese Howard. We'll talk to him ourselves."

"Sorry," Oswald said. "That's none of your business."

A discarded card shot up behind R.D. and flew at his neck.

"Shit!" R.D. cried, throwing himself out of the way of the card, removing the Phase Blade from mercenary's neck.

"In any case...this isn't worth it." Oswald fanned a new set of cards. "Geese can take of you himself if he needs to." The cards spun about Oswald in that same barrier, rows passing over other rows. They parted and vanished, revealing that Oswald had disappeared.

"You're tough, kid," a voice said-Oswald's voice. "Keep it up."

"Tch."

R.D. picked up his discarded Phase Blade and deactivated both, sheathing them on his hips. He looked around, seeking any fires, but found none. He sighed, and proceeded down the stairs, letting his Bound Armor fade away into nothingness so that by the time anyone saw him, he'd look like a normal teenager.

A bleeding teenager, but a normal one.

Meanwhile, downstairs...

"Here, why don't you get acquainted with your friend over there!" Picking up a robotic knight, Matt threw him into another, with a loud crash. He took a quick breath. Man, this was a lot easier when he had the whole Core.

The girl and Mr. Hiroshi were behind them, backed against the wall. Matt and Hugo were unable to forge a good escape route for the moment-the knights just kept coming, and they were having enough problems holding them off. Matt caught a few more glimpses of her in the meantime. It would be hard to concentrate, knowing that info, if he wasn't busy taking out the trash.

Another shot from Hugo's pickaxe made a knight stagger. "Damn it, what the hell is taking R.D.?!"

"I'm right here!" R.D. shouted, running forward at the base of the stairs and attacking the staggering knight with a flying kick, knocking it into a wall.

Landing near Hugo, he drew both Phase Blades and combined them at the hilt over his head, activating both into the Phase Lance. "I took care of the guy upstairs, so all that's left is these freaks."

Spinning the weapon overhead, R.D. slashed down at a second knight, slicing it neatly in half--he was certainly glad these things didn't explode.

The knights didn't exactly fall down with a single blow. They were fairly durable and quick-it was a struggle to hold them back.

"Silver Tomahawk!" Matt kicked in a wide arc, firing a line of wind that cleaved two knights in twain. With that, the numbers seemed a lot more managable again.

"It's almost over, just stay back!" Hugo said to the girl and Mr. Hiroshi, without looking behind him.

As one knight came in, R.D. ducked under its blow and thrust the Phase Lance's forward blade through its chest, then ripped it out with a spinning slash, removing an arm from it in the process.

He heard two more coming up from behind him, side-by-side from what he could hear of their running footsteps, and he separated the weapon and stabbed both blades backwards when they came near, impaling both of them. He yanked them out of the robots, then looked at Matt. "Where'd the rest of the people go?"

The stupidity of his actions hit Lance not a moment too soon, and light exited his body at a speed beyond reckoning, filling the crevices of the house and stopping the scream from exiting the building. Sprinting after her, he generated a field of electricity that would short-circuit anything electronic within a twenty food radius. A good call to on his part as he saw the now useless phone in her hands, two numbers already dialed in. He held up his hands in a gesture of peace, not stopping to realize it would more than likely do him no good in this situation. He cursed his own idiocy, but now he would have to get himself out of this situation one way or another or Siegfried would be facing some problems soon. "Hey hey hey, calm down. I'm not going to do anything to you,"he said in rapid Spanish, probably butchering the language in his haste.

"We got them out of here but then these assholes attacked!" Matt said. They didn't want the other people...they wanted her? Why? What the hell was going on, anyway?

How did Helena come back to life?

"Hammer Option!"

The girl cried out as a robot flew past her, sent on its merry way by Hugo. The hammer capping his pickaxe shivered as it gathered power again. "All right, you sons of bitches!" Hugo cried out. "Who's next to-"

He was cut off as a knight's well-placed kick sent him toward the wall.

"Hugo!" Matt shouted. This left an opening-another knight kicked him in the abdomen, and he whoofed as he crashed right into R.D..

"Get away from us!" Mr. Hiroshi shouted, pulling the girl away, only to be knocked aside by another knight.

"Help me-!" the girl screamed as she was lifted up again.

R.D. cried out in surprise as Matt's body crashed into his own, and they both tumbled to the ground. Not at a time for niceties, R.D. roughly began shoving Matt off of him.

"We gotta get her away from them, Matt!" he said to him as he did so. "She's got the Essence!"

===Argentina, South America===

As she was dialing, she suddenly noticed the lighted buttons on the phone dimmed, and Audrey cried out in frustration. Now fully seized by panic, when she heard the voice, she cried out again, spun around, and flung the phone right at her assailant's face, then turning and fleeing through the opposite side of the kitchen.

"What?!" Matt shouted in surprise.

The girl lifted her hands, straining as the knight's grip on her tightened, until she seized her captor's wrists.

They caved in under her strength.

Startled, the knight released her, only for her to ram it with her shoulder, sending it crashing into the wall. She immediately fell to her hands and knees, her whole body shaking.

Matt stood up. Could it be...?

"Helena!" Mr. Hiroshi shouted. "What's wrong?"

She held up her hands, panting, as claws burst from her fingertips. "What...what's happening to me?" She cried out in pain, and clenched her arms.

This only proved R.D.'s earlier fears, and the single thought running through his mind shook him to his core.

Helena is alive.

R.D. picked himself up and retrieved his discarded weapons, only to freeze when another thought struck him, memory invading his mind.

Helena, just prior to her initial transformation from a Stand to a human being, had been nearly incapable of controlling the fierce draconic spirit within her; and this Helena did not seem to know that she had the spirit within her.

R.D. paled. "Matt, she's transforming!" he cried out. "We gotta get everyone out of the house!"

"What about the rest of these guys?" Matt shouted.

"Blade Option!" Hugo gestured with his blade as he eyed the remaining knights. "I'll help take care of things! Get Mr. Hiroshi out of here!"

Matt grabbed the Asian man and yanked him toward the foyer. "Come on, let's go!"

"Let me go!" Mr. Hiroshi shouted. "What's happening to my daughter?"

"Talk later! MOVE IT!" Matt pushed Mr. Hiroshi ahead of him, and took a quick glance back. She was writhing in awful pain, her wings struggling to emerge. Damn it.

"R.D.!"

R.D. spun towards the sound of the voice, seeing Ileyna running toward him. A knight spotted the girl, and moved towards her; a Light Beam blasted it backwards away from her. Sheathing his swords, R.D. ran up to her. "Go follow Matt out of here!"

"But what about the Essence?" she asked, fear in her voice.

"Don't worry about the Essence right now, just get out of here!"

Fearfully, the girl nodded, and pumped her little legs as she ran after Matt and Mr. Hiroshi. R.D. turned and aimed both Phase Blades at incoming enemies, firing Light Beams one after the other from his swords at them.

Rushing toward the door, another enemy appeared to stop them.

"Get outta my way!" He lifted a flat palm, and as he chopped at the robot's chest, it burst into flames. "Burning Overdrive!" As the robot fell, he didn't have the time to consider how he summoned fire so quickly, because Mr. Hiroshi was now scrambling for a way out.

Meanwhile, Hugo fired a blast at a knight that was approaching Helena. "Stay with us, Helena!"

She glanced up in shock and confusion, with angry, tawny eyes, and scales lining her face.

Sheathing his weapons, R.D. activated the Godhand in both of his hands, and began to pummel his way through the robots that appeared--coated with the potent energy, he was able to crush through their armor more easily.

The fourth robot he felled, R.D. grabbed its remains and turned, flinging it at a fifth robot near Hugo. "Where the hell are these guys coming from!?" he yelled, mostly in frustration. Something hard smashed across his back, and he was knocked to the ground. R.D. rolled out and grabbed the incoming robot's fist, struggling to prevent him from smashing his face in.