Aile scooped up Hugo and leaped away as the rockets trailed after them. She flung kunais of hot blue energy at the rockets, destroying them mid-flight. "I'm scanning! It'll take a moment!"

"And I know how I'll get it out!" Hugo said. "Drill Option!" A large drill burst from the end of Hugo's pickaxe and spun about once with a whirr, now ready.

The Pseudoroid stomped forward on the platform, and R.D. activated his shoulder-mounted cannons, causing them to swing up over his shoulders and locked into place. They charged up and fired two streams of plasma energy as Protectos. The beast lifted up one of its cylindrical arms to block it, and growled as the energy washed over its armor, singing it.

This time, its shoulders blasted out six spherical objects with glowing centers at them. Each of the bombs exploded in a colorful fashion, forcing R.D. to drop down to block with his shield. Even then, the bombs knocked him backwards, causing the Goreroid to laugh.

"Get me up there!" Hugo said.

"All right!" Aile darted across the room in angled bursts, lancing across the walls, up toward Protectos' head. She passed over the massive Psudeoroid and dropped Hugo down. With a battle cry and drill whirling, Hugo stabbed down at his target.

Protectos snarled as the Mettaur's drill chewed into the side of its head, and the Goreroid began shaking its body in an attempt to throw the robot off of itself. As it did, Protectos took off again, this time floating up onto the second-highest platform set.

R.D. saw his chance as he saw the Pseudoroid's frustration. "Aile, go for the head!" he shouted, activating his arm cannon and firing a single blast at Protectos' head, scoring it across the side opposite of Hugo.

Hugo yelled as he hurtled downwards, only to be caught by Aile mid-dash. "Got it!" Aile said, and blitzed kunai at Protectos's head.

"Now I'm mad!" Hugo said. The pickaxe transformed again, revealing a needle that crackled with electricity. "Lightning Option!" As Aile rushed, the Mettaur took wide lancing shots at Protectos.

"Great, when can we go?!" Bryant asked, impatiently. He hardly considered the other people here, but he figured that they could come along. He didn't think anything would happen. But then again, Murphy's Law, anything that can go wrong, WILL go wrong. Maybe it wouldn't be best to test such luck...

Almost to spite them, as energy fire and kunai blasted around at Protectos' head, the Pseudoroid began to laugh. Energy flared out from its chest, expanding outward into a blazing white sphere that encompassed his entire form. The lightning shots, beam fire, and kunai were bouncing off of its surface, causing it to waver slightly as they struck.

"Dammit!" R.D. growled, seeing their attacks rendered useless. "Now what the hell do we do?"

Missiles streaked in at them, and R.D. leaped up onto another platform to avoid them, even as Protectos continued to laugh. "Through the power of Biometal Model P, I have an unbeatable defense!" the Pseudoroid rumbled. "Did you really think you ever stood a chance to defeat me!?"

===Pillar of Dawn, Japan===

"Pretty soon," Alasea replied. "I'll need to lock up the place, first, and we'll need to bring Mercy and Maya along with us. Either that, or call Riul to keep an eye on them... but I think the apprentice of the Balance of Light has more important things to do with her time."

"I found it!" Aile shouted, landing.

"What?" Hugo said.

"The Biometal fragment!" She pointed. "It's in his stomach!"

Hugo whipped out his blade, and it hummed as it glowed with energy. "You heard the lady! Time for an operation!"

Whipping out her arm, a large shuriken materialized in Aile's hand, and she tossed it toward Protectos. It arced toward his vulernable abdomen, spinning like a buzzsaw.

The shuriken spun and tore into the energy shielding, but it held strong even as the energy wavered. R.D. frowned, taking note of the instability of the shield. The visor slid down over his face and he locked on, jumping into the air as the hip cannons and shoulder cannons locked into place. Energy charged into the barrels and into his fist, and he fired all five cannons simultaneously.

Twin golden rays, a single emerald beam of energy, and twin red-and-azure streams of plasma blasted out from his weapons, irradiating the air as they flew and smashed into Protectos' shield. The Pseudoroid snarled in anger as the blasts drained his shields, causing it to collapse. R.D. dropped to the ground, his weakened energy supply now spent.

"Damn you!" roared Protectos. Aiming his body at R.D., it fired more bombs at him, scattering them all around him.

Quick kunais from Aile destroyed the bombs in midair, their detonations out of harm's way.

"Throw me!" Hugo shouted, and Aile did, flinging the Mettaur at the Psuedoroid. Roaring, Hugo reared back and drove his blade toward Protectos's midsection.

Protectos roared in fury as the Mettaur's blade gouged a hole in the front of the Pseudoroid's belly. As Hugo landed, Protectos lifted up one leg and smashed it downwards at the Mettaur, who was only saved by R.D.'s timely lunge, snatching up the robot before the foot made a large crater in the floor.

"Blasted meddlers!" he bellowed. "I'll destroy all three of you!"

Protectos the Goreroid turned its gaze upwards towards the ceilings, and the back head casing slid back and down, revealing that its horn wasn't a horn at all--but a warhead. The missile, easily larger than Aile, R.D., and Hugo, took off, streaking up towards the ceiling, and as it did, the head casing slid back up, and Protectos' entire head swung down into the armor plating of its torso, along with the arms. The entire armor of the Pseudoroid turned a dull, dark gray.

Overhead, the missile began to angle away from the ceiling--it was gonna come down right back on them. R.D. scanned it, and swore--it was packing. And scans indicated that Protectos armor was now strong enough to withstand its explosion easily.

"Get behind him!" he yelled at Aile, taking Hugo with him as he made a run towards the Pseudoroid, trying to get behind it before the missile struck the floor opposite of it.

Aile leaped behind Protectos as the missile hit. Fortunately, the Psuedoroid's armored body shielded them from the fallout. "Model L!"

"Ready!" the Model chirped.

"Megamerge!"



"Let's hit him at the same time!" Aile said, brandishing her staff. "Drive down his gut so we can yank the Biometal out!"

Edited by The Helldragon on December 1, 2008 at 20:33:40.

"Right!" R.D. said, drawing the Phase Lance from his side in one motion, holding it out in front of him. Brushing the hilt, he activated both blades, then charged out past Protectos as the light cleared, revealing the completely devastated chamber. The Goreroid's armor was reverting back to its normal color, its arms and head returning into their normal positions.

"Let's go!" he shouted, dashing out past Protectos' left side. As Protectos eyes came online, R.D. pivoted on his boot thrusters, rotating himself towards Protectos' front. Spinning his weapon in front of him, R.D. let loose a primal yell as he activated his torso thruster, jetting forward at the Pseudoroid, and made a single vicious slash down its center.

Aile came across the right side of Protectos, in sync with R.D.. With a great leap, she followed R.D. up, and slashed down along with him at the massive Psuedoroid's vulnerable point.

Their blades sheared through the metal and left blazing edges in Protectos' armor, much to the Pseudoroid's shock. As they landed from their attacks, they jumped back, as Protectos froze in place.

"Ugh! No! How could anyone break through my armor! Rrraaagh!"

Rays of light burst from the Goreroid's failing armor, lighting up the destroyed room. Soon, explosions ripped from his body, spreading outwards to consume him completely.

"Scatter!" R.D. said, getting out of the way so not to get caught in the blast.

Within moments, the explosion had covered the room in blinding white light, which took several seconds to dissipate. When it cleared, Protectos the Goreroid was no more. In his place was a small computer chip amongst the shrapnel left behind, and the completed Model P, hovering in the air.

"How are you feeling, Model P?" Aile asked.

"Humph," the Model humphed. "Strong armor is nothing compared to the power of will."

"Poetic," Hugo said. "Did you get the password together?"

"It will take some time before I am capable of recovering the password. The password will be ready when you need it."

"Well, at least that's taken care of," Aile said. "I just hope that thing's data disk wasn't destroyed..."

"Only one way to find out, really," R.D. said, picking the chip up out of the Pseudoroid's wreckage. Looking at it, he let his armor dissolve from his form.

He brought it over to Aile and handed it to her. "Let's figure out some way of accessing it, then we can head back to the Guardian Base. The others should have completed their mission by now."

Meanwhile, while that was going on...

"This place looks like shit," Matt remarked.

It really did. Not only was Area I a massive, rusting junkyard, with crude walkways and platforms built out of junk, but it was also raining, lightning occasionally cracking the sky.

"Let's do this quick and go," Helena said. "I hate all this rain." She didn't really have much room to talk, since she was now safe within Matt's air shield surrouding them individually, but it wouldn't last forever.

Vent's intercom chimed as Prairie hailed them. "The life signs look like they're located in the very back of the area," she said, "Since you defeated the one in charge of the power plant operation, some of the equipment isn't functioning now. If you could just find a way to get the electricity flowing..."

"Electricity. Alright, I'll figure something out," Vent said, already having Megamerged with Model X.

Killing the intercom, Vent grabbed Model H and thrust it out before him. "Megamerge!" he shouted. Light flashed, and once it cleared, he was clad in new armor.



"We gotta be quick if we're to save those people," he said, drawing a pair of beam sabers. When the lightning flashed in the skies, he could see the outline of a tall, wrecked building off in the distance, with turret-mounted platforms in front of it. "Let's go!"

Jumping up into the air, Vent's wing binders opened up and ignited, propelling him forward. They reached a set of long, rusted cables leading off towards the buildings, and blasted their way through the Mavericks that were crawling around on them, quickly making their way to the base of the tower. Using his wall-jumping capabilities, Vent was able to scale the wall and destroy the turrets on the platforms, leaving a way for Matt and Helena to get up onto the top of the building, where they found an open doorway leading inside.

"How're you doing, Helena?" Matt asked as they finally joined Vent up top.

"I'm okay," she said. She really wasn't talking much.

"Everything's fine?" Helena nodded. "All right. Where next?"

"In through here," Vent said, gesturing with one of his beam sabers. "At least it'll be drier, right?"

The three of them ventured into the building, and they found that it was strangely intact, much in contrast to the outside junk yard. They didn't venture far before they found a door, and made their way in deeper--soon, they found a place full of spikes, and Vent had to help Helena down through them using the power of Model HX before Matt could follow. They found another door down below, and made their way back outside, where they got attacked by another large mechaniloid, which looked like a large yellow Griffin. After quickly dealing with the threat, the three of them made their way to more ruined, melted cables infested with Mavericks.

They reached power condensers, and after navigating through them, they made their way into another building. Far below was the floor, and they'd have to fly their way down there.

After a few moments, Vent turned to them. "Model H is telling me his other half is nearby," he said. "I think the hostages are nearby, too. We need to rescue them first and get them out of the way... I don't want that Pseudoroid using them as a shield."

"All right," Matt said. "I'll distract the Psuedoroid. I figure my constant banter will draw his attention easily."

"I'll help him," Helena said.

"You can help Vent with the hostages," Matt said. That earned him a mean look from Helena. "Look, I haven't even had a spare moment to teach you anything yet, all right? I can't distract the Psuedoroid and protect you too."

"Don't worry about me," Helena muttered. "I don't need babysitting."

"Are you SURE you're okay?" Matt asked.

"Just forget I said anything. Let's go."

"Well, if you two are done, we need to get going," Vent said, breaking up the start of the argument. Like before, he helped Helena down to the floor, then motioned for Matt to come down. Once they were down, they only had one way to go--a single door in front of them leading outside.

It was raining still, but the room was short, despite being cluttered--a short distance across was another room, where the hostages were surely at. They made their way across when something tickled at Vent's senses, and he stopped just before the door. He motioned for them to stay quiet.

Lightning cut across the sky, brightening everything up for a brief moment, and Vent looked behind himself. He saw nothing. It flashed twice more in rapid succession, then one flash that was brighter than the others. And as it faded, the Pseudoroid was revealed.



With a gasp, he turned around, readying himself for battle. "Let me guess, you're here to save the poor folks in the next room? I'm afraid chivalry is dead my boy. They're valuable sacrifices for the resurrection of Model W," the Pseudoroid said in a feminine, but savage voice. "Cyber-elves exposed to data on fear are the key to reviving Model W. I am the Model H Pseudoroid, Hurricaune! You're about to become the next sacrifice. Just make sure to scream for me!"

Matt just gestured with a lazy finger. "You know, you're gonna cut someone with those things, lady," he remarked. "Although I think calling you 'lady' may be extremely generous."

He clenched his fingers, summoning his powered arm with a flash. "Buuuut, I suppose we can walk the walk for a bit, if you don't mind."

With a pronounced swing, he launched a volley of fire at Hurricaune.

"Ha!" she laughed, gracefully leaping up over the flames, across the room. She landed with her "hands" aimed at them, the energy rotors spinning and firing a pair of cyclones at the three of them.

Vent dashed underneath the rising cyclones and attacked, slashing upwards with his swords in an upwards cross slash, which Hurricaune deftly avoided by leaping up over them again.

"Go for her neck!" he shouted, having easily located the Biometal with Model H's power. "The Biometal data's there, its her weak point!"

"Will do!" Hands burning, Matt leapt away, avoiding the cyclones. "Helena! Cut past her and get to the door! I'll cover you!"

"Right!" Helena bolted.

"Blazing Salvo!" Cutting a swath of fire through the air, arrows of flame shot toward Hurricaune.

Hurricaune fired off another pair of tornadoes to blast the arrows away from her. Lowering her arms, she aimed her neck forward at at the beam rotors at the base of her neck spun rapidly. Energy was generated and fired forward as a big, reddish-pink blade of light that cut through the rain at Matt.

As the blade flew, Vent dashed forward through the air, slashing downwards at Hurricaune's neck and slicing the side of it. The Wolveroid snarled as the blades struck, and she dropped back.

"Shit!" Matt leapt away from the blade of light, as it narrowly crashed into a wall of junk. He scrambled to rise, and flung a large fireball at the Psudeoroid. "Blitz Ball!"

Reaching the door, Helena fumbled to open it. The controls...how did you open this thing?!

The fireball smashed into Hurricaune, causing her to snarl again as she was knocked back, but it quickly became chuckling, and outright laughter as she shrugged it off. She leaped upwards, high into the air.

"Dammit," Vent growled, looking up at her. "Use ice attacks on her!"

Slowly she began to descend, her lower half turning into a massive drill of energy that was tearing through the rain. Slowly she positioned herself over Helena, then dropped down fast for a vicious surprise.

Matt blazed right into Hurricaune as the Psuedoroid dropped and Helena screamed. Leading the way with an electrically-powered tackle, he smashed Hurricaune toward the wall. He needed the extra burst of speed, but it drained the gem too quickly.

He switched to the blue gem and reared back. "Splash Bullet!" He swung into the rain, firing the droplets at Hurricaune at incredible speeds.