"All right," Matt shouted back.

"WHAT?" Hugo snapped. "Are you even THINKING straight today?"

"I'll explain along the way. Just don't cause a scene."

"Let... me... go!" R.D. yelled, struggling against the rocket cuff. Suddenly, the device released and retracted back into Volfogg, and R.D. stumbled backwards and fell onto his rear. Pulling himself up, he shot a glare at the robot, which was ignored.

Suddenly, the robot transformed, contracting upon himself and readjusting until there was a police car standing in his place. A voice issued from it, as the doors opened. "The woman, girl, and mechanoid in front," he commanded. "The men, pick up the other and get into the back. I am taking you to GGG headquarters."

Rubbing his wrist, R.D. complied; knowing Matt would have to take the lead this time around. "Fine then, I'll go get the idiot," he muttered, making his way over to Destroyman."

"Well, this is embarassing!" Matt chimed.

Helena stormed toward him. "Matt, what's going on? How do you know this robot?"

"I said I'll explain everything on the way," Matt said. "Just keep it down for now. We've already done enough."

"YOU'VE already done enough," Hugo corrected.

"Not gonna let that go, huh."

R.D. had returned, with Destroyman's body thrown over his shoulder. "Actually, Matt, you might want to hold off on the explanation until we get there."

R.D. didn't trust the robot to not listen in on their conversation, and R.D. wasn't sure Matt quite realized everything about this problem of their's. Instead, he walked back over to Volfogg and threw, none too kindly, Destroyman into the back seat.

R.D. had a point. The whole crew needed to hear this. This would also hopefully prevent any cosmic temporal screwups. "All right."

They all got in their seats in the formation Volfogg requested. Matt claimed the right-hand side so he could look out the window.

"This explaination better be good, when we get it," Hugo remarked.

"It will be," R.D. said, his arms crossed as he sat on the left-hand side. Anyone could see the deactivated Phase Blade held in his hands, the hovering crystal aimed at Destroyman's unconscious form--R.D. wasn't gonna take any chances, even if he was in a transforming police car of a robot. "If it doesn't make your head hurt, that is."

Volfogg's doors shut upon everyone getting into the car, and the car began driving at the city speed limits, heading for some location that only Matt really knew about, among the five people in their group.

===

A lanky man with untamed hair rubbed his scalp as he turned his seat in the Main Order Room, looking up to the man at the single desk in the back. "Err, we have a report from Volfogg," Entouji said to Commander Taiga. "He's apparently apprehended six people that caused a disturbance in the Shinjuku district, and is bringing them here."

Taiga shot a glance at Entouji, and the motion caused his characteristically long ponytail to swish. "Was it Zonder-related?"

"He doesn't think so," Entouji replied, turning back to his terminal. "However, he stated that the events surrounding these six individuals warranted intervention. I will patch him through."

Volfogg's voice soon came up on a Sound-Only transition screen on the main monitor at the front of the circular room. "Reporting, commander," the robot said, though the others inside of him would not know of it.

"Approximately five minutes ago, five individuals appeared from a dimensional anomaly in the middle of traffic. Upon reaching a side walk, these five were joined by a sixth strange individual, who assaulted them after a bit of discussion."

Images appeared on the screen, showing a green portal and four humans and some sort of robot spilling out of it. Another image showed the sixth, white-clad person electrocuting one of the humans, a boy in a white coat, and the third and fourth images showed the eminent retaliation from both boys in the group.

"The two boys displayed unusual powers, warranting my intervention. I was able to restrain the second boy from killing the sixth person. The first boy, however, apparently recognized my name and immediately surrendered himself. This behavior leads me to believe that they may know something about our organization."

Taiga folded his arms. "All right. Stay on your guard, Volfogg."

"Hmmmm." One of the older men at a console began flicking his chin. "That definitely explains the strange energy signatures we've been picking up."

"Do you have any idea what it could mean, Professor?"

The Professor sat up, rubbing down his large purplish overcoat to get it straight again. "Not yet. But if it's not Zonder-related..."

A musclebound, dark-skinned man folded his arms over his broad chest as he leaned back in his own seat. "How could this kid even know about us?" Hyuuma asked, frowning. "The only time we've been infiltrated was when they turned someone who knew about the organization into a Zonder."

He looked at the white-coated boy as he kicked the strangely-clothed man into a group of pedestrians. "He can't be a Zonder, though, Mamoru would've already told us if there was one on the loose."

"What do we do about these six once they arrive?" Entouji asked the Commander. "They surrendered without a problem, so they may not be enemies. The Zonderians are unlikely to try another infiltration attempt, after Inubouzaki's failure."

"Have HyoRyu and EnRyu on standby," Taiga said.

A young woman with bands of hair curving up and behind her stood up from her chair. "Do you want me to ask Guy if he's almost back from his mission?"

"Yes, Mikoto. I'd like him to join up wtih HyoRyu and EnRyu as soon as possible."

"Roger."

"You have to admit, it never gets boring around here," Hyuuma said, looking over at the Chief.

===

Volfogg had completed his trip, and the group found themselves exiting the long underwater tunnel and emerging in a massive metal hanger. Volfogg stopped and opened the doors, letting the others get out.

Upon exiting the car while dragging Destroyman behind him, R.D. immediately noticed a pair of massive robots standing on either side of the room near Volfogg. Each looked nearly identical, except for their differing red and blue color schemes, and the slight cosmetic differences in their heads. And in the rifle weapons they were carrying. HyoRyu and EnRyu, R.D. ventured a guess upon exiting.

He unceremoniously dumped Destroyman on the ground, despite this. He had no reason to be friendly with one of Magister's goons, after all, and they'd make it clear he was a bad guy.

"Hi," Matt said to HyoRyu and EnRyu. He pointed at Destroyman. "This guy was a jerk. We're not assosciated with him."

Helena just stared at the robots towering over them.

Hugo took it a lot better-he was scanning the hangar. "Nice tech," he said.

The two robots remained silent at Matt's greeting, still suspicious of how these kids knew of at least one member of the Gutsy Geoid Guard. Ileyna, meanwhile, took to hiding behind Helena, staring past her legs up at the robots.

"Maybe we shouldn't scan their tech until they know we're not a threat," R.D. said to Hugo while keeping his eyes on HyoRyu and EnRyu. Behind them, Volfogg backed away and transformed back into his larger, humanoid form, though he did not come close to matching the size of the other two Vehicle Machines.

"So, uh," R.D. started up again, "Who should we talk to so we can explain this mess?"

"You will need to be debriefed by Commander Taiga and Sergeant Hyuuma," Volfogg said calmly. "They should be arriving shortly."

"Okay," Matt said, and for him, the matter was solved.

Finally tearing her sight away from HyoRyu and EnRyu, Helena held onto her arms and just gave Matt a look. "What?" he said. "It'll be worth it."

Eventually two men walked into the hangar by way of the worker platform, and took a small elevator down to the base floor. One of them was a man dressed in a open black suit, with a bundled wave of blond hair. Behind him was a tan-skinned man made much larger due to his sheer build.

"Welcome to the Gutsy Geroid Guard," the man in the suit called out when he was at appropriate distance and closing. "My name is Commander Kotarou Taiga." Matt waited for him to extend his hand, but no offer came. "I've heard some interesting things about you."

"We're a pretty interesting crew, Commander," Matt said.

"Would you be willing to explain how you know about our organization?"

Hugo didn't like the massive guns HyoRyu and EnRyu were holding, and he tapped his pickaxe twice-"don't let your guard down", the signal meant. "Sure," Matt said. "You want it here?"

"Yes."

"All right." Matt looked at R.D.. "Help me out with this, will you?" And for the love of God, don't make a temporal fuck up! That's what he wanted to say, anyway.

R.D. quickly thought up a plan. It should work; at this time Matt and company hadn't revealed their actual origins, according to the data Matt had read on Repli-Earth.

"We're a group of people who are searching for the scattered pieces of a dangerous alien artifact," R.D. said, nodding to Matt. It was kinda true, after all; the Omega Core never came from this world. "This artifact gave us special abilities when we made contact with it, as well as knowledge of what it was."

"An alien artifact?" the second man, macho-looking guy with the funny green mohawk. He exchanged a look with Taiga. "What's this artifact called?"

"Well, for our benefit, it translated its name into English for us," R.D. lied. "Now, we call it the Omega Core."

Okay. R.D. got the ball rolling. Now to keep it moving. "So we're looking for the pieces to this Omega Core," Matt said. "And we're working a group trying to find them." He gestured at Ileyna. "Ileyna, here-quit hiding behind Helena, Ileyna-she can locate pieces of this Core, so she's been helping us out. So we've been going from place to place looking for them."

"What about the portal?" Taiga asked.

Right. The portal. Uh...crap. Matt glanced at R.D. with a knowing look. "The portal. It's basically like..."

Sheepishly, Ileyna extracted herself from behind Helena. Her beret slipped, and unconsciously she pushed it back up onto her head before it could fall off.

"That... that was an experiment," R.D. said after a moment of hesitation. "I can warp people and objects with an ability called Chaos Control. I was trying something new with it... and my aim was off."

"So that's why you appeared in the street during rush hour, and freaked out a bunch of people," Hyuuma said, crossing his arms, and R.D. fought the urge to sigh with relief.

"Yeah. We're still getting a hang of the powers the Core gave us," he said.

"Alright. So you said this Omega Core is in pieces. WHY is it in pieces?" Hyuuma questioned.

Um. Crap. R.D. uttered the first thing that came to mind.

"That's because Matt here," he said, motioning to him, "Kinda broke it."

Well, at least it wasn't a lie...

"It was a bit more fragile than I expected," Matt lied. "Now don't get me wrong-I tried to handle it as nicely as I could, but the thing was tempremental."

Taiga looked serious. Maybe he wasn't buying it. "See, one day I stumbled on it while I was poking around in my backyard with my friend here." Another jab toward R.D.. "Now, the thing didn't look safe, so we figure, 'hey, let's get some law enforcement on this,' but at the time I was administering a poking test with a stick and it kinda busted."

Oh, this sounded awful. Hopefully R.D. could pick up the slack.

"You'll have to excuse Matt here," R.D. said. "People of authority make him anxious and he's trying to lighten the mood.

"But he is telling the truth, in a way. We did find it by accident in his back yard, and we got Helena and Ileyna to help us check it out. We didn't know the thing was sentient, though, and to demonstrate its capabilities, it gave us special powers," R.D. explained, acting much more calmly than Matt. "But there was an accident and the Omega Core got shattered. The pieces got scattered, and what's worse, anyone can use those pieces to get powers of their own, and we have to get them back before someone tries to take over the world. We were kinda hoping we wouldn't find a piece here, though, considering this city's problem."

He hoped to god Hugo, Helena, and Ileyna just went with it. Matt, luckily had explained the whole "Zonder" thing to him already, so it'd be wise to play along with that.

Hugo already knew to say quiet when Matt was spinning a fib. Helena got the message too early on. Her expression wasn't accepting of the whole deal, but she would live. Matt gave a shrug. "Because, hey, if one of those giant monsters got their hands on it..."

Taiga looked toward Hyuuma.

"So that's basically the deal," Matt said.

"Then how did you know Volfogg's name?" Taiga asked. "And how did you know about our organization?"

"Well, a lot of rumors have been flying around, haven't they?" Hugo cut in, which earned him a glance from Matt. "Especially when giant monsters are concerned. We've heard a lot of other things, stuff about this place and the robots involved. We didn't really know if they were true or not, but I guess so. Name's Hugo, by the way. I've also got Omega Core power. It's a long story that isn't neccessary right now."

Hugo's training in bullshit had paid off. Taiga looked at Hyuuma again. Maybe it worked after all.

Edited by The Helldragon on February 7, 2009 at 23:41:17.

R.D. wasn't so sure it worked. After Hyuuma broke his gaze away from Taiga, he looked back at the kids.

"We'll take it into consideration for now," he said. "In the meantime, you'll need to get checked out at the medical bay.

"Alright," R.D. said without a problem, though suddenly feeling wary. "We'll wait for your decision."

He just hoped that the Omega Essence and Lumiya didn't show up in their examinations. He still remembered what Samus' scanners had found out about Helena's DNA, and that wasn't a product of the Core.

By then another person was walking up toward them, having gotten off the service elevator. Taiga turned to face the newcomer. "Ah, Guy. Glad you could make it. Could you take our guests to the medical bay? We'd like to run some tests on them."

His face was still youthful, his hair long and red-brown, but the rest of his body was mechanical-golden armor shielded major parts of his cyborg frame, like someone had shoved a human head atop a robot. Matt knew Guy's body was heavily damaged before the encounter with the Zounda turned him and Mikoto into Evoulders, but he never imagined it was this bad.

"Yes, Chief." Guy looked at them. "Come with me, please."

Guy was a swell dude. It was hard not to like him, from Matt's personal perspective. "All right."

"Do we really need a medical test?" Helena asked. "-I mean, I haven't really felt that badly." She gave Matt a concerned look.

"We've got nothing to hide, Helena," Matt said. "Don't worry about it."

She kept silent.

"They're probably just gonna use to tests to confirm our story," R.D. said. "We shouldn't have to worry too much. Even if there is something up with our DNA, its in the Omega Core's power to alter things on that level, right Matt?"

Damn, R.D. swore in his mind, as he examined Guy Shishio. He really wasn't sure how someone repair so much with cybernetics; even Xazax's repairs weren't so extensive.

Calmly, he took Ileyna by the hand as he followed Guy out of the hanger, while the three robots watched them leave towards the medical bays.

===

Hyuuma leaned back in his chair as they watched the kids from the Main Order Room. Ileyna was standing in a tall, linear pod as her body was scanned by some advanced machine. Her hands and knees had been patched up from her earlier injuries upon arrival in the city. Elsewhere in the lab, the others were undergoing various tests, such as having blood drawn and reflexes tested, among other things. At one end of the room, a nurse shined a light in R.D.'s right, then his left.

"Tell me... what could possibly be in my eye?" they heard him ask the woman over the screen.

"So, you think they're telling the truth?" he asked while he entwined his hands behind his head, looking at the Professor. "I mean, it is possible they found an alien artifact, we aren't alone in the universe."

Edited by RisingDragon on February 11, 2009 at 1:58:36.

"Parts of their explaination were obviously lies," the Professor said. "But judging by the abilities they displayed...well, I'll have to see the test results more closely once they're finished."

"The problem is what they're trying to cover up," Taiga said. "Maybe this 'Omega Core' is more dangerous than they let on."

"If this is a Zonder tactic, it doesn't make very much sense at the least," the Professor said.

"Would you QUIT poking that?" Matt protested on-screen. Across the room, Helena's sight kept darting across the various machines with apprehension.

"That one kid... R.D., he said he was?" Hyuuma noted. "He looks like he's been through hell. You guys saw that scar on his chest."

"So far, the tests on the little girl are coming up without any abnormalities," Entouji said, turning from his terminal. "We've performed the same tests we have on Mamoru, and as far as we can tell she's perfectly human."

"But Mamoru has powers humans don't, too," Hyuuma said. "Maybe we should bring him in and see if he can sense anything about them."

"Good idea." Taiga gestured at Mikoto, who opened a communications link to Volfogg. "Volfogg, I'd like for you to pick up Mamoru as soon as possible, understood?"

"Are we done?" Helena asked a nurse, and not in a calm way. "Can we go now?"

"Understood," Volfogg replied through the communications. Within the hanger, Volfogg converted back into his vehicle form and proceeded out of the hanger and back into the city.

The nurse on the screen nodded and motioned for Helena to stand up from the table. Soon, the group was gathered up and escorted to a room to wait.

===

"Well, since we're locked in here for now," R.D. said, testing the door and finding it unmoving, "Maybe we should explain things, Matt."

Edited by RisingDragon on February 8, 2009 at 19:27:33.

"I'd like to see where this goes first," Matt said.

"Matt, they saw." Helena was leaning against the wall, holding her arms again, looking anxious. "You know how advanced their equipment was. When they take one look at my DNA they're going to know that I'm not normal."

"Volfogg saw me kick a guy across the street, it's not like your powers are gonna come as a surprise."

"It's bad enough there's this thing inside me," Helena said, "but do we have to lie about it?"

Matt waved through the matter with a gesture. "Look, I'd just rather avoid temporal fuckups, all right?"

"Why? What's the REAL reason? Why couldn't you tell me about it?"

This was going well. "Helena," Matt said, "don't make a big deal out of it, okay? Again, I don't want to cause a temporal fuckup."

"Whatever. I don't even care anymore." Helena slumped against the wall.

...this had better not be PMS. He'd be pissed off if it was.

"What happens if they don't believe your story?" Ileyna asked both R.D. and Matt, worry tinged in her voice. "We can't fight our way out of here if they don't agree to help us."

"I don't think we'll have to worry about it," R.D. replied. "We weren't lying when we said we had to keep the Omega Essence out of enemy hands. They'll need you, Ileyna, if one of their Zonders gets a piece. You're the only one who can extract it."