Meta let out a sigh as she walked over to the large bed with the velvet sheets. It had been quite a hectic day... days, she corrected mentally, one in the present and the other in the... future? Past? It was all quite fucked up right now. "I hate time travel." She muttered as she jumped onto the bed and cuddled a pillow close to her, the happenings of the day having given her a light headache.

After Meta had gone all of a sudden from his field of vision, Gilgamesh simply just could not believe his eyes. All of his senses confirmedly told him that she had gone from the world. She was no more, or so it seemed, not even a trace of dust specks trailed where she had stood before. His yellow eye moved around and locked its gaze on Hydro who stood in mid-air afloat with the Sword of Time held in hand. "What have you done?!" He shouted over at the beast king.

Edited by Morphman on April 12, 2009 at 15:50:54.

Edited by Morphman on April 12, 2009 at 16:23:34.

"Time?" Gilgamesh muttered, moving his lips slowly in confusion as to what the sea serpent meant. "You sent her across time?" His mutilated brow was raised below his scarlet turban as he stared at Hydro. "But that'll fuck up the whole timestream! This won't be good..." The man looked away with a slight shake of his head as he clung to the mithril chain that yet still dangled from the City of White Metal. "Lost..."

"Oh no..." Gilgamesh let out in grief. He couldn't simply believe that the woman whom had gotten him out and away from Tartarus was gone like that, so simply, like a baby lost to a case of the flu in a snowstorm in Alaska--a place he had never even been to to realize what truth the thought held.

His glaring yellow eye turned slowly back to Hydro as a feeling of anger build within him, yet coupled with resentment. His benefactress was gone now, yes, so that meant he would need to learn to cope with it. Gilgamesh was still a hashashin mercenary in heart and soul. "I don't suppose there is a vacancy in your ranks?" He asked coldly and collected.

Gilgamesh thought about those words for a few moments as the wind blowed around him, making his wide red clothes flap in the air. "Alright." He then muttered, his plan set. "I shall go to him then." The man decided, before casting a look down at the sea serpent. He raised an arm in signal to those above him and soon the chain he clung to was being reeled back in. Next stop, Topeka.

Seril kept silent and out of the way while the Ancients discussed their options. When they began to move back towards the digital map, Seril took one last, lingering look at the Divinity Unit, then turned and followed the Ancients.

"That wasn't so bad!" Matt boasted, resting his knuckles on his hips. "I've felt worse."

"Shut up, Matt." Helena sat down, cradling her head. "Just shut up."

"As weird as that was, we can't stick around here," R.D. muttered, trying to rid himself of the disorientation by shaking his head a bit. "Sticking around usually gets us attacked around here."

"That's true. I haven't set the wards back up around here yet," Alasea said. "Can AquaDraken hold all of us?"

"It should," R.D. said, turning around. "Its got seating for five."

He was just about to call out to the sea-faring Dragon Spirit when a flicker of movement from a nearby building caught his attention. Spinning around to face it, he saw... nothing.

Well, not exactly nothing. A faint ripple in the air, signaling the presence of an invisible being, hurtled downwards from the top of a two-story building at him. Leaping back, R.D. drew a Phase Blade and readied himself.

Before Matt could leap into action, and before Helena could cry out, Hugo flipped his pickaxe at the ripple and fired a jolt of lightning.

The bolt struck true, smashing into and electrocuting the being, causing tines of electricity to dance about the apparently humanoid form. The air rippled once, and the figure stood up, turning to face its attacker.

And then blue light erupted around it, the ripple in the air fading away to reveal someone clad in dark armor.



Standing tall, the being stared at them through its golden visor.

"Holy crap," R.D. muttered. Mounted on right gauntlet of the being's armor was a small, familiar blue gem, gleaming brightly in the morning sun. Ileyna's shocked gaze was affixed to it, staring at the Omega symbol that blazed brightly in that gemstone, even as the figure whipped out a two-pronged, blue-bladed knife and shot forward at R.D., who was beginning to attack. As the Phase Blade came down, the armored figure stabbed upwards, catching the blade between the two-pronged blade of his knife. He forced R.D.'s weapon upwards, causing the amnesiac to grunt as his weight shifted back perilously.

A ray of energy lanced out from the middle of the knife, and the armored figure struck out with the beam saber that was emanating from the knife. R.D. barely parried the blow, but the attacker's strength easily overpowered him, knocking him to the ground. Before he could get up, his attacker was pointing the weapon at him.

"R.D.!" Alasea shouted, reaching for her Megami Tsurugi. The attacker looked at her, and seemed to falter for a bit, but before anything else could happen, the sound of guns being readied could be heard all around the group, as people--actual humans--came out of the buildings around them, wielding strange rifle weapons and clad in black armor and fatigues.

"Freeze!" one of them said, aiming his gun right at Matt.

Edited by RisingDragon on April 14, 2009 at 1:49:42.

Matt smirked. "Okay."

He shot his hand into the air. From his gauntlet, he unleashed a wave of cold that swept over the soldiers, overtaking their rifles.

"Matt, stop!" Alasea shouted, even as the cold wave washed over the soldiers. Despite this, the men didn't seem surprised by the attack. Though some of them fell back, the one that originally aimed his rifle at the boy suddenly drew a knife and held it out in front of him.

The black-armored attacker from before, however, leaped forward, ignoring R.D.'s angry curse. Reaching for Matt's gauntleted wrist, the attacker attempted to wring the boy's arm around his back and incapacitate him.

Siegfried just stared at last, his eyes glazed with anger at the situation, "Good job, he growled at Lance, walking toward him slowly. "We finally get to a village, and they're kind enough to even let us stay here after what happened just outside because of us, and now you go snooping into one of their women's houses in the middle of the night, break in, and then assault her? How on earth do you think we're going to get out of this? Did you even remotlely think this through? Do you ever?!" Siegfried's voice raised to a shout at this, echoeing through the house with hysteria.

Lance trembled at the might of the Azure Knight's voice, the intensity of hit, fear spreading through every part of his body as memories flooded back, "Sieg, it's not that big of a deal, we can just leave now, go to the next town or ci--"

The Knight cut him off abruptly, "That's not what this is about! Don't you get it? This is about making things right. We're travelling to make things right, and to do this to any townsfolk that we meet is disgusting, horrible, and unacceptable. We both travelled together to maintain one another, and look what happens when one of us breaks that!" Energy had begun glowing around Siegfried, his armory glowing with a sickly green color and his hand twitching furiously as sweat began to bead down his brow.

Lance's eyes widened in shock as he realized just how far this could go, "Woah. Siegfried, calm down. We can fix this, we can make this right. You're right, c'mon, don't--"

Too late. Siegfried's hand exploded as it shot toward Lance, the demonic skin layering the new oversized and mutated hand. A sound of surprise was the only thing Lance had time to make before be hurtled down the room and straight through the door that Audrey had slammed as she went into her room. Desperately he maintained the time field, trying to block all the noise that should be leaving the house and alerting everyone nearby.

Tiny shields flared as he hit the door, stopping anything from actually hitting his skin but the weak field didn't stop the pain of the crash. He had no power left to fight, maybe he could just make himself the only death here from his berserking friend. He crashed into the foot of Audrey's bed, the sound resounding like thunder throughout the house, but before he could do anything the hand grabbed him again, hurtling him back outside of Audrey's room and into the floor where it pinned him, pressing down on the boy's throat.

There was nothing he could do anymore. Black dots began flooding his vision, dancing their way across his face as they slowly took over, and he thought he heard Siegfried growl softly as he continued to press the life out of his friend. "Penance comes." His shield finally died completely, and he waited for death, knowing that the only thing that could save him now was something to calm down the Knight. Silently, he willed Audrey to cry out, to say something to break the madness.



Riul processed the information given to her carefully as she listened to the other girl talk. Training for her? She'd spent most of her existance seeking knowledge or training, so she could use the abilities like she had only minutes ago to save Alasea. But training from Awai would be something different. He was her role-model, her tudor even if he did not teach anything specifically. Silently she waited politely for her turn to speak.

"Gah!" Matt struggled to free himself-damn guy was strong!

A well-aimed shot from Hugo knocked the knife out of the soldier's hand. "Back off!"

Helena sank to all fours amid a flurry of bursting claws and scales, and she bared her teeth in warning.

With a yelp, Ileyna released Helena's leg and stumbled back, falling against Alasea's legs, and the older girl barely caught her in the commotion. A number of the soldiers turned their weapons on Helena as she partially transformed, keeping them steadily trained on the weredragon's torso.

R.D. chose that moment to act--he pushed off and darted forward at the black-armored man restraining Matt. Before he could get anywhere near him, though, one soldier fired his weapon, and a wide net suddenly wrapped around him, causing him to stumble and fall as it entangled him.

"Dammit!" he cursed, struggling against the nets. Two of the soldiers, one of them being the one who netted him, came over and aimed their pod-like weapons down at him. He ceased his struggles and glared venomously at them.

"Guys, stop!" Alasea yelled at them desperately as she raised her hands up in surrender. "They're humans, we can't fight them!"

===The Main Gate, Kattelox Island===

"Often, when the humans require access to a computer they are restricted to, they will hack in, or sneak through a back door access in the system," Seril said, speaking up so the Ancients could hear. "Surely, while your system is much more advanced than a human's network, you could find a way through the protections, or around it. This Main Gate's system can't be superior to the one on Elysium."

===Audrey's House, Argentina, South America===

Grumbling, Audrey sank back into her bed after she straightened out the messed-up sheets, rolling over onto her side, away from the door. Despite the rain falling on the house, and the thick door she had slammed, she could hear the escalating voices in her kitchen, and she grabbed her pillow and shoved it around her head and ears. Trying to drown out the sound.

And then the door exploded as Lance was hurled into it, and she shot up with a loud shriek, even as splinters from the door rained down on her bed. Clutching her heart, she looked down at Lance, sprawled at the foot of her bed, then up.

Upon seeing the change in Siegfried, she screamed again in terror.

"You assume-" Matt dropped and threw his shoulders forward to flip the armored warrior towards the soldiers. "-I CARE!"

A flare of emerald energy burst around Hugo, fueled by the G-Stone. "Hammer Option!" He smashed into the ground, releasing a stream of erupting cracks at the soldiers who were aiming their guns at Helena.

The person grappling with Matt didn't move when Matt attempted to throw him off--he was damn heavy, and incredibly strong already. "You should listen to your friend and stop moving," he commanded in a synthesized voice. "Keep resisting and these guys will start shooting."

Alasea looked curiously over at the man who finally spoke. He sounded familiar. "Matt, Hugo, come on. Stop trying to fight them. This has to be a misunderstanding!"

She looked around wildly, trying to find someone who looked like he was in charge. Spotting one older man in face-paint and black fatigues, she gave him a pleading look. "At least let us explain!"

"We will when your friends stop fighting back," he said gruffly, keeping his weapon trained on Matt as the guy in armored continued to try and restrain Matt.

As Alasea tried to calm them down, R.D.'s body jumped as the hammer smashed down into the ground, causing him to swear again. That G-Stone really packed a punch. Though some of the soldiers also stumbled from the blow, they kept their weapons trained on Helena and Hugo while they backed off.

"No way!" Matt snapped, struggling, even slamming his foot on his assailant's shoe to no effect. "If you wanted to talk to us, maybe you shouldn't have whipped your guns out on us!"

"Matt!"

He looked over at Helena, who was struggling to keep herself in check. "Let's give them a chance," she said.

"Hell no!"

"If they wanted to kill us, they would've tried to do so already!" She looked over toward him. "Let's just hear them out."

"What do you think, Hugo?" Matt called.

"...I'll do it," the Mettaur said, powering down his G-Stone output a bit. "But if they try anything, we'll take them out."

"All right." Matt relaxed his shoulders. "What do you want with us?"

R.D. noted, from his position on the ground, that these guys weren't taking any chances. Though they were allowing them to talk, their weapons did not deviate from their aimed targets, and none of them made any attempt to free them.

The one that had responded to Alasea stepped forward and spoke. "We are soldiers from the Genesis Armada Resistance. Its our duty to take back this world from the Seven Beasts, and protect it from anyone else who dares to threaten it," he said. "We were sent here on patrol when we got readings from your group. Since the readings said that at least two of the bionics in the group weren't entirely human, we had to investigate."

R.D. spoke up from his place on the ground. "Well, two of us have some messed up genes, but we're not your enemies. We've been fighting the Seven Beasts too."

"So you say. We couldn't take any chances, though, too many of the monsters on this planet take human form. Plus, our scanners said that you lot have something identical to a dangerous artifact we have. We had to secure that before any of the Seven Beasts got to it. Or, if you were enemies, take it back from you before you could deliver it to any of the Seven Beasts."

Ileyna perked up at hearing this. Something identical to what they had? Do they have Omega Essence? she wondered, keeping herself hidden behind Alasea.

"Don't worry, we're not giving anything like that to those monsters," Matt said. "And don't worry about Helena, here-she's, well, a different animal, so to speak."

"That was really bad," Helena said, slouching onto her bottom.

"Sorry. And can you tell your bruiser here to let me go?"

The gruff soldier nodded to the one in armor, and he released Matt's wrist and stepped back, folding his arms. The soldier nodded again to those near R.D., and then made a signal with his hand. The rest of the soldiers stood down, then went off--to secure the area, Alasea figured.

The soldiers around R.D. cut him free of the net with their knives, and let him get up. Looking warily at the two while he rubbed his wrist, R.D. picked up his dropped Phase Blade and deactivated it.

"So what are you gonna do with us?" Ileyna spoke up, extremely hesitant.

"We'll have to take you to Aube. You still have the artifact, after all," the soldier said. He pulled a transceiver off of his armor vest. "Get the transport ready. We have six passengers. We're headed back to Aube, over."

"What the heck is Aube?" R.D. asked.

"Its an island in the Pacific," another soldier said. "Its where our main base is."

Edited by RisingDragon on April 14, 2009 at 20:53:26.

"This is all voluntary, of course," Matt said.

"Come on, Matt," Helena said, her toes curling back to normal. "Don't try to start anything."

"I'm not. I'm just throwing it out there."

"Get me a fresh pair of shoes, would you, Ileyna?" Helena pulled off her sneakers and handed them to the little girl-they usually kept her damaged clothes in the dimensional sack until they could dispose of them.

Ileyna nodded and took the damaged shoes, and walked over to R.D. to raid his satchel. He had already gotten a pair of shoes out for Helena, hearing her words. He tossed them over to Helena before taking the damaged shoes to put back into the satchel.

"Transport's ready," came a voice on the transceiver. "The Nine-Ball and the Falkens are waiting for us, over."

"Roger that," the gruff soldier said. "We're on our way. Over and out."

Looking at the group, he motioned with his arm. "Let's go."

Alasea looked over to R.D.. He shrugged and began to follow the soldiers as they began to move out.

They followed them to a distant part of the town, one where they didn't explore. Settled onto the ground was a large, long, gray ship like a giant container with a cockpit on the front and engines mounted on the sides. Circling up above were a couple of jets, red and black in color, from what they could make out.

What caught their attention, though, was the gigantic red and dark gray robot standing next to it. It was unusual in its design, with shoulders that extended upwards like spikes, a oval-like head with a blue optical sensor, and a torso that extended outwards. A box-like container was mounted on the back on one side, and a large, folded cannon on the back. Its hands held some sort of rifle weapon.

The armored assailant that first attacked them marched over to it and grabbed some sort of cord hanging from its torso, which pulled him up to it. He stepped into the cockpit and closed it up, and after a moment, the blue visor of the robot began to glow.

"What the hell is that?" R.D. demanded, looking at the mech.

"That's a Nine-Ball," one soldier said. "Come on, we don't have all day."

The soldiers were getting into the container ship through a hatch on the back. The rest of the group followed them, and were told to sit on the benches along the walls. Alasea was the first to sit down, keeping away from where the other soldiers were sitting. The commander of the group made his way towards the front of the ship.

"Why does weird crap always happen to us on this world?" R.D. partially asked, partially muttered as he sat down next to Alasea. Ileyna sat down opposite of him, looking out the viewscreen at the Nine-Ball robot.

===The Main Gate, Kattelox Island===

Seril nodded. "The queen sent me to assist in any way possible," she said. "So I shall remain with you for the time being."

Edited by RisingDragon on April 14, 2009 at 20:53:00.