"We'll help pick them up," Hugo said. "Your kid doesn't know anything about his robot, so I'd like to take a look at the parts myself."

"Hey, Leeron, you should let Hugo help out," Helena added. "He's a fiend for technology."

Hugo twitched his helmet, which meant he was feeling proud of himself. "Sure. Fixing the car with some help won't be a problem."

Leeron seemed impressed and overjoyed at a the thought, and motioned Hugo to join him at the Firebird's side. "Just be prepared for a lot of questions about your gear," R.D. warned the flamboyant mechanic.

Simon made his way over to the Lagann and took out some golden drill hanging about his neck as he slid into the seat, and inserted it into a round slot in the circular panel in front. Twisting it, the screen came to life, showing a spiraling power gauge that filled up rapidly with green bars. The Lagann's eyes lit up brightly.

As Simon gripped the control yokes with his hands, R.D. arched an eyebrow. Was that what he thought it was?

"Well, come on, bro," Simon said to Kamina, who merely tch'd in response. The man quickly clambered up into the Gurren and started it up.

"He looks like he'd rather do something else," Alasea commented, and started in surprise when Yoko answered.

"He's hellbent on finding Jigitalis," she said. "He doesn't want to 'waste time' gathering scrap from a couple of busted Ganmen."

"All right, move," Matt said to Kamina, and he squirmed and battled his way into the Gurren's cockpit. "Man, you gotta make this more convienent to get into."

The Ganmen trotted off to retrieve the remains of the destroyed Ganmen for earlier.

"You guys scavenge enemy parts for repairs?" R.D. asked, guessing the purpose of the menial task.

Yoko nodded. "Leeron's good, but we still need material when the Gurren gets damaged."

"Just the Gurren? What about the Lagann?"

"While the Lagann may be small," Leeron said, not looking up from his work on the Firebird, "Its got a lot of power. So far its never really been damaged."

"I guess that's why the Gurren was throwing it into those other Ganmen," Helena said, with an amused smile.

"No, that was just Kamina being the idiot that he is," Yoko said with a hint of a laugh.

"Sounds like Matt," R.D. commented, looking off to the side and watching as Gimmy and Darry dragged Ileyna off to play or something. The poor girl looked incredibly nervous, but was quickly caving into their demands.

Helena noticed the children as well, pulling on Ileyna's arms much to her visible dismay. "Should one of us be watching those kids?"

"They'll be fine," Alasea said. "She just needs to warm up to them."

Helena drew up her knee and clasped her hands over it. "She's been around us for too long. And we never play with her. It's always travelling and fighting. She shouldn't have to go through with this."

R.D. kept his mouth shut. He didn't think he needed to tell that the only reason Ileyna even agreed to come along was because he convinced her to.

Helena's chin perked up. "Yoko," she asked, "why do the beastmen attack humans anyway?"

"Hmm? Well," Yoko started, looking up from her gun. "We don't really know why. Our village had an accident that we couldn't prevent and we had to go up to the surface. The beastmen were waiting for us and we've been fighting them ever since. Now with Gurren and Lagann, we're able to track them to their capitol."

She frowned a bit. "At least we would be, if Kamina wasn't being such an idiot about an enemy we already beat."

Helena smiled. "I think our idiot can beat your idiot any day of the week."

"There's a scary thought," Yoko laughed. "He sounds like quite a terror."

"And the idea of him alone with Kamina terrifies me," R.D. muttered. "Let's just hope they get back soon."

An hour had passed and the mists had dissipated away completely by the time the two Ganmen had returned--a long rope had been slung over the Gurren's shoulder, dragging back the scant remains of what was left of the two destroyed Ganmen. The two Ganmen parked the scrap beside the queer little Ganmen house before Kamina, Simon, Boota, and Matt came out of the two machines.

"Not that big a catch this time," Kamina said. If that was a small catch, R.D. had to wonder at what a big one would've looked like.

Hugo scampered over to the Ganmen remains and began poking through them, pushing aside metal and wires with concern and reserve.

"Look good?" Matt asked as he strode past the heap of scrap.

"I'm already getting some ideas," Hugo said.

"Really."

Leeron also made his way over to the Ganmen remains, and thoughtfully shifted through the remains while the spider drones continued to do... whatever they did.

"Its going to be weird, having a car built from giant robot parts," R.D. murmured, looking over the remains before looking at the destroyed Firebird.

He was going to have a car built out of giant robot parts! After this quest, he might as well just lie down and die, because quite frankly, his life now felt complete. But first, food.

Matt waltzed over to a nearby rock and slid down on it, his bottom trailing down the smooth plane before he pulled himself back up and kept in place with a stern foot to the ground. He removed his sack and peered inside, fishing out the last of his breakfast bars. He tore it open and bit off a chunk with the side of his mouth. Mmmmm. If only he hadn't gone through his box so quickly.

R.D. pulled the empty box out of the bag and peered inside for a brief moment. "How'd you go through this so quickly? Its only been a few days since we got it."

He tossed the box behind him, and as it did, it ignited and burned away in a few short moments, leaving only a few scant ashes to trail to the ground.

"Hey, are you guys gonna be alright without us for a couple hours?" Yoko called out. Kamina was standing by her, near the Gurren, as she picked up her gun and a few arrows. "We need to go hunting for our meals today."

"You mean things actually live in this wasteland?" Alasea muttered to herself, half-sarcastic and half-surprised.

Hugo chambered his pickaxe. "I'll come with." He waddled in Yoko's direction.

"If you need food, we could share ours with you," Helena called back. "It's only fair after you saved us from those Ganmen."

"We've only got so much," Matt said to Helena. "Let 'em hunt."

"No, Hugo, that's alright," Yoko said, shaking her head. "You need to help Leeron with fixing your car anyway."

"She's got a point," R.D. said.

Hugo growled. "Fine. But before we leave this place, I'm going to hunt something."

"We'll let you hunt this Jigitalis character if you feel like it," R.D. said dismissively, as Kamina and Yoko boarded the Gurren. "God knows we'll get plenty of chances to take him down when we find him."

"Good enough!" Hugo said, a bit more cheerful. He strode back over to Leeron, where the spider-bots diligently hammered away.

R.D. sighed to himself, grateful that Hugo had been pacified for the moment. He remained at the edge of the camp, keeping a lookout like he always did. After what happened to Joseph and Holly, they could no longer afford to take chances. Re-Tuul was still out there; he knew that much since they hadn't slain him on a death netherworld. Malvettix was out there too, watching and waiting for his chance to strike at Matt. And of course, there was the ever mysterious Magister to be worried about.

That bothered him the most of all. Re-Tuul they knew about. Malvettix they knew about. But what did they know of Magister? Just that he was a former servant of the Omega Core, and that his prison had been destroyed by Dragon Drive FINAL and himself in their epic clash in the Eternal Sanctuary. He was an enigma to them. Would they be prepared for that confrontation? He didn't know.

As time passed, laughter caught his attention, and he learned. Ileyna had gotten over her nervousness around the two other children, and she, Gimmy, and Darry were playing happily, off a ways from the Lagann as Simon went about polishing it. Alasea and Helena were both keeping an eye on the children, it seemed.

Watching Ileyna, he frowned. What were they going to do about her?

Matt knew he had to bug Ileyna about the Essence...but hell, she was playing. It could wait a bit. Now he kicked back against the angled rock, a new game popped into his handheld console. The buttons thumped with his constant pressing.

R.D. looked to the side at Matt as he relaxed with a new game in hand. Looking over the handheld console, he sighed a bit before returning his gaze back to his patrol.

"I'm beginning to wonder just how this Scale of ours is supposed to work," he said quietly, making sure only Matt heard him, so as not to catch the attention of Leeron and Rossiu.

"What's to think about?" Matt said, not looking up. "It takes us where we need to go and we eventually get our hands on the Essence. As long as it does that, I'm fine."

"Yeah, but lately it drops us off far enough from the Essence that Ileyna can't detect it right away," R.D. said. "But always within vicinity of something important. And this time, we met Kamina and Simon."

Those were a pair he had to wonder about. He felt strange emanations whenever the two of them interacted with their Ganmen. If he was right, then he'd be able to answer Hugo's question on their power sources: Kamina and Simon themselves. R.D. wasn't even sure if the two of them realized that they themselves were providing the power to their mecha.

"Between that, and what he didn't tell us concerning the other pieces," he continued, moving along his train of thought. "I get the feeling that there's more that we need to know. And the Chronomancer isn't telling us what we need to know. I don't like this, Matt. I understand why you and me have to hunt down Magister. But we know nothing about him. How are we supposed to fight an enemy we don't know anything about?"

Now the conversation was getting serious, and Matt flipped the power switch. "Are you suggesting foul play?"

"I don't know. I just know there's something going on here that we're not seeing," R.D. said, sounding frustrated. "Magister knows we're a threat; we know he's having us watched. But we're nothing compared to what we used to be. You'd think he'd try and take advantage of that. I don't think he's so scared that he doesn't dare come after us without the Core. But so far all he's done is send Destroyman after us, and you know how pathetic he was."

Hopefully Matt wouldn't blow up at that. Destroyman's trick was a low blow and he doubt Matt had gotten over it entirely.

"And on top of all that, there's Ileyna," R.D. continued. "I really don't know what we're going to do. But the way things are going, we're going to have a serious problem ahead of us with her."