As Helena figured, Kamina didn't hear Helena's shout over the thundering footsteps of the red Ganmen. R.D., capable of keeping his balance a bit better thanks to plenty of experience in past battles, put his hands on the shoulders of both girls to make sure they didn't fall off.

"... that is a really fast car," he muttered, watching as the Firebird easily kept out of grabbing distance.

"GET BACK HERE!" Matt shouted at the viewscreens inside the Gurren. In fact, he was shouting this quite close to Kamina's ears. Damn it! If only he could use his Dragon Drive again to catch up...but since the move took a lot more energy to use now, he'd probably burn out. He couldn't just SIT here, he had to do something!

Chitori managed to keep the Firebird out of the Gurren Brigade's hands for several miles before they finally caught up. As a plateau loomed overhead, the beast girl spun the steering wheel about, whipping the revamped car around the bend and zipping out of sight.

"You won't get away from me, Chitori!" Kamina yelled, the Gurren mimicking its speech for all to hear. "Don't think you'll escape--UWWAAAH!"

Something hurtled down from the sky, smashing a big red foot right into the Gurren's face.

"Bro!" Simon shouted, seeing the attack hit and knock the Gurren flat on its back. Its three passengers were flung high into the air upon impact, eliciting screams from them.

The new assailant landed a ways away from the Gurren, between it and the now-stopped Firebird. As R.D. twisted his body about in midair, he caught sight of it... and nearly had to look again. It appeared to be another Ganmen, only this one? It was red and white, and looked hilariously like the head of a rabbit, complete with long ears and big, creepy yellow eyes.

"AH HA HA! We meet again, Kamina!" the Ganmen shouted, aiming a stubby arm at the downed Gurren.

"DAMN IT!" Matt snapped, tumbling in the cockpit and getting his limbs mixed up with Kamina's.

Meanwhile, Helena screamed, hurtling back towards the ground.

"Helena!" Hugo shouted. He leapt out of the Lagann with a burst of his boosters, and in midair, he activated his G-Stone aura. The Mettaur landed and boosted rapidly over to the airborne, to try and catch them as they came down.

R.D. finished correcting his fall and landed soundly on his feet, channeling wind energy to cushion his fall. He looked back and then quickly caught Alasea as she plummeted, causing her to yelp at the sudden stop.

Glancing up, she colored brightly as she saw who caught her, but R.D. had his eyes on the white Ganmen as Gurren got back up, and before he could notice her gaze, Alasea rolled out of his arms and stood upright.

"Damn you," the Gurren growled out as it stood. "I should've known you'd be here, Jigitalis!"

"Hah!" the other Ganmen replied, making motions as if it were laughing. "You foolish humans will never be able to outsmart us beastmen!"

"Oh yeah!?" Kamina roared back as the two Ganmen approached one another and slammed their faces together in some macho display. "It doesn't matter if you're smarter than us, we'll still win! Who the hell do you think we are!?"

A deployed Capture Option set the stage, and it expanded to a massive cushion, making a tremendous "WHUMP" sound as Helena fell on it.

But before Hugo could ask if Helena was okay, Gurren started shouting again...but not with Kamina's voice. "LISTEN, you little SHITFACE, you'd better give me back my car before I BREAK MY FOOT OFF in your ass!"

"Ah, dammit," Hugo muttered.

"Oh? You have more humans with you?" Jigitalis taunted. His Ganmen's fist flew up and was caught in the Gurren's hand, but instead of effortlessly deflecting the blow, the two Ganmen seemed to struggle.

"What? Gurren can't overpower the Daorek?" Yoko observed as she got out of the Lagann.

"Ah! That thing has another shard!" Ileyna suddenly exclaimed, pointing at it from her spot in the air.

"What the!?" Kamina muttered, and suddenly the Gurren shuddered as the Daorek forced it back. "Damn!"

"That's it, lemme out!" Matt shouted. "I'm gonna rip up this dude myself!" Then Matt covered his mouth as the Gurren repeated the same words, spoiling the strategy.

"Matt, you IDIOT!" Hugo stomped the ground. "The other Ganmen can still hear you!"

As the Gurren fell back, its mouth and cockpit opened up to jettison Matt out, high into the air.

Matt hollered in surprise as he arced into the sky. Fortunately, his instincts snapped on, and a burst of wind power sent him flying towards the group.

"We can't get close to the Ganmen on foot," Helena said, looking over at the continuing struggle. "Not while they're fighting like that. We'll be crushed."

"We need to get the Firebird back," Hugo said. "And the only way to do that is if we direct it into a trap."

"No time!" R.D. suddenly shouted, looking up. "Scatter!"

Another Ganmen was hurtling down from the sky, covered in silver and green plates with massive arms. Its fist was leading the way as it plummeted down in an attempt to crush them flat.

Gunshots rang in the air, as Yoko unloaded round after round into the Daorek, trying to get it off of the Gurren. "Get going, Simon!" she shouted between shots.

Helena and Hugo leapt away, practically grazing the huge metallic fist as it crushed the ground, spitting up dirt and rock. Helena cried out and covered her head, but Hugo was already taking potshots at the other Ganmen.

The dust spiralled about the Ganmen's feet, and as a mass of dirt began swirling around, it rose up to obscure the Ganmen's view. Nearby, Matt controlled the wind with a hand, and swooped down towards them. "Ileyna, does this thing have Omega Essence too?"

The girl nodded rapidly, keeping a hand on her beret to prevent it from flying off. "I think its that cat girl again! I don't see her in the car!"

"YOU GOT THAT RIGHT!" the Ganmen suddenly shouted, sinking giant fingers into the ground below. With a grunt, the Ganmen tore up a massive boulder and lifted it up over its head.

"Oh crap," R.D. muttered as the Ganmen flung it through the air at Matt and Ileyna. Blue particles swarmed down onto his body, quickly solidifying into the Dragon King Armor. He clenched his hands, igniting the Godhand around them, and charged forward at the green and silver Ganmen.

"YOU!" Matt snapped at the silver Ganmen. He charged down, tackling Ileyna mid-flight and driving her away from the hurtling boulder. Matt released Ileyna as soon as they were safe, touching the ground. Even Dragon Drive couldn't bust these things, and if that catgirl - whatever the hell her name was - had the Essence, then fighting her up-close was suicide. Besides the Gurren, only one weapon could hurt this one.

As Matt ran towards Yoko and the Lagann, Helena began weaving fire again. She was gathering massive power, it seemed like, judging by how easily her wings and tail burst from her backside. The streams of fire surrounded her roared and grew mightier.

Ileyna yelped as Matt tackled her, sending her beret askew in the air--she only recovered it with the help of her Stand, which snatched it out of the air at her silent behest and returned it to her.

R.D. smashed the ground with Godhand, sending him high into the air. With a bird of wind energy, he shot himself down at the Ganmen, slamming down at the joint of its arm with the Godhand.

The arm shuddered, but did little to damage the Ganmen. R.D. reined in his shock and quickly shoved off, twisting his body around to duck under the Ganmen's counterswing. He landed and shoved off backwards, unwittingly headed straight for the clash between the Gurren and the Daorek.

"R.D., watch out!" Alasea screamed across the distance. Hearing her call, R.D. twisted around, and quickly stopped as the Gurren's giant sunglasses clashed against a massive studded bat held by the Daorek.

As Matt got close enough to the Lagann, he grasped the edge of the mecha and held his armored hand out to Yoko. "Lemme see your gun. Now."

"Eh? What for?" Yoko demanded, looking confused.

"If you want to kill that thing, let me see it!" Matt said. "I'll give it back, I just need to do something!"

With a sigh, Yoko unslung her rifle from her shoulder and held it out to Matt. "Simon, go see if you can stop that other Ganmen!"

"Right!"

The armor paneling flew up and covered Simon in the cockpit, and the Lagann charged off into battle against the new Ganmen.

Just as Helena flung a massive swirling fireball at the silver Ganmen, Matt turned around and held out Yoko's rifle in one hand. His armor glowed with white light until it encompassed his entire form, like a brief star.

"Genesis Arm - Silent Scope."

When the light faded, a shadowy creature loomed over Matt's shoulder. Yoko got a good view of it as Matt turned back around - it wore a white mask with a pair of eyes drawn up the middle in a vertical line. Its lanky arms swirled around Matt as he handed the gun back to Yoko. "Cover me. I'm going to snipe from that plateau." He pointed at the rock outcropping a distance away from the Ganmen currently struggling with Gurren.

Yoko grabbed Matt by the arm, trying her best to ignore the specter looming over him. "Oh no you don't," she said. "If you can get to a better vantage point, you're taking me with you!"

An explosion rocked the plateau as Helena's fireball impacted with the Ganmen, causing fire to billow out in all directions, but Alasea could see something bright flash within it, and she knew that whatever Helena did, the Ganmen had protected itself from it. Sure enough, the green and silver mech tore out of the flames.

"You'll need to do better than that to beat my Sektor!" Chitori yelled, thrusting forward with the control yoke and sending her Ganmen's fist right at Helena and Hugo.

Matt wrapped his arm around Yoko's waist and pulled the nubile girl close. "Then let's ride the wind."

The specter aimed the gun barrel protruding from its wrist at the outcropping. It shot a thin black line of some material right at it, and after a moment, the line retracted, yanking along the specter, Matt, and Yoko at a great speed.

Meanwhile, Helena leapt away from the fist again, far more agile with her transformed legs. "Alasea! We have to get Ileyna closer!"

Hugo swung away from the fist by using his grapple on Sektor's leg. As he arced up, he released the grapple and fired again, this time swinging around the Ganmen's head towards its backside.

Yoko made a startled yelp as she felt herself pulled away from the ground by Matt's Silent Scope. The two hurtled through the air until they came up to level with the top of the plateau, and when she was set down, she quickly took her rifle and ran to the edge, finding a good spot to snipe from. Adjusting the scope, she chambered a round into the barrel and trained her weapon on the battle below.

"Come on, Ileyna! Get airborne, I'll cover you!" Alasea shouted, drawing the Megami Tsurugi. Channeling her power, Alasea began pelting the Sektor with her trademark rays of fire. The beams glanced off the armor plating, streaking off at angles, but distracted the beast girl long enough for Hugo to let fly with his grapple.

The Sektor reached up to bat at the Mettaur latched to its head, but as its fist came down, the Lagann crashed into it with its armor-plated shoulder, knocking it astray. The mini-Ganmen tumbled from the blow, landing behind it and quickly righting itself.

"Dammit!" Chitori cursed, twisting around. "The Lagann's here!"

Daorek's bat crashed down into the ground as the Gurren was forced back, and Jigitalis looked over his shoulder at the screens showing Chitori and her Ganmen. "Damn! Keep it busy!"

The bat swung back up to attack, and Yoko fired. The bullet struck the bat and jolted it, and R.D. used that moment to attack, charging up energy into his fist. Aiming up, he fired, spraying over a dozen plasma bursts through the air into the reinforced armor of the Daorek.

"Nice shot!" Matt whooped. He laid down on the outcropping and shielded his eyes, examining the Sektor from long-range as the specter aimed its next shot. The barrel made a "pfft" noise, like it was being fired with a silencer on, and another line of black material shot down. It hit near the Sektor's feet and bounced, sticking against its lower arm before riccocheting to its leg, and this kept up until the sticky material had wound itself all about the Sektor.

"You gonna stay here and shoot?" Matt asked Yoko. "I'm gonna keep moving around."

"Just keep firing," Yoko said. "We know their two machines don't have long-range weaponry and you're not going to find many other purchases up here."

Down below, the Sektor struggled against the inky black material that had latched all over its frame. "Dammit!" Chitori cursed, the massive arms of her Sektor shuddering.

Glancing over again, Jigitalis saw what had happened to his daughter and immediately abandoned his fight against the Gurren. "Chitori!" he shouted as the Daorek ran towards the Sektor.

"Bastard!" Kamina shouted in anger, the Gurren pointing at Daorek. "Are you running away from me!?"

The Daorek's free hand snatched at the material, and Ileyna felt the Omega Essence flare as the Ganmen tore it free from the Sektor, flinging it away at the wall of the plateau.

"Damn," he muttered, turning around to find themselves surrounded as the Gurren arrived.

The material dissolved as it sailed towards the plateau, and Matt's specter aimed again. "Time for a subtle approach," he said. The specter fired another pair of silent shots. Something flickered in the sun as little mechanical pods clamped against the backsides of the Daorek and the Sektor.

Meanwhile, Hugo had finally landed behind the Sektor's head. "HEY!" he shouted at the Daorek, waving his pickaxe. "Over here!"

"Get off me!" Chitori shouted, using the Sektor's hand to sweep off the offending Mettaur. More shots rang out, smashing against the hand and knocking it aside, but otherwise doing little damage to the Sektor.

As Matt continued to fire the little pods, Hugo kept acting up. "Come ON, big man!" he shouted at the Daorek, and ran across Sektor's angled shoulder. "Come get me!"

"Hugo, look out!" Ileyna shouted, seeing the Sektor react. The arm Hugo was standing on suddenly swept up at the elbow, and slammed down over its shoulder, right over Hugo. "Stupid robot!" Chitori growled, pulling Hugo away in the Sektor's fist.

"Dahh!" Caught by the pickaxe, Hugo flailed madly. Even his G-Stone power wasn't a match for a Ganmen. "Damn it!"

Helena began whirling up fire, preparing to summon her massive flame serpent. Just then, an explosive shell detonated against the side of the Sektor's fist.