Just as Alasea began putting pressure on the gas pedal, the transceivers in the car crackled to life. "Alasea, Helena! Either of you, respond!" R.D. shouted over it.

"We hear you, R.D.!" Alasea shouted back into it after snatching it out of her skirt pocket. "What's the matter?"

"Matt's got a crazy stupid plan again," R.D. said over it. "If you're up to it, just drive right for the--" a loud crashing noise could be heard over the transceiver as the Daorek-Sektor finally countered, dragging Gurren-Lagann around and smashing it into the wall using the arm that had been pinned earlier. "--damn. Just drive right at the Daorek-Sektor! Me and Matt will take care of the rest!"

The transceiver cut off abruptly as R.D. began pelting the Daorek-Sektor with beams, giving Kamina the chance to shove the enemy off. The sunglasses were torn off of the Gurren's face once more, and Kamina whipped them around, striking the Daorek-Sektor across the chest with them like a sword.

"I hope Matt's plan works," Helena said, readjusting herself to sit upright, though she was pressed against the back of the seat Ileyna sat in.

"It'll have to," Hugo said. "Let's go."

"They usually do," Alasea muttered, gunning the engine. She swerved it around until it was facing the battle before letting go of the brake, causing the Firebird to shoot forward.

Matt caught a glance of the Firebird tearing towards the Ganmen. Damn, it was moving fast! Time to kick this into gear.

Silent Scope fired both barrels on both wrists, releasing a set of pods at Daorek-Sektor's legs. They burst apart into a web of the sticky black material, to wind around the Ganmen's knees and calves.

The roar of the engine caught the attention of the Daorek-Sektor's two pilots, and Jigitalis turned the machine to face the incoming Firebird. It was then that the pods struck the combined mecha's legs and exploded, wrapping them in an inky mess.

Three clamps opened up around the conical reactor casing on the Dragon King Armor's back, and green-blue light burst out in several rings of glowing particles. R.D. hurtled down from the sky at the burst, screaming.

"Yeah, COME ON!"

He rapidly closed the distance, spinning about until he drove his foot directly into the back of the Daorek-Sektor, rocking it about on its tangled rabbit legs.

"Waah!" Chitori wailed, doing her best to keep the machine upright with her own feline reflexes. The machine started to stabilize, and the Firebird was rapidly approaching.

"Now, Bro!" Simon shouted. "They're open!"

"You're right! Let's do this!"

"Nice try, humans," Jigitalis sneered, attention centered on the incoming car. "But now--AAAGHHHH!"

The Gurren-Lagann's fist smashed hard into the Daorek-Sektor's back, sending it reeling, overbalancing it. "Damn you, Kamina!" Jigitalis screamed in rage.

"And here's the big finish!" A wave of Matt's arm dismissed Silent Scope, and with his normal armor back, he laid his fingers on the plateau rock. It shook and burst apart, reforming into a great serpent that arched at the Daorek-Sektor. Matt rode on just behind the serpent's head, and he flared his hands. "Avalanche Dragon!"

With a loud crash, the Avalanche Dragon smashed hard into the Daorek-Sektor's two faces, and it staggered back from its fall, tumbling into the ground and letting the Firebird shoot past unharmed, flying out of the dust cloud that was kicked up.

"Let's end this, Simon!" Kamina shouted.

"Right, Bro!" Simon agreed, squeezing down on the control yokes of his Lagann.

The Gurren-Lagann cocked its arms back, and two pairs of drills burst out from its wrists, jutting forward along its fists like giant spikes. They elongated and began to spin, and Kamina thrust them forward, slamming through the Daorek-Sektor's arm sockets. Metal screamed as they tore through until the arms finally exploded, scattering them to the sides.

"Looks like its over, Jigitalis!" Kamina shouted in triumph. "Your Usaggon-Sektor wasn't enough to stop our fighting spirit!"

"Its called Daorek, you idiot!" Jigitalis shouted back from the Daorek's cockpit. "Not Usaggon! DAOREK!"

In response, the Gurren-Lagann swiped a fist across the Daorek's face and tore away the cockpit doors from both the Daorek and Sektor, flinging both Jigitalis and Chitori out with startled cries.

Up above, Yoko sighed. "Now how am I supposed to get down?"

"Nice shot!" Helena cried out as the Avalanche Dragon and Gurren-Lagann finished the fight.

"Swing back around so we can get the Essence," Hugo said to Alasea.

Meanwhile, Matt swirled down to ground level, landing in fromt of the offending enemy beastmen. "Well, well, well," he said, folding his arms. "Looks like your benefactor forgot to tell you just how awesome I am. Of course, when you steal things that belong to me, your crushing defeat was only a matter of time."

Alasea was already bringing the car around, but Ileyna had already pushed herself out of the window and taken to the air, zooming over to the two defeated beastmen. As she settled down before them, Jigitalis stared suspiciously at the girl.

"... what?"

Ileyna spread out her arms as she opened herself up to her power.

"Recro! Singulus... restituo... animus... substantia!"

Within moments, light flashed from the energy drawn from the two coalesced into a pair of shining blue shards, which she quickly snatched from the air.

"Face it, Jigitalis," Kamina said, now stepping from the cockpit of the Gurren. "You never stood a chance against us!"

"Tch." Jigitalis sneered, and at that moment, a shadow covered them. Ileyna looked up, and yelped. "Look out!"

A new Ganmen, another bull-headed one like one of the two that had attacked Matt and the others the day before crashed down behind Jigitalis and Chitori, kicking up large clouds of dust upon impact. Ileyna's instincts screamed at her to take flight, and she did, shooting up above the dust cloud, just as the Ganmen's hand swept out to slap those on the ground away from Jigitalis and Chitori.

Matt took the blow head-on, flying in a wide arc and colliding back into the plateau.

"Matt!" Helena shouted. She fought with the passenger door until she pushed it open, scrambling out with a flicker of her tail.

"Get OVER here!" Hugo snapped at her.

Alasea also ran out of the car, partially to get to Helena and partially to get to Matt so she could heal him. Luckily for them, the Ganmen didn't seem intent on fighting the Gurren-Lagann.

Instead, it scooped up both Jigitalis and Chitori and ran off with them. Jigitalis shook his fist in outrage as they fled. "This isn't over, Kamina!"

"We'll be ready for you, Jigitalis!" Kamina roared back, shaking his fist in the same manner.

Aaaaaaaaagh. Fuuuuck, that HURT. Lying slumped against the cliff wall, Matt tried to lift up his head, and with a lack of noticable stability, he knew he got tagged pretty hard. Ah, maaaaan...he was gonna punch them too and everything.

"Your luck never seems to last, does it, Matt?" Alasea murmured as she went about weaving flows of healing energy to repair Matt.

"Just keep an eye out in case its a ruse," R.D. said to Helena and the others. "I'll go and get Yoko off the plateau."

"All right," Helena said. "Be careful."

"He's not the one that needs to be careful," Matt said, which came off more like a dizzy slur than he had hoped.

"Yes, yes, we know," Alasea said in a soothing, if patronizing manner, like she was speaking to a child. "Just hold still so this can work, Matt."

A few moments later, as the healing weaves were set into Matt and she stepped back, Alasea had to stifle a disapproving sound as R.D. hovered back down, Yoko clinging tightly to his armor so she wouldn't fall.

Stop that, Alasea, she thought reproachfully to herself. You don't know her and you have nothing to worry about. Not that you were worried about a redhead wearing less than Cora in the first place.

"Are you okay?" Hugo asked Yoko.

"She's fine," Matt said, now more coherent. "Thanks for letting me copy your rifle, by the way."

"No problem," Yoko said, stepping down as they got close enough to the ground. "You were pretty cool back there."

"Yeah, that turned out pretty well," R.D. said, letting the visor of his helmet slide back to reveal his face. "We got the car back, and we've got two of the shards."

Matt twitched his curled fingers. "And even though I couldn't CRUSHINATE those two like I had planned, I guess I'm willing to cut my losses and take what we've got."

(OOC: Sorry for the late reply, shit came up like usual.)

They returned to the camp at a moderate pace, much lower than the mad chase that had taken them from the camp in the first place. Alasea shielded her eyes as she got out of the car, looking up towards the sun. Its position in the sky told her that they'd returned to the camp around midday.

The sound of voices above and behind her caused her to turn, and she saw both R.D. and Yoko talking avidly as the Gurren-Lagann lowered them to the ground. Both had opted to ride on the Gurren-Lagann, as the Firebird didn't have enough room with Matt, Helena, Ileyna, Hugo, and herself already inside.

Her cheeks tinted red as she puffed them out a bit in annoyance before turning away. She nearly walked into Leeron as he appeared to examine the returned car, causing her to yelp in surprise.

"Hmm? So, you were able to get it back in one piece!" Leeron said enthusiastically, smiling a bit. "I'm impressed."

"Leeron!" Matt hollered, leaning his head out the window. "This handles like a dream made of LIGHTNING! I think I'm gonna take it for another spin while everyone recovers from the fight!"

"Let's not," R.D. said. "You already had it stolen once today, let's not push our luck and get it flattened by a Ganmen."

"I'm not gonna go far," Matt said. "I'll stay visible and drive around the camp, all right?"

Helena laid her claws on the car door. "Well, before you do that, let me change first."

"All right." When Helena walked a distance away, Matt brought up the stone walls to conceal her. "Guess I'll get something to eat in the meantime."

R.D. tossed a sandwich at him. "Just don't wreck the car when you go," he said. Past him, Ileyna found herself dragged away by Gimmy and Darry for the scoop on the fight, since they hadn't been able to see it.

Some time passed. Even more time than Matt was comfortable with. What the hell was taking Helena so long to finish? Eventually he walked up to the stone walls and knocked on them. "Hey, what's the hold up?"

"...can you get Alasea over here?" came the soft reply.

"Why? Is it something feminine that I shouldn't know about?"

"No," Helena said sharply. "Just call her over."

"Whatever." It was totally feminine. Matt cupped his mouth and shouted, "Hey, Alasea! Come here and see what Helena wants, all right?"

Alasea looked up from what she was doing at the sound of Matt's voice before getting up and making her way over to the barrier.

"Something's wrong, huh?" she said, mostly to herself. Looking up at the top edge of the wall, she nodded once before moving over to it with a quick skip, jumping high enough to grab the top edge of it with a hand. She pulled herself up to with the help of one leg giving her more purchase, until she could see over the edge with ease.

"So what's the problem?" she said just as she looked down.

She blinked a bit.

"... oh my."

Helena's wings looked smaller and her tail had retracted a bit, but above all, she hadn't changed back to normal. She glanced up at Alasea, grasping her arms with her claws.

"What's goin' on?" Matt said, standing on his tiptoes and shielding his eyes.

"Get outta here, Matt," Helena said. "I want to talk to her alone."

"Yeah, that totally doesn't sound feminine to me," Matt said. He whirled around on his shoe and walked away, dismissing the matter with a wave.

After a moment, Helena spoke again. "Something's wrong. I can't change back."

Alasea idly wondered if she should smite Matt for his sexist comment, but quickly dismissed the matter when Helena spoke again. She climbed up more until she could sling her legs over the edge and drop into the chamber with the other girl.

"... so how long has this been a problem?" Alasea asked, figuring that a resistance in changing back was something that didn't just happen overnight.

"Just now," Helena said. "I don't know why. For some reason it hurts way more than usual, and I can't even pull in my wings all the way." She leaned in closer, and Alasea could see individual scales overlapping her cheeks. "I think it's because I can't feel any life energy in this world. I mean, look around you. It's dead."

"No its not," Alasea said. "We're just in a desert. Khalis? That place was dead. This one's still alive."

The girl took Helena gently by the claws, lifting them up together and holding them tight. "Here. Maybe you're just looking at things on the surface, if you know what I mean," she said. "Let's see if you can extend your senses farther than that. Okay?"

"You mean draw energy from below the earth?" Helena asked. "I'll try, but don't be surprised if it doesn't work. The dragons didn't teach me to draw from anything past the surface."