"Probably. What she was worried about the most is how people would view her with her mutations," Alasea said. "I can't blame her, but its part of her now. So I told her that she should only worry about her home and her family. We won't be around long enough elsewhere for it to really matter."

"Well, we DO travel with a talking robot," Matt said. "And as soon as the fireworks start, it's easy to tell I can make lightning my bitch." He flipped the stick again, but it slid out of his hands before he could catch it. "I'll let the others know after I let her out," he said while bending down to pick it up.

Alasea nodded. "Just go over and ask if she's ready to come out yet."

Matt walked over to the stone walls with Alasea, and he rapped on them. "Hey. I heard what's up. You ready to do this?"

"Give me the gem first so I can repair my clothes," Helena said. After Matt had thrown it over the walls and she was presumably done fixing her jeans and shirt, she said, "Okay. Do it."

Matt snapped his fingers, and the stones retracted back into the earth, which sealed over like nothing had happened. There Helena stood, wings and tail and claws still vastly prominent, but less...imposing, if you will. That was probably the best way to describe it, Matt figured.

As Matt and Alasea conversed before Helena was let out of the rock, Kamina looked up to see what they were talking about, catching both Yoko and R.D.'s attention.

"Hey, what's going on over there?" he asked, leaning over to the side towards R.D..

The boy looked out over the area, noting that the wall was still up.

"... Helena's probably having trouble with her powers again," he ventured. "It happens sometimes. Best not to bug her about it."

"She's not happy with her power?" Yoko asked. R.D. shook his head.

"She was rather shortchanged by it. Its not the most pleasant of transformations," R.D. said. He watched as Matt went over to the wall and let it down. "Either way, best not to bring it up around her."

"There you are," Matt said. "Now, if you'll allow me to be heavy-handed for a moment, please know that we're here if you ever need anything, all right? You're not doing this alone." His tone sounded more conversational than serious. Then again, he never admitted to being good at emotional displays.

"I know," Helena said. She glanced over at R.D. and the others, who were looking her way. "All right. Let's go see them."

"You sure?"

She nodded. "Yeah. If I'm not going to hide this, I might as well be open with it."

"Whoa," Gimmy breathed some time later. "Is this real?" he asked, poking at Helena's tail.

"Gimmy, leave her alone," Darry said reprovingly to her brother, staring at him from over the top of her stuffed animal. She was ignored by him, who continued to gawk at the different transformations in Helena's body.

"You're okay with this?" Ileyna asked, standing off to the side. "Keeping the changes?"

"For now," Helena said, her tail curling away from Gimmy's inquisitive poking. "If I'm supposed to accept what I am, I should at least try it out for a while."

"At least you're symmetrical," Matt said. "Once I was cursed with the ability to turn into a rhombus. I was neither square nor trapezoid. It was very distressing, especially when teachers kept trying to use me to teach children how to find the area of a shape."

Helena snorted, unable to keep a smile from cracking her face.

Alasea released a sigh of relief, glad that the members of the Gurren Brigade didn't seem bothered by Helena's draconian appearance.

The festivities had to end sometime, though. R.D. eventually stood up and dusted himself off. "We better get going. We don't have too much time to waste now that the car's fixed."

"You're leaving?" Rossiu asked. R.D. nodded.

"The longer we wait, the harder it is to track down the shards."

Matt held out his hand to Kamina. "But hey, it was a real kick fighting by your side. Good luck on...whatever you're doing."

Kamina clasped Matt's hand and gave it a hearty shake. "When you're done with your quest, come on back some time!" he said. "You're more than welcome to be part of the Gurren Brigade!"

Matt nodded. "We'll see," he said. AKA, no dice. And that just wasn't because of their dimension-hopping situation...it was because Matt wasn't even sure he could tolerate Kamina's energy. "And thanks again for fixing the car," he said to Leeron. "It'll be really helpful to us. I just hope it doesn't break down again."

"Don't worry, I've downloaded the blueprints," Hugo said. "I should be able to make some repairs, if we need them. Just don't trash it like you did last time."

"Will you guys be alright out there?" Simon asked.

"We should be," Alasea said with a reassuring smile. "We know what's waiting out here now. We can handle it."

"Yeah, we'll just steal their Ganmen next time," R.D. said. "All it takes is fighting spirit, right?"

"You got it!" Kamina said with a salute.

"Worry not!" Matt said. "I have tons of fighting spirit!" He gestured at his comrades. "Of course, that means I'll have to pick up the slack for these bums here."

"Yeah, go get killed," Hugo said. "We'll be back here using our brains and thinking up tactics."

They all shared a laugh at that.

"Well, stay safe, okay?" Yoko said as they began to part, their things already loaded into the Firebird. "We wouldn't want to hear down the line you guys got hurt or anything."

"We'll be fine," R.D. said. "We won't even let Ganmen slow us down."

"Not like they can keep up in my super manly car!" Matt said.

"Stop gloating about your car," R.D. muttered exasperatedly.

With that, they piled in and started up the car. Ileyna stuck herself outside of the window to wave goodbye to the Gurren Brigade as they began to drive off, among their shouted farewells and Gimmy's exuberant waving.

"Wild bunch," Matt said, the corner of his lips curled up.

"Especially Kamina," Hugo said from Alasea's lap. "You seemed like you wanted to get away from him after a while. Guess you couldn't handle what we have to deal with all the time, huh?"

"Please. I can be wackier than that."

"Don't."

In the backseat, Helena fought a miniature war to position herself correctly. Normal cars weren't built to accomadate wings or tails. Though draping her wings over her shoulders worked out fine, it was the tail that caused the most problems. Eventually she undid her belt and slid forward, slinging her tail across her lap and holding it in place.

"You okay back there?" Matt asked.

Helena looked up. "Yeah, I'm fine now."

"Well, now that we're alone, we don't have to watch what we say," Alasea said. Up in the front passenger seat, R.D. nodded.

"That's true," he said. "Hugo, you still want to know what those Ganmen's power sources were?"

"Sure."

"Kamina and Simon."

"What?" Alasea looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"I don't understand why they are the power sources, or how they're even doing it," R.D. explained. "But somehow, when Kamina and Simon are piloting their Ganmen, they're feeding it the energy it needs to operate. Jigitalis and Chitori were doing the same with their Omega Essence. Different energy for them, but the same concept."

Matt chanced a look at the dash. "So, you're saying that, since this car is built out of Ganmen parts, I'm literally powering it with my own sense of self-worth?"

"I doubt its your actual self-worth powering it," R.D. said. "But its as good an explanation as any. Likely whatever the energy source is--yes, Lumiya's telling me you're spewing it out in copious amounts like those two were--is maintained by your state of mind."

"So that means," Ileyna pondered, "That it doesn't matter if you have Essence or not?"

R.D. nodded. "Looks like it. Other than that energy signature they were generating, Kamina and Simon were normal human beings."

"Like you can call Kamina 'normal'," Alasea quipped, looking off to the side.

"That's kinda cool!" Matt hunched closer to the wheel. "I wonder if I can go faster just by thinking about it."

"Don't," Helena said. "You're going fast enough as it is."

"Just get to the nearest plateau and hide behind it so we can jump worlds," R.D. said. "We don't need the Gurren Brigade to see the Gateway by accident, and you know how big a mess the Scale makes."

"You're boring," Matt said.

"And you're a damn menace," R.D. shot back.

"Enough, children," Alasea said, growing fed up with their bickering.

Matt stared at the dust ahead of them, muttering to himself. "Bitch, bitch, bitch."

They swerved behind a stocky, angled rock outcropping. After they had all left the Firebird, Matt grabbed the front bumper and pulled up. To his satisfaction, the car still folded easily, and it soon took over, folding itself into a pocket-sized square.

"Good thing Leeron wasn't able to alter that," Alasea commented as R.D. fished the Great Serpent's Scale from his satchel.

"Well, let's get this over with," he said, holding the Scale out in front of him. Within a few moments, it began to glow before firing a beam that jolted R.D.'s entire arm.

It struck upon an invisible point, turning and spiraling an emerald-colored Gateway into existence. Dust flew everywhere with the creation, and causing Alasea to frown down at her attire.

"These are going to be a bitch to clean," she muttered.

Edited by RisingDragon on December 11, 2009 at 18:41:15.

Matt turned towards Helena. "Last chance. Sure you want to stay like that?"

Helena scoffed. "Come on, Matt. I'll live."

"All riiight." Matt stepped towards the Gateway, holding up his hands. "If you don't mind, though, I'll distract 'em first with my inevitable face-fall as we leap into this brave new world."