Across the threshold: and into the fire 04

Looking at the creature rushing to their direction Flaron exclaimed, "Come on! We can't let that thing reach the town!" and dashed after the creature heading in their direction. "Hey wait up!" Tameron called out following her. Watching this, Kaiser cursed and turned on his X-injector saying the command word, "Change Form!" In a red flash and mash of tubes, Kaiser becomes encased into his Darkoni inspired X trooper armor as a mechanical voice rang out saying "X-INJECT! DARKONI X!" Quickly the Ceasarian rushed past his older counterpart, following the two knights exclaiming, "Another time old man!" "Wha-HEY!" Chipp exclaimed looking backwards, "(censored)!" Noticing Chipp's distraction, Kuriuno quickly swung her bow in a backwards arc, striking the ceasarian in the head and causing him to stagger, catching everyone's surprise. "Kaitres! incinerate them, now!" Kuriuno exclaimed readying an arrow. Snapping out of her shock, Kaitres raised her massive blade as it suddenly burst into flames. Seeing what could happen, Blueacon moved to shoot one of his blades at the deer woman when suddenly he felt something hit his chest. Looking down, the garuda gritted his teeth as he began to freeze over from the arrow stuck in his chest. "Raidos! Get down!" Kaitres exclaimed, before she swung her blade in an flaming arc causing all near her to drop to the ground to avoid the burning blade as Kuriuno began to rush after Kaiser with Kaitres following behind calling out, "Come on Raidos!" 

"Verdtrus was the supervisor of the artificial man project." Lugh explained, "But one day he chose to run away with eight Null Units following a certain 'accident'." "Accident?" Hoot asked, causing Rox to pull his head away and Richant to tighten his mechanical fists around his scythe as Lugh winced under her helmet sighed and said, "Well, I'm not at liberty to say but it did involve one of the NULL Units and a coworker of ours." Eyes widening, Hoot said, "U-oh. Ooooohhh. I see." "Wait, what happened?" James asked before Jerry said, "Son, I think it's best to leave the room." "What!?" James said before Bartch said, "Just wait, James is fine, I'm sure Scott gave him the talk." Hoot mentioned, "He's 17." "Fine." Lugh answered, "I'll have to explain in layman's terms then."

Rushing towards the creature, Flaron aimed her staff and readied another fireball as Tameron caught up to her. "So we're just fighting that thing now?" Tameron called out as Flaron stopped shot the fireball at the creature. "Yeah!" Flaron answered, watching the Fireball managing to fell the creature for several seconds before slowly getting up, "Was hoping still could do Evo though." "I told you, it's a difficult thing to turn on." Tameron explained, as the creature shook it's body to remove dust, "But I do have a couple of chips on me, including the 'Dangerous' one." Noticing the entourage rushing towards them, Flaron asked, "How long until you've cooled down?" "I don't know, an hour?"

"(censored)! There goes another potential ally." Eithine cursed, watching the events play out through a pair of binoculars, "I knew I shouldn't have sent Kaiser." "With Omnidec and Voidmond gone and Tarrot weakened." Verdtrus commented lowering his, "Our forces have spread thin, there's a dangerous monster out there and it looks like Tameron's glitch might have timed out." "Glitch?" Eithine asked, turning to the humaniod, "Is that a thing your knights can do?" "Yeah," Chromdraco answered as he leaned on the railing, "apparently due to their 'biology' they can develop special abilities. For example, Tarrot can control energy to an insane degree, Flipp can sense lifeforms, and Tameron can grow into a metal beast as you've probably seen in the past few days." "Yes, I was wondering about that one in particular. When did that 'glitch' come about?" Eithine asked, "Last I checked, he never showed this ability before that commotion in Dirsh." "He only developed it long before Black Hermit found him." Verdtrus explained, walking to the numian, "When he and Flaron were first found." "I've read the reports." Eithine comented, "They had lived in a village near the border of both Deshku and Formera for three years until a horde of pirates attempted to attack their home. Didn't Flaron beat the entire horde with nothing but a violin." "Yes," Verdtrus muttered, "that was the night where she went berserk." "Excuse me?" Eithine asked but the humaniod walked to Bulker asking, "How long until the others recover?" "The pods should be able accelerate the healing process." Bulker explained, "Vandrin and Tavo should be healed right about now." "Bring them here." Verdtus ordered as Bulker ran inside. "Say, where is Flip?" Chromdraco asked, "I haven't seen him since we got back." "Bulker?" Eithine called out catching the numian's attention, "Where's Flip?" "Err, the kid?" Bulker answered,  "Last I check, he was in the Pod room." "I'll go with him to see if he's okay." Chromdraco stated before following Bulker inside. Sighing Verdtus returned to the railing asking, "Eithine, if we survive, can I trust you with something?" 

Rushing to Blueacon's side, Chipp said "Blue, BLUE Hold on! You're going to be okay! I promise!" "(Don't give me that bull!)" Blueacon groaned as frost reached covered his body, "(Just go after them!)" "Sorry but I can't let you die here!" Chipp said looking to the arrow and moving to grab it, "(NO!)" Blueacon exclaimed grabbing the ceasarian's arm, "(go after that blasted thing! I've been through worst, now go!)" before falling into unconsciousness. Looking back to the ship, Chipp cursed and brought out his comm saying, "Wisey! If your still here, get over here! Blueacon's down!" Seeing Katie and Matt run out of the vessel, Chipp turned to the creature as it tanked a fireball. Aiming the G saber at the creature, Chipp activated the solo burst and was about to fire when the group chasing them caught his eyes. 'They seemed adamant about killing that thing.' he thought as he watched Chase land nearby, 'Maybe if we take that thing out, it could leave them too tired to retaliate.' Turning off the solo burst, Chipp after taking a look at Blueacon, ran to Chase as the garuda walked towards them. "What the heck just happened?" Chase asked as he turning to Blueacon. "That ice maiden shot Blueacon in the chest." Chipp answered, "I called Wisey to come here to pick him up." "Ice maiden?" Chase asked, "Can we reverse it?"  "Maybe I can help." A voice called out, causing the two to turn and see Raidos walking towards them.

"Come on!" Katie called out to Matt as they rushed after the thing, "We can still get it!" "(Censored)! This thing is fast!" As they reached the creature, up ahead they saw the creature tank another fireball sent by Flaron as Tameron and Kaiser rushed to it's side. "What the? Why are they attacking their own monster?" Matt asked before noticing the two battle maidens approaching the trio with their weapons glowing with energy as Flaron prepared another fire ball, "Are they helping as well?" Just as Flaron shot the fiery projectile, one of Kuriuno's arrows dispersed it instantly as Kaitres rushed to stab the homunculus form behind, only to crash into a wall of sand."What the heck!?" Kaitres exclaimed reeling from crashing into the wall, "Where did that thing come from?" Looking back Flaron found Kaiser with his hand outstretched. "Watch your six!" He called out pocketing the chip he snatched from Tarrot's metamorpher, "There's still enemies all around!" "Should we help out?" Matt asked, "I mean we came to arrest them after all." Weighing their options, Katie answered, "If we work together maybe we could still turn this around. Come on." 

Watching the fight from the cliff side Rick cursed saying, "They need our help!" "I know," Twin Drake commented, "but what about the Jewels? How can we be sure we won't get destroyed when our backs are turned." Turning to Voidmond, Omnidec saw the fake garuda walk towards them. "What was that about?" Omnidec asked, "You seemed pretty chummy with those guys." "I had some connections in the past." Voidmond explained, "I'll elaborate it to you later." "What are you talking about?" Twin Drake asked. "As it turns out," Omnidec answered pointing to the fake garuda, "he's the better version of us." "Better?" Twin drake asked, "Like a Gel unit!?" "Yes," Voidmon answered, "I came from the future to save this past. It's complicated." "Speaking of futures" Omnidec said motioning to Wira, "That kid, he called himself the savior of Earth Gaia right?" Hearing this, Voidmond tensed up as Twin Drake's eyes widened. "Savior?" Twin Drake muttered, "You mean-!" "Voidmond," Omnidec asked, staring the fake garuda down "is that kid G-Zero?"

TO BE CONTINUED...