Mighty Morphin Mecha Rangers Chapter 4

Copyright: Come on people, you know I don't own Gainax, Studio Khara, or anything else in this fic or I'd be rolling like Kaiba.

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District 24, Angel Groove

"Damn..." Was all a spectator watching the day's events from the roof of his flooded home could say about the battle he'd just witnessed. That and the fact that the a piece of meat from the Kraken's...explosion...had fallen on his roof. So he did what any rational person would do and cook it. It was really good for seafood too.

On the roof of another building, a small group of idiots had made up some crazy sacrifice to try and make the Kraken stop attacking their city. So it was just a matter of going back to fixing their hopeless lives. Hearing a signal on his phone, the spectator exhaled and got dressed for his job.

"Alright citizens, return to your homes and/or shelters!" Announced the neighborhood watch security committee, their black masked guards emphasizing the point by passively threatening the civilians still wandering the watered streets. Now on duty, their leader decided to personally deal with this crazy cult and stop them from their own stupidity.

"But we're performing a virgin sacrifice to appease the Kraken." The ring leader of the cultists, dressed ridiculously as a shaman tried to explain to the guard when he told them to evacuate.

"The Kraken's dead." The guard explained, holding up piece of cooked meat from the creature and then tossing it to his dog.

"BLASPHEMY! The Kraken is a symbol of the gods!" The shaman yelled to the guard's face. Underneath his mask, the guard wanted to punch this guy out and let him drown in the water. But he doesn't get paid to knock people out for pissing him off right?

"Whatever just untie-" The guard looked up at the peach skinned, delicate-looking girl with curly light-blue/pale-blonde hair and unique blue eyes with pink crosses for pupils in a white and pink simple dress and felt the lump in his throat grow, "Is that who I think it is?"

"Who?" The guard handed the shaman a little booklet titled, "Individuals to not mess with and why". The Shaman immediately paled as he read through the booklet's contents since while most of its entries only had a page, Miss Teppelin took up about a hundred pages, "Oh...that's Nia...it was his idea!" The Shaman pointed out a young man in a monk garb with a black ponytail, who immediately starting crying and bent down to shoot himself.

"ROSSIEU!" As much as the guard wouldn't have minded seeing someone shoot themself, having a small blue haired boy launch out of hyperspace and punch this Rossieu into a wall was pretty entertaining in itself. While the guard expected most boys to fly into a ravenous rage, this boy just walked over to the makeshift alter and pulled his friend from the obviously weak ropes binding her, "Hi Nia."

"Simon!" The girl cried as she jumped on her friend and hugged her. He smiled while his men gave a collective awe at the cuteness of the scene. This didn't stop the cultists from being arrested, but even they knew the scene was cute. "These people wanted me to distract that monster so you could kill it. Did it work?" The boy gave a glaring double take at the arrested cultists that made the guard glad the kid was on their side.

Cause Heaven knew they had enough enemies without him.

"It's dead, who the hell do you think I am?" The girl giggled though the guard knew there was a certain strength in those words, "So...wanna see X-Men: First Class later?"

"Okay." Deciding to leave the two obvious lovebirds be, the guard had his men usher the arrested cultists to be dealt with in the Hall of Justice. All but one who he recognized as a student...

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District 16, Angel Groove

Shinji didn't know why he was wondering through the currently flooded District 16. The team had quietly gone off in their separate ways, some to check on their homes and families while Simon leapt off into hyperspace muttering something about slugging Rossieu. Watching Simon pull the impossible made Shinji sometimes wish he could be just a little bit awesome too.

But...would that fix any of his problems?

Shinji paused and fell to his knee to balance himself. He grabbed his chest and struggled through one of his..."fits". Even after the all of the battles he'd been through Eva, including six angels back in Tokyo...he never got used to the "fits." Just another glorious side-effect of piloting Eva, at least now he could actually manage to stand on his feet.

"This is a deplorable action from people at your age!" Shinji heard a suspiciously familiar voice chatise, "Forcing a thirteen year old girl to dangle on a flimsy stick and feed her to a giant sea monster!"

"Miss Horaki, we were trying to save the city-" The college-aged begger was silenced with a loud slap from the girl Shinji now recognized.

"Just for that...you'll have afterclass duties for the rest of the year! And just wait till I tell the principal!" The girl yelled while the begger was grabbed by two guards and dragged away.

"Please! Don't tell Pops about this! PLEASE!" The man pleaded and cried, but was still hauled into a prison-hover carrier while Shinji observed it fly off. It was amazing just how picky Kaiba was about what he funded and what he didn't.

"Hikari?" The pig tailed girl turned when Shinji called her and seeing her freckled face pretty much confirmed her identity to Shinji, "It is you...Class Rep Hikari Horaki."

"Shinji Ikari..." Shinji was a bit off put by how she said his name. To him, it sounded as though she didn't ever want to see him again, that being sent to Angel Groove and never coming back was supposed to be the last that anyone was to hear about him.

"Sorry...I'll just..." Shinji had his eyes shut so tightly that he was almost startled to feel a pair of arms wrapped around him. He opened his eyes and saw that Hikari Horaki...was hugging him. A blush was also growing on his checks because Hikari's face was right next to his...her mouth uncomfortably close to his ear...

"WHY DIDN'T YOU CALL ANYONE?" Hikari yelled in Shinji's ear loud enough to bust the eardrum if not for the horrors he had already heard throughout his life.

"Well-"

"You have any idea how worried everyone was when you got kidnapped by pirates?" Hikari chided, though Shinji could see concern in her eyes, "Kensuke stopped obsessing over Evas! Asuka started taking cold showers! Rei...was more verbal with Asuka! Mari acted calm and Toji became humble...TOJI SUZAHARA HUMBLE!" The image of Toji not arguing with Asuka brought horror to the reaches of Shinji's mind, "So yeah! We've been worried about you! And don't get me started about Miss Katsuragi!"

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Meanwhile...NERV HQ, Tokyo-3

Tunniel and Matarael had just attacked the city and they were destroyed with the usual cost to the city budget. So to cover the cost for repairing the Evangelion units, the city's air-conditioning unit was cut so that Nerv could repair it's six units of mass devastation.

Then again, it wasn't as though anyone could argue.

"Colonel Katsuragi..." Commander Ikari said from his desk, which was conviently still air-conditioned and everyone else was left to deal with the heat, "You haven't turned in the report from the last battle-"

"F%$k off Gendo." Everyone paused to hear Katsuragi, wearing a shirt shirt and mini-skirt to ease off the heat, just say that to her commanding officer.

Most others didn't live a second after they did likewise.

"Pardon me Colonel?" Ikari was answered with a middle finger from Katsuragi.

Maybe it was just that time of the month.

"You think you can just stroll around here like you own the place after setting off Second Impact, killing my father along with billions of people, and not giving a s^*t about your own captured son!" Some in the bridge were feeling sorry for they're compliance to Gendo while others were distracted by Misato's shown...bouncing...huge...tracks of land...

"Your point?" Gendo still wondered he didn't just transfer her to a city where he knew she'd likely die.

"You sir, are an bastard!" Everyone but Gendo was aghast at Misato's words towards a man so powerful that he could kill you, kill your family and burn your whole city to the ground with a tinkering of his glasses, "And an asshole." With that, she stomped out of the bridge, her tracks of land bouncing with each step and a pile of paperwork left for some poor intern to fill out.

"How long did it take her to figure that out?" Gendo asked his nearby aide.

"You don't want me to answer that Ikari." Fuyuutski choose not to answer though he was somewhat close to his limit in tolerating Gendo's bastardness.

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Back to the wimp

"Well...I'm fine now." Shinji said, trying very hard not to think about his friends back home...who he wouldn't be able to see for a long time. He briefly returned the hug, and gently pushed Hikari's arms back to her side. "What are you doing here?"

"Transferred...the Newgate Academy liked my academic achievements so much that they let me transfer here for a college master's in educational psychology."

"Wow...that's pretty cool-" Shinji was cut off yet again, this time by Hikari bracing her hand off of Shinji's shoulder, leaping over his head and dive-kicking someone behind him. Shinji turned to see the Class Rep. with her foot against a would-be-looter's neck.

The sight was kind of hot to Shinji.

"That's not how you ask for something!" Shinji wasn't too sure the man was listening or too caught up in his own fear. But, he got enough from Hikari's demonstration to leave her alone and run away screaming. The Class Rep. exhaled and her face resembled her own rather than that of a ruthless interrogator, "Sometimes you have to be a little tough to get the point across."

"True." Shinji agreed, remembering the less-than pleasant tactics he'd been forced to use against the enemies the team had faced in the past week, "Wanna see First Class with me?" The question was completely random and as far as Shinji knew, X-Men was a very obscure American interest which most Japanese kids didn't care much for.

"I'm not much of an X-Men fan..." Hikari answered though Shinji was still a bit shot-down despite understanding, "But who cares...I could use a good action movie."

"Atta girl." Now Shinji had the feeling that Kamina was rubbing off on him too much, "I've gotta go and make sure Eva gets repaired."

"What? Eva's here?"

"Yeah, Kaiba bought it from Nerv and gave me the job of protecting the place." Though a quick glance around the district and neighboring flooded areas told Shinji that the team had room for improvement, "How are we doing?"

"We're still alive." Hikari shrugged, "Thank you."

"It's just my job." Shinji said, "Anyway, see you later."

"Bye." Hikari said before turning to leave, leaving Shinji to watch her go. A thought suddenly occurred to Shinji when he realized that she would have to navigate across the delicate make-shift bridges created by the US manufactured M104 Wolverine units set on the tops of unflooded buildings. The problem was that the uneven terrain of the building tops and the looped look of the bridges tended to be a hassel to most civilians crossing them.

And ten accidents had already been reported.

"Where's you apartment? I'll walk you home right quick." Shinji called out before Hikari stepped onto a bridge that Shinji was pretty sure would be doomed to fall soon.

"It's...in District 36..." Hikari answered, it wasn't a no but it seemed to Shinji that she didn't want to be a bother. Apparently she wasn't used to being the subject of such care often.

Shinji wished he had her luck (Think about his usual homelife in Tokyo).

"Shall we then?" Shinji almost felt like offering his hand was the most cliqued thing he could do at that moment. Sure, chivalry is nice, but overtly doing it had somehow become a turn-off for modern society and the young Ikari felt as though he'd overcompensated...

Until she took his hand and nodded with a smile.

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Angel Groove Maintenance Hanger

"Status on Unit 01's repairs?" Kaiba commed to an intern in the Maintenance control center.

"Sir! We're trying to remove armor plating but-" The intern was interrupted by the roar of Evangelion followed by an engineer being thrown against the glass behind her, "Damn it! Apply the tranquilizer before you remove the plating!"

"Told ya we should've used clones-"

"Shut up Mokuba." Seto said as the intern was wrenched from her seat and pulled out of her office by a purple armored hand, "Call the Nerv Help Hotline."

"But-" The young Kaiba then gave a blank face when he saw the aforementioned intern's arm hanging from a sadistic looking Eva Unit 01, "Fine..." Mokuba walked away from the growingly horrific scene and picked up a phone, "Nerv Help Hotline? Yeah can you direct me to Evangelion technical support...thanks." He waited, somehow maintaining the will to tune out the growing sounds of death and horror from Unit 01's hanger. Finally, he heard a woman pick up on the other line, "Hi, I'm trying to replace damaged armor platings and the Eva keeps killing the engineers..." Mokuba was a fan of violence despite appearences but even he was slightly put off from the woman's laughter, "That's not funny! Can you help me or not!" He picked up a pen and started writing down what the technician in Japan instructed, "Thanks...okay...alright." At least an hour had to have passed before Mokuba got down everything he needed, "K, thanks for the-" It takes a certain discipline to be on the phone for a long time and Mokuba was barely keeping from crushing his from what the woman just said, "Don't talk bad about my big brother you old hag!" He could've sworn the woman became a bat out of hell from the volume she was now ranting. The fact that she was speaking Japanese made it all the more annoying, "If you're so good why don't come over here yourself old lady!" His patience at an end, Mokuba slammed the phone into a wall and destroyed it.

"Sir?" A nearby intern cautiously approached the young Kaiba from behind. He handed his notepad to her without looking as he breathed slowly, "I'll get these to them immediately." Mokuba just walked away from the Maintanence area and found himself in his own office. It wasn't egotistical like his brother's but some things in this office could leave a strange impression.

Like the picture of a blue-haired girl in a wet see-through bikini hanging over the Hawaiian punch fountain Mokuba took a drink out of.

"Hi Shinji." Mokuba said to the japanese kid when he walked into the younger Kaiba's office.

"Hello Mr. Kaiba." Mokuba couldn't help but notice that he was slightly less angsty for some reason.

"It's Mokuba and we just started our repairs." Mokuba led Ikari through the Halls of his brother's needlessly large compound, "If you'll follow me, you can help us with our limited knowledge of Eva."

"Sure...this won't take long will it?" Surprisingly, Mokuba could see that Ikari probably had a date tonight or something. The younger Kaiba thought it would be a good idea, Shinji seemed like the type who kept way too much pent up.

"Not really, we phoned the old hag at NERV." Mokuba felt the temperature in the room drop and turned to see a shaking Shinji looking like he'd just seen Tim Curry killing a little boy while dressed as Ronald Mcdonald.

"Hope you didn't say that to her-"

"I did." Mokuba noticed a look of rare horror on Shinji's Ikari's face that now made him a bit nervous. "What?"

"She's tried to kill people for calling her that." Mokuba had the feeling that she or her mother had probably killed someone for calling her old.

"My adopted father had me stretched across a bed of infected needles whenever I got any less than an A, including an A minus." Mokuba informed the seemingly tranquil Shinji. Just what had this kid been through?

"Beats out my grandma."

"Grandma? I thought you were raised by an uncle."

"I was traded between my grandma and my uncle." Shinji explained as if it was normal, "She's a doctor in a pretty high level army development project...something about...Mjornir..."

"That explains some of your mental instability." Mokuba concluded when they came to Evangelion's hanger and found that a good 2/5ths of the crew were being carried away in body bags, "Hey...it's gotten the job done so far."

"Okay then." Shinji breathed and stepped towards the Evangelion, the crew watched pensively as he climbed along it's armor and manuelly opened the pilot hatch to enter the Eva. As systems confirmed that Shinji had synched with Unit 01, a single thought ran through the minds of most the tech crew.

"What madness makes him immune to the monstrosity of that thing!"

"His father." Mokuba answered rhetorically and as if on que, the crew returned to running tests on the now gratefully stable Evangelion.

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Fanelian Embassy

"Thanks for letting us crash at your place." Kamina thanked the young japanese schoolgirl engaged to his little bro's teammate. Even though the Dai-Gurren Brigade had dealt with far worse than flooded homes, they didn't hesitate to take the Fanelian King up on his offer of beds and food that wasn't wet.

"It's no problem, you've helped out Van so much he's practically indebted." Hitomi led the group into the Embassy and was greeted by the sound of screams and swords loudly clanging against each other, "Oh great, they're practicing..."

"Lord Van! Hitomi let a biker gang in!" A little catgirl up the stairs screamed before she ran out of sight. Simon had a feeling that she did this a lot.

"Biker gang?" Simon was soon surprised when a large platoon of soldiers appeared with their swords and spears raised at the Dai-Gurren Brigade. The Brigade just glared at them, daring the soldiers to attack and the some of the soldiers shuddered from the awesomeness that radiated from the Brigade.

"Guys! They're Van's friends!" The guards simueltaniously knelt down in response to Hitomi's words and left the room stepping backwards while still having their heads bowed, "Sorry about that, Van's royal guard is really protective."

"They're just doing there-" Kamina would have patted Hitomi's back but having two guards appear and have spears cross over his hand told thim that this was a bad idea...for most people. But Kamina saw what this really was, "Let me guess...no approaching the king's lady?"

"Correct." One of the guards answered, "Unless he or she gives permission."

"He's already taken guys." Hitomi said with a sign, pointing out Kamina's well-endowed sniper in the bikini top. Steam of arousal off of their armor as they lowered their lances and ran to the bathroom with a box of tissues. "Let me show you guys around..."

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Smith Residence

"Look man...we've still got the top floor," Bit tried to reason with his teammate while holding all of his girlfriend's unneeded necessities. Also, the three of them were in an elevator and he was uncomfortable about elevators, "We can sleep on the roof for-"

"Bit...the Negotiator and Bro codes forbid me from leaving you without aid." Roger stated to Bit as the elevator rose to the higher levels of the Smith Residence, "So just smile and accept it."

"No complaints here!" Leena called out when the elevator closed and Roger allowed her to leave first as gentlemen should. Bit, barely managed to step out of the elevator and dropped all of his girlfriend's stuff.

"Shouldn't you carry those to her room?" Roger asked, Bit had a feeling he'd be pushing about being a gentleman despite not offering to carry anything himself. Isn't there a rule somewhere in the Bro Code that stated that a comrade should another comrade with physical endeavors?

"I'll let him off the hook Mr. Smith, I can take it from here." Leena said as she blew a kiss to her boyfriend just before the elevator doors closed. Leaving Bit with a small percentage that this box of metal going up and down by a wire would malfunction and there goes the rest of his life.

"So..." Bit barely heard Roger he was so uncomfortable in this elevator, "How did you meet her?"

"We were on the same team and then..." Truth be told, Bit wasn't really sure about what exactly he did to get with Leena...but it did have something to do with a party that had Berry White and Jello Shots, "It just happened."

"That's the usual story." Roger said as if something similar had happened to him. Finally, the elevator stopped and Bit jumped out as if the doors were about to close at any minute. After relaxing he whistled when he saw the room he was now in.

"So this is Big-O's hanger..." Bit was quietly sarcastically impressed that a billionaire was able to have such an expansively large hanger for a single mecha. "You and your butler make repairs by yourself?"

"Most of the time." Roger explained as they made their way to where Big-O was docked, "Recently, Norman's hired help since he's coming up in years but they're alright...KEEP HER AWAY FROM THE COCKPIT!" Roger started dashing for Big-O with Bit close behind. After climbing a ladder, Bit noticed that some techs were working on Big-O's cockpit and one of them wasn't allowed any distance because of the wires attempting to pull the young woman into it's core.

"Big O! That's un-gentlemen-like! Control yourself!" At Roger's admonishment, the wires receded back into the cockpit. Much to everyone's relief as Roger walked over to the still shaken mechanic, "I sincerely apologize..."

"Oh don't worry it wouldn't be the first time." The Mechanic said, brushing off Roger's concern. "Big-O has...needs...all males do."

"Build him a playmate..." Roger's glare suggested that Bit rethink his words, "Or I'll just fix Liger..." Bit's Liger Zero was placed on a ramp close to the entrance to the transportation system Roger allowed him to borrow to get the Zoid there and looked like it had seen better days honestly.

"I do say...it's remarkable that you've been able to work so well on Liger." Norman observed after climbing out of the zoid's cockpit.

"I've spent a long time with him," Bit explained, "When we first met, I was just a junk dealer scrapping a living from parts I'd take from zoidss battles. Then I got to join the Blitz Team and...the rest is history."

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Kaiba Corp Development Lab

"Big brother! Someone went crazy in the simulator again!" Seto heard his little brother yell as he turned from his computer screen.

"What is it this time?" Seto demanded, watching his brother pant from running down twenty flights of stairs because he's too lazy to make an elevator.

"GM pilot tried to show off and turned the dial to eleven." Mokuba explained, "He'll be in a coma for at least a year."

"Whatever...By the way, how come I have to fix that Eva when everyone else can fix their own mecha?" Seto just watched his little brother shrug and smirk in that way that told Seto he'd been a baaddd boy, "You called her an old hag?"

"Just like you said."

"Bout time you did something right..." Kaiba then turned his attention back to his ridiculously big computer screen(though it palls to the size of his ego) and continued typing on his computer, "Now let's see if Nerv crawls to us."

"What are you doing?"

"Buying shares in Nintendo."

"You really think the Japanese will let you do that?" As nice as they were, Mokuba knew that his brother knew that the world knew never to mess with anything the Japanese love. The list included: Samurai, Shinto Shrines, School-girls, Robots, Gundam, Final Fantasy...and Nintendo was somewhere towards the very top.

"All in good time, Mokuba." Seto merely said before going through with his deviously complicated plan.

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Secret Location on an unidentified mass of land which you'll never know existed...because it doesn't exist.

At the moment, the director of Nerv was slowly counting away in his mind and thanked whatever god actually existed that he would only have to tolerate these dominoes around him for a little while longer.

"Ikari." Seele 04 spoke, "How dare you let Unit 1 fall into the hands of that card game obsessed child."

"This will not interfere with the schedule."

"We fail to agree Ikari." Gendo never liked the condescending tone in Seele 08's voice.

"Whatever the case, the scenario remains unchanged." For Gendo, maintaining his calm in the face of his adversaries was an art he'd crafted for the past twenty years, "We can easily substitute one of the other pilots if necessary. Even then, I've already petitioned the courts, soon Unit 1 will return to NERV."

"It's good to hear that-" Seele 10 never got to finish his statement due to whatever was causing him to grasp and writhe in agony before his domino vanished.

"By the way gentlemen." Gendo's face remained unchanged as he heard the screams of terror and pain from the other dominos as they disapeered from view, "Did I ever once mention that this would be your schedule?"

"Ikari you bastard!" Seele 11 yelled before he vanished, leaving none but Gendo and Keel present in the assembly room. Naturally, Keel was unphasized, as if he knew that he would not be terminated by Gendo's newly dealt hand.

"And I love it." Gendo allowed himself to smile, watching as the dominoes reappeared, "Is the changing the guard complete? Genome?"

"That's Lordgenome and how do I turn this domino-" Domino 04 vanished to reveal a screen that displayed the Spiral Warrior in all of his glory, "That's much better."

"Why are you using your face and voice?" Seele 07's replacement asked.

"I'm Lordgenome, who do I have to fear?"

"Excuse me gentlemen, I seem to have a riot on my hands." Gendo said, allowing the room to vanish as he turned off the holoprojector and found himself answering the phone in his office. Death threats were common for this man, but the news that he just learned caused a reaction at the least, "He did what?"

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Elsewhere...on the moon

Tabris was now terribly bored. It turned out that Liam Neeson's daughter was actually out with her attractive yet noble and trustworthy fiancee and he felt pretty bad about releasing the Kraken upon an innocent city because of his over-protectiveness.

Not to mention getting the Kraken turned into Sushi.

Which left Tabris with the task of unleashing another monstrosity upon the world. Unlike last time however, he had already picked out this next target.

"Hit the Panic Button on the Dragon." Tabris sang as he threw down the lance onto his target sleeping far within the mantle of the earth, "He's frustrated that he has one."

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Angel Groove District 27

"Did anyone else just feel that?" Simon asked the others, noting the huge shake that had vibrated through his feet. Life in the mines wasn't something Simon liked to think back to, but they did teach him a valid lesson about keeping track of seismic movements.

This one wasn't natural.

"Feel what?" Shinji asked in reply as they stood in the moving line to the theater. Simon was a bit disapointed that none of the Dai-Gurren Brigade had wanted to go with him and Nia to see X-Men. Even though there were a small group of people in black cloaks with a flaming skull with sunglasses on the back that no one else wore who seemed very familiar and suspicious to Simon.

"The ground just shook." Simon said then felt the ground relax, "Never mind..."

"IDs." Shinji and Simon gave their id's to the cashier in response. Even though this was a PG-13 movie, neither felt any reason to be mad about being mistaken for children. "What'll it be Captains?"

"Captains?" The boys were shocked to have been called by those ranks.

"Yeah...it says here that the two of you are Defense Force Field Majors." The Cashier stated with an apparently suspiciously raised eyebrow.

"Look they're not-"

"Don't worry I'm just messing with you boys." The cashier laughed, though the boys weren't amused, "Sides, if they were fake then he wouldn't have let you through." The kids looked in the direction the cashier motioned towards and saw a robot

"Step away from the predestrians!" A robotic voice boomed from the very much active ED-209 unit.

"Do as he says." The cashier warned the young emo git. Seeing that his friend's wouldn't back him up, the git pulled away from the line with his hands up.

"Present valid Identification!" The droid held it's gun-filled arms at the git while he pulled out an id card from his wallet, "Identification confirmed...TARGET ACQUIRED!" All eyes but Shinji, Nia and Simon's went wide from seeing the Droid open fire on the young teen. Except in the place of blood and guts splattering onto the ground, bolts and wires were thrown into the ground instead.

"Another Decepiticon in human form." The cashier muttered under the gunfire of the armored security droid, "Those guys need to work on their disguises." As the kids watched, ED had now walked over to where the teen had fallen without relenting in it's barrage. The teen was now an ever minimizing pile of scrap, metallic liquid and plastic that had before looked like skin.

"Decepticon?" Nia asked as Simon and Shinji calmly led the girls into the theater while everyone else was apalled at the scene of brutal warfare.

"Cybernetic terrorists known to transform into vehicles to disguise themselves." Hikari explained to the characteristically tranquil girl while Simon and Shinji briefly looked back to see ED finally cease fire and scan the pile that was the decepticon with a red flash that emitted from it's guns.

"Target Destroyed." ED declared before turning it's guns onto the onlooking crowd, "Move along civilians." The civilians did just that without an argument as the Unit pointed towards a passing police car and opened fire. The police car promptly crashed on the other side of the street and transformed into a damaged 16 ft. tall robot that roared as it threw a spiked lance at ED.

"That was a mistake." ED stated, ignoring the lance sticking out of it's visor and armed a three-round rocket launcher on its right arm and twin mortar launchers for in it's head, "YOU GET NO CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST!" It fired five rounds, two mortars in both sides of Decepticon's outer chest, two in it's lower chest and one for the upper chest just below the neck. After the rounds impacted, the decepticon writhed in pain and crawled towards the shorter droid.

Until the rounds exploded.

"Simon! Something blew up!" Nia cried as she tugged Simon's sleeve while the explosion swept virtually everyone else off of their feet.

"Did you guys just see that?" A surprised Hikari cried after getting on her feet with Shinji's help, who along with Simon hadn't bothered to turn around and look.

"After one exploding moment, you've seen them all." Shinji reasoned to his stunned date, who kept looking from the explosion just outside the theater to an unfazed Shinji.

"You know how many explosions I see in a week?" Simon asked an expectant Nia, "Lots of them...all the time...they bore me now." Nia took her date's dull reaction with an excited giggle. Hikari had the feeling that Nia likely knew what Simon was talking about.

Not bothering with popcorn or drinks, Simon led Nia, Shinji and Hikari into the theater hall and took their seat in the front row. Despite the fact that they had arrived somewhat late, Shinji was puzzled that a single commercial hadn't played.

A maintainance issue from the look of it. Or maybe people had finally gotten sick of the commercials.

"Even without the events of 40 years ago," Shinji gasped when he heard a voice speak in his ear, "I think Man would still be a creature that fears the dark."

"Oh come on who's-" Simon stopped when he saw the same surprised look on Nia and Hikari's faces, "I wasn't the only one who heard that?"

"He doesnt face that fear; he averts his eyes from it and acts as if he never had any memories of his history." Why did it seem as though this voice was talking to him? Who was he? What would he know about Shinji's history? But even then, somewhere in his mind, Shinji realized that this man was right.

"But, 40 years can be both a brief time and yet a long time." Now Shinji realized that the words of this man was heard throughout the audience, "Man's fear has withered and even time tries to wither the desire to now the truth."

"Is it a crime to try and learn the truth?" Someone in the audience started boeing as the voice continued to speak, "Is it a sin to search for those things which you fear?"

"Fear it is something vital to us puny creatures." The word's of this unseen sage seemed to hit Shinji's psyche with disturbing accuracy, "The instant man stops fearing is the instant the species will reach a dead end. Only to sink to pitiable lows only to sit and wait apathetically for extinction."

"Wake up! Don't be afraid of knowledge!" Knowledge? Why would anyone be afraid of knowledge? Doesn't the truth set us free. Shinji paused as he thought of the man's words.

"Humans who lose the capacity to think become creatures who's existence has no value." It as though a mirror had been slammed into Shinji's face. The reflection was of himself when he first came to Nerv. He stared back at the image, at the boy who's life had no meaning, a sad little puppy who was content to be tossed aside and then called back like a penny whore, "Think, you humans who are split into two worlds, unless you want the gulf between humans to expand into oblivion, you must think!" Shinji watched as the mental mirror broke and now he saw himself now.

What he saw caused him to smirk.

"And Now...Our Feature Presentation!" The audience cheered when the screen turned back on to show the X-men logo. But the four children on the front row were still reeling from the lecture they'd received from that strange voice.

"That was...weird..." Even as the word's left Shinji's mouth he couldn't help but feel that they were an understatement.

---------------

Angel Groove Command Center

Walking through the Angel Groove Command Center, Simon was in a great mood. Sure, Angel Groove wasn't quite what that commercial with the powerthirst drink Kamina drinks all the time had said it would be. But he loved every minute of being here.

Sure, yesturday was a huge cluster of confusion from that incident with the police car and that emo git, but Simon enjoyed the X-Men movie and so did Nia. Further, it looked like Shinji was becoming less depressed and angsty for some reason which increased chances for another double date.

Nia was also living with the Dai-Gurren group, at least she would be by the end of the week. This and the fact that he'd received a note from Kaiba promising a bonus for his recent good work really served to perk the young man's spirits.

"Someone give me a piece of the-" Simon's rising excitement was tamed when he saw the angry and dissapointed faces of the crew inside the command center as he entered, "There is no cake." His mood dropped more when everyone slowly nodded their faces, "It's Kaiba isn't it?" Another group of nods pretty destroyed Simon's mood and he took his place next to an equally dissappointed Shinji, "How did he get you?"

"Cake and the Necromoniom." Shinji's answer earned him a questioning eyebrow but he didn't seem to really care. Besides, everyone was turning their attention the opening doors leading into Kaiba's usual spot in the Command Center.

"Hello fellow defenders of the Angel Groove Defense Force-" Kaiba stopped to avoid a backstab with a playing card and then slashed the card across the man's neck, "So you noticed that there is no cake. But Mokuba will soon be here with something better than a cake." Everyone was so angry at Kaiba that they failed to notice his would-be assassin bleeding out behind him.

"Better be a pie." Since this whole meeting had kept Bit from making his favorite pie with Leena, he expected Kaiba to compensate.

"Or a batch of cookies." Roger heard a crewmember say, the negotiator would have given a questioning glance if not for the fact that the employee happened to have been a Qunari.

You don't want to mess with those guys.

"Good news everyone!" Mokuba stepped into the Main Center with a bounce in his step, "Kaiba Corp has acquired a new mutually beneficial asset to our capabilities."

"A new pumping system to drain out our flooded homes?" As nice as the Smith Residence was, Bit preferred to do his business at home.

"More funds for enhancements to our mecha?" As much as he hated to admit it, Van knew that keeping Escaflowne on the cutting edge of technology tended to help when you're trying to win and survive.

"A better contract?" Smith had recently overlooked his initial agreement with Kaiba and found a disturbing loophole.

"Respect and rights as an emancipated adult?" Shinji would've been just happen with thanks for protecting Kaiba's city, but somehow...young Ikari felt bold since talking with Hikari

"A bakery?" That way, Simon could make all the cookies and cake with Nia and the rest of the team...Okay just Nia. Baking sweets was on the dangerous border between manliness and being a doormat so it would be best not to let Kamina know about the bakery.

"No! We've successfully bought out Nintendo! Which means we're expanding our facility." Seto answered, putting everyone's hopes to scraps as soon as they rose from the prospect of owning Nintendo, "Which means half of you are getting fired." Everyone but the pilots started to become extremely nervous from Kaiba's words, "I'm just screwing with you all...but you're all still getting cuts to your paychecks." Relieved as they were about still having a job, they weren't too thrilled about a cut to they're paychecks, "In exchange for enchanced defenses in the city districts..." Even if they knew it was a false lead, everyone got their hopes up anyway, "Around the area where Kaibaland is being built." Some of the crew now wondered why they were even working for Kaiba.

"Sir..." The panting informant that had ran into the room was breathing so hard that he could barely say a word.

"What? I'm making an announcement-" Kaiba looked up and deadpanned, "Is that a really red eye on the viewscreen?" To everyone else's shock and horror, they were being hailed by a great red eye surrounded by black metallic scales and plating.

"Deathwing." The crew looked up to Optimis' jar when the autobot head spoke, "I thought he was destroyed during Second Impact."

"Well everyone thought Michael Bay killed you with explosions but your head's still here, right?" Optimis seemed to glare at Kaiba, but since he's a robot without a soul, it really couldn't be said, "Alright...what do you want?"

"Pain... agony..." The voice on the other side of the viewscreen filled everyone in the Command Center with a heat that uncomfortably settled around their spines.

"He doesn't sound happy." Bit remarked while a guy next to him fainted, unable to stand because of the heat from this creature.

"My hatred burns through the cavernous deeps..." The voice said again, this time a tremor vibrated the center and caused some within to slip from their feet.

"Why? Did we do something to you?" Simon asked, epically oblivious to the fear that took over the crowd within the center as the quakes grew even greater.

"The world heaves with my torment! Its wretched kingdoms quake beneath my rage!" Shinji could've sworn that he'd just heard a dragon roar and heard someone whimper under their breath next to him. Part of Shinji wanted to do the same, but would it really help the situation?

"Okay, if you're the one causing these earthquakes then I command you to stop!" Kaiba's defiance was only making the crew even more unnerved.

"PUNY MORTALS!" Somehow the very volume of Deathwing caused half of the Staff to collapse into unconsciousness while the team listened on, "I have had many names throughout history, all of them spoken with dread: Neltharion, Xaxas, and many more. Yet you shall know me best as Deathwing, for so I am! I am the bane of all life, the darkness within history, the lord of death, the master of destruction. And I tell you now, and so it is true, that this world is mine!"

"Then come and take it." Kaiba answered, somehow unintimidated by this speaker, "Also get some clear-eye for those eyes."

"Sir..." A radar analyst stated, "He's...of...fend...ed..." His fear brought Kaiba's attention to the world map which showed an intense heat signature rising in the Western Alps.

"Level one battlestations." Kaiba commanded, seeming surprised by the staff's look of utter shock and horror, "Okay...if I promise to only cut a quarter of your saleries will you go to battle stations?"

"They're shocked that your so non-chalat about fighting one of the most powerful dragons to ever walk the earth." It was times like these that Mokuba wandered if his brother's ego was destroying him from the inside out.

"If it ain't blue-eyed and white then I don't know what they're talking about."

----------------

District 12

Roger took out his watch and called upon his partner-in-crime, "Big O! Its show time!" In response, Big O shot out of the city street with Roger standing on its raised fist.

Shinji's clenched his teeth and steered his "courage", "Evangelion! Unit 1!" he cried at the top of his wimpy voice as he leapt into a nearby open hatch. Fortunately the latch widened to reveal Unit 01 pulled up by a levy with Shinji barely managing to balance on the Eva's horn before jumping into the pilot's slot.

Bit smiled and yelled out, "Lets go Liger Zero Jaeger!" At once, Liger Zero Jaeger jumped out of a hanger in another far away mountain range and roared when it landed behind Bit.

Van held his sword and called out, "Escaflowne lets do this!" A giant rock appeared out of nowhere and Escaflowne broke out of the giant rock and kneeled down behind Van.

Simon stomped onto the ground and commanded, "Drill through, Gunman Lagann!" Simon didn't have to wait long as Lagann drilled to the surface and epically posed behind Simon.

"Sir, why can't we have an awesome summoning sequence like that?" A GM pilot asked his commanding officer.

"We're soldiers, gunny! We don't need to pose and take thirty minutes to call out our mechs!" The Sarge yelled, "If it's loaded and it kills, that's all we need..."

"What's the dragon's ETA?" Bit asked the Command Center over the comm.

"Command Intel has it's ETA at two hours-" A gulp was heard through the shared channel, which was usually bad news, "Make it thirty minutes."

"Hey guys...question." This had bugged Bit ever since he'd made repairs to Liger and Big-O despite Roger's protest and he had to let the others in on it, "Doesn't it feel like out deployment was...recycled somehow?" Silence was the answer Bit expected and that was exactly what he got.

"We can't let it near the city." Roger suggested wondering just how long Bit was up last night.

"Then we shall go to the city's border and make our stand there!" Van declared to all present and since he's king, you could say that was his deployment plan.

"Then let's bring out our guns!" Simon cried out, "Combine."

"Combine!" The rest of the team called at the same time.

"Mecha Lord Syncronization Initiated." The computer voice called as the transformation sequence initiated. Big O expanded out and formed over Evangelion as a chest piece, heavy pauldrons and upper arms before fitting firmly onto the purple Mecha's form.

Escaflowne transformed into a draconic looking torso and lower spine before Eva leapt into the openings.

Liger leapt up, brought its hind legs up to it's stomach and split apart to form legs for Eva while the front legs detached and fit onto the upper shoulder's as gauntlets. The boasters of Jaeger also formed into Mecha Lord's.

Finally, Lagann formed into it's drill form except without a point on the drill and slammed onto Eva's head, causing the sides of it's head to resemble a red helmet and protrude a crescent shaped fin, completing the transformation.

"Mecha Lord activated," The computer said as Mecha Lord stood with arms crossed, the defense force mobile suits cheered on it's arrival with expected zeal.

"All units! Converge on Mecha Lord and move out!" Commander Armada ordered as the Angel Groove Defense Force followed Mecha Lord through the city streets, some units occasionally stopped to wave at cheering civilians watching them pass but they kept on their march, intent on protecting their city.

"I know I should be more worried about what we're facing but..." Bit knew that no one else was listening but he couldn't help but get this question out of this head, "Why do I feel like our combining syncronization was...recycled!"

Somewhere in the Earth's Mantle that I'd never one to be in

How he hated it.

Being trapped in this mountain for what seemed like a millenia, hearing the puny humans walk upon the earth above him, mocking his absence with ignorance.

How he hated them.

The feeling of those puny hammers beating against the armor that kept his power in check.

Then there was the spear.

A white haired humanoid with disturbingly red eyes floated just above him and mocked that he had thrown a white lance into his skull from beyond the sky. Even now, he could feel the object cause him such annoyance that his frustration now fuelled his restlessness.

Oh...he hated that boy.

He reminded him of that glowing white giant he had fought fifteen years ago. The one that caused the humans in Antarctica to turn into orange juice and get sucked into a small black ball which the giant swallowed and then...everything else...confused him.

He hated to be confused.

To make his matter's worse, some mortal engineer had turned the horrifying song of Barney the Dinosaur up to eleven and tortured his ears with that fake dinosaur's singing to little children doomed to die.

He hated Barney.

But now, he felt the hammer's stop. He felt the laughter of king's and lord's proud of their dominion over nothing. He felt his hatred build within him like a fire ready to ignite at the slightest touch.

His wrath was as a typhone.

The mountain that laid over him burst into oblivion at his emergence. His wings carried with them the flames of his hatred as he flew through the air. Even now, he felt the millions who saw his emergence and fed on the smell of their despair. The flames of his flight fell behind him in a trail that ignited all that they touched for months to come.

But it was not they that he sought.

He roared when he came to the end of the human continent of Eurasia and roared a mighty roar that caused the sea's to fall in fear of his arrival. Even the water he flew over would be set on fire and burn before the trail of his power.

No, he preserved the greatest share of his wrath for the city that lie on the other end of this massive ocean called the Pacific. The groove of angel's commanded by the man named Kaiba, he would feast on the fool's ego and mount his head upon the highest mountain as an example of what occurred when one angered the mightiest of dragons.

-------------

Outskirts of District 7

The Roar of the incoming dragon vibrated across the ground and through the mechanisms of the Defense Force assembled on the border. Some were piloting light blue-green ones that Kaiba had bought from the UN colonial defense patrol and others were in the scrapped together units that the pilots were forced to piece together themselves because their boss is a jerk. Mecha Lord stood in the middle of the crowd, it's pilots anticipating the battle that was soon to come.

"Here he comes..." A bridge bunny reported, Shinji couldn't help but cynically wonder what gave the target away. Was it's massive black form? Or the trail of destructive flames that followed behind it's flight?

"Ah...Van?" Bit asked over the comm, "In D&D terms, what size class was the dragon you killed?"

"I'd say Huge..." Van slowly answered, "What size class is that dragon?"

"Can't really say yet." Bit read through known data about the target's size and released a long breath, "Um...Colossal at least."

"There's size classes higher than that!" Obviously Van hadn't played a lot of D&D.

"What kind of dragon?" Bit was now reading through the D&D Draconium and becoming increasingly terrified of the abilities that each race of dragon possessed.

"Stop talking about D&D and focus!" Kaiba rebuked over the comm when Deathwing came closer and closer to Angel Groove's border.

"Oh look! He's flying away!" A GM private said when Deathwing diverted it's path up into the air. Obviously, this would give the troops a fresh surge of false hope that they would not have to fight this creature.

"We don't have to fight him!" Roger really hated it when people tempted fate because now the dragon had flown back down and landed it's massive form upon the mountain ridge. His draconic scales were black and red magma appeared to be surging throughout the dragon's entire body. In addition to the plates that covered his body, Deathwing also had an enormous metal brace covering his lower jaw. Realizing that he may not make it to dinner, he decided to comm someone, "This is a good scene to summarize our situation..."

"Well...shit?" Infantry Captain Dalstan answered from somewhere in the defense force, "Figured." Deathwing marched down the mountainous ridge that overlooked the defense force, the dragon's every step left a melting impression in the landscape walked upon as if it's very presence caused the dirt to combust into flames. The Defense Force immediately opened fire which did nothing to stop the dragon's advance towards them.

The Dragon roared a thunderous roar that shook the ground and vibrated through the spines of the Mecha Lord pilots. Roger managed to remain calm as did Bit. Simon was focusing on the picture of Nia in his cockpit in order to steer his resolve and not panic. Van mentally reminded himself that he'd killed a dragon before in order to stave off the overwhelming presence of Deathwing...in fact, as Balgus put it when you kill one dragon you can kill em all...though his one kill was done with his current fiancee's help...but a kill's a kill! Shinji, didn't react at all. It wasn't fearlessness that caused this oh no...he was taking inventory, trying to count off the names of people who'd miss him if he died. Something he did since he was four and his father left him on the doorstep of the director of the Mjornir Program. He'd recently added a few names and he smiled.

Meanwhile, the Defense Force GM's stopped firing and slupped into the ground.

"Oh come maggots! He's a dragon but don't go down without even a middle finger to his face," The team heard Folley rebuke over the comm, "He made the gm's faint? Screw this! Ramirez! We're getting the hell outta here! Use this flash grenade to cover our escape!" Somewhere behind them, a flash grenade was thrown over Mecha Lord and into the dragon's face, creating a minimal flash that caused it to blink.

And pissed it off even more.

"So much for a coordinated defense." Roger deadpaned before turning his attention to the massive dragon stomping towards them, "Mecha Lord! Action!"