Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Ronin Warriors: Hell Back on Earth ❯ Sadistic Seishi, Bitchy Priestess ( Chapter 20 )

Out of nowhere a white blast of light shot through the air, knocking whatever it was flying several feet backward, splitting a tree in half like a twig as its metal body slammed into it. It quickly righted itself, as its optics came back online, as some strange spiky female-looking humanoid had landed in front of the girl.

"You will not lay a hand on this girl!" Temia's voice boomed. "Or else you will deal with me."
"Well, whaddya know. A two for one deal." the machine said.

Opening up some sort of panel on its forearm, it began keying in some sort of information. Seconds later, some sort of device detached itself from its back, floated above its head and bathed it in a strange light, which seemed to make its left forearm glow and have some strange shape form over its arm, as some sort of backpack appeared on the machine as well. As the light faded, a strange shield was attached to its forearm, as it detached a large sword from its backpack, and brandished it in front of it.

"You wanna fight, you've got one. I'm gonna enjoy this." the machine said.

Temia took a fighting stance, ready with her spikes. Ayako had willingly gave up some of her energy in order to let her transform, but she had no clue how long she would be able to last before her form faded out and she turned back into Ayako. She had to hope that Ayako's cutting off her conversation had caused the other Seishi to scramble to her last or current location. It would be too hard to fight with Naru watching, let alone with Naru there in the first place. She hoped that any help, would arrive soon...

With Naru still cowering in the corner, trying to get away from whatever it was that had set its sights on attacking her, Temia stared down the sword wielding mechanical thing standing before her. The returning sunlight reflected off her various spikes, as the two sized each other up.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Ayako asked.
"No. But I must try for the girl's sake, and for yours." Temia answered.

The machine took its sword and swung it towards Temia, who held up her right spike to block, bending her knees slightly as she tried to push back against its strength, reaching back with her other arm and nailing with a punch to the face, the strength of which sent the machine reeling. It then swung straight down, but Temia managed to catch the blade between her hands, and with almost no effort lifted the thing off the ground, twirling around and hurling the monstrosity into yet another tree, Naru cringed as the thing collided. Putting away its blade, deeming it useless, it reached to its shield and drew a boomerang, which it hurled at Temia, who parried it away with her arm. Temia floated off the ground and charged with lightning speed at the machine, slamming into it with a head-driven tackle, knocking it back again, as she flew back, shot into the air, flipped over and charged downward feet first, but stopped midway through the attack and crashed to the ground, writhing in pain. Bolts of energy hovered around her as she attempted to struggle to her feet.

"The transformation...I can't maintain it much longer..." Temia said.
"I'll give you some more of my energy if it'll help..." Ayako asked.
"No, it'll only drain you more...hopefully help will arrive soon." Temia replied.

"Well, it looks like the porcupine chick is outta luck. It's time to shoot this fish with a larger barrel."

Imputing some more keystrokes into the gauntlet again, the armor set vanished and reappeared as the device again, which then beamed down a different set of add-on armor, this one with a multi-weapon on one shoulder and locked over the other shoulder was a large cannon, which it locked into place and began targeting the weakened Temia. As it moved the crosshairs into position for complete and utter annihilation, a blur of light appeared in front of the targeting scope, as something slammed into the machine with incredible speed, sending it flying backwards once again. Its damage assessment systems reported damage to nine different parts of the body almost a nanosecond apart. As it struggled to its feet, it found a strangely dressed swordsman with grayish brown hair standing in front of it, his sword outstretched as if it came out of an attack.

"That hurt..." the machine answered. "You spoiled my fun weirdo. I was about to vaporize that spiky thing when you showed up. Let's see if I can get both of you with one blast!" it said, taking aim again, only to catch another, shinigamish form running towards it with a scythe positioned low to the ground on an angle, as it got close Anubis slashed upward, slashing through its cannon, before withdrawing to protect the still weakened Temia.

"You broke my cannon...you'll pay for that!" It shouted, firing the other shoulder-mounted weapon in the direction of the two, as cannon shots and powerful vulcan shells flew towards Anubis, Navcase, and Temia. As the shots approached, a voice rang clear out of nowhere...

"KEKKAI EN!!!!!"

A barrier of pure flame formed in front of and around the three of them as the shells harmlessly melted under the intense heat. Ryo, clad in his Seishi attire, wearing some sort of breast plate and metal guards on his shins and forearms, landed in front of them as his wings respawned from his back. They quickly vanished, and focused around his forearms as he shouted, "Tsubasa no Hi...Renzoku Dan En!" sending a stream of rapid fire fireblasts towards his cannon, destroying it and leaving a scorch mark where the launcher was. Ryo's enflamed forearms faded out as his wings sprouted from behind again.

Naru, still shocked, watched as all these strangers showed up out of nowhere. A handsome young teen with wings of fire coming out of his back, a long haired guy dressed like Death, the handsome swordsman Kazuhiko had been studying, all trying to protect this strange spiky person who had tried to protect her. She knew she should try to get away, but this was so exciting she could not pull herself away.

Cursing under his breath as more of his fun was interrupted, the machine deactivated the launcher pack system and switched back to the sword configuration. It aimed its other gauntlet towards Naru and fired a grappling hook device, latching onto her and reeling her in, drawing his sword to kill her off. As the other Seishi moved in to try and stop it, it opened fire with its head vulcans, forcing them to scatter. As Naru struggled to get free, it rose its blade above its head, ready to cleave her, as a tornado rushed through, snapping the cable in two, causing the warrior to fall backwards as Naru landed on her skates and proceeded to make her getaway. Furious, the machine began to charge forward as the Amaterasu Seishi moved in to cut off its escape route, the monstrosity swatted them away with its large sword, bringing the blade up higher to cut Naru down again, as a bolt of green energy shot outward, damaging its hand and causing it to drop the sword, which almost fell on top of Naru, had the tornado not rushed by and scooped her up. It dissipated to reveal Yuriko with Naru in her arms, who she set down and told to run, which Naru quickly did. As it looked over to see its prey getting away, it next laid eyes on Yuriko, and headed for her.

"Ahhh!!!! It's another nice helpless target who probably doesn't know how to use that pointy thing!" it shouted with glee as it ran towards Yuriko, forgetting a few key things...

One, Yuriko was no helpless target, as she jammed her naginata into its chest, and second, DID know how to use the pointy thing, as she proceeded to fall backwards, causing the machine to sail over her and crash helplessly on its back, with Yuriko straddling it, as she pulled her spear out and jammed it into the machine's eye, as she jumped off and landed next to her companions.

Caution alarms rang throughout the machine of the chest damage and eye damage it had just taken, along with the badly damaged hand that was still smoking from the blast as it rose to its feet once again, to a surprised group of Seishi.

"SHUT UP!!!! SHUT UP!!!!! SHUT UP!!!!!!" the machine shouted at the alarms as it stood up despite its damage and "glared" at the assembled warriors. "You let my prey get away....you've actually managed to hurt me...WELL TOO BAD!!!!!! Soon my internal regeneration systems will kick in and then you'll ALL BE SOR...WHERE IS THAT ACCURSED MUSIC COMING FROM!!!!?" it shouted as a form looking like Shining Gundam charged towards it, nailing it with a power punch.

As it got to its feet, it began going through its memory banks, as a profile of Kashin and his Armor's resemblance came up side by side in what remained of its eye, making it extremely mad as it charged violently at Kashin, who went into an over the shoulder throw, sending the contraption flying using his judo skills.

"DIE YOU INFERNAL..." the machine shouted as it opened fire with its vulcan cannons, who's bullets failed to hit Kashin as Ryo put up his shield around him, trying desperately to maintain it as the being laughed maniacally and continued to fire until it ran out of bullets, and still then kept trying to fire, the tiny barrels spinning harmlessly. The barrier faded around Kashin, with his hand glowing green and the joints extended as he cried out...

"SHINING FINGER!!!!!!", smothering its face with his hand, the energy burning through more of its armor as more alarms sounded, as a prompt came up to initiate an emergency teleport. It faded upwards from its legs and towards its head before all that was left was the damage done and the footprints it left, with Kashin holding his glowing hand out. He powered it down and closed its faceplate as the other Seishi gathered around him.

"Okay, what was that thing?" Kashin wondered.
"I'm not sure, but it sure was interested in offing you." Ryo observed.
"It certainly looked like a Gundam armor." Anubis added, "but it seemed more advanced. Perhaps it was from the future?"
"Let's not jump to any conclusions Carrot Top. I've accepted this Seishi business and this Gundam-inspired business suit I have to wear, but now you've totally jumped off the deep end. Come on! Time travel? That's a little far-fetched, considering what I'm trying to accept already."

Anubis gritted his teeth at being called Carrot Top as Navcase chimed in, "well, I've been around for almost as long as Anubis has, and I still can't make sense of most of this stuff. He could be right."

Yuriko walked over, carrying a reverted and unconscious Ayako, catching the last of the conversation.

"She'll be fine after some rest. Perhaps Ayame might have some explanation by now?"
"Let's go. Everyone hang on to me." Anubis said as the Seishi touched him and he began to focus on the Palace.
"Don't teleport us ABOVE the palace this time Carrot Top." Kashin commented.
"Knock it off Kashin, that only happened once." Ryo shot back.

Anubis and the others vanished from the badly damaged spot just as the sounds of sirens were heard.

Naru skated away from the scene as fast as she could. She was worried about Ayako, but also worried she would get caught in the crossfire if she went back. She rounded corner after corner as she came back inside Otoantou, Karen waiting at the main entrance.

"<There you are. Come on, my dad just got back, he has someone for us to meet.>" Karen replied.

Naru took off her skates and put her sandals back on as they stepped inside the facility and was led by Karen down corridor after corridor to the conference room they had been in before, where Kazuhiko, Houji, and Shou were already waiting. Naru took a seat in between Shou and Kazuhiko as Karen sat on the other side of Shou as Tenma walked in with a girl who could only be a few years older than Naru. Her long hair looked as if it had been bleached and then dyed blacker than it was originally, her eyes were heavy on eye shadow, her wrists laden with expensive jewelry, her ears pierced several times over. She was dressed partially in a school uniform that Naru recognized as coming from a school in Tokyo that was not as prestigious, but clearly catered to a better-to-do class of people, but as the girls observed was higher cut than it should be, showing skin from her belly button down to her waist, and her skirt cut so low Karen had to whack him for drooling over a clearly underage girl, that was clearly poisoning his mind. Her top was clearly one or two sizes smaller than she needed it to be to draw attention to her ample for a girl of her ages' chest, which only made Karen as angry about how she flaunted her physical assets as it angered Naru in respect to her financial assets. She strode into the room in a snooty, stuck up manner as she took a seat at the head of the table as Tenma stood beside her.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Midori Kannouteki. She has graciously agreed to be our Priestess of Drakka and assist us in the summoning ritual which we are in the process of planning and will finalize once we manage to locate our seventh and final Seishi. Ms. Kannouteki is a long way from home so please try to make her feel welcome."

As Tenma continued to drone on about Houji's current efforts to locate the Seishi, Midori, somewhat bored, caught a glimpse of Shou. She proceeded to stretch her arms above her head slowly and deliberately, pulling her top closer to her chest to make what was underneath the shirt more prominent, which enraged Karen so much that she almost knocked Shou out of his chair.

"What was dat for?" Shou whispered.
"Do you have any idea how old she is? Do you have any decency?>" Karen shouted to him.
"Ya! But you neva do anyting like that!" Shou replied.
"<That's because I actually have self-respect and decency." Karen snapped back, with Naru agreeing. Shou agreed and proceeded to listen to Tenma talk with Houji.

Midori was disappointed. She thought for sure that she had reeled him in with her slightly erotic charm. If she wanted to reel in this fish she would need different bait. As Tenma continued to converse with Houji, Midori rummaged through her pockets as she pulled out a pack of cigarettes and pulled one out along with a book of matches. Tenma spotted her.

"You already had two on the way here." Tenma whispered to her.
"Tough." she shot back, placing it in her mouth, and striking the match, and slowly moving the flame inward, but Shou did not as much as look at her. She lit it and took a long drag, exhaling the smoke slowly from her mouth, but still no reaction from Shou. Not as much as a nibble. She would have to look through her bag of tricks a little more to get this one, she thought as she flicked some ashes into an ashtray on the table, before leaning back and taking another drag, as Houji and Tenma continued to drone on.

"<She's disgusting.>" Karen commented.
"Tell me about it..." Shou added.
"<So you agree with me that it's a disgusting habit?>" Karen asked.
"Nah, it's the total package. Girls like dat, ya wonder what kinda parents let her get away with all dat."
"If she were my daughter...I would kill her." Kazuhiko replied.
"You never said what your daughter was like, Kazuhiko-san." Naru asked.
"Well, she's certainly nothing like the piece of work sitting before us." Kazuhiko commented as Midori took another drag.
"She pushes the envelope a bit at times, but it's never been anything serious. She knows her mother and I would kill her if she did anything like that, but she knows her own and our limits. She's bleached her hair a few times, pierced her ears, she and I can never agree on music, and has given her mother and I our share of heart attacks, but she's still for the most part a good girl." he explained.
"So why did you say she's with her mom?" Naru asked.
"It's a long story." Kazuhiko explained once again.
"Sorry." Naru apologized. "Is it that difficult a subject?"
"Yes." Kazuhiko answered.

Back up in the Heavens, the five conscious Seishi of the six who cared had gathered in Ayame's workshop to see what she and Kinjiro had come to the conclusion of.

"Well, you were right Anubis, our analysis shows it was a time warp. No idea where it opened from, but it did open right above the park where you fought that thing. It certainly doesn't look like any Gundam I've ever seen, it must be some newer model where the details are sketchy at best. You said it vanished?"
"Yeah, suddenly after I tried to crush its skull." Kashin replied.
"Which we have of course warned you about twice." Anubis commented under his breath.
"Must have been equipped with some sort of emergency teleport. We've put something like it on the Seishi armors, but it's still very experimental. Whoever built that thing must have developed their own or stole the plans for ours sometime in the future."
"Anything else?" Ryo asked.
"Yeah, it's weird but there's all sorts of activity on Iwo Jima." Ayame explained.
"That island hasn't been inhabited since the forties. Someone would have to be a fool to set foot on it nowadays."
"Perhaps one of the volcanoes is getting ready to erupt?" Anubis asked.
"No...it's not anything volcanic. There's just all sorts of weird energy readings on it that I can't explain."
"Maybe we should go investigate?" Yuriko suggested.
"Not a good idea. That island is quite dangerous."
"Before the war they used to gather sulfur from there." Kashin explained.
"That is why." Navcase said.
"What are you getting at Navcase?" Ryo asked.
"My studies of your history since my time revealed that soldiers dug tunnels and trenches in the island during one of your wars. A network of caves in a place that reeks of sulfur and other volcanic things would be a perfect hiding place for dragons."
"You think the Draconai are there?" Anubis asked.
"They might. But there would be too many to stop."
"Okay, I think you're loosing me here." Kashin said.
"The Draconai are a race of dragonlike humanoids, but they weren't always that way. We fought them in that military base that we destroyed when we met you for the first time." Navcase explained.
"Oh, those things." Kashin answered. "Great, just what we need. Dragons."

Meanwhile, back at Houji's...

The two-sided conversation Houji and Tenma seemed to be having was drawing to a close, which had bored Karen, Shou, and Naru to death. Kazuhiko had become a pillow for Naru, and even Midori was starting to fade, even with all the shots of nicotine in her. She put out what was left of her cigarette as Houji and Tenma dismissed everyone, as there was no point in them hearing the remainder of the conversation. The three were ready to leave when they found Midori standing in their way.

"Good. If you don't mind I'll need some help carrying all my things down to my room." she said.

When all of them gave her a funny look she continued, "Well, you are MY Seishi aren't you? That makes you my servants. Now, grab those bags there and follow me."

Shou, Naru, and Karen headed out of the room to the front door of the building, where Midori had promptly dumped lots of suitcases, worse than the amount Karen had left when they relocated from Shou's. As the two reached down to pick them up, they cringed under the weight, especially Naru.

"Whaddyagotinhere, DEAD BODIES?" Shou asked as he began to inch his way to the elevator.
"No, just makeup, jewelry, almost all my clothes, backup makeup, my CD collection..." Midori said, continuing to tick off miscellaneous and superfluous items as the group began to inch towards the elevator painstakingly as Midori skipped over with no effort and not a single bag in her hands. Kazuhiko started to walk off to study more footage when Midori stopped him as well.

"And just where do you think you're going? You're a Seishi too, you're gonna help." she demanded.
"I am a ronin. I serve no one but myself." Kazuhiko explained.
"You certainly don't look old enough to be applying for college..." Midori said, looking him over.
"The other kind of ronin." Kazuhiko explained.
"Fine." Midori said.
"Hey, why does he get outta helpin' ya when we've gotta be ya pack mules?" Shou asked.
"Me? Carry all those heavy things? I might break a nail, or pull a muscle. Plus I'll get all sweaty." Midori complained.
"Oh believe me, you'll break more than a nail when I get my hands on you..." Karen muttered.
"What was that?" Midori asked.
"Nothing your Eminence!" Karen replied.

In minutes which seemed like hours, the three managed to drag and carry the Priestesses' Royal and Mismatched Luggage to the elevator, which almost hit the weight limit of the thing, which practically descended like a brick to the lower floor. The doors opened and the group prepared to move out.

"Okay, which room is yours?" Karen asked.
"Oh, it's the one at the end of the hall." Midori said, pointing down the long corridor.
"Ya've got ta be kiddin' me..." Shou said in disbelief.
"Move it! Chop Chop!" Midori ordered, as the group began groaning in pain as they dragged the heavy cargo down the hallway, where she forced them to open the door for her, and dropped everything to the floor, relieved that their slave labor was over as they started to head back towards their rooms.

"Where do you think you're going? You still have to unpack, organize, and put away all my stuff." Midori added.

The three gave her a death glare, but she just stood there and said, "I'm waiting."

Midori plopped down on her bed and grabbed a magazine to read as Shou, Karen, and Naru took to opening her suitcases, sorting through her clothing, keeping Shou from touching her undergarments, folding, hanging up, arranging her CD's, all while Midori relaxed on her bed, flipping through the pages of her magazine, looking up from time to time to shout orders of the three as they tended to her every need. After what seemed like forever, she finally allowed them to leave.

"<I can't believe her!>" Karen shouted as she stormed into her room with the other two. "<She's not here two minutes and she's already bossing us around!>"
"Ow...everything hurts..." Naru added.
"If it wasn't for da fact your dad needs her, I'd kiler right now!" Shou shouted.
"<She is the most spoiled ungrateful BITCH I've ever met!>" Karen added on.
"I jus' hope we're free of her soon." Shou added.
"Not unless we find that seventh person soon." Naru reminded them.

Day turned to night, as the three headed off to bed, exhausted from Midori's demands. Naru fell asleep with a magazine across her chest, as she could barely keep her eyes open. Shou snored away in his room, so loud that Karen could hear them from her room. Kazuhiko went to sleep in his own room, hoping to resume his analysis the following morning.

Elsewhere in the city, the strange machine rematerialized. It had been forced to go into hiding due to the extensive damage, and finally the internal repair systems had managed to fix all of his miscellaneous battle damage. The night was young, and he was eager to paint the town red, or purple, or orange, or any color he desired. He activated his launcher setup once again, and took aim for a building downtown, sending an energy blast screaming into it, causing an explosion and caused people to scatter, as he forced the scattering people to scatter even more as he emptied a series of missiles into the crowd as well. He fired a few more well placed blasts with his cannon, causing even more things to topple as he laughed maniacally.

"Destruction! Destruction, and more destruction! I'll paint the town red tonight, what's left of it that is! GYA HA HA!!!!"

Back at the Palace...

A very sleepy Ayame rubbed her eyes in her pajamas as she checked her computer for what was going on since the alarm had gone off. Once again, there was some sort of disturbance, and once again, something had to be done. Most of the Seishi at the palace came running, except for Ayako, who was still exhausted, and Yoko, who simply slept through the alarm.

"What's up Ayame?" Navcase asked.
"Other than us? Some nutcase is out having some fun in Toyama." Ayame said.
"Great." Kashin commented.
"Come on, we've got to go stop them..." Navcase said, preparing his sword as he headed out, with a still sleepy Yuriko behind him.

Kashin growled as he also headed out after the couple, as a very grumpy Sakura joined them.

Seconds later, the group exited a portal not far from the site where havoc was being unleashed.

"Oh joy and rapture. It's our metal plated friend from before." Kashin replied, not too eager to fight the lunatic again.
"He's packing some serious firepower. I'll get Kanesada, you three call your armors and stall him." Sakura commented, as her armor unfolded around her.
"Great, just what he wants us to do." Kashin said as the three snapped their fingers, calling the Mobile Trace Rings to them. They descended around the three, after which they called out the names of their armors, which linked up on top of the skin-tight suits, as they rocketed off towards the whacko, who was firing his weapons erratically, causing miscellaneous damage downtown with his cannon. Navcase pulled his beam rifle out of subspace and took aim and fired, hitting him in the shoulder and partially damaging his launcher.

"Oh look. My playmates have returned! Say hello to my little friend!" he said, leveling the cannon at the three of them.
"He has to be stopped." Navcase declared, deploying his satellite cannon system as he called power down from Amaterasu, charging the weapons and taking aim very carefully, before unleashing a powerful blast of energy that slammed into their opponent, disarming him and sending him flying backward, slamming into a taller building behind him.
"Good shot! That should take some fight out of him." Kashin said.

Navcase zoomed in with his targeting systems and lined up his crosshairs on the hole, ready to unleash another blast if he got back up, but he instead found a flying form whizzing towards him with a beam rifle deployed!

"Ha ha ha! Thought I couldn't fly, didja? WELL, I CAN!!!!!!" he cackled as he deployed one of his beam sabers and headed straight for Navcase, who could not fire as the lunatic positioned himself in the path of yet another building, as he streaked towards the hero. Quickly undeploying his cannons, Navcase ignited a beam saber and fended off his charge with his own weapon, as the lunatic machine streaked by and turned back, firing his beam rifle clear into Navcase's backpack, damaging its flight capabilities and sending the warrior plummeting from the sky. An angry Yuriko turned to face him, deploying her beam bow, and let him have it with a Rising Arrow that penetrated his chest and sent him crashing to the ground as well. Navcase landed on top of Kanesada, who stopped at the feet of Sakura, who was waiting on the ground and helped Navcase off as the other two descended from the sky and alighted. The machine got to its feet, clutching its chest, as the damage repaired itself quickly and it changed armors once again into the sword configuration, removing a protrusion from its shoulder, which ignited into a boomerang which it hurled at the heroes, which they were forced to duck under as it flew by and returned to him. He removed the sword and fired his grappling anchor, which latched onto Sakura and reeled her in quickly as she reached for her swords to cut herself free, Kanesada transformed and fired its cannon at the machine, knocking it over as she kicked in her thrusters to pull the cable to its maximum length.

"Oh no you don't." he replied, starting to reel her in again as she attempted to pull away, pushing her engines to their limit. They burned out as he proceeded to pull her in again, however, she had reversed her sword grip, powered up her knuckle bomber and slammed it into his hook, smashing it as she fell free and landed on a retransformed Kanesada, with which she charged at him firing her mortar cannons, hitting him as she flew past. She fishtailed around and called on Armor Set C, and deployed the various blades to their forward locked position, held down the throttles and let off the brakes as she charged forward, as a wall of energy emanated outward from the blades around the front of the bike as it gained speed, blossoming into an energy fireball as she slammed straight through the machine, stopping a ways back before retracting the blades to their unused position.

"Take that." Sakura said determinedly, only to look back and see the damage the machine had suffered gradually repair itself! "Dammit..." she swore, as he recovered and switched his armor to his launcher form, bringing out his large cannon and leveling it at her. She canceled Armor Set C and called upon A, bringing her multiple weapons systems online, aiming her Sonic Fletchette Cannon at him and firing, sending a powerful heavy shell straight at him, which slammed through his chest as a sonic boom followed shortly behind, which knocked him off his feet. He managed to get up and recover his weapon, as he took aim once again and fired, knocking the combined form backwards into a parked car. Navcase, Yuriko, and Kashin rushed over and helped get her back on her feet, as she raised her forearms to reveal a series of launchers and let mini-missiles fly from them, which streaked towards him as he blocked the shots.

Over at Houji's, a Gundam pajama-clad Otoantou looked at a screen which was displaying the current conflict with Sakura and the others as Tenma strode in wearing a robe.

"You better have a good reason for dragging me out of bed Houji...I cannot take over the world, the country, or at that matter the clan if I am not well rested..." Tenma said, his complaints falling on a drooling and extremely giddy Houji, who was watching the screen.
"It's like no other Gundam I've ever seen...multiple weapon systems, interchangeable weapon systems...it's almost perfect!" Houji squealed with glee.
"I see there was no reason to wake me up then." Tenma said, turning to leave.
"But sir, whomever is piloting this armor suit is incredibly determined to win, despite all the damage he is taking! Someone like that, Seishi or not would be a valuable addition to our own ranks!" Houji said.
"They're either extremely determined, or extremely sadistic when it comes to pain. Still, you may be right. Is my own armor ready yet?" Tenma asked.
"Oh of course sir! I based it on the extremely powerful God Gundam from Mobile Fighter G Gundam!"
"I don't care about that, does it work?" Tenma said.
"Indeed. And actually, the design does have some significance! In the anime, the God Gundam is the advanced development machine designed for use in the Gundam Fight Finals, based off of the Shining Gundam, which is what Captain Zoutou's armor is based on."
"Hmm...interesting...I'll take some Aegis units with me just in case this gets too hot to handle." Tenma said, heading off.

Back at the battle scene, the machine unleashed more rockets and cannon shots at the group, knocking itself backwards as the heroes ducked behind cars, which did nothing more than give the shells more to go through to hurt them, and against unshielded vehicles, it was doing severe damage. With Sakura having the most firepower out of all of them, she was unloading mortar shells and blasts from her shoulder cannon repeatedly, while Navcase fired back with his beam rifle, his main cannons damaged earlier in the battle. Yuriko and Kashin fired their head mounted vulcans in short bursts, to keep their ammo from depleting fast, but the bullets were doing little more than placing nicks in the paint job of the enemy armor. Worse, any damage that Sakura managed to do was quickly repaired before she could fire again.

"Great, this is going to take forever, and it's not like I'm doing much."
"I think it's about to get worse." Navcase said, pointing to the sky.
"Oh Shit." Kashin added.

Above their armor plated target, a detachment of about twelve pinkish purple robots resembling the stolen V-Cypher armor from Kinjiro, armed with beam rifles, hovered in the air surrounding a stranger looking robot which had a chest that stuck out considerably, clawed gauntlets on its forearms, and a set of wings on its back, a pair of large shoulder guards, and a v-finned helmet that had a second smaller v-fin above and between the larger one. The purple units transformed into floating cannon emplacements, which proceeded to fire upon the already pinned down heroes, as Navcase attempted to block with his shield while using the small viewing window to try and fire back. This would have been easier, however, if he could fire his main weapon. Sakura let a salvo of mini-missiles loose on the machines, but the cannons also shot the shells down. Nine of the machines transformed back into their robot modes and slowly touched down around their current opponent, while the others stayed up in the sky around the other robot. They brought out their beam rifles and began firing upon the still pinned down group, as they ducked behind the car as energy bolts whizzed over them.

"We can't stop this! We're pinned down and we're screwed!" Sakura complained angrily.
"I'm almost out of shots on this thing." Navcase said, pointing to his beam rifle.
"I'm going after that guy just hovering there." Kashin said.
"Are you nuts?" Sakura shot back.
"It's better than being pinned down! If I'm gonna die, I'm going to go down fighting!" Kashin shouted, standing up and launching himself skyward.
"We better give him some cover..." Sakura said, nodding to Navcase who proceeded to open up with the last of their shots to keep the other robots busy while Yuriko fired a Rising Arrow towards Tenma. He and the other units dodged, but he then spotted something else approaching. Zooming in, he noticed it was Kashin.

*"Houji." Tenma said, as a small window of Houji appeared in his HUD. "What kind of weapons does this thing have?"
*"Ohh! It is completely based on the show!" Houji said, punching in a series of keystrokes that displayed a transparent pull down menu of an attack list in the other side of Tenma's HUD.
*"I expected you would. I don't really have to say these phrases, do I?" Tenma asked reluctantly.
*"Oh, you must! It's the only way to activate the weapons systems!" Houji shouted gleefully.
*"Very well."

Meanwhile, a large glowing green blade of energy had erupted from Kashin's beam saber as he engaged his Super Mode and charged in with a Shining Finger Sword.

"This Hand of Mine glows Burning Red!" Tenma shouted, hating every minute of it. "Its Loud Roar tells me to grasp Victory!" Tenma said as the wings deployed from its back, four locking in at the 11, 2, 8, and 4 o'clock positions while the other two locked firmly at 9 and 3, as a ring of energy surrounded through all of them, as Tenma held his hand back, as the upper armor of his forearm locked forward, exposing a glove that covered his hand as a claw deployed over it, as Kashin loomed closer and closer. "BAKANETSU GOD FINGER!!!!!" Tenma screamed as he sent his fist flying forward at Kashin, slamming through the first few layers of his chest armor, and sending Kashin smoking and plummeting back down to Earth.

*"Impressive Houji. What else can this machine do?" as the glove retracted back into its arm.

Houji cackled a little as he explained the most powerful attack the machine was capable of to Tenma, who smiled evilly.

"This Hand of Mine Glows Burning Red! It's loud Roar tells me to Grasp Victory!" Tenma shouted uneagerly.
"Oh no, here it comes again..." Navcase said as Tenma concentrated his crosshairs at the remaining Seishi.
"The School of the Undefeated of the East!" Tenma shouted as part of the chestplate opened up to reveal some sort of cannon. "Sekiha...."

As energy built in the opened cannon port, a series of hundreds of missiles streaked from behind the pinned down heroes. Some slammed into the other Aegis units, blasting them to kingdom come, while still others nailed the cannon itself, preventing Tenma from firing.

"WHAT IS HAPPENING!!!!?" Tenma shouted. *"HOUJI!!!!"
*"I'm not sure sir! I'm picking up some other contacts in your immediate area!" Houji shouted frantically.

Down on the ground, diagonal slash marks appeared on Aegis unit after Aegis unit, as they exploded as well.

*"Something is destroying my reinforcements Houji...." Tenma said angrily. "If you value your ability to type you'll do something about it!"
*"I'm sending more Aegis units now sir! They'll be right there!" Houji shouted even more desperately.

Tenma's targeting equipment locked onto something at a distance, which turned out to be a mine of some sort, which locked onto his chest and exploded momentarily after, surrounding Tenma in a tornado, knocking out his transformed state and causing him to fall from the sky! Fortunately more touched down around them, but they were slashed down at an even faster rate! A purple machine skated in and dropped strange miniature tripods randomly along the ground, many near the fallen Kashin, calling on an energy blade from its arm as Aegis units continued to fall.

*"HOUJI....I am loosing my patience with you..." Tenma continued, not satisfied with the results.
*"Deploy Goliaths and two APC's filled with Cyber Commandos to Mr. Furukiayu's location immediately!" Houji shouted, even more desperately than before, knowing his very fingers were on the line if he failed.

"What's going on here?" Navcase wondered, gazing out at the confusion that was starting to form.
"My sisters came to the rescue." Sakura smiled under her helmet as a small transparent window opened in her helmet.

*"Hey Devil Girl! Sorry we took so long to get here, we had to drag Suiren out of her beauty sleep." Ayame commented.
*"I came willingly!" Suiren protested, joining in on the conversation. "Don't worry about these things, they can't fight what they can't see." she answered, as a few more Aegis robots were demolished by her quick swiping.
*"Thanks you two. I needed that." Sakura replied.
*"Hey! What about me? I grounded that big looser." Yuri said as she appeared in a window. "I'm ready to give them all a taste of my cannon."
*"I'm here too!" Ran added in.
*"Uh oh...we've got incoming girls, let's prepare for action." Ayame added in.

The sound of mechanized walking was heard as a group of Goliaths, barely able to fit more than two in between the sidewalks, strolled into the area, their cannons trained on the heroes. Two APCs rolled in as well, as heavy energy rifle armed cyborgs disembarked and moved into positions, training their weapons on the heroes.

*"This doesn't look good guys..." Sakura replied. "We can't fight off all of them..."
*"Oh ye of little faith. Okay Ran, it's your turn!" Ayame said.
*"Right!" Ran said, pushing a button on her right gauntlet.

The little tripods came to life as they materialized into large turrets which dwarfed Kashin but were deployed strategically enough so that they formed a veritable wall of metal between the heroes and their adversaries. They automatically locked on target and proceeded to unleash a hail of cannon fire on the Goliaths and the troops, as the troops were slowly blown away by the powerful blasts and the Goliath's armor slowly depleted.

*"Tell them to fire their missiles!" Tenma shouted at Houji.
*"They can't! They're only Air to Air! They can only hit flying targets, and they're not flying!" Houji shouted.
*"Too Bad." Ayame said as she also appeared in Tenma's HUD.
*"What? How did you?" Houji shouted in disbelief at how she had cracked their signal.
*"Ours can hit ground targets too. Ran?" Ayame said before clicking out of their conversation.

In complete and total synchronization, the turrets switched over to their missile launchers and completely unloaded on the Goliaths, forcing the pilots to bail out before the upper bodies were reduced to slag. The legs fell harmlessly like felled trees around them, as the turrets stopped firing and retracted back into their tripod state.

However, what was behind them was a little worse than before. A metallic orange form now stood in front of them, with a cannon with an unusually large bore attached to her forearm, braced against the car and aimed at the unfortunate group. Sakura, stood to her right in the center, her own weapons systems trained on the group as well. To Sakura's right, a metallic green unit stood, which appeared to be glowing pink at the moment. And high above them on a building, a metallic blue form stood, with various missile launchers opened.

*"Houji..." Tenma said..."Get us out of here..." he pleaded as Ayame appeared once again.
*"I'm sorry...he can't do that." Ayame said, as Houji's window became extremely statically before completely blinking out. A swarm of super-deformed chibi Ayame's danced around laughing on Tenma's HUD as it displayed the words "YOUR TRANSMISSION HAS BEEN JAMMED COURTESY OF AYAME'S ECM SUITE O' DOOM."

Tenma realized he was in deep trouble. He and Houji's troops were staring down the barrels of several guns and some missile launchers. He hated to do what he had to do next, as he crossed the Rubicon that evil fearless leader after leader has been forced to cross in their history...

"RETREAT!!!!" He shouted over his armor's loudspeaker, relieved that it still worked. "RETREAT!!!!!" Tenma shouted as he fired up what remained of his flight capability, only carrying him a few feet before he came crashing down and was forced to run the rest of the way, as the drivers leapt out of their APC's and followed after the remaining metal foot soldiers and dove for cover in an alleyway as Sakura, Yuri, Ayame, and Suiren all fired in unison, blasting the APC's to kingdom come and doing considerable damage to the other machine, which locked in a series of coordinates into its own HUD before vanishing due to damage. The battle won, the heroes disappeared and returned to the Heavens for some well deserved rest.

At Otoantou's however, things were not as restful. Tenma was furious, a state which was very hard for him to achieve. An entire group of what Houji assured him were the most advanced battle robots he could find, were trashed in a matter of minutes. The suit of armor he assured him would not fail him, failed due to a few well placed missiles, damage which would have to be repaired before he could use it again. This had Tenma steamed, steamed to the point that the dark energies of being a Seishi had begun to erupt and form a glowing aura around him.

"You failed me Houji...you failed me severely. For the failure you caused me, I should make you cut off all your fingers. But I'm not going to." Tenma said, sounding almost like Armada Decepticon leader Megatron as he spoke.
"Oh thank you so much sir!" Houji said, relieved.
"No, this act of failure deserves a much more severe punishment." Tenma said, reaching into his suit coat and pulling out a pistol.
"Furukiayu-san, no!" Houji pleaded, begging for his life, diving behind some equipment as Tenma fired in his direction, missing.
"Swear to me!" Tenma said, taking aim again as Houji peeked up from behind his hiding place to see Tenma aiming, and diving out of the way as Tenma fired again. "SWEAR to me, that you will not fail me again Otoantou Houji!"
"I swear! I swear I won't fail you again sir!" Houji said timidly, diving for cover again behind a desk as Tenma fired another shot that killed a desktop computer.
"Louder! I can't hear you!" Tenma ordered, firing another shot that almost grazed Houji's head as he dove behind the top of the desk as Tenma fired again.
"I SWEAR I WON'T FAIL YOU AGAIN FURUKIAYU-SAMA!!!!!" Houji shouted loudly.
"Good enough." Tenma said. "You know, I wasn't really going to kill you, the fact you're a Seishi prevented me from doing that." he continued, putting away his pistol to Houji's relief. "I simply wanted to know how loyal you were. You're too valuable an asset at this point in the game for me to dispose of you. I need your resources and personal army as much as I need that accursed Draconai leader's pledge of loyalty, which reminds me, how are things going on their armors?" Tenma asked.
"Ahead of schedule sir." Houji said, dusting himself off.
"Splendid. All should be going according to plan then. And the seventh Seishi?" Tenma asked, expecting a similar answer.
"We're still searching sir..." Houji said, cringing, hoping Tenma would not use him for target practice again to hone his marksmanship skills.

Suddenly, a massive splash of light erupted in the hangar where the two were talking. The same metallic form that had been causing the Amaterasu Seishi so much trouble warped in from nowhere, still damaged to a degree. Tenma brought out his pistol again and took aim, as did Houji reach over to push an alarm button to summon security.

"There's no need for that." the machine said. "I also know for a fact that the security force you're about to summon will take at least 5 minutes longer than you expect them to come due to the distance between here and their barracks, Otoantou." the machine continued.
"How do you know my name?" Houji demanded.
"I should, considering you built me."
"I built you! I don't recall constructing you! I'm too busy with the..."
"Blitz units for the Draconai to use in your big plan." it replied.
"How do you know about that?!" Houji said angrily and in disbelief.
"Like I said, you built me. Or more accurately speaking, you will build me."
"How can that be possible?" Houji asked.
"You've been searching for the seventh Seishi, but haven't found him or her yet, correct?" the machine said.
"Correct, much to my dismay." Tenma added, his gun still trained on the machine.
"Consider him found." the machine answered.
"YOu know where he is?" Houji asked.
"No you mecha-obsessed moron, I AM Him. Permit me to introduce myself. I am Teisei Jikannohizumi, the Seventh Seishi of Drakka."

HOUJI: We did it! We gathered all Seven Seishi! We're going to win!

TENMA: Not quite, Houji. There is still much to do before we can.

HOUJI: Such as?

TENMA: The preparations, for one.

NAVCASE: Excuse me, evil ones. There is more than just your plans.

KAZUHIKO: And I have an agenda that lies solely with the Sword of Heaven, not with your scheme.

YOKO: Um, not to interrupt or anything, but wasn't this, like, going to be the end of part 4?

AYAKO: Apparently our writer is disorganized and starved for sleep, time, and running behind his plotted schedule. Oh well. It's next time on Ronin Warriors, Hell Back on Earth: Duels, Discussions, and Preparations. See you soon!

YOKO: Like, when are the Ronins actually gonna appear, and what's this Hell back on Earth junk all about?

AYAKO: You know how in Zoids Chaotic Century and Guardian Force they spend the entire series looking for Zoid Eve, only to find out it's not an it but a what?

YOKO: No...

AYAKO: I forgot. I'm dealing with the ani-impaired here. You're going to have to wait until Chapter 22 for that.

YOKO: But what am I gonna like do 'til then? I can't wait that long!

AYAKO: Beats me, why don't you go to the mall or something?

YOKO: OKAY!!!!

AYAKO: ::sighs:: I refuse to believe we're related...