Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Ronin Warriors: Hell Back on Earth ❯ Taking Back Toyama ( Chapter 24 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Miles from the completely locked down city of Toyama, the looming structure of the Cannon Command Center section of the Super Deluxe Transport Mark I stood in silence as the morning sun rose. Inside its walls, the miscellaneous warriors under the banner of Amaterasu lay asleep, resting their bodies and minds for the upcoming attack later that morning. The plan was simple; fan out and smash all they could, get to Kinjiro and get him out, and stop the Drakka Seishi before they could make a single wish. The clock slowly approached the wakeup time, as the alarm clocks sounded.

"All right everyone, wake up! We've got a city to retake!" Kashin shouted.
"Who died and made you in charge..." Anubis asked.
"Well, your leaders are still asleep." Kashin explained, pointing to a still sound asleep Rowen and Ryo cuddling with an almost comatose loudly snoring Sakura.
"Good morning everyone!" Suiren said happily as she walked into the room.
"Shut up and go back to sleep..." everyone added.
"Fine then. You'll just miss the breakfast that Sai and Ran made."
"Break!?" Yuri exclaimed, waking up.
"Fast?" Kento added, also awakening.

After managing to awaken Sakura and pry her off of Ryo, discovering that Navcase was already up and outside practicing with Yuriko, helping Dais down from the ceiling, and finally locating Ayame, who had fallen asleep after working on Suiren's armor a little, the group assembled for breakfast and did what they could to wake the rest of the team up with coffee and other miscellaneous morning beverages.

"Now, as we planned yesterday, Suiren will sneak past the outer defenses using her stealth capabilities and distract them long enough for us to fire with the ion cannon on the APC. Once inside the city, we will break off into groups of two each and carefully make our way towards Kinjiro's to free him. Whoever gets there first, let us know and we'll come get you. If we can, attempt to get anyone else out that you can. Once everyone in the city is safely away from Houji's base, we attack with everything we have in order to keep the Drakka Seishi from making any wishes and freeing those who are being used against their will, especially Kashin's daughter and Ayako's friend Naru. Now, Rowen, Sage, Ayako and myself will remain in the APC standing by while the rest of you go exploring. All right, let's move out!" Dais shouted.

Everyone headed outside, looking towards the city in the distance. The time was now. Tenma had to be stopped...no matter what.

"Ronin Warriors and Dark Warlords to ARMS!!!!!" Rowen shouted.

"Armor of Nataku Hardrock!"
"Armor of Sandrock Torrent!"
"Armor of Epyon!"
"Armor of Ashura!"

In the first time in a long time, Kento, Sai, Kale, and Sekhmet called upon their Mecha Armor, starting off the first stock transform in a long time.

Anubis, Yoko, Yuriko, and Kashin were next.

"ARMOR OF DARK ABSORPTION!!!!"
"ARMOR OF DRAGON FURY!!!!"
"ARMOR OF RISING PASSION!!!!"
"ARMOR OF THE SHINING HEAVENS!!!!"

The four snapped their fingers, summoning the Mobile Trace Ring System to encase their bodies before their armors locked into place and they struck battle poses and clambered into the APC.

The five She-Ronins concentrated as their armors unfolded around them, as Suiren and the others summoned their Add-Ons from within the Slave Bay.

"Kanesada!" Sakura shouted.
"Himeihoshi!" Ayame shouted.

The side wall of the Slave Bay collapsed from the side as a ramp slid out from the center, as the bike was slid outward over the wall frame and drove down the ramp to her side, as the roof opened up and Himeihoshi rose on his catapult. It slid over to the center as he prepped for launch. Ayame leapt onto the roof, as part of his cockpit descended from his belly as she climbed in and was lifted up into the aircraft. The remaining unarmored warriors hopped into the APC and proceeded to roll out for the city as Ayame followed overhead on the highway, with Sakura riding alongside on Kanesada.

As the Seishi and the other Ronins caught up on things, Rowen, driving the APC along, noticed the sound asleep Ayako sitting next to him. It had been a long time since he had actually seen her, let alone Ayame, since Mia made them rebuild her house, even though it was only Anubis who was responsible. But Ayame, aside from being pretty and also loving to sleep in, reminded him too much of his father. Despite his lingering feelings, he felt it best to check with an expert.

*"Sakura." Rowen asked.
*"Yeah?" Sakura replied.
*"Has Ayame mentioned me at all while I've been busy at Mia's?"
*"Hate to say it, but no. She's been really busy inventing all sorts of crazy things." Sakura answered.
*"Tell me about it. I'm driving one of them." he added. "But nothing?"
*"Not that I know of, she's stopped being lazy though, that's about it. She's doing the work and I'm relaxing for the most part. Very weird. Any reason?" Sakura asked.
*"No, not really, just curious." Rowen said.
*"Okay everyone, we're nearing the target now." Dais replied, as the group turned off the highway and entered a hiding spot, where Himeihoshi set down in gerwalk mode.

"All right. Now, we've got to distract those guys in the tank so we can blast our way through. Any ideas?" Dais asked.

Suiren raised her hand.

"I know a way." she said, smiling deviously.
"Suiren, if you're thinking what I think you're thinking, I don't think those guys are bishies." Yuri explained.
"So? I can still charm them." Suiren said.
"I'll go along, just in case her charm doesn't work." Anubis said, as he stepped out of the APC as Suiren shed her armor and hid behind the tank for a few moments, before emerging in a pair of cutoff shorts and a somewhat revealing top, almost making Anubis do a double take. He shut his wings and folded into the darkness as Suiren began to head forward, as confident as she was nervous.

On the tanks themselves, Houji's men were watching out for anything incoming, both on visual and on radar, however, Anubis' hyperjammers were doing their part to make him invisible to both, as he crept closer and closer, trying to look as inconspicuous as he could despite being invisible, as Suiren got into range of their sights.

"Woah, check that out." one of the soldiers said, peering out from the tank at the slowly approaching Suiren.
"Oh boys, could you open up in there? I'm a little lost." Suiren said.

Hatches opened up on the tanks as soldiers peeked out, spellbound by Suiren.

"Can we help you miss?" one of the soldiers said, incredibly nervous.
"Yeah, my car broke down, and I was wondering if some of you nice boys could come and help fix it?" Suiren said in a somewhat breathy voice.
"We'd love too miss, but we can't leave our posts."
"Not even for little old me?" Suiren said, batting her eyes a little.
"Orders are orders." the soldier added.

Meanwhile, back on the APC, Rowen was attempting to help Dais aim the ion cannon at the enemy vehicles.

"Okay, a little to the left, no, a little to the right." Rowen directed as Dais attempted to get the cannon lined up with the enemy forces.
"Um, Rowen, are you sure it's a good idea to let a guy who has no depth perception aim this thing?" Sage asked.
"We'll be fine...I think." Rowen said.
"Famous last words." Sage said.

As Suiren started to strike up a conversation with the soldiers about who they were and where they were from, and even what they were up to out there, Anubis was inching closer and closer to the vehicles so that he could slice them up with his beam scythe quickly and effortlessly, distracting them long enough for the APC to blow them away with the Ion cannon.
As the guys talked with Suiren, one of them noticed a shimmering form next to their tank.

"It's a trick!" he shouted, as his tank was sliced in half by Anubis' beam scythe as he came out of hiding. The others grabbed machine guns from inside and proceeded to fire on Anubis, as he closed his wing shields and strafed to the side,, while firing his head vulcans as the others proceeded to fire on him. Suiren flipped backward as the Siege Tanks attempted to hit her, leaving large craters where they fired, as she called on her own armor and leapt into the air, as her cannon slid forward to protect her fingers as she rained down blaster fire from her cannon.

"Add-On Hasshin!" she shouted, as it fired up and linked up with her in mid-air, as her armor began to glow green, then yellow, and finally pink, as a pink wave of energy flew towards one of the Siege tanks, totaling it as she alighted. She removed her no-daichi and attached it to her back as she strafed in the other direction, picking off the troops with her shuriken launcher.

"Okay, let's go get them." Rowen said. "FIRE!"

Dais nodded as the ion cannon resounded, waking up Ayako from her slumber.

"Huh, wha? Are we under attack?" she asked.
"We're just starting. Move out!" Rowen said, as the machine began to hover forward and the others took off as well.

The ion blast slammed into one of the Mammoth Tanks, reducing it to a smoldering mess as a few more blasts finished it off. Sakura raced forward on Kanesada, letting loose with her twin mortar cannons, sending shells flying into other tanks and destroying them as well.

"My turn now. Take this!" Himeihoshi shouted, sending several blasts from his plasma spear into the enemy vehicles, destroying them as well. A few well placed blasts from the ion cannon took care of the rest as the APC came to a stop near where the enemy vehicles were as it opened the two side doors to deploy the rest of the troops.

"Good luck guys." Rowen said as they headed into the city on foot as Ryo and Sakura zipped ahead on Kanesada, while Ayame lumbered behind in Himeihoshi, forced to remain in gerwalk mode because he would be too easy to spot if he flew high and more conspicuous if he remained in robot mode. Thus he lumbered along in the unusual configuration, with robot legs and arms sticking out from a plane's body, a gun pod in each hand and the plasma spear mounted to his right arm.
The pairs had lots of ground to cover, and only Tenma knew what lurked behind every corner as they set out.

Carefully trudging through the streets of Toyama away from the safety of the APC, the cloaked form of Navcase and the armored form of Yuriko stood their ground, as they searched for any hostile forces. They hoped that there would not be much to deal with there, but they were sure that all sorts of traps lay in wait for them. Navcase kept his grip on his sword, hoping the holy blade could handle anything that got in their way.

Navcase stopped as he heard the sound of metallic footsteps closing in on them. They braced their backs against the walls near a side street as on the street behind them they saw a group of about five stubby-looking mecha with crests on their heads almost like a cockatoo, holding their breath as they marched past. The two dashed past the side street to the next building, as the machines stopped in their tracks, as one turned and began marching towards them! It stopped at the intersection, as its red dot eye began scanning from side to side with a wide red beam, as the two hunched against the walls to avoid its gaze. Navcase began to inch behind the machine as carefully as he could, staying outside of its scanning range, as it suddenly faced towards him and began to scan again, capturing Navcase in its beam, as the beam vanished and the sound of clanking was heard from nearby.

"What's going on Shinta-chan?" Yuriko wondered, frightened.
"He must have somehow called for help! But it'll do him no good!" he said as he leapt into the air and landed on its head, driving his sword into it before leaping off as it crashed to the ground with sparks flying out of it. The other units came towards Navcase and Yuriko, carrying swords in their hands as they came for him.

"Yuriko!" he shouted.

The beam bow extended outward and over in front of her fist and deployed as she notched a beam arrow in it and used her Rising Arrow attack to send an energy arrow screaming through the line of machines, blowing them to kingdom come.

"Let's go." Navcase said, sheathing his sword and grabbing Yuriko's hand. "They might have also called for help just before you took them out, they'll be coming her to stop us."

With that the two headed further into the city.

Elsewhere, Yuri and Ran had run into trouble of their own. More of the strange robots had come after them as well, and Yuri was doing her best to cream them with her Knuckle Bomber before they could cause any trouble.

"Yuri! They're going to keep coming until we try and push through them!" Ran shouted.
"Dammit..." Yuri swore as she one-two punched another one with her fists. "Then it's time to clear us a way."

Pulling the large cannon off her back and clamping it on to her Knuckle Bomber, she felt her locking mechanisms engage as she fired a powerful bolt of energy into the incoming forces, blasting them into oblivion before they could even call.

"Let's go!" Yuri shouted, grabbing Ran as they kicked in their jump jets to quickly jet past the fallen troops and around the corner--right into a pair of Goliaths.

"Oh shit." Yuri swore as the two girls dove out of the way of the hail of machinecannon fire. Ran opened up her own and began firing back, only doing some damage to the enemy units.
"Ran, try and draw their fire! I've got an idea." Yuri said.

Activating her rollerblades, Ran skated in the opposite direction, which luckily drew one of the Goliaths into following her. She swung around the corner as the lumbering machine proceeded to follow, as Yuri ran the opposite way, getting the other one to follow behind her, leading around the corner just as the one following Ran got into range of the other one. The two girls nodded to each other and jetted past, leaping onto the opposite Goliath, as the pilots fired their weapons at each other, catching the other one in their crossfire before ceasing. Placing one bomb on the Goliath she was on and using her grappling cables to attach another one to the Goliath Yuri was on, she then latched on to Yuri with another and aimed another at the street, pulling them off the mecha and rolling to safety as the bombs went off, destroying the two Goliaths.

Elsewhere...

"KEEEE-YAH!!!!" Kento cried as he jammed his twin-bladed staff into one of the strange enemy mecha that Houji had deployed to stop them. He twirled the weapon end over end to take out a few more on either side of him, as Sai used his Man-catcher to crush a few more.
"These guys aren't so tough, are they Sai?" Kento commented as he jabbed the reverse end of the blade into another one.
"Not at all, it's just there's so many of them!" Sai shot back.
"Aw great, here come some more!" Kento shouted, pointing at a new group that were armed with beam rifles, as the two dove out of the way of their fire.
"Let's see how you like this!" Kento added, bringing his two rear cannons up and opening fire on the enemy units, blowing holes into their chests.
"Nice shot Kento, but I don't think that'll do them in." Sai added.
"You haven't seen nothin' yet buddy." Kento said, putting his staff away and extending his twin Dragon Fangs, slamming through the enemy units' chests before retracting them, causing them to explode.
"Oh yeah! I'm the man!" Kento shouted.

As his friend celebrated his victory, Sai caught a glimpse of a large orange machine with a huge cannon for an arm turning its waist towards Kento as the cannon shined in the morning sky.

"Kento! Watch out!" Sai shouted as he fired a pair of missiles from his shoulder launchers, as Kento dove out of their path as the cannon fired, leaving a crater, just as Sai's missiles slammed into the Titan that had decided to take a shot at Kento.
"Whoa, thanks man." Kento said.
"You owe me one. Come on, let's keep going, there are plenty more where all those came from."

Elsewhere...

A group of about fifteen Aegis units chased after Anubis and Kale as they flew down the streets of Toyama riding on Kale's Epyon armor, with Kale steering as Anubis fired back the best he could with his head vulcans, his ammo depleting quickly.

"This isn't working. We're going to have to improvise." Anubis said as the Aegis units switched to robot mode and began firing with their beam rifles, impacting against the thick armor of Anubis' wings. "I have a plan."
"I'm going to assume that this in some way involves me getting shot at." Kale asked.
"Yes. I just need you to draw their fire for a few minutes." Anubis said.
"Great, why do I always have to be the decoy?" Kale asked.
"Pick up your speed and get them to chase you some more." Anubis said.

As Kale increased his flight speed, the Aegis units converted back and proceeded to pick up speed to follow Kale. At that moment, the cloaked Anubis leapt off Kale's back, deployed his wings and landed on the back of the lead vehicle, as it proceeded to change into cannon mode to blast Kale, with the others slowing down to do the same. Timing it just right, Anubis drove his scythe into the ground, slowing down its flight speed and causing it to fishtail around as it opened fire at the other Aegis units, blasting them into nothingness. The unit managed to transform to robot mode and hurled Anubis off it, as it leveled its beam rifle at his head, it was split down the middle by a green blade of energy, which turned out to be Kale's beam sword.

"Good work Kale. That was a close one." Anubis said as he got up.
"You're telling me. After I transformed, I only had a few seconds to turn the dial and pray I turned it enough for the blade to hit that guy. Good thing I didn't turn it up too much or I would have hit you too."
"How reassuring." Anubis said as the two continued onward to get to Kinjiro. "I hope Sekhmet and Kashin are having as much luck as we are."

"SNAKE...FANG...STRIKE!!!!!!" Sekhmet shouted as his blade whip snapped into one, two, three, four, five of the strange enemy units and causing them to explode as he recovered his swords, with a large pile of similar mecha lying around him.

Kashin slashed his beam sword through several of the mecha cleanly, as they toppled to the ground in pieces.

"I'm getting too bored with this. HOUJI!? When are you going to give us a REAL Challenge?" Kashin shouted.

Back at Otoantou, Tenma watched intently over the massive screens broadcasting the heroes' progress. On some screens snow crashed images or blank screens showed from units that had been blasted to oblivion by the good guys. A large map showed the group's progress in the city, as well as where Houji's units were patrolling. Houji was huddling over in the corner, pulling his hair out at the severe damage that was being done.

"Furukiayu-sama, I understand your motive, but they are destroying every last GINN robot I have!" Houji complained.
"And they are serving their purpose well. They are slowly falling into my trap. Once they are well inside the city I will proceed to begin my counterattack. Are those reconnaissance 'bots ready for deployment?"
"Yes they are, sir." Houji stated.
"Good. The time to strike back is almost upon us."

Teisei walked into the room at that moment.

"You called for me?"
"Yes. Go out and see what kind of havoc you can wreak." Tenma explained.
"I've got dibs on the blonde chick with the sword and the Valley girl!" Teisei declared as he headed out.
"Houji, I'm on my way out to deal with Zoutou. Get ready with the little surprise we have in store for them." Tenma said as he called on his armor and headed out with Teisei.

Elsewhere in the city, Ryo and Sakura were having relatively few problems due to Kanesada's maneuverability. They had run into a few groups of GINN's, but they were nothing that Kanesada's side cannons were unable to handle.

"Looks like we're going to get there first, eh Sakura?" Ryo said.
"Don't rest on your flaming wings yet. There are some weird tank things up ahead. We'll wait here and fire when they pass in front of us." Sakura said.

Waiting on an intersection, the two waited patiently for the slow moving tank vehicles to pass by. Slowly they came into view of Sakura's sights and she let them have it with Kanesada's side mortar cannons, but they simply bounced off their thick armor and exploded harmlessly. They turned and surprisingly transformed into robots with four heavy cannons aimed their way.

"Tsubasa no Hi!" Ryo shouted, igniting his wings. "Hidama EN!" he shouted, sending a large fireball blossoming and screaming into the mechs, but the shot popped as if it was a bubble and not a fireball.

"What the?" Ryo wondered, as Sakura raced some distance away and turned towards them, powering up her cannon, sending an energy blast that resembled a fireball screaming into one of them, blasting it to smithereens. She aimed again, as one of the robots fired at her as she aimed for another shot, as Ryo pushed her out of the way, the shot nailing her charging gauntlet at the Knuckle Bomber, setting it off and sending her flying backwards, as Ryo flew out to catch her. She aimed her cannon out again, only to find that she could only fire normal energy shots at the robots, which were not that powerful.

"Damn..." Sakura swore as she inspected the badly damaged gauntlet.
"We've got to move, maybe Kinjiro can fix it when we get there." Ryo said as they leapt back on Kanesada and began to take off as the tanks transformed again and followed them.
"Great, they're on our tail again." Ryo said, ducking to the side as Sakura fired some shots past him, attempting to hit the treads of the tanks to slow them down.
"I'd help but my fire doesn't seem to be helping too much." Ryo replied.
"We've got to loose them and take them out. Ryo, I need you to leap into the air and fire on them." Sakura said.
"But didn't we just find out that..." Ryo said, trying to remind her that his fire did not work.
"Trust me." she said.

That was enough. As Sakura sped off in the opposite direction, Ryo leapt as high up as he could and spread his flame wings, raining down on them with his rapid fire fireballs, which as before did no damage whatsoever, basically phasing out as they hit. The tanks transformed back to robot mode once they realized they could not hit Ryo in their current state and aimed their cannons at him, and fired as he dodged the blasts as they exploded harmlessly around him, just as he heard Sakura rev up Kanesada and charge like a bat out of hell straight for them, practically playing chicken with them. At almost the last possible second, Sakura fishtailed around and started skidding backwards, deploying her head whips as she went by, slicing cleanly through the assembled mecha before skidding to a stop. Ryo rushed over and got on as they sped off to get to Kinjiro fast.

Back in the APC, things were pretty quiet, unlike what was going on inside the city. Sage and Dais were waiting patiently, Rowen sat at the wheel waiting for the go ahead to charge into the city and pick everyone up, Ayako was snoozing across from him.

With Ayame having been gone for so long, and now stomping somewhere through the city in her new toy laying waste to whatever got in her way, Rowen had somewhat turned his attention towards Ayako. She was certainly as pretty as Ayame was, but then again, Ayame was not a mad inventor either. He had not heard much about her, outside of the fact that she was into anime and anime artbooks a great deal, and then there was Temia, the mysterious presence that lived in her ring. Rowen had been half staring, half thinking so long that it took him a second to realize she was waking up and looking at him.

"Were you checking me out just now while I was sleeping?" Ayako asked.
"No! No! Sorry!" Rowen denied, turning away as quickly as he could.

Ayako smiled.

"Don't worry, I'm sort of used to it. Then again, you don't try and kiss me while I'm asleep." Ayako answered.

Rowen slowly and wearily turned his head back towards Ayako, who did not look like she was about to kill him. He did have a confused look on his face, so she explained.

"My twin brother Shougo is a total dork. Every time he has friends over, they tell him they think I'm hot and is there any chance that he can hook us up. The answer, of course, is always NO, but that doesn't stop them from sneaking into my room while I'm trying to take a nap and kiss me on the lips...OYYYY! BROTHERS ARE SO ANNOYING! And he's not even my little brother, he's the same age as me, okay, technically I'm older by a second or two."
"Wouldn't know, I'm an only child." Rowen replied.
"Oh." Ayako said.
"My dad's crazy though. He's some kind of mad scientist that's always developing stuff in his lab, I have no clue what he's up to, that and he wants me to come join him.."
"Sounds like Professor Sonada from Dual." Ayako said.
"Who?" Rowen asked.
"Nevermind." Ayako said. "What about your mom?"
"She's like thirty something going on 16." he explained. "I swear, I'm the most mature person in my family."
"Sounds like it. I'm more mature than my brother and my cousin anyhow." Ayako said.
"The Valley Girl?" Rowen asked.
"Yep, her, hard to tell we're family isn't it? She seems to like hanging around Suiren all the time."
"Probably chasing after boys, no doubt." Rowen answered.
"The weird thing is, I'm a girl, and I don't know why they do it." Ayako explained.
"Why not?" Rowen asked.
"I dunno, I guess I want something more out of a relationship." Ayako said.
"May I ask what?" Rowen asked. "If you don't mind."
"This might sound a bit strange...but I want a guy who wants me for the total package, not because I'm pretty, like this, hate that, basically, despite everything there is about me, he still wants to be with me. You think I'm weird now, don't you?" Ayako said.
"No, It's good that you know what you want, more than some people can say." Rowen answered. "So, have any hobbies?"
"Well, there's the whole anime thing, if you can't already figure it out from my wardrobe." Ayako said. "And..." she said, blushing a little. "I like to sing."

Ayako looked at Rowen's reaction, hoping that he would not break into laughter.

"For real?" Rowen asked.
"Yeah. Okay, mostly in the shower, in my room listening to my CD player, everyone says I should go get someone to lay down a demo tape for me and send it out so I can become the next Mai Kuraki but it's not why I do it. It's a release for me. It's my little talent."
"Nothing wrong with that. Can you sing a little for me?" Rowen asked.

Ayako blushed at the request, a little embarrassed.

"Please? You say you're good, if you are, then you shouldn't be ashamed of your talent." Rowen said.
"Well...I guess I could sing a little for you, if you really want to." she answered, blushing a little more. "I have to warn you, I've been stuck in Ran's room for a while so my brain has been overrun with the brilliant green."
"Okay." Rowen said.

Ayako took a deep breath to compose herself. Then, she started singing.

"<We loved each other so much it hurt/Before we noticed, dreams turned into despair/The piercing light, the drafty wind/ Hurts my wet cheeks, like it's trying to sink in/Anyway, there will still be a day called tomorrow/Something will be fulfilled, someday/A new, small dream without basis/I can feel it in the palm of my hand>"

"That was beautiful." Rowen said.
"Thanks..." Ayako said, blushing a little.

By some unknown force, the two met each other's gaze as they drew closer to each other. Their lips were about to touch when a voice came over the radio.

*"Can you hear me guys? It's me Ayame!" she shouted. "Everything all right there?"
*"Uh, yeah! Yeah!" Rowen responded. "Yep, everything's fine!" he said, lying through his teeth, thinking it was not good for Ayame, who might still have feelings for him, to know he almost kissed another girl.
*"Well, I'm glad they are, BECAUSE THINGS AREN'T WELL HERE!!!" Himeihoshi shouted over the sound of gunfire.
*"Well, it wasn't my fault, you're the one who flipped off the pilots in those enemy mechs!" Ayame argued. "Anyhow, we're pinned down, so any help you could send over here would be greatly appreciated!"
*"Yes, that would be nice, since I'm running out of ammo, but they're not running out of cannon fodder! My missiles are almost depleted, I'm down to one fully loaded gun pod, my machinecannons are getting low, she won't let me vaporize them with my Null Laser Cannons, before long I'll be down to my plasma spear, and that won't do much to them! That, and she's declared the city a NO FLY ZONE!!!!!" Himeihoshi shouted.
*"Calm down you two, we'll see if we can get you some help." Rowen said, looking through the other frequencies.
*"Yuri, Ran, can you help Ayame out?"
*"Um, no, we're kinda busy right now..." Ran reported, as the sound of explosions and swearing could be heard in the background, most of which, we cannot say, because this story is rated PG-13 by the writer, Ronin Manor, and Mediaminer.

Moving down the list, Rowen checked in with Sakura and Ryo.

*"We've got some problems here too. We're under attack by all those weird cockatoo-headed dimbots, my charge cannon's been disabled, and Ryo can't even hurt them with his powers for one reason or another. We're headed over to Kinjiro's as fast as we can, maybe he can do some immediate field help."
*"Anubis, Kale, how are you guys doing?"
*"Depends, how are the others doing?"
*"Sakura and Ryo are knee-deep in enemy units, so are Yuri and Ran, I haven't talked to the others yet, so I hope you guys can go assist Ayame."
*"What about Kashin and Sekhmet?"
*"Last we checked their channel, they were fighting over who got the next enemy, so I'm sure it'll be no trouble getting them to help."
*"Give us their location and we'll be right over." Anubis said. "Why didn't you ask Surien and Yoko?"
*"Mainly Yoko." Rowen explained.
*"Or Navcase and Yuriko?" Anubis asked.
*"Last time we did Yuriko thought she was hearing voices in her head."
*"Understood, and then some. We'll be right over." Anubis said.
"Kale!" Anubis called over to the maroon colored former maroon, who was currently heat rodding people into oblivion, and somewhat enjoying it.
"KALE!!!! Answer back or I'll turn the Wave Beam from Metroid Prime loose on you!"
"Anything but that!" Kale shouted in a frightened voice.
"Transform, we're flying out of here." Anubis said. "Ayame and her mechanical terror need some help."
"I thought you hated the girls?" Kale asked, wondering about Anubis' change in thoughts.
"I do, it's just if anyone's going to get rid of them at all, it's gonna be me." Anubis said.

Kale's armor opened up as he leapt out, sealed in his old White Neo Armor, as he landed atop his manta ray like flight mode, as Anubis spread his wing shields and the two took off down the streets towards Ayame's location.

*"Surien, Yoko? How's everything there?"
*"We're doing good, I think." Suiren reported. "No problems at all."
*"Don't tell the others, they might try and kill you." Rowen replied.
"Um, Suiren...something's like, flying towards us." Yoko reported, pointing into the sky to a form flying towards them, as Suiren's HUD slid over to the left to initiate her scanners, zooming in on it, as a progress bar quickly filled up, identifying it as one of their worst fears: Teisei's Armor of Omnistrike in Aile configuration. She quickly slid it to the right to initiate combat HUD, engaging her cloaking and deploying her no-daichi.

"Time to go to work." Suiren sighed to herself, knowing full well that she would be doing most of the fighting. She and Yoko dove and rolled as Teisei buzzed them, and as she came out of her roll she opened fire with her shuriken launcher, sending several into his thrusters, disabling them and sending him crashing to the ground with a thud.

"Good job girl!" Yoko exclaimed.
"It's not over yet. This guy is so relentless he doesn't have a clue how relentless he is." Suiren replied.

Teisei got to his feet, cursing his misfortune as he turned to face his opponents.

"Nice shot blondie, but that's the last benefit you'll get! I'll rid the world of another dumb blonde and exterminate the mall rat too!" he said, laughing maniacally as he switched over to Sword configuration, bringing out his boomerang.

"Now, this here is a boomerang." Teisei said in a combination Japanese and Australian accent that was probably crazier than he was.

"I'm your host to-dahy, Teisei Jikannohizumi, here on the Mallrat and Blonde Hunter. Crikey! We've got two fine specimens in front of us now! Let's see how you like these, matesses!" he said, hurling the beam weapon towards the girls.
"That, is worse than any blonde jokes." Suiren muttered under her breath. "Time to show him I'm not another dumb blonde." Suiren said.
"Um, what I don't get is, like, how he saw you. Is he like, psychic or something?"
"Psychic, no. Psycho, yes. Schwartz is the only group that's both."
"I didn't think that German ninja dude was psychic, immune to dizziness yeah, but like totally not a psychotic psychic."
"Not Bruder from G Gundam, the bad guys from Weiss."
"Whatever! I can't like keep bishie's straight!" Yoko replied. "I don't know how you can, fer sure."
"It's a gift. Okay, on my mark, dodge left."

The two waited as the weapon flew towards them, twirling end over end.

"Now!" Suiren said, as she tumbled to the right and Yoko tumbled to the left as the weapon passed between them.
"Um, like, how did he know where you are if you're invisible?"
"He must be attacking where he hears my voice. Okay, switch to VOX and turn off the loudspeaker on your helmet, we'll throw him off." Suiren said.
*"Can you hear me now?" Suiren asked.
*"Yeah." Yoko replied.
*"Good, now, what I want you to do, is use those dragon arms of yours to grab on and flip him around so I can get a clear shot at that backpack. If I can get a good enough shot at him, I might keep him from switching modes." Suiren said.
*"I'll see what I can do." Yoko answered as she looked towards the idiot.
"Like, stupid! Want me touch you?" Yoko asked.
"A young girl like you fondle me, HELL YEAH!!!" Teisei shouted as his weapon returned.
"LIKE, EEWWWW! I wouldn't touch you with a ten foot pole! I'm even afraid to use these!" Yoko said as her gauntlets closed over her fists, and her dragon heads telescoped outward and coiled around him, as she lifted him in the air and turned him around, pinning his arms.

Meanwhile, Suiren locked her cannon into firing position as an indicator on her HUD turned green, then Yellow, and finally pink, as her weapon glowed and small spheres surrounded her in a star formation as she let loose with a string of mini-pink fireballs that slammed painfully into the back of his cannon pack, damaging it badly.

"CURSE YOU!!!" Teisei yelled as he proceeded to curse at them, as he tried in vain to switch to another configuration, with no luck, causing him to curse more, as he managed to pull off his beam-tipped sword and proceeded to charge at Yoko, as Suiren got in his path and tripped him with her no-daichi as she backhanded his backpack with her claw to make sure she finished it off.

*"Okay Yoko, put down those flags!"
*"Say what?" Yoko asked.
*"Those things on your back and under your arms!" Suiren explained as Yoko proceeded to encircle Teisei with them, as he got up and lunged at her as she whacked him with the last flag repeatedly.

"How the hell?" Teisei answered.
"Like, in case you didn't know, I happen to be in COLOR GUARD!!!" Yoko replied as she deployed the last flag and leapt high into the air,

"Houka Kyouten Juuzetsujin!" Yoko shouted as she fired off her flame-throwers and encircled him in a whirlwind of flame. As the flames dissipated, he collapsed, charred badly.

Meanwhile, back with Ayame, things were looking bad. Himeihoshi was out of his nastier warheads. He was almost out of Krakken shells. His machinecannons were badly depleted, as he peeked around the corner at the remaining but few units as he attempted to pick them off with plasma bolts, since Ayame had been forced to disable his main weapon every time she heard the first syllables of desperation from her partner.

*"This is bad. I'm supposed to win, despite my name not being in the title!" Himeihoshi complained.
"Well, if you hadn't decided to flip the bird to those pilots, you might still have ammo." Ayame doted.
*"Oh give it a rest." Himeihoshi replied.

Suddenly, gushes of oil spilled out from the legs of one of the enemy mechs, as the leg parted away neatly on an angle, as a maroon blur flew underneath, transformed, and held up a hilt, which in seconds extended into an incredibly long blade that impaled the enemy unit.

"Looks like the calvary's here." Ayame observed.
*"Of all the help headband boy could have gotten us, he had to send two people with melee-type weapons, including one based on Mr. War is Heaven's design. 'Next' my exhausts! He should have named it 'last', as in last century!" Himeihoshi shouted.

*"Rowen, we're okay." Ayame reported.
*"We are NOT okay! I am COMPLETELY out of ammo!" Himeihoshi interrupted.
*"We're going to head towards Kinjiro's if we can, maybe he can rearm Mr. I Feel Totally Naked Without My Ammo."

Himeihoshi switched to gerwalk as the two followed alongside him, as they headed northward towards Kinjiro's.

Over at Houji's, Otoantou himself was complaining just as much as his units were getting trashed, Teisei was down for the count, and the worst that they had left were the Black Jackals, who were still awaiting full deployment due to the armors.

*"Houji, stop your whining and activate the jamming towers." Tenma replied through his armor's radio, cool as a cucumber.

Tenma's face curled into an evil smile as Houji quickly cheered up.

*"We've let them win long enough. Now it's our turn." Tenma replied.

As Himeihoshi and company trudged through and past the mess of mecha he had left before his ammo ran out, suddenly Anubis' armor was dismissed, just as Himeihoshi stated the obvious, complaining about how things could get any worse.

"Um, Anubis, do you know you just dismissed your armor?" Ayame asked through Himeihoshi's loudspeaker.
"Yes. But I don't recall doing so. I'll try to resummon it."

"Armor of Dark Absorption!" Anubis shouted, snapping his fingers. But nothing happened. No MTS Ring. No armor linking up. Just him standing there with his normal scythe and his grim reaper attire.
"Ayame, check with the others, I think we may have a problem on our hands. My armor's gone, but Kale's is still on him. This must be very bad."

Meanwhile, Kashin and Sekhmet were still busy on the attack.

"This hand of mine glows with an Awesome Power!!!!!!" Kashin shouted as he charged towards Tenma, who had gone out to engage him personally in his Armor of Burning Apocalypse. Up to this point, Tenma had taken hits from the two just as much as he received them from Sekhmet and Kashin. But now, he stood there with his arms crossed as Kashin charged him.

"...Its Burning grip tells me to defeat you!" Kashin continued, as the finger joints expanded as the faceplate opened as well, surging out energy.

"HERE I GO, SHINING FINGER!!!!!!" Kashin screamed, going straight for Tenma's head, as he stood there with no fear.

Kashin expected his hand to connect with Tenma's helmet and burn through the armor down to his face, but all he felt was cold steel on his bare hand. His armor had vanished from it.

"You loose, Kashin." Tenma said, drawing his beam saber and raising it above his head to crash down, as he was knocked off his feet by a strange bug-like thing, which Kashin leapt onto after being ordered to by Sekhmet, who had separated his armor into two halves. Eyebeams launched from an aerial position fended Tenma back long enough for the unarmored Kashin to charge off before Sekhmet followed behind him towards the other's location.

"There are too many of them Yuriko. I need to use my armor to blow them away." Navcase said. "Armor of Hope!" he shouted, snapping his fingers. But nothing happened. As he discovered his armor ws not working, Yuriko's dismissed.

"This is bad." Navcase observed. "According to Miss Ayame, we will not be able to talk to her or the others without our armor on."
"Don't worry Shinta-chan, I've got things under control." Yuriko said, twirling her Naginata above her head, encasing herself in a tornado, as she headed over to Navcase, picked him up and cut through the enemy units, breaking windows along the way.

"Shinta-chan, I got us out of this mess, but how are we going to find them without our new magic?" Yuriko wondered.
"By relying on our old magic." Navcase replied.

Pinned down and still outgunned, Yuri and Ran continued to fend off the evil forces in their way. Mech after mech was wreaked by Yuri and Ran's weapons, but brought them no closer to victory.
"DIE!" Yuri screamed as she decapitated yet another unit. "DIE!!!" she shouted again as another one went down. A trail of destruction was being left by Yuri, as a shot came from above, nailing her knuckle bomber and knocking her backwards in the process.

"YURI!!!!" Ran screamed as she rushed over to her sister.
"Dammit...my bomber's busted. We're in trouble now.."
"Where did that shot come from?" Ran wondered.

Looking up on the rooftops nearby, the two girls spotted an unusual looking mecha with two antennae coming out of its shoulder. It braced a large sniper rife and fired again at them, as they dodged out of the way.

"It's too far away! We can't hit it from here!" Ran shouted.
"We'll manage!" Yuri shouted.

Ran activated her machine cannons and proceeded to unload on the enemy unit with them, but it was too out of range for her bullets to be effective. Yuri tried firing her S-Mine launcher, but the projectile fired so slowly that the machine was able to destroy it right after launch, the resulting tornadic explosion sending Yuri flying in the opposite direction, tearing into her chest armor. Ran fired her grapplers at the side of the building and tried to scale it, but she could only lock in only halfway up as she attempted to climb up to the enemy. As she pulled upward, the strange unit took a shot at her gauntlet, breaking the cable, sending her tumbling to the ground. She fired one cable, then another, then another, desperately trying to attach herself to the bow her decent. Luckily, the fifth one was still able to launch, slowing her decent enough so that she could reach the ground without falling all the way. Detaching from the wall, she gazed down at her gauntlet, where all but one of her cables had been damaged in the process. An overhaul would not be long in the making.

Things were not as good for Yuri. The damage she had taken was slowly but surely shutting off her suit. It would not be long before the emergency unsummon would kick in, dismissing the suit for regeneration. So she only had a short time to break out her main weapon and turn the unit into nothingness.

Reaching around back, she clipped her cannon into the Knuckle Bomber, hoping it would actually work, thankfully, the charging system was still online, but not for much longer. Locking into place, she leveled the barrel of the monster weapon at her adversary, as warnings flashed on and off that the suit was soon to shut down. She struggled to get a target lock, as the alarms threw her off, and finally squeezed off a shot that flew straight for the unit, just as her suit phased off. Thankfully, the shell slammed into the opponent, nuking it into oblivion and then some, as Yuri passed out.

"YURI!!!" Ran shouted *"Rowen, we need you, fast! Yuri's down!"

Rowen wasted no time getting the tank in gear and locking on to their location, noticing that other units were heading their way.

*"Ayame, this is Rowen. Yuri's down, we're going to get her now. Can any of you get over to her before we do?"
*"This is Sekhmet. Kashin's armor's out too, as is Anubis and the others. We can't seem to get in touch with Navcase and Yuriko, so they must have theirs screwed up too. We've got to hurry and get to Yuri as fast as we can, but I'll do what I can to get there in time." Sekhmet stated.

Back at Houji's, an observation on his part was made that Yuri was basically ripe for the capturing.

"Black Jackals, close in on the enemy. I'm sending the coordinates now, Sector 08-28, hurry up and attack!"

"Yuri, will you be okay?" Ran asked her companion."
"Yeah, I should be fine for the time being." Yuri replied.

Just then, a series of missiles flew through the air, hitting near where the girls were standing, who quickly dove for cover.

"What was that?" Ran wondered.

In a matter of moments, her answer was realized. Houka, Masahiko, Jiro, and Tomoko had arrived on the scene to make their lives miserable.

*"We've found the target." Jiro answered, as he sent some beam cannon fire screaming into the two, which Ran and Yuri barely dodged.

"You fool! We're trying to capture them, not kill them! Tomoko shouted.

Tomoko brought out her sword and charged at breakneck speed at Yuri, who barely managed to summon her weapon in time to block the assault. Houka brought out her RPB pistols and unloaded on Ran who could hardly dodge the shots fired her way as she forced Houka to take cover also with her own machinecannons. Jiro proceeded to fire his beam cannon at Ran again, which she was able to dodge easily, as Yuri attempted to fend off an assault from Tomoko and her blade. Help would have to arrive soon.

Over in Sakura's neck of the woods, things for her and Ryo were not going as well either. By now, they had finally had enough.

*"Rowen, send me Type A!" she replied.
*"We're on our way to pick up Yuri and get out of here quick. Get Kinjiro and hurry out." Rowen replied.
"Gotcha." she answered.

Rowen pushed the button to open the launch ramp, and the weapon went flying outward to meet up with Sakura.

Yuri was still having problems back on her end, as she attempted to fend off Tomoko. Tomoko managed to push her back, coming only inches from inflicting serious damage to her.

"Without your mighty armor you are helpless." she said as she prepared to go in for the kill, as she was distracted by the sound of a tornado, which blew into the area, and dissipated to reveal Yuriko and Navcase.

"Sorry we're late. We took a few wrong turns." Navcase answered.

"Ah, it is you again, Sword of Heaven. You may have the respect of my half-brother but you have yet to have all of mine." Masahiko answered as he charged like a bat out of hell towards the warrior.

"Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu, Ryu Son Sen!" Navcase declared, heading towards the lummox, hitting him nine times in succession in an attempt to take him down, but the assault did little to accomplish his goal.

Yuriko on the other hand, went straight for Houka, bracing her naginata for battle.

"You don't stand a chance, samurai girl."
"I'd like you to try." Yuriko said.

Houka proceeded to unload her pistols on the girl, as bullet after bullet was blocked thanks to the incredible special power of the weapon. Houka dove through pistol after pistol, desperately trying to block the onslaught, but every bullet was parried by Yuriko's magical weapon. Yuriko flipped her weapon over as she gathered energy in the blade, before unleashing a devastating attack on Houka, which sent her flying and knocked her out in the process.

Tomoko was doing a number on Yuri, who, weak from her earlier battle, was finding it increasingly difficult to fight back. A well placed blow from the assassin sent Yuri back a few steps, as she prepared to go in for the final blow, as Navcase crashed in from above with his Ryu Tsui Sen, which sent Tomoko onto the ground with incredible force.

"You attacked a fighter who was barely able to fight back. I cannot forgive that." Navcase replied.

Back with Sakura, the Add-On arrived just in time, as Sakura converted her weapon of choice into soldier config and went on the offensive again, sending missile after missile screaming into her opponents, blasting them to kingdom come as she made her way with Ryo towards Kinjiro's, which her HUD told her was only a few feet away, as she sent more ammo into the opposing forces, transformed, causing the weapon pod to hover over her and continue to retaliate as she sped towards Kinjiro's, closing in fast, as he lowered the defenses only for a moment, as they peeled of and screeched in, as the Firestorm Wall went back up and was bombarded with enemy firepower.

Back in Yuri's neck of the woods, the Black Jackals had been beaten back for some time, only to be further held back by the arrival of some Draconai-operated Blitz power armors. Using their multiweapon pods, they forced the small group to dive for cover, although there was none to be found.

"Give it up." Jiro replied. "You're outnumbered, and outgunned. What could you possibly do to get your chances ba..."

As if in response, the report from a cannon was heard, as an Ion blast screamed into him, knocking him back and for a loop, as the other weapons of the APC were also turned on the enemy units, as Rowen pulled up.

"Hey!" Rowen shouted. "Need a lift?"

"It's about time you got here!" Yuri shouted as she and the other assembled Seishi and others made a mad dash back to the tank like contraption for safety, as its weapons more than fended them off.

"It's bad out there." Ran explained. "Our armor couldn't take the assault from the city. We need to get out of here fast and furiously." Ran replied. "Where's Miss Ayame?" Navcase asked.
"She and Himeihoshi headed back to the SDT to rearm."

"How'd the rest of you guys do?" Yuri asked.
"Horrible. We were doing fine until Kashin's armor shut off." Sekhmet explained.
"Same for me." Anubis answered.
"Any idea as to why?" Yuri asked.
"As I recall, back when the Warlords and I served the Dynasty, Talpa used the Nether Spirits to create some sort of jamming to prevent the five Ronin from summoning their armor. I would have to consult with Ayame, but I am quite sure that Houji has figured out how to duplicate something like it with his new magic."
*"Rowen! This is Sakura, we've got Kinjiro, come pick us up!" Sakura shouted.
*"We're on our way." Rowen said, as he turned the vehicle around and headed back towards Kinjiro's locale.

With all weapons aimed around them, the wall came down and Sakura and Rowen escorted Kinjiro aboard.

"Compared to the rest of our operation, at least this part went well." Anubis said.

A thump was heard on the ground, that shook the vehicle.

"What was that." Sage wondered.

Another one was heard.

"That." Sage asked.
"I really hope it's not that quadrapedal monstrosity that tried to kill us before." Anubis prayed.

"Someone should go up and look." Dais replied.

Opening up the hatch on top of the ion cannon, Kale climbed the short ladder and stuck his head out, looking around. Once again, he heard the sound of large thumping, on after another, as if something big was walking towards them.

Another series of more footsteps was heard coming from the other direction. Kale made out a familiar large form approaching from the left, one, that they did not want to deal with anytime soon, but were probably about to face.
"Um...Anubis?" Kale replied hesitantly,
"You know that thing you told me not to mention if it came near us?" Kale asked.
"Yes..." Anubis said, climbing up to the other topward gunnery emplacement, to see what Kale was keeping from him.
"Why..."

Staring down at the two warriors, was the enormous Mammoth Mk. II, along with an other odd mech which they could not identify. It had a large rifle in its hands, and bristled with other weaponry, as it towered at least fifty five feet over the good guys.

"OH SHIT!!!" Anubis shouted.
**"Mammoth Mk.II, this is Devastator. We'll cut them off at the city limits, we are prepared to engage.
**"Roger that."
"DRIVE!!!! DRIVE!!!!!" Anubis shouted, as he closed the hatch and Rowen floored it, as the two heroes almost tumbled down the ladders to the interior of the vehicle as Rowen swung around and headed in the other direction.
"NOW WHAT?" Kashin shouted in anger at their current predicament. "We barely got this guy you just had to rescue, and now we're going to be blasted into oblivion in the meantime!"

"Kale, climb up into that Ion cannon, we're going to have to try and return fire!" Rowen shouted as he tried to escape, with the large four legged Empire Strikes Back reject plodded along after it. ion blast after ion blast were sent back towards the enemy mech, as it retaliated with rail gun shots that left small craters where the heroes had been. Rowen took the turns as tightly s he could.

"Uh, Rowen, if things couldn't get worse, they just did. Aegis units." Ayako said, pointing ahead.

"Damn." Man the turrets and return fire!" he ordered.

Suiren, who along with Yoko had been picked up along the way to Sakura, stepped out through the side of the door and proceeded to fire several shots from her charge cannon to help clear the way as the group sped faster and faster towards the city limits. The group was able to take out a few, but there were still plenty more.

"Now what?" Ayako asked.
"Simple. If they won't get out of my way, I'll have to charge through!" Rowen shouted, giving the machine all the juice he could give it.

The APC picked up speed and charged like a bat out of hell through the opposing forces, knocking them clear out of his way, as the large mech cleared it's own way with its rail gun, blasting everything in its path to kingdom come. Rowen dodged left and right, right and left, trying desperately to stay out of the machine's rail gun range. Medium sized craters were blasted into the ground as Rowen veered one way or another to dodge. He flew around corners, almost tipping the machine on its side, only to have the large metal beast of burden chasing painstakingly behind them.

"Look! Up ahead! It's the city limits! We made it!" Ayako exclaimed.

Everyone in the vehicle cheered as they would finally be free. But their happiness was short lived as the large robot from before stepped in front of them, blocking their escape route.

"Great...this is where we all die." Rowen thought to himself.

The large robot pointed its large rifle at the APC.

**"Surrender now and you will not be harmed." the gunner reported.

"It's all over." Anubis said.

The sound of jet engines was heard, getting closer and closer to the group.

"Oh goodie. Houji's called in his air support as well." Kashin replied.
"No, he doesn't have any aircraft..." Sakura replied.
*"Attention Otoantou Military! I have a VERY IMPORTANT announcement to make. I have full armor. I have full ammo. I'm COMING OUT OF THE BOOTH!!!!" Himeihoshi declared as he buzzed the two enemy mechs.

"What the?" the pilots wondered.
*"I don't care what it is, or where it came from. SHOOT IT DOWN!!!" Houji shouted.
*"Yes sir." the gunners replied.

Himeihoshi swerved around and began to unload autocannon fire on the enemy forces, strafing them before the anti-aircraft batteries on the Mammoth could fire back, as he shot straight up in the air and doubled back, firing a series of missiles towards the enemy forces. These missiles, however opened up their noses to reveal small lasers, at which point the missiles proceeded to almost hover in place as they unloaded laser fire on the large mech, as it tried to shoot them down. Himeihoshi proceeded to fire back with more heavy hitting missiles that managed to riddle the Devastator with damage, as he flew around back for another pass. Autocannon fire courtesy of his hip guns kept the large machine occupied as Rowen and the group watched in awe.

"He's trying to get us out of here, I say we take it!" Rowen said.

Rowen turned the ion cannon back the other way and fired a few shots at the knees of the large lummox, causing it to slip a little, as he backed up all he could before charging straight forward, slamming into the legs and causing it to topple over, as the APC sped through the legs and out of the city.

"We did it! We've got Kinjiro!" Sakura exclaimed.
"True, but we also have other things to keep in mind. Among them, something that is jamming our Seishi armor, all sorts of weapons being thrown at us within the city, and repairs that have to be made to the She-Ronin armor, among other things that we will have to deal with if we are to win this war." Anubis declared.

The APC was driven back to the rest of the SDT with Himeihoshi acting as an escort, as they linked up and turned around to head out to sea.

"Where are we going?" Rowen asked.
"The Isle of Mists. It's where Houji will head now that he knows we can't get through his defenses without lots of trouble." Ayame replied. "I'll get to work on repairing our armor.

The large tandem terror cut across the Pacific, as their destination lay in the distance.

Back at Houji's, Tenma was in Midori's rom after getting word that she had finally awakened.

"I feel so weird..." Midori said.
"Its the power of Drakka. In time you will get used to it. Do you think you are strong enough to make our first wish?"
"I...I think so." Midori answered.
"Good. Then wish that the curse on the Draconai be reduced, so they can remain dragons longer."
"Kai Jin!" Midori shouted as Drakka's symbol appeared on her forehead. "Grant the Draconai an extension to their curse, so that they may remain as dragons longer!" she shouted. A brilliant flash of light fired outward, as Midori passed out from exhaustion.

"Oh well. I guess she wasn't ready yet." Tenma replied.

Over on Iwo Jima, the Draconai, on the other hand, felt a new burst of energy.
"Lord Ceiphied! All of your warriors feel stronger! It is as if something has occurred!!" Kouen shouted.

A warrior clad in a Blitz Armor turned on his loudspeaker so that all could hear.

"Lord Ceiphied, I have asked Drakka to extend the duration of the curs so that you can all remain as Draconai for a longer period of time. Now, join me in our assault on the Isle of Mists, so that we can put an end to Amaterasu and her followers!" Tenma shouted.

The Draconai let out a cry of cheer as they prepared for battle again. This time, there would be success.

Next Episode:

ANUBIS: This isn't going to be very good. A deal of damage has been done to the She-Ronin armor, as we steam back towards the Isle of Mists.

SAKURA: My twin struggles hard to make the necessary repairs in time, but even with all our forces gathered at the Isle, can we manage to fend off Houji's assault force, even with Dark Inferno and the SDT? It's our next episode, one you won't want to miss. Ronin Warriors, Hell Back on Earth: Island Standoff. See you soon!

Ayako: Thank you Kagome.

Ayame: Hey, it's not like the line's copyrighted as a catch phrase.