Inside the Scrap Yard…
Marachii, Kikai, and Naito took off running as Genesis fired his rifle at them, the lower half of his body moving like a high-speed tank.
"That's your brother?" Marachii exclaimed. "What, is your sister a three-headed robot dragon?"
"Don't be silly!" Kikai replied. "She's a robot shark!"
Kikai pulled Naito and Marachii behind a pile of junk as Genesis sped past, swinging his gun around. "Sister! Don't hide from me! I know all your tricks!"
"What do we do?" Marachii asked. "I'm assuming to get to that door we have to go through him!"
"Correct," Kikai confirmed.
Suddenly, the pile of rubble they were hiding behind got picked up, and Genesis crushed it in his hand.
"Found you."
The three dispersed as he fired his rifle, obliterating all the scrap around.
Up above on another pile, Luca, Naoki, Yūsuke, and Jirou watched discretely, with Fido on Luca's back.
"Are they okay?" Naoki asked.
"They're getting chased by a giant tank with a man's body and a giant machine gun," Luca clarified. "But other than that, they seem to be alright."
"Then we must help them," Yūsuke insisted.
"You should worry about yourselves."
Before they could move, chains wrapped around Yūsuke and Naoki. Luca jumped in the air before a chain could trap him, slicing it with his axe.
"Bandits," he murmured.
"We prefer the term Scrapers," a masked bandit spoke, with a group behind him. "I'm Hazan. I see you've intruded on our turf."
"We were just leaving," Naoki told him. "If I could just get my daughter and her friends, we'd be perfectly happy with that!"
Hazan twirled a chain in his hand. "You play by our rules. And rules say, the Junk should have you."
"I think not," Yūsuke declined.
"Come on, people!" Jirou begged. "Let the dorks through! We don't need to resort to this, it's beneath us!"
Hazan pulled out a metal blade. "Quiet. The boss will decide what to do with you."
Luca popped some beef jerky into his mouth. "Meh. I say we go with the second option."
Quickly, he knocked the knife out of Hazan's hand. "Quick, everyone! Grab on!"
He shifted into his hydra form, and Naoki and Yūsuke quickly climbed on his back. Jirou watched, star-struck. "What is THAT?"
"No time!" Yūsuke ordered. "Mount!"
"Get them!" Hazan demanded.
Jirou climbed onto the hydra while the other bandits made their moves, but Luca jumped off the scrap and landed next to Marachii and the others.
"Guys!" Marachii realized. "Nice of you to join us!"
Luca shifted back to normal. "We were watching the whole time."
"Of course you were!"
Genesis narrowed his eyes before raising his gun. "More people to crush! Delightful!"
"What's the deal with this guy?" Naoki wondered.
"My brother," Kikai explained. "Missing a few screws, but the deadliness is a ten out of ten."
"Then let's take him down," Yūsuke suggested.
"What he said," Luca agreed.
Genesis slammed his hand down, but Luca shifted into a gorilla, holding it up.
"Impossible!"
Naito and Yūsuke used their fans and daggers to slash into the hull of Genesis's tank, forcing him to back away.
"Stop it! Stop it!"
Marachii formed an EMP cannon. "Haha! Take this!"
He blasted the robot, but it flickered for a moment before recovering.
"Really?" Marachii groaned.
Kikai patted him on the back. "You'll get it next time."
Marachii glared at her. "I'm not a kid."
"How old are you?"
"Almost 14."
She had to cover her mouth. "Seriously?"
Genesis knocked them both to the ground with a swing of his arm, and Luca responded by punching him, causing him to wobble.
"That gorilla's got one hell of an arm!" Jirou noticed. "You work out?
Luca shifted back to normal. "Kinda."
Genesis pointed his rifle at Luca, but Naito appeared in front of him, deflecting the bullets with her fans before tossing them and using them to slice the gun apart.
"Hey!" Kikai called out. "Why didn't you do that before?"
"Required an opening," Naito answered. "Now I have it."
The robot attempted to smash them with his arms, but Naito leaped into the air, preparing to launch her fans at him again, when a powerful plasma blast struck the robot, causing him to short-circuit and topple over.
"Yes!" Marachii cheered, his arm shifting to normal. "I got him!"
Kikai clapped. "Nice work! Almost an A. Almost."
She patted him on the head as he glared at her. Genesis shifted back into a humanoid form and began to shake as she picked him up by the arm.
"Well, he shouldn't give us any more trouble," she assured. "That's the worst of them."
Just then, bikers surrounded them, crowbars, chains, and other weapons at the ready.
"We still gotta worry about them," Luca sighed.
Taiga rode up, and Fido barked at him.
"Appears to me we have a situation here," he stated. "Two Elemental users, attempting to escape my turf."
"Indeed," Naito said. "Now step aside."
"Tsk, tsk, missy," he replied. "I'm an outlaw. If you want my help, you've got to meet my price."
"Which is."
He extended his arms. "I'd like those two Element users you're toting around, if you don't mind."
"Uh…" Marachii stammered.
"We do mind," Naoki interrupted. "Anything else?"
Taiga laughed. "If that's the case…"
Hazan and the other bandits lifted their weapons.
"…then we'll take them."
A net flared out, ensnaring the group.
"Dude!" Kikai called out. "This was not the deal!"
"Sorry, I'm changing the terms," Taiga taunted. "I can't waste this rare treat!"
Marachii noticed the keycard hanging off Taiga's belt. "Hmm…"
"Let us go!" Naoki demanded.
"Bring them to the base," Taiga told Hazan.
Marachii nudged Kikai. "Do EMPs work on them?"
She shook her head. "They're people, not machines. Why, what are you—-?"
"I've got an idea. Elara! Activate Combat Mode!"
"Activating."
"Wait!" Kikai shouted. "We're right next to you!"
BOOM.
The net ripped open and a powerful shock emerged from Marachii's body, knocking out all the bandits and causing smoke to arise.
"It worked!" Marachii cheered. "I'm a genius!"
Kikai patted her smoking hair, while the others put the flames out of their clothes. "Overdoing it, much?"
Marachii grabbed the keycard. "Nope. Now let's pay a visit to this Lady!"
Taiga weakly grabbed Marachii's leg. "Wait, trust me…you won't want to meet her. She's…terrifying."
"Meh," Marachii shrugs. "If she can build a place like this, she must be pretty cool."
Taiga coughed. "You'll see."
Then he passed out.
The group found the final door, and Jirou and Kikai stepped back.
"What are you two doing?" Naoki asked.
"Lady Sirena usually only allows three people into her lab at a time," Kikai admitted. "So we can't come. And two of you will have to stay."
Jirou nodded. "She's very overprotective of her stuff."
"Aww, so Fido can't come?" Marachii questioned, holding the dog up.
"No, no. I'm sure she'll love to see her dog."
"HER DOG?"
Naito stepped forward, grabbing Luca and Marachii's arms. "I'll take these two. Mother, stay here with Yūsuke and these guides."
"Are you sure you'll be okay, dear?" Naoki worried.
"Yes. We will return with Kenshi, if he is inside."
Marachii swiped the keycard, and the door opened, revealing an elevator that gave off an ominous aura.
"Certain doom, here we come," Luca commented.
The three stepped inside the elevator and rose into the air.
Meanwhile, across the Dome…
"Phew, we finally made it."
Aoki hopped onto a dock at the base of the Technodome, pulling Hikari, Saori, and Akari inside.
"Aoki," Akari said. "I just wanna say, you've done great on this mission."
Aoki paused before smiling at her. "Thanks. You too."
Hikari wrapped her arms around them. "It's nice to see you acting like sisters and all now, but we still have this guy to deal with!"
"Sisters?" Akari and Aoki both turned red.
"Hello? The bounty hunter?"
"Right," Aoki coughed. "Akamon, or whatever your name is. How much do you know about this place?"
Dachii sat Akamon along the wall, who leaned back. "Not a damn thing."
Aoki leaned in closer. "Considering the fact you managed to get inside of here without any assistance, I would assume that's a lie."
"Think what you want," Akamon shrugged. "Won't change my life."
"Yes, yes it will," Aoki corrected him. "There's a nice prison back home with a wonderful cellmate you can talk to every day. Would that be better?"
"Maybe," he scoffed.
Akari tapped Aoki. "Don't think he's gonna talk."
Aoki put a hand on her hip. "Not enough time to torture him. Fujii could be in danger right now as we speak, not to mention our other teammates. Dachii, drag him along. We're not letting him out of our sight."
"Okay," Dachii stated.
They walked through a door, which led into a factory where robots were being mass-produced. Robotic guards patrolled the area, overseeing the process.
"This place is huge…" Akari noted. "Are they building a robotic army? But why? We have soldiers."
"Could be fewer casualties," Hikari proposed. "Without real people being sent out, that eliminates the risk of losing our men."
"It's fishy," Aoki interjected. "Let's keep moving."
Conveyor belts pushed giant war machines in and out of the room. Tanks, artillery, and missiles. Akamon whistled as Dachii pulled him along.
"Phew, they weren't kidding when they said this is the Tech Heaven! You could make a fortune selling these babies!"
The girls ignored him as they found the next door, which was locked. Aoki slashed it, but it wouldn't budge.
"They've reinforced these things," she grumbled. "We need to find another way through."
"Check my pocket," Akamon suggested.
Aoki turned around. "I'm not in the mood for your jokes. Quiet, or I'll—-"
Dachii pulled a keycard out of Akamon's pocket.
"…Oh."
Akamon gave her a look, but she took the card with a glare. "How do you have this?"
"I have my ways."
She swiped the card, which led to a platform that read "To Central Lab."
"This is it, guys," she said. "Everyone ready?"
They nodded.
"Then get on."
They rode up the platform, which ascended multiple floors. Once they stopped, the door in front of them pulled back to reveal a large corridor, and standing in the middle of it were Marachii, Luca, Naito, and Fido.
"Guys!" Saori called out. "You're here!"
Luca waved to them. "Took ya long enough."
"Yeah!" Marachii agreed. "We've been standing here forever!"
"Not that long," Naito confirmed.
Aoki walked up to both Luca and Marachii and smacked them both on the head. "I told you to wait for us."
"Well, we didn't," Luca shrugged. "Worked out though, right?"
"Very funny, wolf."
Akari shook her shoulder. "She doesn't mean that. Glad to have you guys back."
Aoki scoffed, and Luca darted his eyes between the two. "Uh, am I missing something here?"
"Yeah, you two seem…friendly?" Marachii commented.
"They are!" Hikari stated. "It took us nearly dying at the hands of this bounty hunter here, but they've finally worked out their differences!"
"Bounty hunter…?" Luca remarked.
He noticed Akamon. "Oh. You brought a friend."
Akamon yawned. "More Elemental freaks. Wonderful."
"He's not a friend," Hikari said. "Just baggage."
"Enough talk," Aoki interrupted. "Where's this lab?"
Luca pointed to the massive shifting door to the side of them, which was glowing. "That."
They approached the door, and once they got close, a pressure plate activated, scanning them.
"Scanning…access granted!"
"That was easy," Akari noted.
"Too easy," Aoki worried.
"Just so you know," Luca warned. "Some of her dome-dwellers said that she only allows three people at a time, and we're a tad bit more than three."
"She'll have to suck it up," Aoki growled. "In we go."
The door opened, releasing tons of smoke. Aoki looked back at Akamon. "Someone needs to watch him. Dachii, stay behind. If she's one of the Order, she'll probably just come for you."
"Okay," Dachii replied.
"We'll be back soon!" Saori assured him. "Bye-bye!"
His group entered the lab, and the door shut behind them, leaving Dachii alone with Akamon.
"Finally, those NPCs left," Akamon mocked. "Well, kid? Did you consider what I told you?"
"Still thinking."
Akamon relaxed on the wall. "Well, I'll tell you this. The only way to bring your precious grandfather back, is to visit that mysterious place."
Dachii paused. "What?"
Meanwhile, inside the Lab…
"Stay sharp, everyone," Aoki ordered.
As they walked inside, a bright light lit up, revealing a massive workshop filled with inventions, mechanical hands, and moving parts. On top of the platform was a girl with glowing purple eyes and indigo hair, wearing a lab coat and smiling innocently.
"Welcome to my Workshop!" she greeted. "I hope you have a good time!"
And then, the door locked shut.
—-