"This feeling... it's Melba," Reg whispered.
He didn't need a radar to tell him. He could feel it in the marrow of his bones—a cold, sharp pressure cutting through the air, vibrating right against the Spark Lens in his pocket. It was like a psychic alarm clock going off, and it was loud as hell.
Back at the TPC Maritime Base, the calm was shattered by the shrill wail of a siren. Justin practically jumped out of his swivel chair as he slammed his hands onto the desk.
"Target confirmed! Melba is on the move!" he yelled, his voice echoing through the command room.
On the main screen, a massive heat signature tore across the Pacific. The bird-like monstrosity had its wings spread wide, slicing through the atmosphere at a terrifying Mach 6. It was a straight shot toward the coast.
Captain Meg Kijima didn't waste a second. She turned to Harry, who was wiping grease off his hands with a rag. "What's the status on the refit?"
"Wing 1 is good to go, Captain," Harry reported, sounding a bit breathless. "We just finished bolting on the Spire Laser Cannons and the Heavy Laser Pods. It's not pretty, but it'll pack a punch."
Meg nodded, her eyes sharp. "Rena, Shane—get to the hangar. Intercept Melba before it hits the shoreline. Harry, tell the logistics guys to stay on their toes. We might need a quick turnaround."
"You got it," Harry said, already barking orders into his headset.
Meg took a breath, her heart racing. She hadn't expected the second monster to move this fast. Luckily, the modifications were relatively straightforward—standard plug-and-play tech, just tuned for maximum damage.
BOOM.
The roar of the HPL engines vibrated through the entire base. The yellow GUTS Wing 1 burst from the launch tube like a bullet, leaving a trail of white vapor as it streaked toward the horizon.
The waves crashed against the rocky shore of the Boso Peninsula, the salt spray stinging the air. Reg stood on a jagged cliffside, his medium-length black hair whipping wildly around his face. His jacket fluttered in the gale, but he didn't move. He just watched that speck in the sky grow larger and louder.
Melba was close. He could see the jagged silhouette now, a prehistoric nightmare coming to reclaim the world.
"Alright," Reg muttered, his voice barely audible over the howling wind. "Let's see if I've got the guts for this."
He pulled the Spark Lens from his pocket and held it high toward the dark clouds.
"TIGA!"
The device's wings snapped open, and a blinding explosion of white light swallowed the cliffside. A split second later, a pillar of brilliance soared into the sky, revealing the sleek, towering form of Ultraman Tiga.
Aerial Type
Reg didn't waste time. As he surged through the air, he felt the power humming through his new body. He crossed his arms over his chest, and the Tiga Crystal on his forehead flashed with a brilliant, sapphire light. In a shimmer of energy, the red and silver patterns on his body shifted into a sleek, fierce purple.
Swish!
Reg became a literal streak of purple lightning. He vanished from the spot, leaving nothing but a sonic boom and a shimmering trail in the sky. In less than ten seconds, he'd already cleared twelve miles of airspace.
Ahead, the GUTS Wing 1 was already in the thick of it.
"Locking on!" Shane shouted from the back seat.
The green, spiked laser cannons on the Wing 1 flickered to life, spitting out continuous pulses of energy that chased Melba through the clouds. The monster didn't just fly; it danced. Melba banked hard, its massive wings repelling the air with enough force to churn the sea below.
The change in pressure was so intense that seawater surged upward, forming a wall of spray thousands of feet high. The GUTS lasers pierced through the water wall, the heat turning the droplets into instant steam. The entire battlefield was becoming a hazy, misty nightmare.
"Look out!" Shane yelled as Melba let out a screech that could crack bone.
The monster flapped its wings, performing an impossible mid-air stop before pulling a sharp, 180-degree turn to dive straight at them.
"Mind your own business, Shane! I've got this!" Rena snapped. She didn't blink. She pulled the stick into a flat roll, the jet spinning just inches away from Melba's glowing eyes.
The Wing 1 performed a series of dizzying barrel rolls, passing so close to the monster they could see the jagged texture of its scales. They were in a deadly game of tag, and one wrong move meant they were toast.
"Bright Shot!"
Just as Melba lunged for the jet again, Reg appeared from above. He crossed his fists and snapped them open, unleashing a massive spread of blue light bullets. It was like a cosmic shotgun blast.
CRACKLE!
The lights pelted Melba's back, erupting into a shower of white-hot sparks.
The monster shrieked in pain, losing its rhythm as it plummeted toward the ocean.
Kill it while it's down, Reg thought, his mind racing. Don't give it an inch.
"Arrow of Light!"
Reg tucked into a smooth dive, catching up to the falling beast. He drew energy from his Color Timer into his right hand and pointed his fingers like a spear. Several beams of bluish-white light hissed through the air, hitting Melba with pinpoint accuracy.
The resulting explosions sent shockwaves through the air. With one final scream, Melba's ten-thousand-ton body slammed into the sea. The roar was deafening, sending a column of water hundreds of feet into the air.
"The giant... it's back!"
Inside the Wing 1, the two pilots were frozen for a second.
"It's the guy from the middle of the pyramid!" Shane exclaimed, his eyes wide behind his visor. "But I thought he was smashed? How the hell is he standing—well, flying?"
Rena kept her hands steady on the controls, but her heart was thudding. She increased their distance from Tiga, keeping the weapons hot but not firing. "How should I know? But he looks incredible."
She glanced at the radar, then back at the figure floating in the sky. The thick mist and the dark sea made him look like a ghost, but those glowing white eyes and the sapphire crystal on his chest cut right through the gloom.
"The guardian of the Earth..." Rena whispered. She remembered what Yuzare had said. Seeing him like this, standing tall against the fog, he looked less like a soldier and more like a god.
"Rena, Shane, keep your distance from the Titan," Meg's voice crackled over the comms. Back in the command room, her finger was tapping a nervous rhythm on the table. "Don't engage him unless he shows hostility. For now, we work together to take down Melba."
"Copy that," Shane replied. "But honestly, Captain? He doesn't feel like an enemy."
"Friends are great, Shane, but keep your eyes open," Mark chimed in from the background.
Suddenly, the ocean exploded.
Streaks of yellow light shot out from the dark water, heading straight for the sky. Melba erupted from the waves with an angry roar, water vapor hissing off its body as it flapped its wings. It was pissed.
The monster ignored the GUTS Wing entirely, focusing all its rage on Reg. It fired a continuous barrage of yellow beams from its eyes, screaming as it closed the distance. It wanted to get its claws on him.
Swish!
A faint purple aura flickered around Reg. He moved so fast he left afterimages, zig-zagging through the air as the yellow lasers swept past him. He retreated slightly, drawing the monster further out to sea.
Melba wasn't letting him go. It feared Tiga—and hated him even more.
The two became blurs, a man-shaped light and a prehistoric beast racing across the ocean, weaving through three-dimensional space like a high-stakes dogfight. Yellow beams swept in all directions, punching holes in the clouds and turning patches of the ocean into exploding geysers.
"They're too fast!" Rena yelled, gritting her teeth as she pushed the Wing 1's throttle to the firewall. "I can't even get a lock! I can't catch up at all!"
She watched dejectedly as the two figures vanished into the distant mist, moving at speeds the human-made jet simply couldn't touch.