The Void…

"ENOUGH!!!!"

The word echoed through the void… reverberating from all directions…. The Intellect had just enough time to ponder how a voice could echo here, or make sounds at all for that matter, before its attention was once more drawn to the gem..

The object had apparently gone haywire, its surface flaring brightly, flashing with the signs of a massive energy build up, sparks and bolts of energy sizzling and crackling about it, arcing from its surface in jagged bolts.

The Traveler’s right-hand twitched…. Fingers curling into the palm, muscles along the arm flexing… then relaxing…. The regeneration was nearly complete, as the Intellect felt sensory input from the lower extremities beginning to flow once more.

It moved the Traveler into a more or less upright position before the stone, managing to erect enough of a shield to hold off the crackling discharges that wreathed the object. Its hyper sensory orbs focused upon the scintillating object before it… trying to discern its nature…. The energy that it gave off was impossible to classify, at least not without more specialized equipment than the Intellect had available to it.

It directed an energy pulse at the object, not the refined energy of a weapon, but a simple raw surge of power… and the item reacted… its energy output spiked noticeably, and suddenly….. something else could be sensed… beyond the sphere, a pinprick of intense light appeared, drowning out even the gem’s light with its own… slowly it widened, forming a ring of scintillating light.

In the center of this growing circle of incandescence, the void seemed just as black as before… but to his sensors, the Intellect could discern more than his visual senses could…. He sensed a corridor, ringed in a sustaining energy field that was forming along its length…. But it could not determine where it led.

Judging by its current rate of expansion, it would be large enough to traverse safely in another 45 seconds . . . If it chose to risk such an untested mode of transport . . . It assessed its options . . . the situations priorities had not changed. A way out was what it was looking for . . . And a way out had been presented.

It was a few seconds later that the energy field, maintaining the corridor, began to collapse in on itself, apparently the effect could not be maintained without more power… The Intellect increased the output to the device, a nimbus of crimson energy began to form around the body of the traveler, every surface of his body wreathed in the gathering energy field, arcs of red energy stabbed out towards the gem, and the corridor began to widen again…. Slowly… as if dragging against the gravity of a star to open.

Once more the effect held for another few seconds, before slowly the gain petered out… the opening this time holding steadily… but still too small to be traversed…. And the Intellect was running out of time…. That it could sense…. The objects own energy emissions were growing…. Another minute… maybe two, and it would release another energy burst… and the Intellect needed no threat analysis to know it could not survive another assault like the last, at point blank range.

It’s only recourse... another attempt to boost the power.

The Traveler’s right arm snapped up with the unthinking conviction of a machine, ignoring the searing burns from the energy discharges that pierced the bio-armor, the Intellect reached out… and caught hold of the gem, wrapping its hand about the hard spherical object. The Traveler’s energy aura bathing the jewel in a direct power feed.

And the void around them explodes.

The Ruined Base

Reality… dissolved.

That was the only way to explain it…

One moment, two Guyvers launched an attack on two bewildered and stunned Bio-Titans, while a gravitational field of immense power shredded the lifeless remains of seven more of the creatures.

Then next everything dissolved into chaos as the sphere flickered, and then… exploded.

In the heart of the gravitational anomaly, Black Nova writhed in agony as the immense feedback from the weapon battered against her, her screams filling the air about her until she could scream no more, and still she tried to give vent to the waves of searing pain that coursed through every fiber of her being.

Around her, the gravitational effect flared brilliantly white, and then seemed to expand outwards in a concerted rush… The effect was seen from space by an orbital Eye of Chronos satellite, its cold bio-mechanical eye focusing on an unprecedented event as its onboard computers calculated the range of the effect… reaching nearly 15 kilometers in diameter, engulfing the area as quickly as if it was a thermonuclear detonation but without the characteristic mushroom formation….. Yet it did not dissipate… The field remained constant, forming a massive dome over the affected area, cutting off all contact with the area sequestered within the field…. An area centered upon an insignificant forward outpost, of Chronos China.

Keilynn felt her hands impact the ground as she dropped to hands and knees, her eyes tightly shut, teeth clenched, not that it helped…. Pure chaos was not so easily shut out, as reality itself was unraveling all around her.

She was nowhere.

She was everywhere.

A Bio-titan regained its feet, and leveled a withering energy blast in her direction.

She dodged to the side to avoid it / She leaped into the air to avoid it/She was taken by surprise and obliterated / The Bio-titan suddenly switched places with her and died in it’s own attack / She was hit but survived/She lay on the ground bleeding, feeling her life flowing away / The Bio-titan never got to its feet at all.

And she screamed / laughed / cried / gasped / giggled / raged / sobbed.

Nothing made sense anymore… No matter what she did… she seemed to do everything, and nothing.

She wondered if she had gone insane/and knew it for a fact/and laughed at the very idea/and never thought it at all.

Infinity was her prison

And

Chaos

Her

Keeper

Sai felt his body impact the ground, his leap deflected suddenly onto an entirely different trajectory. Somewhere nearby he heard his sister scream and leapt to his feet, looking about him for her…. And found himself faced with an infinite number of him selves.

He had never been in a fun house as a child, but this effect was many times more terrifying than that tame effect. The battlefield was filled to overflowing with duplicates of himself, many of them mimicking his every move, others doing the exact opposite, still more just standing and glaring balefully at him, others not looking at him at all.

Some were battered, seeming to have been drawn from a battle somewhere, missing appendages. Here and there he saw himself disintegrating as his Guyver went rogue and devoured him. He tried to back away, and backed into still more of himself. Some are Guyvers, some not, a vast throng of alternates, each one slightly different from himself.

He was surrounded.

And yet a moment later, they were all whisked away, and he was completely alone… and it was then that he noticed the silence…. A silence so complete it was like a crushing weight about him, he couldn’t even hear himself breathing.

Because he wasn’t!

He dropped to his knees, gasping for a breath he never seemed quite able to draw in… as if slowly suffocating under the weight of the very atmosphere above him…the air seeming to have suddenly become liquid about him, his eyes dimming, and his fingers gouging shallow furrows in the burned and blasted concrete upon which he lay…. His mind roiling at the sheer…. Unreality of what was happening.

As his mind faded from him, he wondered quietly if Meilynn was still alive…. And had just enough time to hope that she was, before the blackness engulfed him completely.

In Orbit

The Eye of Chronos was soon joined by two others, each gathering data from a different angle as a room full of Chronos scientists and technicians worked furiously to correlate the data.

The heavy pressure doors hissed as they parted, the massive imposing form of Kron stepped into the command center, surveying the harnessed chaos going on, "Report Supervisor Valest." He called out, and watched as the supervisor looked up from the bank of monitors he was scrutinizing.

"My Lord Kron…" The man, thin and lanky, spoke with soft respect as he sketched the half bow required to one of the elite. "We are currently recording, what appears to be a massive explosion in District C-137, sub-sector 3 through 17."

The Biolord nodded silently, deciphering the geographical code, "China? Have we been contacted by the local branch?"

Valest tittered for a moment. "We have, Lord, but they have just now noticed the anomaly as well…. And… well sir, it isn’t conforming to any known weapons… of ANY origin…. Permit me to show you." The supervisor turned quickly to his control panel and a moment later a blurred, time lapsed, series of photographs scrolled across the main viewer.

Kron’s eyes widened in surprise, as he watched the explosion bloom on the screen, "Interesting."

Valest looked up to the view as well. "Measuring approximately 14 kilometers in diameter, the current status of what lies beneath is unknown."

"How long did the explosion last?" Kron asks, as his eyes turned to the almost emaciated looking supervisor… watching the man blench for a moment… "Uh… My Lord… the data feed is current…." Kron simply stared at the man… until he broke the relative silence again, "The explosion has not dissipated…. It has encompassed an area nearly 15 kilometers in diameter… and…… held."

Kron looked back to the screen, though he wasn’t seeing it anymore, his mind reached out, seeking the satellites that viewed the anomaly. The techno-organic devices responded to his will, and suddenly, it was is if he himself looked down from space…. Bio-energy bloomed in an incandescent sphere beneath him, with a push of his mind, one of the satellites dropped from orbit, its small thrusters altering its trajectory and hurling it towards the earth….. Kron viewed the descent with a feeling of exhilaration, almost as intense as he felt personally during planetfall….

The atmosphere thickened around the falling satellite, its outer skin beginning to heat from the friction of re-entry, it was his eyes, it was his ears, it was half a dozen other senses he didn’t have himself…. His being flowed through its shell, as it approached the surface of the anomaly… and, abruptly… It was gone.

The Bio-lord blinked… and reviewed the last few seconds…. Nothing….. One moment it was there…. The next…. Nothing!

Kron growled, he didn’t have time for ANOTHER problem…feeling a sudden sense of apprehension, his teeth clenched, his eyes blazing with energy, he watched Valest pale in shocked horror, could almost taste the man’s terror… faced with the possibility of being annihilated where he stood, for no other reason than he was a convenient target... Kron held his rage for a moment longer, then he slowly released it, letting it flow away from him for now. "Very well… keep me informed of all developments, and advise Chronos China to handle this them selves." He ordered as he turned and swept towards the door, his cloak rustling around him like a thundercloud.

He heard Valest’s stammered affirmation just before the doors hissed shut behind him. He stalked to the elevator and punched the code for his private chambers…. Cursing softly to himself, he marched out into his room, why did these things always happen when he was already busy.

He sighed and slowly brought his anger back under control… he’d need his calm… if he was to recover the Clan Ship for his master, but now it was time for him to prepare for his meeting with Imakarum. Hopefully Zarfel’s plan would not be a total waste of their time, he thought riley.

NEXUS

Lights blazed about him, where once all was darkness, now a firestorm of incredible energies flared around him. The Intellect felt the rush of forward motion as the Traveler hurled down the now stable corridor.

Or nearly stable!

A discharge of intense force blasted through the weakened shields of the Traveler, spattering off his armor, charring the outer layers as it slid over the surface, secondary arcs of energy playing across his body like silver lightning. The energy bombardment intensified as the Intellect felt itself passing through a powerful energy field of some kind, its armor searing beneath the massive discharges that arced across it.

The world went white.

And with a surge of awareness, the Intellect felt a strange sensation, almost like <pleasure> coursing through its system. From deep within the recesses of the biological brain of the host, the first stirring of consciousness could be felt.

The Host was awakening.

CHINA – The skies over the ruined Base

The first sensation that greeted Kalen, as he awoke, was that of falling… the wind whistling about his body as it fell like a stone. In those first few seconds, his confusion overrode his reflexes…. He felt himself impact something that rebounded away from him, and then he was falling again.

He could see nothing but blazing whiteness, his mind, slowly recovering from its malaise, was jolted completely awake as he felt his body impact the ground with crushing force, as if he had been propelled forcefully to the earth.

The ground gave beneath him, and he felt the numbing force of the blow throughout his whole body as he cratered his way to a stop, his vision still hazy, he shook his head, trying to clear it… and took stock of his surroundings…

A hole. . . Not surprisingly. . . He was in a crater, from the size of which, he could readily see why every part of him still hurt. That was some fall…. He remained motionless for a few moments, to allow his unit to effect any needed repairs.

And realized he clutched something in his right hand, he lifted it, and found himself looking down at a multifaceted jewel about the size and shape of a baseball…. It looked to be made of Obsidian or some other dark stone, yet its every surface glowed with a scintillating aura of power, he focused his hyper senses upon it…. And could feel the energy it emitted, forming some sort of barrier about his body.

Not knowing what the field was for, but finding it not harmful… he kept hold of the gem as he slowly got to his feet…. It was time to find out what the hell was going on.

Back in the Air

Black Nova felt a heavy blow against her left side, through the welter of pain, her mind dimming rapidly under the waves and waves of searing agony. She had never felt such a feedback of power before……. And then mercifully, it ended….. And she was falling… whatever she had done to herself had been interrupted…. She had to remember, she thought to herself dazedly, to Never to do that again… she fell to the ground, her unit somehow slowing her descent enough for her battered and badly burned form to settle to the ground. She folded, slumping to the ground, shaking with the aftershocks of the unexpected effect of her attack.

In the sky above her, the white glow slowly began to fade, first slowly, and then with increasing speed, replaced not by the calm blue sky that should have been there, but a grayness that soon darkened to black… the sun was blocked out beneath the strange phenomenon.

In the air beneath the effect, three pockets of yellowish gas slowly began to form and draw in on themselves, the temporal distortions of space time fluxed again, and the three clouds of discorporate matter reformed into their dangerous predecessors, the Bio-Titans looked at each other in confusion… whether they remembered what just happened to them or not, did not matter as they immediately sought out their enemy. Locating her nearly simultaneously as they observed the broken form of Black Nova below them. Their eyes gleaming, they dropped towards the ground, to finish their prey.

They never reached the ground however, as a blur of dark motion shot up at them from the forest, and one of them suddenly halted in midair as a shining, glowing blade burst through his chest. "You should make sure you finish what you start!" A voice whispered to the zoanoid, just before the blade protruding from its body suddenly flared with a powerful energy blast, radiating outward like a blast field, incinerating the Bio-Titan.

Ninja Guyver flew out through the fading blast, his armor healed, but no was longer the solid black armor of his normal Guyver form, his body now glistened with the power crystals of his enhanced form. The crystals glowed brightly as they charged with energy as he prepared to engage the two remaining Bio-Titans.

The Bio-Titans wasted no time and started to charge up bio-energy blasts to counter attack Ninja Guyver, who then activated his temporal phasing and lanced across to the second Bio-titan, at over twice the speed of sound but without a sound as his sword slashed across the Bio-Titans midriff, nearly cutting it in two, even as the bio-energy blast from the third Bio-Titans shot harmlessly through the space Ninja Guyver had been a mere split second ago…. Not a mortal wound to a Bio-Titan, it was already healing, but it gave Ninja enough time to reach the third bio-titan, his hand swung around in a short punch, connecting with the side of the zoanoid's head…. and passing through it.

He waited until his hand had phased directly into the creatures brain before he opened his fist, and released that pent up energy. The bio-titan flared with light like the sun, before its head and upper torso exploded messily, a cloud of vaporized blood and flesh. Ninja Guyver then used his power sword and fired a mega smash like energy blast that obliterated the remainder of the Bio-Titan’s body, making certain that there was no piece left large enough to reform the monster before he turned to the third and final threat. "You should have ran!" He murmured, his voice low and cold.

His hand almost casually opened his left chest plate as the hyper zoanoid lunged for him, only to be met by the full blast of his enhanced mega smasher. The Bio-Titan already had its shield up and was ramming his way right through the Ninja Guyver’s Mega Smash, coming to within a few feet of Ninja Guyver before its shield finally collapsed, but at the last instant the Bio-Titan fired its own focused bio-energy blast. The powerful bio-energy blast countered the single Mega Smasher beam, combined with its close proximity, causing a massive dispersal of energy that appeared to engulf both combatants in its fiery glow. A second later and both energy blasts faded to nothing and revealed both combatants floating before each other, Ninja Guyver holding his power sword in a lowered position before him.

Ninja Guyver’s control then medal flared and he calmly said, "I told you, you should have ran.", to the Bio-Titan, just before the Bio-Titan’s body split in two, from head to groin, and began to fall towards the forest below. Ninja Guyver then unleashed the full power of his power sword again, engulfing the falling halves of the Bio-Titan in a fiery mega smash like energy blast, making certain the job was finished, before he slowly dropped towards the injured Black Nova… as he kept one wary eye on the strange sky.

He knelt by her side, gripping her shoulder and turning her onto her back, "Meilynn… are you alright?" he asks her, his voice betraying his concern for his comrade. Her armor was slowly healing, but noticeably slower than it normally did.

"I…I’ll be okay … I don’t know what… happened." Black Nova panted as she slowly regained her breath.

Ninja heard the scuffle of falling gravel behind him and whirled towards the sound, his blade held out in front of him as he prepared to meet any attack. From a newly formed crater, a shape was rising, pulling itself up the edge, though battered, and in places charred, it was unmistakably a Guyver. Its armor blue for the most part, though it gleamed silver along the forearms and torso.

The Guyver seemed dazed, not aware of its surroundings. Ninja caught a glint of pale yellow dropping through the foliage above them. "Look out!" He yelled reflexively, as a Bio-Titan, the fourth apparently to be reformed, dropped through the trees and swung a fully extended vibration sword at the new Guyver from behind.

The blow never connected.

Jet never was certain if he truly saw what he thought he saw. One moment, the blue and silver Guyver was standing, dazed and distracted… the next moment… he moved… Jet had the vague impression of the guyver dropping to a crouch as the sword whistled through the place where his head had been.

And then, as the Bio-Titan raised its’ sword, for a downward cut, its length blazing with Bio-energy, it died… fairly spectacularly.

The Guyver was back on his feet in the next hearbeat, his hand locking tightly around the zoanoid’s throat as he twisted. And with a wet snap, the zoanoid’s head turned at a sharp and unnatural angle. The creature’s roar of pain turned into a gurgle as it dropped to its knees in surprise, before reaching forward to grapple with the guyver, its head already being pulled back upright as it healed.

Having failed on the direct assault, the creature didn’t retreat, but instead it suddenly blazed with a crackling Elegen-like discharge of electricity. The Guyver staggered back for a moment, and then suddenly the Bio-Titan began to writhe as its skin began to bubble and smoke. The Bio-Titan’s own energy seeming to burn and consume its flesh, until its dying scream broke off into silence as its every cell burst apart.

As the Bio-Titan silently collapsed to a pile of ash at his feet, the strange Guyver slowly straightened, looking still somewhat dazed. But considering what just happened Jet had the sneaking suspicion that he was not as damaged as he might appear.

"Stay where you are." He ordered, with every muscle alert for any signs of a threat. "Identify yourself."

The unknown Guyver looked up at him, and finished stepping up out of the crater, coming slowly to his feet, holding his arms out from his side, "I mean you no harm… "

"Yeah," Jet snorted. "As I said, Identify yourself… are you a member of Chronos? The ACTF? Who do you work for?"

The Guyver shook his head, "The name Chronos I know… but this ACTF? I have never heard of. As for who I work for… no one but myself, I am known as the Guyver XT… from what little I have seen of this world, I am getting a strong feeling I have been thrown out of my own dimension, I know that might sound hard to believe… but it’s the truth."

Ninja slowly regained his feet, his weapon still held at the ready, "Alright… let’s say for a second I said it was possible… what proof do you have to offer?" He caught the glint of something in the new Guyver’s hand. "And what’s that?"

The other Guyver held up his hand, glancing at the black gem he grasped, "As unlikely as it might seem, I have no idea…. I found it… What?" The gem had suddenly begun to glow brighter…. It’s surface pulsing with a steady radiance.

Then they both felt it, their hyper senses going crazy as yellow lightning played across the pitch black sky…. Both looked up, their momentary discussion forgotten, as they watched the blackness begin to draw together and spiral in on itself, an angry yellow glow emanating from its center… "What the hell is that?" Ninja gasped.

"It’s the formation stage of a Quantum singularity, the effect is geometrically growing in both power and mass….. Estimate 11.4 minutes before the effect becomes too powerful to be stopped."

Ninja looked back at the blue silver Guyver, seeing his attention also fixed upon the phenomenon, his control medal flashing deep purple…. "Uhhh… alright, I’ll… take your word on that…. But how do you know what that is?"

XT turned his gaze back to the black Guyver, "I have encountered such before. It also appears that this singularity is a twined particle from the one that powers that Guyver." He finger stabbing out to point at Black Nova, still laying on the ground, her armor slowly healing, though it appeared she had exhausted herself… how she was even keeping her Guyver unit from deactivating, Ninja had no idea.

"I… I have something like that… inside me?" She murmured softly, slowly struggling up to lean against the shattered outer wall of the erstwhile Chronos base.

XT nodded, "Yes, but your unit contains and regulates it, to provide itself with energy. I can sense the residual signature of the singularity… It’s almost identical to that." He pointed to the growing yellow sphere in the sky, "There is one major difference though, the one powering your unit is stable… this one is not. . . It must be stopped before it reaches enough mass to be self sustaining…. If that happens, nothing can stop it from crushing this planet, and eventually consuming the entire solar system."

Already a chill wind was picking up about them, as they watched dust and leaves being drawn up in a cyclonic column towards the newly born singularity.

Black Nova struggled to her feet… "C…can you stop it?" she hissed out in a pained voice, Ninja coming over to offer her support, whatever was wrong with her, it was serious.

The strange Guyver shook his head, "I cannot but perhaps…." He pointed at her. "You can."

Within the Ruined Base

Sai’s eyes slowly focused, his breath coming in a deep gasp as he found himself laying face down on the concrete slab he had thought would be his grave. Slowly he pushed himself up onto hands and knees, trying to block the wave of nausea as he did, his head still spinning.

A clatter of falling rubble drew his attention, his bleary eyes locating the fallen form of Starfire, as he slowly pushes himself to his feet and staggers over to her…. "Kielynn… are… are you alright?"

A soft groan of pain answered him, "N…no more… please… I can’t stand it…."

"Kielynn!" He murmured concernedly, reaching a hand out to grasp her shoulder and giving her a shake, "What’s wrong?!"

At the touch of his hand she cried out and jerked up into a sitting position, her body rigid… "Sai…. Ooh… wh…what was that?" she moaned, clutching at the sides of her head as if keeping her skull from splitting.

"I don’t know sis…. I’ve never felt anything like it…." He shook his head sharply, clearing the last of the miasma from his senses. He caught a glint of red out of the corner of his eye. "Look out!" His hands grabbing hold of Starfire as he threw himself backwards, pulling her with him as the ground where they had lain was cooked by an energy blast.

"Damn it!" He snarled, catching sight of their opponents, recovering from the effects of whatever had affected them all.

Outside the Base

After a moment of stunned silence, Black Nova finally found her voice. " Wh… what do you mean, I can?" She managed, despite the hideous throbbing right behind her eyes.

"Exactly what I said, if your unit can contain a phenomenon of such immense power, you should have some control over that." Xt pointed towards the roiling clouds wreathing the yellow center of the singularity effect.

"But what if you’re wrong? It could kill her." Black Nova heard Ninja saying…

"Jett….. I… th… think that thing is what’s affecting me." She gasped out, putting two and two together…. "And... if I created that…. I have to stop it…. It’s my mistake." She gritted her teeth and tried to pull herself up to stand on her own, but sank back into Ninja’s support… her vision blurring… until she felt a supporting touch on her other side as well….

XT slipped her other arm about his shoulders, helping to support the injured Guyver, "No, you don’t have to do it alone…. We will help you as much as we can." He looked to Ninja, who nodded in agreement. "Tell us what we can do."

"I have… no idea… but I think I need to be closer." Meilynn grated out.

"Alright, then we will get you closer…." She heard the calm, almost soothing voice of the strange Guyver, just as she felt a prickling sense of an odd energy field envelope them all… her eyesight sharpened some, and she felt the pain recede a little… "What did you do?" She gasped, just as she felt herself lifted from the ground, supported between the two others, their powers of flight working to lift her with them.

Around the trio, the faint haze of a weak energy field could be seen, the field shifted in color from a deep red, to a light amber, swirling this way and that in a chaotic blend of energy. "It’s an energy shield…. Nowhere near full strength…. But it should help protect us… as far as I can tell… I’m gaining some assistance from this thing." He lifted the black sphere in his other hand, held it out in front of the others to view.

"Can I see it?" Black Nova murmured, feeling an odd prickling sensation emanating from that object…. She reached out… and placed her hand on the object, which felt chilled to her touch.

Energy seared through her arm, racing up her nerves, slicing through her like thousands of razorblades, she screamed…. At least she thought she was screaming…. The sudden ringing in her ears drowned out all other sound…. The jewel flared white beneath her touch, arcs of lightning like energy crackling up her arm.

And then… as quickly as the pain assaulted her… it retreated… the globe remained in her hand, continuing to glow like a miniature sun… but now its power seemed to hum through her, banishing even the pain that has been battering at her consciousness ever since she had lost control of her gravity well earlier.

"It’s alright…. I’m alright…" She panted, feeling the rigid set of Ninja’s body next to hers and feeling XT trying to dislodge the jewel from her grip. "Hold it…. I think it’s helping me…." She whispered, adding her own flight powers to theirs, shrugging off their help as she flew under her own power, this strange gem, with powers so much like those she herself possessed… Enhancing, her own abilities… She could do this…..

"Now!", She yelled as she lashed out with her will at the monster she had created, bands of crackling energy leaping up from her body, flashing out towards the heart of the singularity, parting the clouds about it, revealing the core of the anomaly. She could feel the strain now, like an ache between her shoulder blades, her body rigid as she matched her will against the mindless drive of the singularity to devour.

Jet had never seen anything like it before in his life, the blaze of incandescent energy flared up from the body of the dark Nova guyver, a column of strobing brilliance that lit the sky and cast all else into contrasted light and darkness, he fell back from the nimbus of the energy wake that surrounded her, sensing a presence a moment before the Blue-silver Guyver retreated to join him.

"What’s going on?" He shouted over the deafening crackle of the energy being unleashed.

The other Guyver turned to look at him, "I’m not exactly sure… whatever that object is doing, it seems to be increasing her stability… Giving her a chance at controlling that thing," He says as he gestured up towards the now visibly fluctuating singularity… It’s rapid growth slowing to a wavering crawl.

Even from the battle field below, the sudden intensity of the flare from overhead brought the battle to a confused halt… The Nova twins looked up, catching sight of the three figures floating in the eye of the gravitational hurricane that loomed above the landscape.

"It’s Mei Lynn…. And Jet’s with her!" Sai cried with a surge of relief.

Starfire struggled to her feet beside him, "But who’s that with him?" She wondered aloud, gripping her damaged side.

Nova Blaze stared hard at the distant figures, his enhanced vision making out more detail than the finest optics humanity had yet been able to create. "I don’t know. I’ve never seen him before, here or in the U.S." He shook his head, "But whatever that thing is, it looks like it’s taking all three of them to handle it, which means for now, we’re on our own."

Back in the air, Ninja and his strange companion watched the dazzling display of raw power above them. Black Nova locked in combat with the roiling singularity she had spawned. Ninja watched as the Singularity shuddered, its mass shrinking in on itself.

"She’s done it!" He crowed in triumph, lifting a fist in celebration. Until he felt a hand clutching his shoulder, a strange tingling seeming to flow through his body, the world seeming to fade, becoming indistinct, hazy. "What!?" He choked out, turning his head to see the strange Guyver also seemingly faded, his control medal glowing faintly. "What are you…?" He managed to get out, his voice echoing strangely in his ears, just as he felt and heard a massive thunderous boom from above them.

"She can’t do it." XT’s voice came back to him, "She doesn’t have enough power… and the orbs power is fading now… it is a finite source of energy. He gestured with a ghostly arm towards the form of Black Nova. The crackling aura that had surrounded her diminishing, fading out of existence, the hunch of her shoulders telling of the returning pain of her link to the singularity she was fighting.

"What can we do!?" Ninja growled, "Perhaps all our power combined can collapse that thing, Like a Zoalord black hole?" He felt a surge of fresh hope at the idea, surely there must be some way to stop this thing.

"No, it’s not that simple, a zoalord attack is an unnatural and much, much smaller anomaly, this would just soak up any attack we could throw at it… it would take the power of a Guyver Zoalord to smother it…. No, we have to turn it against itself." XT spoke as if to himself as he let go of Ninja, his phasing ability fading. The black Guyver gasping as he snapped back into realspace.

Ninja floated away from XT as the shield of the blue-silver Guyver began to glow and then collapse in about his body, a hazy aura of azure light growing about him. "Be ready." He said his voice holding a crack of authority such as Jet had rarely heard… somehow… it instilled confidence.

XT suddenly leapt upwards towards the tortured form of Black Nova, leaving a blurred afterimage of incandescence in his wake. Ninja watched in surprise at the speed of his movement as he caught Meilynn’s shoulder, his other hand snatching the black gem from her fingers as he planted his feet on her midsection and kicked. "What!?" She cried in surprise as she flew backwards, not able to halt her plummet in her weakened state.

XT watched as Ninja caught the falling Nova guyver, <Get out of here, Now!> He ordered the pair as he turned once more towards the ravenous singularity, he was already panting from this exertion. His body, weakened as it was from the long wait in Nullspace, was not strong enough to keep this up for long. He glanced down at the stone in his hand. The gem was cold, dormant.

He gritted his teeth and pushed, the indistinct aura surrounding him flaring brighter as he forced more power through his battered system. Letting the energy build for another moment, before he shot upward towards the singularity, the cracking sonic boom of his speed causing Ninja to turn back in surprise, " What?!"

Jet watched in disbelief as XT rocketed straight into the heart of that churning maelstrom of out-of-control gravitation. "He’s nuts!" He cried, "He’ll be killed!"

Mei Lynn forced her eyes open, looking up, trying to focus on what Ninja was looking at… "Wh… what does he think he’s doing?" She gasped… feeling a sudden chilling sensation deep in her belly… whatever happened to him, it would be her fault… she created that thing… she should have been able to stop it…. It was her fault… Her fault! Her eyes rolled back in her head as she went limp in Ninja’s grasp, all but unconscious as he bore her towards the ground.

Jet closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as he turned his back and continued dropping towards the ground, he knew his strengths… but more importantly, he knew his limitations. This was out of his league, and he knew it, he could only hope that XT was able to do what he thought he could, and stop that thing.

Forge of Futures

Bands of energy snaked across XT’s armor as he shot upwards into the hellish heart of the singularity. Bolts of raging energy not unlike terrestrial lightning crackled about him, but at many times the magnitude of any earthly discharge. A searing column of white energy lanced out at him, drawn by the positively charged energy that surrounded him.

He managed to slip the main discharge, the outer nimbus sending sparking tongues of energy crackling over the protective sheath of energy he maintained. He felt the field charge beginning to ebb, the strain of maintaining it telling on his weakened strength.

As he neared the outer horizon of the anomaly, he began to feel the intense pull of the gravitation, even through his shield. He felt the stone he still clutched in his hand begin to react. It’s energy beginning to flow once more. It seemed to be growing in strength the closer it came to the heart of the anomaly.

Another column of energy lanced out from the churning maelstrom he sped towards, unable to dodge this one, he instinctively thrust the stone out in front of him.

And with a deafening shriek his vision was blotted out as the churning vortex of energy was shattered, residual arcs of electricity snapping and cracking about him. The thunderclap of the discharge was nearly deafening. As a trio of crackling bolts that strobed an intense blue arced in towards him, connecting with the stone in his hand, which began to vibrate ever so slightly.

The time had come, before him he could see the pulsing core of the forming black hole. He continued on his way, unassailed by any more discharges, the arcing, dancing blue bolts seeming to channel most of the storms awesome power into the obsidian stone that seemed to now writhe like a live thing in his palm.

XT felt his forward speed increasing as the gravity well began to intensify, waves of space time distortions washing over him as he dived into the heart of the distortion, holding the gem before him like a talisman as its power flowed into him and protected him from the worst of the nightmarish storm before him… and he felt the sudden change as he contacted the event horizon.

He had encountered many things in his long memory, many times and many phenomena, some like this one, he had studied at a distance. But never had he felt the raw power of one up close. Time itself had slowed to a fraction of its norm around him. If not for the strange energy of the gem flowing through his shield, the time dilation around the singularity would have slowed him to the point that he would have appeared to stop moving to an outside observer.

Already reaching the point of no return, he saw the inky blackness of the event horizon. Going further would be certain suicide but he knew he needed to reach the singularity itself if he was to have any chance of stopping the black hole from fully forming.

As he crossed the threshold of the event horizon, the full unrelenting gravity of the singularity grabbed him in a crushing grip that felt as it would tear him apart as his body began to feel the assault of the tidal forces within event horizon. His forward momentum seemed to slow, even as the pressure around him increased. It felt almost like being trapped in thick viscous liquid… thick, pressurized liquid.

<This…thing… can’t be larger then a few dozen meters.> He thought, through the increasing discomfort as his energy shield was compressed about him, it wasn’t buckling yet, but it couldn’t stand this for more than the briefest periods in his current weakened state.

He found himself in a world of darkness that rivaled the void itself. Only the strange energy flowing through his body, from the gem, prevented him from being lost to the abyss. <Far enough, it’s now or never.>

With a hard wrench, he fought against the drag of gravity, bringing himself to a tenuous halt against the unrelenting pull. He had one shot at this… whatever this stone was it had already manifested the ability to negate the effects of the singularity on the odd female Guyver.

Likewise, it seemed to gain power the closer to the core of this anomaly it came… and so, it led him to his last chance. Fighting against the pull of gravity, he drew back his arm, and hurled the ebony gem as hard as he could towards the heart of the singularity. And using the last of his strength, he turned and tried the impossible, already feeling the energy he had absorbed from the gem fading, as he forced his way back the way he came… the gem falling like a glittering star into the maw of the maelstrom.

The Ruined Base

Nova Blaze staggered back from his opponent, once more cursing himself for a fool. His armor blackened and scorched, chest heaving for breath.

He knew he couldn’t last much longer, in his anger he had taken the Bio-Titan by surprise, but instead of methodically destroying it, as he had been shown, he had let his rage get the better of him and tried to rip the creature apart with his bare hands.

The Zoanoid lashed out at him again, forearm blade extended. Nova Blaze parried, stepping in past the Bio-Titan’s guard to drive his fist into its throat.

His opponent made a satisfying gurgle, but then, it moved with a speed that was far faster than he thought possible for a Bio-Titan, as it tried to knee him in the gut, Nova Blaze blocks the attack with his arms but the force of the blow still lifts him from the ground. The next thing he felt was the hyper zoanoid driving both of its fists into his back, slamming him down into the concrete tarmac.

Nova Blaze rolled away frantically, hearing the sizzling slash and crack as the Bio-Titan’s sword slashed through the place where he had just lain. He drove his shoulder into the ground, wincing at the pain such a movement caused as he swiveled his legs up and rolled onto his shoulderblades, driving both heels into the creatures chin.

The zoanoid now took its turn at losing contact with the ground as it was catapulted backwards, slamming into the broken wall of the compound. It had just enough time to swing its forearm up to knock Sai’s punch to the side. The Guyver was then upon him immediately.

It managed to avoid his first attack, but it couldn’t block the knee that pounded into its midriff a second later. The breath leaving its lungs in a huff, but already the creature was twisting, its hand hooking behind the Guyver’s head before throwing him to the side as the Bio-Titan gasped for breath.

Nova Blaze rolled to his feet, sparing a moment to search for Starfire, finding his sibling playing a dangerous game of tag with the other Hyper Zoanoid. But he hadn’t any more time to spare as he weaved around a blistering energy blast and leaped behind a pile of rubble… his lungs burning as his limbs started to feel the telltale signs of fatigue.

"They won’t have to beat us, they’re wearing us out!" He growled, before throwing himself to the side as another blast vaporized the rubble that was his cover, showering him with gravel as he scuttled sideways trying to stay out of sight, while simultaneously firing a plasma/pressure cannon that forced the Bio-Titan to dodge and dive for cover as well…

Ninja lowered Black Nova to the ground gently, "Mei Lynn, I have to go help Sai and Keilynn, I think they’re still in trouble, otherwise they’d be here by now. Will you be alright by yourself?"

Mei Lynn nodded slowly, "Go, help them, I should be safe enough, as safe as any of us as long as that thing is in the sky."

Ninja took another look at the roiling anomaly in the sky, wondering again what XT thought he was doing. He turned his thoughts away from that mystery and launched himself towards the smoking ruins of the fortress, now not half a mile distant.

He had covered about half the distance when the sky flared white again. Gritting his teeth he pressed onward, his sole objective reaching the ruins, and hoping that the twins were still in one piece.

In the Sky

XT wasn’t going to make it, the energy he had absorbed from the gem was fading rapidly now and he had yet to get past the event horizon, but then suddenly the blackness around him was shattered as a powerful shockwave smashed into him. XT’s senses were instantly overwhelmed as he suddenly found himself thrown free of the Event horizon, just as it blazed incandescently white. Whatever was taking place inside, the effects were easily accessed. The singularity was shrinking, its mass being drawn in towards the central point from which it originated. The point which XT now surmised was the exact point of his arrival into this dimension, and his collision with the black female Guyver.

The gravitational pull of the anomaly began to slacken, the white glare slowly fading, and he turned to view his handiwork. The outer sphere of roiling debris and dust began to dissipate. He finally began to relax, feeling a dull ache spreading throughout his body. It had been awhile since he had abused himself this much… ever since… a pain like fire flashed through his skull at the memory of his fight with the demon who had once been a respected friend and ally.

He shook himself free of the powerful memory, returning his attention to the matter at hand, even as he slowly began descending towards the ground.

On the Ground

"Heh.."

"Heh, heh..."

Black Nova leaned backwards against the stump that was all that remained of a massive tree, laughing in relief. She could feel the pain that seemed to be concentrated between her temples beginning to ebb.

"Heh…hee… He did it!" She gasped, tilting her head back in laughter as the tension fled. Black Nova slowly brought herself to her feet, unsteadily. Her eyes searching the sky, finding the descending figure of the strange Guyver that was now their savior. She moved towards his apparent landing point, still laughing as her mind sought the receding presence of Ninja.

Jet grinned, an almost feral grimace as he absorbed the meaning of Mei Lynn’s message and mixed the relief with the growing anxiety he felt for the Nova twins.

Ninja Guyver dropped himself to the ground outside the main doors of the base, ironically about the only part of the exterior wall still standing. He sensed the raging of a ferocious battle going on inside and vaulted the 30’ wall in a single leap, seeing the battlefield from a height for the first time, almost appalled at the destruction he saw, this was no simple hit and fade anymore, it had become a grueling marathon that the Nova’s had been steadily losing.

The tactician part of his mind saw immediately what had happened. The Bio-Titans where managing to keep both the Nova’s off balance enough to keep them reacting almost purely defensively, even to the point of attacking from a defensive mindset.

Secondly the Zoanoids had conspired to keep the twins separated, denying them the use of their greater combined powers and wearing them down singly. He gritted his teeth, and set off at a run for the closer pair of combatants, trying to retain the element of surprise even as he closed with the first opponent.

Starfire dodged another energy blast, feeling the shrapnel from the near miss rake her back. She stumbled as her feet slid on more of the loose debris, rolling inelegantly behind a shattered pillar before struggling to her feet. She nearly overbalanced herself. She hadn’t felt this exhausted since the time she and Sai had to fight their way off a Grakken Mother ship. The only thing that kept her going was the knowledge that her opponent had to be as tired as she was herself.

She threw herself to the side once more as a energy beam cooked the place she had just been standing, rolling as she hit the ground, her hands already cupping in front of her as she twisted onto her back and launched a plasma/pressure cannon shot at the airborne Bio-Titan.

The shot caught it in the midriff, knocking the airborne threat back out of sight and into the smoke. Starfire rolled to her feet and set off at a run deeper into the maze of shattered and blasted concrete. She had no illusions of doing more then temporarily inconveniencing her attacker, but needed time to recover some of her strength.

A dark shape detached itself from a shadowed outcropping and with a cry of pure rage she turned her sprint into a flying kick, her foot impacting the assailant center of mass dead in the chest.

And she felt a hand close about her ankle and knock the surprisingly weak attack to the side, her opponent closing to grapple with her. The Guyver bringing her hands up to tear at the Bio-Titan’s eyes, hoping to blind, disable, something! And then she felt her hands trapped in a steely grip as she was drawn back underneath the shadows of the outcropping and pinned to the wall.

"Stop fighting me Keilynn! Stay still!" a voice hissed urgently in her ear. And she felt herself go limp at the sound of Ninja’s voice, very glad indeed that she was too tired to have done him any real damage. She felt herself relaxing completely, irrevocably, the last of her energy draining away as she wilted against his chest. "Jet!" She managed to gasp, body shuddering with exhaustion.

Outside the Base

XT dropped to the ground, legs flexing to take the heavier than normal impact, and he managed to stay on his feet as Black Nova staggered up to him, looking much like he felt currently.

"Y... you did it!" She cried and he couldn’t stop the grin that formed across his face beneath the armor.

"It would seem so." He replied, chuckling softly as a knot of tension at the base of his skull seemed to evaporate. "And I think the two of us were jointly to blame for that thing… it would seem that my appearance was connected to that anomaly. My apologies, had I known, I would have attempted to find a better landing place."

Black Nova shook her head, still laughing. "I think we’ll both be careful not to cross paths that way again. She rested her hands on her knees, panting for breath.

And a knifelike pain stabbed suddenly deep into her mind, the Guyver letting out a scream of purest agony as she stood bolt upright, looking up as the sky once more flaring blindingly white. The anomaly still shrunk, yet now erratically, never growing larger, but losing its spherical shape, the energy it was emanating becoming more powerful... almost… almost as if it was going to explode.

She numbly heard XT swear beside her. At least she was pretty sure it was a curse, though she couldn’t place the language. She started to drop to her knees and felt frighteningly close to passing out.

XT caught her, supporting her, and her mind grew clear almost immediately…

"Wha…" The question just forming as the blue and silver Guyver gave her a shake, his eyes burning an almost demonic fiery red.

"No time! You and your friend have to get out of here, hurry! You haven’t much time… Run!" He snapped the order off as he pushed her back the way she had come. Black Nova staggered and hesitated uncertainly. "But… what are you…"

He waved her question away impatiently… every line in his body tense once more. "Whatever, I can!"

He murmured almost inaudibly. "Get out of here."

Mei Lynn felt a wet softness, against her cheek, beneath the armor, and realized her eyes were stinging. The moisture from her tears was absorbed nearly immediately by the armor, but the ice that seemed to course through her veins didn’t go away as she felt deep in her soul, that something terrible was about to happen to this new friend specifically.

She gritted her teeth against a sob that threatened to tear itself passed them. She had lost friends before, had buried more then anyone’s fair share of them in her life…. But she had always had a chance for vengeance… always some moment of retribution for the loss.

She wheeled around, running blindly back the way she had come. <JET! SAI! KEILYNN!> Her mental scream radiated out from her mind, carrying with it a jumbled, almost incoherent feeling of alarm and dread. She opened her eyes and raced towards the base at the best speed she could manage in her current state.

The warrior in her shunted the emotional turmoil to the side, dealing with what must be done. Yet still it ate at her… because how could she avenge this pain… on herself.

Crucible

XT watched the female Guyver go, and realized belatedly that he didn’t even know her name. He mentally made a note to ask it of her when next they met. The speculation seemed hollow even as he thought it…

Turning his attention skyward, he once more viewed the inanimate object that had become his nemesis.

He hurt, relaxing had been a very bad idea… he had learned a lot about human anatomy… adrenaline, endorphins, the human body’s method of dealing with strain. His body needed rest it would not get now.

The grass about his legs swirled and swayed in an unfelt breeze as he lifted from the ground, rising steadily towards the writhing, roiling mass of gravitation above him.

He turned his attention to what his sensors were telling him about this thing, its mass was decreasing, yet, in its current highly energetic state, it seemed to be being compressed more rapidly than it was being siphoned away.

Calculating the possible effect, the conclusion was not good at all. The mass would reach supercritical before it was completely drained. A detonation was imminent.

<Get away!> Some part of himself screamed. A quick portal and he’d be well outside the blast radius. But even as he thought of it, his senses flowed out from him to search for signs of inhabitants. And found a mass of humanoid life signs consistent with a small town or village about 8 miles from the point of detonation.

"No good." He murmured out loud, even as his path took him directly up beneath the anomaly as it writhed in its death throes. He came to a halt once he was close enough for what he intended. Calmly he grasped his chest plates and tugged them both open, not bothering to aim them at anything in particular as the power began to build within the unconcealed cells of his plasma smashers.

His mind sought the fleeing form of the dark female Guyver. <Get your friends and get out of here.> He paused to extend his sense to the other minds he could detect in the direction she was heading.

Jet left Keilynn out of sight behind the fallen rubble, making his way stealthily towards Nova Blaze, who was just now coming under attack by both the Bio-Titans. He was about to spring when suddenly a mental voice almost screamed in his ear. Dark Nova’s mental voice comprised a dire warning and a deep almost numbing horror. He wheeled around, and thought idly, that the anomaly, while still shrinking, looked almost exactly like a strobe light slowly being sped up.

<There is going to be an explosion. It could be powerful enough to level this entire area, I am doing what I can to stop it, but I don’t think I can stop it all. Get out of here, as fast as you can, Hurry!>

His eyes widened as he saw Sai’s head jerk up towards the distant anomaly as well. Even the Bio-Titans, psionically sensitive as they were, seemed to have heard the distant warning. Since they too, had halted for a moment.

Nova Blaze stumbled back from the Bio-Titans. "Shit." He hissed, dropping to one knee, exhausted finally starting to catch up to him. He glared over at his opponents. The larger of the two gazing back at him, as if assessing whether he would risk continuing the battle. "We’ll finish this another day, Guyver." He growled, stepping back beside the other zoanoid before they both were airborne.

Semfla turned to her husband as they flew, "What about Sarun?" The other Zoanoid growled in indecision. "He’s in the safest place right now, I wish we dared go back for him, but sifting down through all that rumble, to get to him in the bunker, would take too long, we’ll have to just hope whatever’s about to happen won’t be as bad as predicted."

Semfla flew on beside him. "Who sent that warning?" She wondered allowed.

Renkist drew in a hissing breath. "I don’t know, but the fact that he can communicate with our kind as well as the Guyvers makes him a complete unknown."

"Then why are we believing him!?" The other Bio-Titan hissed.

Renkist looked over sharply, letting his own anger and frustration show. "Because whatever that thing is, we have no idea what it can do! Besides, the tide of battle was about to turn against us." He snarled. "Discretion in the face of the unknown is the better part of valor!" He reached over to rest a hand against her shoulder, giving the armored flesh a squeeze. "We’ll come back for him Love, as soon as we can…"

Together they gained altitude and flew off in the direction of their home base, each worrying about the one they left behind.

Inside the Chronos emergency bunker...

Sarun pressed the gauze pad more firmly over his left eye. His technician’s suit stained with powdered masonry as well as blood. Whatever blast had went off upstairs, it had compromised the bunker. He had barely escaped the cave in. Now the distant shudders had all but faded away, the emergency lights kicking in, their dim red glow barely lighting a room of shattered equipment and fallen concrete.

Rummaging through the med kit, he managed to find by touch, the cool steel cylinder. Taking it out, he punched the end against his thigh hard enough to trigger the hidden hypodermic. He felt the pricking sting as the needle plunged into his flesh, followed by a spreading warmth as the medication worked to stave off shock and keep him conscious.

He was quite sure he’d broken his ankle when he was struck by a piece of falling debris, using the contents of the kit he was able to immobilize the shattered bones, though standing was entirely beyond him. He dragged himself to the single remaining undamaged console. He hissed in pain as pulling himself up into the seat, causing his leg to burn with pain.

He dropped the blood soaked piece of gauze, taking another and pressing it over his eye once more. He couldn’t see through that eye, and couldn’t diagnose whether he had lost the eye or if it was only the surrounding area that had been damaged. He didn’t really care either way, Chronos had advanced much in technology, damage, such as this, could be regenerated.

With fumbling fingers he tapped out a query to the computer. The massive database was housed underneath the bunker. It was even more protected than he was. But given his current condition, he simply hoped it hadn’t suffered too much damage to function.

The reboot procedure took much, much too long. The system having to reroute function a half dozen times as it bypassed damaged sectors. Finally the bank of monitors in front of him blinked to life, most of them showing nothing but static, one or two remaining blank and lifeless, but three came up with fuzzy blurry pictures.

He punched in a string of commands, checking the time to see how long he had been unconscious. He leaned back in the cushioned chair, shivering with mixed fatigue and numbing pain. The medication prevented shock, but did little to relieve pain. He flicked on the shelters homing beacon and tried to relax, waiting for someone to come for him.

In the Sky

XT gritted his teeth, his plasma smashers glowing like miniature suns. The energy had reached the point of normal release and had now exceeded it. The cells themselves beginning to break down, emitting waves of heat and wisps of dark smoke as the outer layer was slowly cooked off by the energies contained within.

And still he waited, his eyes fixed upon the roiling object above him. His mind abandoning all thought but what he must now do. He had done what he could for the others, now it was up to them.

The Ruined Base

Dark Nova staggered up to the gates of the fortress. <Jet! We have to get out of here! Now!> She all but screamed in her mind.

Jet winced, as much pain as she was in, it carried even in her mental voice. <Already on it!> He jumped forward, catching Sai by the shoulder, revealing the strength of his unit as he easily lifted all 350 kilograms of the Nova’s weight.

Keilynn staggered into sight from around the pile of rubble that had been her hiding place. Just in time to see the two of them blur and vanish. The Nova Guyver gasped in shock as she tried to stand on her own, only to feel a set of strong arms about her, lifting her lightly.

And then the whole world blurred oddly, all sounds became faint, as if a mere echo of reality. She looked up to see Ninja cradling her close, the feel of his movements indicated he was running, and as she looked ahead of them her eyes widened in shock.

The world was a blur of motion. It was as if time itself had stopped for them both. The Ninja Guyver jumped over a wall and set her quickly but gently down, the weird effect fading with a gut wrenching jerk. She found herself sitting with her back against the wall, right next to her brother.

Ninja stepped back, "I have to go back for Mei Lynn. Don’t go away." Once more he blurred and faded from sight.

"Wh.. what the hell is going on, Sai?" She managed between pants for breath after that wild ride.

"I wish I knew sis. Someone royally messed up on this mission." He answered back, as they waited for the return of the others.

Ninja meanwhile raced back towards the base, his senses searching for any sign of Black Nova, using his phasing ability like this was a strain, but his reserves should be able to handle it… he hoped. He jumped into the air, clearing the treetops in one massive leap, catching himself in midair and flying off toward the distant star that flickered and sparked on the horizon.

Black Nova had managed to gain a stable flight herself, though it took all her concentration to maintain it. She flew in the direction that Ninja had taken the others. Her, advanced, senses able to follow his movement, barely.

The light behind her was growing increasingly intense as her mind sought XT’s. <XT, we’re clear, get out!>

XT watched the anomaly begin its final contraction. <I can’t, too much is at stake! Get away! Goodbye.> He broke the connection with a sense of deep finality as the sky flared white around him, and he surrendered to the fire.

Black Nova felt the sudden flash of released energy behind her, "XT!" She screamed, as she turned to face the conflagration. "Oh my god!"

The sky bloomed incandescent, the world going white for a moment, and then the concussion from the detonation slammed into her, almost knocking her out of the sky.

And then a bubble of scintillating red energy seemed to flare out of nowhere, enveloping the blindingly bright explosion, which was in essence a miniature super nova. And then it started. It was silent, or at least she was much too far away to hear it, had it been audible. But in her mind, through her units own telepathic senses, she heard it. An unending, tortured, scream of pure agony. "No! … NO!"

AGONY! Pain, pain, pain, pain, PAIN! XT’s body contorted in agony, even as he pushed his shielding out farther. His plasma smashers had gone dead, as he drained the energy from them and forced it into his shield emitters. As the nova had begun, He had thrown his shielding up and outward, encasing the raging inferno in a barrier of energy. And now he paid the price.

His shielding had its limits. It could only stop so much. And as he forced it to remain solid around the threat, the energy backlash flashed down the shields exterior to rip through his already weakened body. He writhed in pain as every nerve in his body felt as if it had been dipped in burning acid.

Somehow he managed to keep control of himself, even as the pain ripped into him, he began converting the energy. The pent up energy of the nova flowed through him, crackling over his body like a caged lightning bolt as he suddenly flared as bright as the nova itself.

And for that part of the world, silence fell.

For months afterwards, scientists the world over argued about the unprecedented event. Some sighted an unauthorized nuclear test as being the cause, yet no radiation consonant to such was ever found. Others claimed alien intrusion into the atmosphere with a ship the size of a small country. But that wouldn’t explain the massive loss of all communication with half of Asia.

Only a few ever theorized anything close to the truth. The electromagnetic pulse that blanked all communications for half the eastern hemisphere also blew out half the commercial satellites that occupied that half of the globe.

Chronos only reported to the media the loss of three satellites of their own, working on finding new mining veins in eastern China. They did not admit to their precious Ark being temporarily blinded and deafened by concentrated streams of EMP that channeled through the two remaining ‘mining’ satellites to fry its living nervous system.

XT floated in a haze, a warm fuzziness seeming to settle over his senses, his body aching only faintly, as if from a great distance. He could sense some part of him struggling with… something… he couldn’t really think of what. He tried to remember, tried to remind himself of what he had been doing… brilliant arcs of coruscating light played before his unfocused eyes.

And some part of him sighed in relief, as a person finally preparing to sleep, to rest from their labors. Fixed between those two opposites he hung suspended. And as conscious thought slowly slipped away, he left a deepening sense of peacefulness. The pain was fading, along with everything else… and soon he could sleep... sleep and dream of his home.

Black Nova fell, knocked from the air by the final conflagration that had consumed the now silent XT. She numbly felt strong arms lock about her, halting her plummet. Her eyes searched the sky, ignoring Ninja’s screamed questions of if she was alright. Her eyes fixing on the flickering fading light of the singularity. The bubble still held, but was fading in and out erratically, weakening...

Dying...

<XT!>      

Who was that… why wouldn’t they let him sleep? … Why did they always have to ask more of him?

<XT! Fight it! Fight it or you’ll DIE!>

Silly voice… he wasn’t dying, he was simply tired. He had done his best, he deserved his rest.

<Don’t give up! Don’t let yourself be beaten!>

Beaten? Beaten?! The nerve! He had never been beaten, not in all the long years of his life had he been defeated. He made a note to tell the voice so, once he had gotten some rest.

<XT!>

XT’s vision snapped into focus, his mind suddenly assaulted by it seemed like years of concentrated pain, his breath catching weakly in his throat as he tried to weather the renewed onslaught, gather his thoughts.

Above him the Singularity died its final death, and what a death it was… A sphere of brilliant light bloomed in the skies over China, many who were caught facing the explosion were blinded by the final conflagration, those who weren’t treated immediately, never regained their eyesight.

XT felt his shields go, overstrained, out powered. He felt a hammer blow along the entire length of his body, wild energies surging around him, the Guyver too battered to even try and lessen the damage they did to him.

He vaguely sensed the wind screaming by him, as if he was flying out of control. He had a moment to chuckle weakly, his eyes dimming. So this was how it ended. He managed to pull himself wearily into a protective ball, using his arms and legs to try and shield his torso and head. The ground was rushing towards him…. so fast… Oh Shavet this was going to hurt…

And once more, he fell…

Ninja and Black Nova settled down beside the twin. Black Nova dropping numbly to her knees. The singularity was gone. She knew this because the pain had vanished. But now she felt hollow. Someone else had paid the price for her mistake. She knew it was her fault.

Ninja stood back up, "You three get out of here. I’m going back." He slowly rose into the air.

Mei Lynn got to her feet, the motion easier now than it had been all day, and she marveled at how well she felt, considering how disabled she had been a half hour before. "What are you doing?" She called after the receding figure of Ninja. "Come back!"

"What. What’s wrong Mei Lynn?" Ninja asked, turning in midair to look down at her.

"We have to get back to base on the double. If we don’t, we will lose Nova Storm." She said, looking to the Nova Twins. Ninja cursed, "If I don’t go look for XT, he might die."

Black Nova felt the conflict within him… and knew that even as a leader, she couldn’t make this decision for him. She couldn’t force him to save one life instead of another.

Ninja dropped quickly to the ground. "Let’s go, I can only be in one place at a time." Mei Lynn winced a little at the bitterness in his voice, knowing that neither solution would have been easier for him.

They converged around Ninja, as they all disappear in a flash of light as Ninja teleported them away to Nova Storm’s aid.

Prologue

Sat-Arc

Satellite Tracking Station for the CRTF

Somewhere in East China

Mei Lynn sat at the mess table, lost deep in thought as the techies looked over the remains of the three data discs they had went through all this trouble for.

"Well, we can pull some information off the first and less off the second, but the third is just unusable, it’s simply in too many pieces."

Keilynn looked down at the battered and scorched remains of the small armored carrying case that she had somehow managed to forget during the battle, and yet it had remained attached to the back of her armor through some of the worst battering possible.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t even think to try and keep them in one piece after the Bio-Titans jumped me." Mei Lynn heard the hollowness in the younger woman’s voice, the unnatural lifelessness of the words. She did not need to look at her to see the emotionless eyes. Keilynn was perhaps the one most affected by the death of her foster father, the one who took the loss hardest.

Mei Lynn stirred and shook her head, "Not your fault at all, you did what you had to in order to survive, no one can ask more of a soldier in that kind of situation. Especially faced with the poor intelligence we went in with. How could anybody miss those kinds of forces being brought into the area! A dozen Bio-Titans don’t grow on trees!" She snarled, making both Sai and Keilynn take a step back at her vehemence.

The door scraped badly as it opened. And Mei Lynn’s attention was immediately diverted as an exhausted looking Jet walked into the room. "Jet! Did you..." She trailed off at the look on his face.

"Yes, I found him… or at least… what’s left of him." He murmured tiredly, slumping into a chair. "I’ll warn you now, it isn’t pretty, and we don’t know how to help, or even if we can."

10 minutes later…

The medical facility here was reminiscent of MASH units during the Korean War, green camo tents over rows of cots. In fact, much of the supplies here were from those very same stockpiles.

The tent they were approaching was much smaller then the triage and intensive care structures. It had been deemed best to put XT in a different place then the rest of the sick or injured.

Mei Lynn covered her mouth, muffling her gasp, eyes wide as she looked down at what remained of XT.

Jet laid a hand on her shoulder. "I found him in a furrow about a mile long, he’s was unconscious, and unresponsive… in any way… even the usual defense mode didn’t seem to work. For which I am most thankful." He muttered the last under his breath.

There wasn’t a place on the once blue and silver body that was not charred and blackened, testament to the damaging energies that had passed through his body. In many places the armor was entirely missing, the organic tendrils underneath shriveled and burnt. Here and there across the chest and shoulders, small sensor pads had been affixed, the trailing wires leading to the small monitoring unit that beeped intermittently with the patient’s vital statistics.

"He’s alive?" Mei Lynn asked, managing to keep her voice even. A woman wearing the white tunic of the medical unit stepped passed her.

"As near as I can tell? Yes, He is alive, but there has been no higher brain activity, no sign of activity beyond basic respiratory and heart function… as near as we can tell… he’s brain dead. How that’s possible for a Guyver, I’m not sure… we don’t know enough about this biotechnology to even understand it, let alone repair it." She held out her hand to Mei Lynn, "I’m Dr. Elisabeth Aiken by the way. I’ve been overseeing XT ever since he was brought in."

Mei Lynn nodded softly, "What can we do?" She asked quietly.

Elisabeth’s lips compressed into a thin line, "I’m sorry, but I can’t think of anything we could do… not for something like this… there’s really nothing we can do but monitor him, until something changes, one way or another."

Mei Lynn stepped out into the deepening darkness of night, she didn’t know what had come over her, or why she cared so much… it took a few minutes for her to realize she wasn’t walking towards the base camp, but away from it. Her feet, unerringly, taking her to her special place. The place she went whenever she didn’t understand what was going on.

Stooping, she brushed aside a large fern, and stepped out onto a rocky outcropping. Had anyone come through that bush at anything more than a cautious walk, they would have stepped off the ledge. And it was a very long way down for anyone who wasn’t gifted with some form of flight.

Turning, she made her way down a crudely cut set of steps, that led down and under the outcropping, a camouflaged pathway leading back into the darkness. She walked forward, paying close attention to the edge in the failing light, until the wall to her right suddenly disappeared, and her boot sank softly into loose sand.

"I thought you might come here." A soft voice said to her right, her black ops training kicking in as she whirled, a carbon coated combat knife seeming to appear in her hand.

Sai smiled at her a little, and returned to looking out of the small camo netted lookout. Mei Lynn muttered something under her breath as she moved to join him, the soft sliding click of her re-sheathing her knife not lost on the young man. "You always forget that I know about this place too." He reminded her, "And I also know it’s where you come when something’s troubling you."

Emerald green eyes looked up at her. "I’ve never seen you like this, Mei Lynn… what’s going on with you?"

The sand scuffled under her feet as she sank down to lean her back against the dirt wall of the small lookout station. "I suppose I do owe you an explanation." She murmured softly, an attentive silence greeted her and she sighed softly.

"Did I ever tell you about my first black op operation? All the training in the world cannot prepare you for the true brutality that exists out there, totally unlike conventional warfare. We had held up in a series of underground tunnels outside of Saigon. We had been sent there to assassinate a… individual. I won’t say much more for personal as well as security reasons."

She shook her head, "Anyway, the target got wind of the impending strike and struck first. The first warning we got was the grenade hitting the floor with a thump. I don’t know how Satori and I got out without being injured more badly than we were. The rest of the team didn’t make it."

She shifted position, reliving those moments again. "We were almost out of the vicinity when a nearby copse of trees opened up on us with full automatic fire. I took a round in the shoulder, but was able to drag myself under cover. Satori took a hit in the stomach." She swallows back the sudden watery feeling in her belly as she saw the surprise in those eyes once again as the round ripped through her body.

Mei Lynn sucked in a deep breath, feeling her eyes pricking with unshed tears, "I… I’m pretty sure even now that she was dead before she hit the ground… and part of me hopes she was... she fell on top of a mine… Sh… She…" Mei Lynn sobbed softly as she felt Sai’s arms slip about her, drawing her over against his warmth, resting her head against his chest as her arms clutched at him.

"After I managed to escape the region, I found the informant who had ratted us out… and… and ensured he’d not do it again to anyone else… I was promoted when I got back… on one mission I made team leader… by attrition of course." She drew in a soft sobbing breath, her tears staining his shirt. "I haven’t felt helpless like that since, until today… I almost got us all killed, by sheer ignorance of myself… I…"

"Shhh…" Sai shushed her softly, and yet she could feel his tears on his cheek as he kissed her forehead. "You did what you had to do… and you pulled us through."

Mei Lynn shook her head, "Not Lynn." She sobbed softly, "And XT is as good as dead… he’s the one who saved us… and it cost him everything." She shuddered in Sai’s grasp as his embrace became so tight it was almost painful, his body wracked with the pain they shared. "We lost two people today… and they didn’t have to die."

They both sat silently together for the longest time, clinging to the comfort that each could offer the other, until the tremors had eased. And again Sai spoke.

"You shouldn’t blame yourself… people die in war… and you aren’t to blame, Chronos is, they were the one’s who started this… they killed one who I loved as a father tonight... not you."

Silently they rose, and supporting each other, they made their way back into camp, to find it in chaos.

"What’s happened?" Mei Lynn grabbed the arm of a nurse who was almost thrown to the ground as she stopped him dead in his tracks. "It’s the Guyver, we think he’s dying." He informed her shortly, tearing himself from her suddenly nerveless grip and rushing off... only Sai’s support keeping her upright as the full import of what he had said hit her.

And for the second time in that day, it felt as if her heart had been torn from her chest. She couldn’t remember how she made it to the now crowded tent. Medical personnel bustling about the cot, trying to act busy when they knew absolutely nothing that might stop what was happening.

XT was writhing, not bodily, he remained as lifeless as before, but the Guyver organism convulsed about him, the tendrils contracting spasmodically... and Mei Lynn waited… waited for another friend to die, realizing she didn’t even know his real name… this traveler from another dimension, who lay dying before her very eyes. She tried to turn away, to look anywhere but at the ersatz movement before her.

And then, once again, life turned out to be more complicated then anyone could imagine. As she watched, XT’s hand balled into a fist. Her eyes widening at this sign of life from the Guyver… and before her eyes, the arm began to slowly lift.

"Get… Out!"

The voice was blade edged with pain, yet somehow retained the sense of power its owner had shown before. And Mei Lynn was amazed to see the medical staff evacuate as if they had just been informed that unshielded plutonium was what occupied the lone cot.

Before her eyes, she was watching someone come back to life… a resurrection… the Guyver dragged himself to his feet, every line in his body betraying the agony he was in. As she watched he seemed to draw in on himself, pulling on hidden reserves of will as his armor began to glow, softly at first, but slowly quickening, the crackle of energy arcing over its surface casting flickering shadows on the floor of the tent.

Mei Lynn and Sai stepped hastily backwards out of the doorway as the glare intensified, before with an audible hollow boom like an overloaded transformer the light died.

Mei Lynn stepped uncertainly up to the doorway, whirling away and coughing at the acrid stench of overloaded electrical equipment, the tent was dark, and every piece of electronics in it had apparently blown… Sai stepped up beside her, and she saw he had ran to get an electric torch.

The click of the toggle was followed by a harsh, white light illuminating the interior of the tent, revealing the sole occupant.

What clothing he had once worn, was for the most part in blackened tatters, as if he had walked through a blast furnace, but the skin underneath was whole and undamaged… Mei Lynn and Sai exchanged a quick glance. They had both seen this before.

A Guyver unit would regenerate all organic material of the host that was damaged, but it didn’t similarly reconstruct clothing and other inorganic material. The condition of the clothing he wore spoke of an immense and hard battle being fought since he last retracted the armor.

The figure was on hands and knees, panting for breath, seeming to ignore their presence at first as he struggled to stand, making it halfway before pitching forward, Sai dropped the light and caught the falling form, supporting his weight as he pushed him back down onto the cot.

The stranger lay there panting as Mei Lynn retrieved the torch. Keeping its powerful beam against the far wall gave enough light to see with, and wasn’t blinding anyone as she studied the man who lay before her.

He wasn’t tall, barely 5’ 6" she estimated, with blazing red hair, and a face that seemed almost too fair to be that of a man, fine high cheekbones and a aquiline brow. And then his eyes were open, and he was studying her in return.

"Do I know you?"

The voice was soft, but even without the Guyver’s distortion. It was the same voice, the same distinctive timber. Mei Lynn felt herself nodding softly, tears pricking her eyes.

"I’m Mei Lynn, you saved my life."

The stranger nodded, also seeming to recognize the voice, and smiled. A weak smile, but a true smile played across his lips. "Kalen, a pleasure to see you again Mei Lynn… I’m glad it worked."

Mei Lynn nodded, and found herself laughing and sobbing as Sai held her close, the stranger... no… Kalen… joining in her laughter as tension was released, and friendships were formed.

And somewhere, Lynn Satome smiled.

Back to the Guyver XT Fan-Fiction