Ultimatum 3: Trance Trauma, Chapters 6-10. Chapter titles are as follows.. 6. Eric, meet Luxator! Race for the Miacas! 7. This is the Power! Magnus Explains All 8. The Dark Switch?! Tanya in the Crossfire 9. Return of a Revolution - The Upgrade Begins 10. Infinite Modification! Takato and the Wildcard Chapter 6: Eric, Meet Luxator! Race for the Miacas! (A/N - Just one comment today, folks - any comments made on the Digimon card market are story-related, and those cards might not exactly cost that much...=) Oh, and see if you can catch some of the "references" I snuck in this chapter.. there should be three or four. Happy hunting!) V2 (VO) Last time on Trance Trauma, Ulty brought the Argetlahm into planetfall so we could stop by the newly-rebuilt Magnopolis, and try to scope out some info on the Prospector's whereabouts. Though the place seemed calm enough, some of the crew members around the city soon had their eyes set on several creepy guys that were wandering around the city, draped in huge overcoats. Takato and Rika were the first ones to get their point, as one of the agents attacked and Renamon had little choice but to defend the singled-out Tamers. However, it soon came to bear that the man actually had the ability to Trance! With everything about the Unity dug up and their constant struggle to attain Trance, Takato soon realized that he had the right guy as far as the Prospector was concerned. He was, at one point, the vice-president of Magnopolis, and the vice leader of the third dimension itself. Armed with some knowledge, both Argetlahms and their digimon turned to face their enemy - the heavily-armored, lumbering white beast Luxator. Meanwhile, Shaun's got it in his head that he wants to join an underground street luge in order to win some funny-looking statue called a Miacas. I can't believe one shred of information he's told us about the thing. Anyways, he's going to join in under the guise of Alex Mann, super-duper-athlete or something. Ulty's hanging out at the neighborhood pub with Crono and Locke, scanning the Magnopolis records for some sort of hint on the Prospector's whereabouts, like everyone else. But it looks like those Citrus Sisters have some sort of plan to "distract" our heroes... As for Eric, he's going to have a hell of a time when he meets up with the Trance Luxator - when he's the only immediate reinforcement in the area, can he stand up to the beast? ******** Appleton stared at his unmoved face in the bathroom mirror once more before he cleared his throat and departed into the hallways. A short jaunt from the private chambers was the Prospector's main room. Appleton had been preparing himself long and hard for this - he had to get a direct word from the Prospector himself, and get some sort of idea what was going on with Project Trance. Straightening the fabric on the shoulder of his jumpsuit, he paused for a second, and threw the doors ahead of him wide open. Whatever his boss' response was, he was prepared for the worst. The dark man placed his fedora down on the table and turned the chair to face his underling. "...Appleton. I dare NOT ask what you are doing here." "I've had enough of working like I'm missing my head, Prospector. I demand some sort of facts on Project Trance, and the Unity itself. I have to ask, why the enitre J terrorism act? What are you intending to do with this 50 billion dollars? I want an answer." Appleton abruptly stopped. Hell, he was probably on the hit list by now, he might as well go through with it. A silence swept through the room, as the Prospector considered his response. "...you seem like a faithful worker, Appleton, I guess I can give you SOME insight. You've served me all these years, assisted in the development of the mission, served as my second man... well, are you sure you're prepared for the future of the Unity?" Appleton tugged his collar. "...I... guess..." The Prospector let the deepening quietness settle, before rising slowly from his chair. He made his way to the window, arms folded behind his back, as he stared down onto the ocean below. "As you may recall, I was, in fact, a member of the extremist cult The Unity. The Unity does not follow any sort of mantra, it is only an organization dedicated to the bonding of a person's six possible forms. I'll tell you now, reality itself is divided into six tiers, each representing a progressive plane of the associated reality - the first plane is length, the second plane is height, the third plane is depth, the fourth plane is time, the fifth plane is magic, and the sixth plane, is life. With each tier you advance, its residents have greater powers, corresponding to their current planes." "Go on." "A long time ago, in the fifth dimension, the Unity first caught word that a machine was being researched and developed, one that could warp people inbetween dimensions. This was clearly an attempt on behalf of the scientific world to cash in on the power that the Unity would soon have, the manipulation of dimensional structure. The Unity's militia powers sent their greatest weapon, me, the Prospector, into covert service and find the J, and bring it back to HQ. A week ago, the J was placed into a museum of technology in New York, and I soon launched a raid on the facility and stole it - using it, I warped to the third dimension, where we are now, to escape. To prevent further action to rob the J from my new base of operations, I threatened to activate it on its highest velocity setting, which could probably collapse the entire dimensional structure and practically destroy reality. With the funds I will get from my 'ransom', I intend to continue working with and building Project Trance until every one of my workers, including myself, can fully go Trance. Then, our true mission will begin." "True mission?" The Prospector turned back to Appleton. "Legend says that if the six dimensions are all melded together, which we are doing with Project Trance on a more personal scale, the object in question will exist in the Seventh Dimension - the threshold of godliness itself if used in the right hands. Then, we shall rise up, and take what is rightfully ours!... rumor has it that off, somewhere outside of this star system, a machine called the Van Eltia is the prize in a massive war between the combined forces of the Inferian and Celestian navies and a massive organized space pirate brigade. As current events fly, the pirates have the upper hand, and have gained control of the Van Eltia and its systems." "Sure, but what's the Van Eltia?" "I'm not exactly sure myself. The reports we've received tell us that the Van Eltia is a flagship of Celestia, their largest, most powerful ship. But the real kicker is that the weapons themselves are of Craymel design - the ship itself has been imbued with the spirits of the greatest Craymel forces of both Inferia and Celestia, making its weapons and defenses insanely powerful, and its containment of the Craymel spirits makes it an extremely sacred item to both Inferia and Celestia. Simply put, it is the ultimate weapon. The ship's power envelopes it so much, in fact, all of space around a 20-foot radius of the ship is a Seventh-D anolomy. Only by climbing to the Seventh Dimension can I gain enough power to put an end to the war single-handedly and take the Van Eltia for myself! When I finally fuse with the Craymel spirits of the Van Eltia, I will be immortal, and the Unity will rule Creation itself!" Appleton sat, frozen in his seat. "...I think you told me a bit much, there." "...then be comfortable, knowing the Unity's final victory is nigh, Appleton. You are excused." "Um... sir... I was told Project Trance was entering Beta." The cloaked man paused before turning back to Appleton. "What are you talking about? All the schedules state that Project Trance is still going through pre-Alpha testing." "But, sir, the records clearly indicate that you gave the command to imbue Trance onto several of the lower-ranked officers. You sent them out to Magnopolis to hold it under military control until further notice." The Prospector slammed his fist down onto the desk, making Appleton shove back. "I made no command of the sort! I don't know where you bozos got the word to send Trance-enabled troops down to Magnopolis... I didn't even know Trance itself was in working order!" He quickly rose himself from the surface and paced away from his workcenter. "If the World State Government realizes that Trance troopers are in Magnopolis, they'll NEVER give me the ransom, they're just going to launch a retaliatory attack! I want you to find whatever idiot gave the word to send the Trance into Magnopolis, and get him to my office, pronto!" A voice crept out of the corner of the room. "You would be speaking of me." Appleton spun and ripped the pistol from his holster, pointing it in the direction of the interruption. Standing in the corner of the expansive office, next to a potted planet, was a man dressed in the exact same attire as the Prospector. "It's about TIME someone noticed me. I imagine you're wondering who I am." Appleton flicked off the safety. "You'd better speak up quick, then." The man removed his hat, exposing his face to his spectators. Well, it was quite apparent then that it wasn't a man Appleton was dealing with - a good portion of his forehead was ripped apart, showing metal plating beneath. A small, red wire poked out from beneath the artificial skin. "An android," the Prospector hissed. "it's definately Ultramagnus' model, alright." "What do you want me to do?" Appleton whispered over his shoulder. "Let him talk. It's feasible that he wanted to come up here for something other than killing me, he's not armed. Alright, whoever you are, what are you doing here and what do you want? I've already caught onto the false orders you've given my troops... I want a good explanation." The android nodded. "As you have guessed already, I am, in fact, one of Ultramagnus' androids. One of his most trusted, I might add. I am Ultramagnus' literal second-hand man, replacing his older probe, Minonim. After Ultramagnus' defeat by the crew of the starship Argetlahm, I escaped to normal third-dimensional life until a new threat began to consume the world and offer it a taste of fear. That time is now. I took temporary command of your troops, because I knew of a threat you did not. The leader of the Argetlahm, Ultimanium, is planning your demise as we speak, and he was in Magnopolis, trying to gather information on your forces so he may attempt to stop you. I just took the liberty of attacking first before Ultimanium has any idea what's going on. You can call me... Servant." "Our defenses will be ready for Ultimanium if he comes for the J," the Prospector growled. "I don't need a damn computer running around making my decisions for me. You've already possibly screwed up my entire plan." "You have no choice but to listen to me. I could self-destruct right now and bring this entire building down, you realize. Stick with me and I will make sure that you do not lose. Otherwise... I'll make sure you do. Understood?" Appleton glanced back at his master. "Should we get security?" "Let him talk." "Anyways, as I was saying, I will help you fight this new threat to the Unity. The next part of my plan is to shut down Gaia's Isle's engines for the time being. We will let the Argetlahm come to us, Prospector - then, we will have our entire army Trance and deal with them. As for my entire intervention itself, when I insist something, I mean it. I will be keeping an eye on you, Prospector." With a flash, Servant vanished, leaving only a scratch on the floor from his heavy boots. Appleton uncomfortably rose from his seat and stared confusedly at the Prospector before turning and departing, leaving the Prospector still staring into thin air. ******** Okay, maybe I've been sending the wrong message. Okay, Eric, here's your part. Big-ass-pyrotechnic-filled fight against Luxator, coming up!.... did I say that out loud? I sure wish I couldn't spoil. o_O (begins mashing face in with brick again) ******** Eric looked over the sheets in his hands again. A trip to City Hall's main lobby had provided little help with Magnus' whereabouts. When he asked about the leader, he was simply ushered out by a pair of security guards. "God, this place sucks. I wonder if any of the other guys got a lead... or at the least a fight, I wouldn't mind a good..." KRACKOOM ...battle! Damn it, it's coming from the commercial district too! I've gotta get down there!" Eric braced himself as a white-hot aura flared around his feet. In a flash, he blazed down the street toward the store sector of the city, a hurricane of wind in his wake. Several cars nearly tipped over from the force. As he shot around a corner, his hair spiked wildly in the yellow aura that surrounded him as he flared up into Super Saiyan level. Several old guys were already yelling at him and waving fists. "Digi-modify! Berserk Sword...activate!" Eric's eyes widened as he heard the voice. Quickly adjusting his trajectory, he dove down another side street, leading straight into the heart of Magnopolis. As he exited the alley, he propelled himself upwards and gave a wide scan of the courtyard he was overlooking - as he'd thought, Rika was standing off alongside Takato at the far edge of the circular garden, with their digimon in front of them. A giant, white armored beast was bearing down on them. An armor-hilted sword appeared in the air in front of Renamon, which she snatched up with both hands. "It wouldn't be slaying without a blade. I hope that plating doesn't chip easily!" Renamon struggled to lift the sword into the air as she lept high above Luxator, holding it over her head as she dove down at the behemoth. She brought the blade down as hard as she could on Luxator's head, with an echoing clunk being the only indication that she'd hit. Luxator didn't even flinch. With a deep growl, Luxator lobbed out at Renamon, grabbing her and throwing her through the side of a nearby building. "Renamon!!" Takato watched, half guilty, half impatient as Rika rushed over to her fallen partner. "It's down to you two, then!" Luxator boomed. "I'll jus.. what in the name!" "Eric Cloud, heir to the Power!!" Eric bellowed. Takato and Guilmon quickly glanced up to Luxator's attention, Eric Cloud, hovering in the air several hundred feet off the ground. His dull-golden aura contrasted against the high-noon sky, making his po'ed face noticable even on the ground. He extended a finger down to Luxator, striking a pose. "I will NOT allow you to hurt anymore people!" Luxator's armored face twisted as he let loose a deep growl. With little warning, he flung his hand up, erupting in a white flame. "Blessed Cannon!!" Eric gaped as a massive, blinding laser blasted forth from Luxator's limb, blowing away much of the grass at his feet - and it was approaching Eric. ******** Crono and Locke's fervant consumption of water was disrupted with a crash coming from the back of the bar. As both looked around, their sights finally centered on Ultimanium, coming out of one of the back rooms. "Your firewood is all stacked, sir." The bartender sighed, and leant down on the counter. "For the last time, I know NOTHING on this Prospector guy, okay? Not one inkling." "What's the deal with this? Pubs are supposed to be a prime source of information..." Ultimanium seated himself back on his stool with a thump, and leant down at the desk, scanning one last headline of the newspaper in front of him before shoving it away. "That's it, I'm totally sick of scanning through this crap. I should head straight to City Hall and demand what information they know." Locke raised his glass of water. "Amen to that." As Ultimanium, Crono, and Locke clinged their glasses together and began folding up papers, a chilling wind ran through the tavern, making everybody shudder and take a glance toward the doors. Standing in front of the door as it slipped shut was a dark man, dressed entirely head to toe in black clothing - black shirt, black jeans, and black heavy boots - except for a pair of silver bracers and a cape that was outlined in a gold fabric. Everybody currently in the pub, its population increased over time, watched closely as the mysterious figure slid to the main bar, his boots clopping in the silence. After a long journey, he finally seated himself down next to Locke. "It's... been a while." The words seemed to echo a mile. Locke leant over to Ultimanium. "Are we supposed to know this guy?" Ultimanium peered deep within the man's face. "If you've read the Argetlahm database you should. Lord Raul. It's been a while since we last saw you. I was figuring we'd have to go looking for YOU. What brings you back to Magnopolis?" "I finished my meditation at the Temple of the Winds early. I was able to tap into the Great Smiths' spirits quicker than I had anticipated and they agreed eagerly to help me craft a new enchanted sword for myself, one that would bear MY title... the original Sword of Truth was simply handed down to me... I wished for one of my own, and I knew I would need one quickly as soon as the situation with the Prospector arose, so I headed for the Temple of the Winds, knowing the Great Smiths' spirits would help me craft my blade faster than the mortal hand could alone... and I have my new blade. It was a discarded design that one of the Great Smiths once planned on using... he let me have the plans and a copy of the sword... the legendary Grandfather." Raul rose from his seat and turned so everyone could have a look - the 6-foot long katana was tied neatly within a sheath on his back. Both Crono and Locke gaped at the blade - no man could carry a weight like that! As Raul, Ultimanium, Locke and Crono all conversed, the Citrus Sisters were having their own look at the group... "Tanya, get your eyes off him already, you've been watching his ass for the past half-hour." Tanya flipped over her visor, straightening it, as she whipped around to her other bar-hopper. "You can't blame me if he's the only person who shows up in a whole year that has a decent ass. I don't recall YOU making any moves on anyone since we got here." "That's because everyone else here is damn ugly... how about the goth guy who just walked in?" "I don't know, there's just something about that one, some sort of dangerous appeal... look at them, they're handling swords. I don't know, but that's some kind of weird like that I have. So sue me," Tanya licked her lips. "This one I'm going to have to go after, Jen. Some of his drinking buddies over there are calling him Ultimanium, probably some old-school nickname or something. If you'll excuse me, I'm going up there to talk to him right..." "Oh, no you don't," Jen spat, pulling Tanya back into her seat. "Rule #1, you DON'T ask a guy straight. Why don't you try asking Goth-dude over there to introduce you?" Jen turned over to the conversation happening at the counter, cupping her hands to her mouth. "Hey, goth dude! My friend here wants to ask you a favor!" Tanya beat her head against the table. "Just a second," Raul muttered. "some chicks at the back table want to ask me something." As Raul made his way to the back of the club, ducking between tables, Crono and Locke could be heard snickering. As Raul came to the table, both women sat upright quickly. "alright, what did you want now?" Jen nodded. "My friend here has the hots for Ulty-whoever's up there. She would really like to get over to talk to him, but she's a bit of a WUSSSS!!!.... please?" Jen's outburst had already garnered some attention from all the drinkers in the immediate vincinity. Raul glanced around himself, before returning his attention to Jen. "Listen, I think Ultimanium would be really interested in your friend here... but it's kind of inconveinient right now, see, the guy's due to leave aboard a starship later tonight to find the Prospector's whereabouts and shut him down..." "He's a mercenary! Boy, Tanya reeeeeeeally has a thing for those." Raul sighed as he turned over to Tanya, lying face down on the table. "Um... yeah." Tanya raised her face up. "Can you at least tell me what ship he's leaving on? I want to talk to him at least once." "The Argetlahm. You can't miss it. It's the largest ship that's ever been parked in the Magnopolis spaceport." "Thanks," Jen snickered. "I'm sure Tanya here appreciates the information." As Raul and Jen continued their bickering, Tanya raised her head and kept a constant watch on the information that was being distributed. "Aboard the Argetlahm... and fighting the Prospector. He's on some kind of cruise. I've run into this before - person leaves on an outboarding starship... I can sneak aboard the Argetlahm when it leaves tonight! THAT oughta get Ulty's attention..." ******** "So let me get this straight," the turfmaster coughed, as he lifted his cigar up. "The extreme athlete Alex Mann insists on joining the traffic luge? I never saw him as the kind of guy that would head against common law to get his thrills. If he wants to join, we'd have the honor." Gohan and V2 stood on opposite sides of Shaun, sheathed underneath his Alex Mann helm. Shaun gestured to both Gohan and V2, which Gohan took notice of quickly. "There's just one catch," Gohan smirked. "We have to join in on the luge too." "Oh, sure, there's no problem with them joining up, this IS an underground operation, you know... it's just safety issues. There's always some idiot who flings himself under a passing semi, if you catch my drift." Gohan and V2 exchanged grins. This was going to be one to remember. "We're in." "Well, it's nice to see such suicidal people for a change. We only have about 18 petitioners who are willing to race for the weird statue we dug up... and to oppose Magnopolis traffic laws. We keep all our luge cars in the back. Get one and head up to 110th Street - it's where the race is going to be starting." As the turfmaster finished his speech, Gohan, Shaun and V2 were already making their way out of the master's shoddy office, turning down a hall and heading to the warehouse access at the far end of the corridor. "I sure hope you guys know what you're doing," Shaun growled. "This could get both of you killed." "We've been through worse." V2 muttered. Gohan shoved open the large wooden door leading to the expansive warehouse. The inside was about as spectactular as a warehouse would normally be - unmarked crates everywhere (clearly illegal goods), stacked in just about any manner, and dull grey concrete for both the walls and the floor. In one corner were the luge cars, the area surrounded by a long band of danger tape. Several other petitioners were already down on the floor examining their cars and making last-second touches to the luge cars, tightening the axles, or whatever modifications they could think up. Each Argetlahm took their own car and placed it away from the crowd, and took a look at its infrastructure. "I don't get it," Shaun mumbled. "I mean, look at this! These cars have been maintained perfectly..." While Gohan and V2 examined their cars, determined to punch out any minor imperfections in the upkeep of their vehicles, V2 gave Gohan an embaraseed glance. "..um.. Gohan..." "What?" "What exactly IS street luging about, anyways?" "Oh, it's quite simple," Shaun explained. "It's a downhill race on these cars. You just lie down on them and let gravity build your speed up..." V2 nearly turned white. "HOW fast do these things go at top speed?" "...with enough clearance.. like through downhill city streets, I'd say anywhere upwards from 80 mph." (A/N - rough guess) V2 immediately fell into the fetal position and rocked back and forth. Gohan and Shaun turned to each other and sighed - and that's when Shaun noticed something in the background. "..hey... they're keeping the Miacas here!" Indeed, several workers had just placed down the crate in the far corner of the warehouse and had just left out through the rising gate at the end of the chamber. "...I wonder.... Gohan, wait here, I'm going to see if I can nab the Miacas. If I can, then we can forego the entire race, and we'll be able to get back to Ultimanium faster." V2 sat up. "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!! I DON'T WANNA GO ON THE LUGE! I GET SICK EVEN FROM THE FRICKING TILT-A-WHIRL!!! PLEEEEASE!!" Shaun gave V2 a distressed look as he rose to his feet. Casually, he approached the crate - however, as he began to draw closer, he felt a surge of energy rising from the Miacas. A thought ran through his mind - he wasn't going to get any closer without causing a disturbance. ----------- "You have to be careful when going after the Miacas, Shaun," Max stated. "While your lineage is able to interact with the Miacas' power fully, the Craymel still have some security in effect..." "Security?" "If ANY force capable of harnessing the Miacas approaches it too rashly, security will activate and the statue itself will gain temporary sentinence, which roughly means that if you get within a certain radius of the Miacas it WILL come to life and attempt to make a break for it. While the entire process is inevitable, the Miacas' actions can be postponed if you approach it carefully. Remember, you need to TOUCH the Miacas to learn its Craymel skill." ----------- Shaun grit his teeth. It was going to be harder than he thought. But.... wait, we had.... luge cars... if we could get the Miacas going downhill.... there was no time to waste. ******** Eric barely had time to plan as the epic blast began to consume his vision. He quickly swung both of his hands forward and fired out a similarly-sized blue Ki blast, which impacted against Luxator's assault with a deafening crack. Both fighters struggled to keep their side of the fight, as their lasers' ends bobbed up and down. Eric switched the blast to one hand, temporarily losing his ground against Luxator before his Ki surged up again against the assault. A ball of red energy began to gather in his loose hand, orbits of energy swelling up against it. "....urrgghh.... you want to see how this little toy works?! NEUTRON FLARE!!" Eric hurled the projectile down at the ground, completely bypassing the Blessed Cannon and slamming into Luxator with a thunderous, nova-white explosion that hurled Takato and Guilmon back onto the street, and shredded the entire courtyard to debris. Takato lifted his head as he struggled to push himself up. "Holy... crap! This guy's right up with us!" Eric dove down into the crater grown by the Neutron Flare. Almost immediately, Luxator hurled himself accordingly up into the air and launched a large fist toward Eric, which he lunged sideways to dodge. He quickly flipped himself off the rock cliffing, narrowly missing an energy blast from Luxator. As Eric flipped over top of Luxator, he fired several more quick Ki blasts, tagging Luxator on the shoulders and blasting away part of the armor panels. As Eric touched down outside of the crater, Luxator touched down from the sky behind him, and took several more swipes at Eric, which were barely avoided. A backhand from the beast sent Eric flipping. He quickly braced himself with his hands and flipped back onto his feet, quickly resuming a battle stance. "Maybe the funny-haired person needs help?" Guilmon sighed, staring at Takato. "I was intending on using these by myself... but at this point, Eric's looking like he might need our help in a bit." Takato removed another couple of cards from his pocket and turned them inbetween his fingers, the foil-stamping shining in the sunlight. "Where did you get those?" "Hey, buddy, you saw me, when we went into that collectible shop! They were selling digimon cards... but they had cards they don't even have in Shinjuku! Man, when I show these to Kazu he's going to have a fit..." "Takato!" Eric shouted, shooting up into the air to dodge a speedy sweep from Luxator. Eric spun and delivered a hard roundhouse to Luxator's head, sending him to the ground with a rumbling crash. "If you've got cards, use 'em!" Takato flipped a card into his hand from his other pocket. "Hey, Lux! How about you get started with me?" he took the D-Arc and braced himself as he ran the card through the device, held above his head. "Digi-modify! Digivolution.... activate!" DIGIVOLUTION... "Guilmon... digivolve to.... Growlmon!!" Takato was far too used to the skin-tearing-off and general weirdity of the 03 digivolution process, and just sat staring at Luxator with a smirk on his face as the process finished, ending with the towering Growlmon standing alongside Takato. "Go get 'im, boy." (A/N - Did anyone else NOT think that was weird the first time you saw it happen?... Okay, I'll shut up now.) Growlmon started to take a step forward to enter the battle, but was stopped midstride by Takato's shout. "Digi-modify! Devil Chip... activate!" A black aura burst around Growlmon, which peaked around the energy blade that sliced out of his arm. With added force, the giant lizard hurled himself at Luxator. "Dragon Slash!" The edge impacted against Luxator's shielding arm with a crack, echoing in the air as both Growlmon and Luxator fought for control of the attack. "Digi-modify! Power Blast... actvate!" Another boost of power rushed through Growlmon. With another hard force, Growlmon hopped up and forced the blade down with his own weight, embedding itself deep into the metal. Luxator let out a deep groan, stumbling back from the blow. Eric launched himself at Luxator from behind and struck with a straight fist into his back, with every ounce of force that wasn't dampened by Luxator's assault - the fist plowed straight into the armor, leaving a two-inch thick dent in the plating and sending cracks from all directions of the blow. "He's damaged in the back! Go for the fracture and we'll be able to finish this quickly!" A blur blasted across the ground, scooping up the Berserk Sword. With a resounding clang, Luxator fell to the ground once again with a disasterous crash, showing Renamon back in the air, the massive blade held to her side. "Now! Finish this!" Growlmon reared his head back, streaks of light drifting off of his face. He violently threw himself forward, a massive blast of flame searing from his mouth. "Pyroblaster!!" the heat impacted against Luxator's vulnerable back, warranting another pained shout from the downed monster. While it was apparently dishing out pain, most of the flames were being deflected wildly from the polished armor and were torching much of the ground surrounding him. "We need more power! We've nearly got him...!" Eric brought himself up and slammed his elbow down onto Luxator's head again. Eric leapt back as Luxator slowly began bringing himself to his feet. "He's coming up AGAIN! Let's hurry up already!" Eric charged bolts of Ki on his index fingers and shot them straight into Luxator's chest, staggering him back. Takato raised another card to the D-Arc. "I've got it all arranged. Let's see what these new cards can do.... alright... get ready!...." the battle was interrupted by a loud shock coming from the D-Arc. "Digi-modify! Shining Evolution... activate!!" Rika watched in disgust as a beam of red light leapt from Takato's D-Arc and connected with Growlmon. "Nice try, moron, but you're forgetting one thing... do YOU see Culumon anywhere nearby?" Rika kept an eye on Takato as she slid a card from her pocket to scan... but her jaw dropped when she noticed Takato raising one of his own - a somewhat rare one. "Digi-modify! Culumon's Matrix Digivolution.... ACTIVATE!!" ******** "Gohan! Veemon! Get your luges ready! We're going NOW!" with that, Shaun darted toward the crate, and started rolling his luge car toward the open gate, just brushing by the crate. With a burst of crimson energy, the Miacas smashed through the crate, and roared through the air out the open gate ahead of Shaun, before landing on the ground and turning to head down the street. Shaun leapt and landed lying on top of his luge car as it exited, turning and beginning to roll down the street with Shaun's added force from the dive. Gohan and V2 quickly snapped out of their trance and followed suit, diving with their cars held to their chest to the road below. "What the hell?!" "Call the boss!!" "That weird statue's getting away!" The turfmaster burst through the building door. "Don't just STAND there, you idiots!! Go after them!!" he reached over and snatched a luge board of his own and joined the crowd of punks that were starting on the route leading downhill. Gohan, V2 and Shaun had finally caught up to each other and were streaking down the road in a V formation. Luckily for them, the first leg of the race had them going WITH traffic, and their low starting velocity helped them stay at the constant speed of the vehicles next to them. While Shaun was lying on his back and looking forward over his chest, Gohan and V2 were lying on their stomachs, uncomfortably being slammed directly in the face with wind. Slowly, the Miacas was beginning to disappear from Shaun's vision, but they were still gaining speed. V2 just kept his eyes closed. "...oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god..." The crowd of members behind the group was apparently as intent on snatching the Miacas for themselves as they were for the gang itself, and were already ramming each other, as they began to close in on the crew members. A shriek was heard behind the group as one person was run into the curb, flipping him clockwise onto the sidewalk and throwing him skidding down the pathway. Pedestrians yelled as they leapt over or otherwise dodged the injured person as he flew along the sidewalk. But as the gang was gaining speed, so were Shaun and the others - and they had come to their first... intersection. Everybody glanced up with wide eyes as the light turned from green... to red. Cars were already sliding across their determined pathway. V2 was still white. "...I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die..." Shaun nudged his car to the side, streaking directly in front of a pickup's advancing tire. Gohan grabbed onto V2's car with his right hand and drug him around the other way, barely clearing the tailgate of the vehicle. Meanwhile, every other car in the vincinity had screeched to a halt, upon noticing the mob of luges that were still approaching from up the hill. "We've got company!!" one helmeted rider screamed, narrowly dodging the tire just as the previous riders had. While everyone shot around the vehicle as its driver sat stunned in the cab, not moving the vehicle an inch, one idiot launched himself directly under the vehicle, clipping his head and snapping his neck back. He rolled further down the hill and eventually spun out. Everything was beginning to heat up around Shaun. While the group had entered relatively safe territory again with the traffic flowing with them, the luges were beginning to get up enough speed as to be moving faster than the vehicles around him. As well, handling the speed had meant that Gohan and V2 were beginning to slide out of their formation and take opposite sides of the street. While he realized he was gaining some ground on the Miacas, simply one sharp turn could bleed off nearly all his speed and spell the end of the pursuit. "...c'mon... keep heading straight... there isn't much straight... I should be able to reach it then..." Well, having the race stay straight would be faaaaaaaar too simple. The group was coming up to an onramp. ******** Rika and even Eric hopped back from their target as the crimson beam surged out even larger, striking Growlmon with added force. The beam turned a burning white, and its center soon blurred everyone's vision. MATRIX DIGIVOLUTION... "Growlmon... matrix digivolve... toooooooo...." Beams of light burst out from all over Growlmon's tough skin, blinding his spectators a second time. As the light finally subsided, blood-red metal plating began to sheet out all over the Champion, defending his torso in a giant breastplate, creating a pair of large cannons on the sides of his chest, and installing a jawbone cover over his face. The two energy blades extended to double their length and stretched out horizontally, eventually losing their glow and fading out into a pair of gigantic axe blades. "Wargrowlmon!" Takato slumped slightly, feeling a portion of his energy being leeched for Growlmon to enter Ultimate. (A/N - I would've used Megalogrowlmon, I mean, that sounds SO much cooler, but I think I already have enough English/Japanese discontinuities in here as is. ^_^') "Takato, where the HELL did you find a card like that?!" Rika exclaimed, an aggravated frown growing on her face. "Bandai discontinued BOTH of those cards more than a year ago! I doubt you'd find either of those cards in a collectible shop bargain bin!" Takato grinned sheepishly. "Well, I found them in a collectible shop, all right, but I didn't exactly get them from a bargain bin." "...Takato, exactly HOW much did you pay for those cards?" "...oh, somewhere in the neighborhood of.... um... er... 783 dollars?" Eric and Rika sweatdropped. "WHAT?!?" Takato tugged at his collar. "...uh, yeah, I was meaning to tell you and Henry, I've been saving up for the cards ever since I first got word they were being taken off the market... I was just looking for a shop that had them... hey, let's just never mind about that and take care of our friend here?" Wargrowlmon began to draw energy from around him as the cannons on his chest began charging, a vortex of blue/red energy forming in front of the massive guns. "Atomic...Blaster!!" A corkscrew of red energy pulsed out, drilling Luxator in the back once again. Luxator shoved himself back up, slowest he had for a while. This time, however, chips of metal were blasted up into the air. "I've made enough of a clearance... NOW we can finish this! Radiation Blade!!" Wargrowlmon held his blades back to his side as they began to vibrate rapidly until they were nothing but a blur, after which they were basked in a glow of neon green energy. Wargrowlmon's boosters lit up, taking him streaking across the ground to Luxator's position, where he slashed upwards in a cross. Luxator tried to defend by putting his own arms across his face, but a shriek filled the air as soon as he realized his arms were missing and up in the air, still just beginning to trail blood. Before Luxator could make any more moves, both of the blades were impaled through his torso. Wargrowlmon ripped in different directions, tearing Luxator apart. Before any gore could even show, Luxator's shell exploded in a blast of light, leaving the Prospector's worker on the ground, carved neatly in half. As Takato and Rika turned away from the vastly bleeding corpse on the ground, Eric watched it for a couple of seconds before falling out of his battle stance. "Ho...ly.... crap. That was a WEAK Trance?" "Sounds so," Renamon cooed. "If Ultimanium knew what was going on here, he'd have a fit. Though, however, further investigation would give us greater insight on the Prospector's motives for moving forward with his plans so quickly." As Takato turned and ran off into the street, everyone else watched. Wargrowlmon sat down with a thud on the burnt turf beneath him. "I can't go around like this, people get scared of me." "I'm sure smartass running away has a plan." "Takato has a smart butt?" Rika groaned. "You're even stupider than him." "A lot of people I know tell me I'm as stupid AS him. I like being like Takato." "...god, forget it. As for you..." Rika turned to Eric, who was still examining the body. "You seemed to come here on pretty short notice. How far away were you?" Eric nodded. "City hall. A couple blocks from here. I was thinking you... um.... needed help... or... something..." "Something you need to know about me. One, if Renamon's the one fighting, then I do NOT need help. Oh, and something else... the only thing that could've drawn more people here was the explosion. If you were at city hall like you insist, then you got here in... let's see... 6 seconds. That's 2 kilometers a SECOND. You apparently care about someone here." Eric smiled a distorted grin, embarrasedly scratching his neck. "You could say that." Rika stared, disgruntled, at Eric before strutting up to him. Eric watched confused, at least until Rika latched onto his forearm and gave him a snakebite, surprising the Saiyan. "Huh... OW! Damn it.. what was that for?" "NO. No, no, no. No. I want you to remember that word, No. And every time you think otherwise, remember that pain. Otherwise, I'll give you another demonstration." Rika threw Eric back, before storming away from him. "C'mon, Renamon, we need to go after Takato." Renamon watched as Rika stomped away from the site, then turned back to Eric, who was still watching the Tamer, blinking in confusion. "She's just a little... confused... by the entire situation. Don't let it get to you." "RENAMON!! Come ON already!" Renamon sighed, turning back to her master. "Coming, Rika." Renamon phased away while breaking into a run, appearing alongside Rika as they both disappeared over a nearby hill. Eric sighed, folding his arms. "Well, THAT'S just nice. NOW what am I supposed to do? I REALLY screwed up that time... I wonder if she'll ever...MAN, I was stupid back there! Ugh.." He was interrupted by Wargrowlmon. "Eric, who do you think is stupider, Takato or y.." "Takato." ******** Raynor leant against the rim of the backseat window as he looked out onto the freeway alongside him. Families were driving by, nearly swerving off the road as their angry parents tried desperately to make their kids shut up. Trunks and Goten sat neatly with their hands folded, quite aware of the rage Raynor would exhibit upside their heads if they so much as peeped. "You guys don't look like you're from around here," the cabdriver laughed. "you guys come from the spaceport?" "..you could say so." Raynor tried to keep himself quiet, drumming his free hand's fingers on the closed briefcase that seperated him and the two demisaiyans. Raynor lurched forward as the taxi came to a halt. Grumbling, Raynor poked his head over the passenger seat - ahead of them was a small traffic blockoff, about eight cars parked in the middle of the freeway. "What the hell..." Raynor quickly rolled open his window as a policeman approached the car. "What's going on here?" The cop let out a gravelly growl. "The Flaminco Flight hooligans are having their underground street luges again - but they're in broad daylight, if you get the picture. They're a menace to the traffic ar.. shit, here they come! Everybody, get back!" Several people who had left their cars to get fresh air were startled by the Miacas that flew through the air at an angle over the traffic, and Raynor's taxi, accordingly. The cat landed at a run, soon followed by a luge car that hurtled through the air and landed on the pavement in front of the blockade with a bang. The car lost some speed but quickly regained it as it began to hurtle down the freeway, which began to curve slowly downwards. Raynor simply watched in shock. "Who the hell are those morons?!" He was quickly silenced again as another pair of cars, side by side, took to the air and over the bustle - carrying... "Gohan?!" Raynor bellowed. "Veemon?!? What the hell?!" Gohan held his fist up as he soared over the crowd. "WOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" V2 was a bit less optimistic. "There's no place like home There's no place like home There's no place like home There's no place like home There's no place like home There's no place like home There's no place like home.." "The flying pigs should be showing up any time now." Raynor grumbled. As several more cars shot by overhead, a larger member fell with a thud on the hood of the car. He was certainly more rotund than the other people who shot by overhead. A tattoo on his arm, his gang insignia, was inscribed PIG. Raynor sighed, burying his head in his hands. Trunks and Goten both hopped forward and occupied the front seat, trying to get a good glimpse out the windshield at the crowd ahead. ******** Takato, Rika and Eric sat casually on the bus, gripping the hang bars suspended from the celing. Eric was occaisionally able to steal a glance at Rika, but Renamon was able to shove him back into place before she noticed. Wargrowlmon was scheduled to meet them back at the spaceport before everybody reboarded the Argetlahm, mostly due to his rather... intimidating appearance. It would take time before he could devolve properly and that left him to his lonesome. "Hey," Eric called out to a person across the car from him. "About how far is it a drive to the Magnopolis spaceport?" "Normally, it would be about a 20 minute drive... but we have to take some detours now, so it should take us about... anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour." Takato blinked. "What's the holdup?" "They're rebuilding the freeways." ******** Shaun, Gohan and V2 were rocking wildly back and forth on their cars, weaving intricately between the rush hour traffic that was surrounding them. They all leant synchroniously, banking in a turn down a incline in the road that bent down and to their left. Behind them, the members could be easily heard screaming at each other and hammering on their associates with hard rammings. V2 attempted to pivot his head to get a glance at the crowd that was slowly being weeded out by accidents, and turned back to realize - he was underneath a semi boxcar and rapidly approaching the front. He turned his usual shade of white, as he hunched down and grasped his head for dear life. He stole a look to the right, where stripes of neon orange were zipping by. Pylons. V2 held his breath as he tossed himself to the side and dove out from underneath the semi, back onto the road. He was pleasantly surprised by the general lack of traffic - and the road was completely bare for the distance ahead. He turned in time to see Shaun shoot by him, still trailing the Miacas at about 300 feet. The pylons ahead shaped into a v-pattern, which were easily dodged by all three crews. It was clear the Flaminco Flight had given up the chase, but what for? "Almost...there!" Shaun grunted. "At the rate we're gaining speed... we'll get it in minutes!" Everybody watched as the Miacas gave a little hop, than a long bound ahead of the group. It landed further down the road. "...crap! Is that some kind of trick it has?" "Um.... Shaun..." Gohan stuttered. "C'mon, let's go!" "...Shaun..." Gohan gaped, a little worried. "What?" Gohan pointed ahead. Where the Miacas had jumped, was a large bridge connected to the freeway, suspended over a river hundreds of feet below. And in the middle... was a 80-foot wide crevase. Shaun's eyes grew wide. "Oh... shit!" "Oh, I've HAD enough of this!" V2 scowled, rolling his eyes. THIS is where I get off!" Veemon...digivolve to.... VEEDRAMON! Veedramon threw his spiked fists into the pavement on both sides of the car, carving a long ditch in the road as he approached the bridge, the friction slowing the car down quickly with a loud squeal as the plastic wheels skidded to a 3-second halt. He quickly unbuckled himself from the cart and hopped to his feet, where Shaun and Gohan were just advancing onto the bridge. Shaun and Gohan weren't even focusing on the long drop ahead of them, simply the Miacas which had stopped to face the group from across the gap, as if it were taunting them. "We can't stop!" Shaun growled. "There's a way across this, we just need to... figure it out!" As Shaun began running facts through his mind, it almost felt as if everything around him began to slow down. He began putting pieces together. He had his yoyo with him, still clamped to his belt. A man was working at a crane a short distance away from the rift. The crane was helping to support a thin girder that was standing upright. There was a plywood "under construction" sign standing directly in front of the crack. Shaun grit his teeth as he and Gohan approached the gap. He knew Gohan could fly if he needed to, so he didn't need to worry about him. "...damn... I need a good trajectory to do this... maybe if... I'll need.. about a two-second advance. Well, here goes nothing..." Shaun ripped the yoyo from his belt and threw it out sideways, with the momentum carrying it straight into the window of the crane and hitting the crane operator in the side of the head. As he struggled to regain his balance from the attack, he spilled his coffee onto the floor of the cabin and grabbed the crane controls to pull himself back up. The lever fell, dropping the girder to the ground with a dull clang and making it fall to the side, blocking off the road directly in front of the missing section of the bridge. As the girder hit the ground, Shaun flew straight into the sign, knocking it down so it landed at an angle onto top of the girder. He had lost some speed from the hit, but still had enough to clear the gap. Him and Gohan soared through the air, bearing down on the shocked Miacas. Shaun turned himself over in midair and snatched the idol as he landed, skidding across the pavement for several dozen feet on his chest. After a long pause, Shaun spoke. "OOOOOOOWWWWWWWW!!!" Well, road rashes DO hurt, don't they? Gohan put his hard hands down, slowing him to a stop. "That looks like that hurt." "We.. have the Miacas." Shaun placed the artifact next to him as it began to glow, and a message began to play from within the statue. "The holder of this Miacas has proven him/herself to be of the skills archived within, locked away by the Craymel eons ago. This archive contains many of the Craymel's elemental hammer masteries, ones that were used to repel an invasion of the Ice-jins in the Craymel's past. While the charged energies of the hammers, used for throwing, are associated with the various elements, all of them share one vital ability - all charged hammers, in order to accomodate the elemental charge, radiate negative Ki energy, which was used in the aforementioned defense of Craymel's homeworld. Because negative Ki cancels out the psychic energy most high-power level organisms use to fight, the radiation was able to negate any of the Ice-jins' special techniques and the Craymel were able to fight them off. I present these skills to you. You will be able to charge any normal mallet with these same energies and use them for your combat purposes." Everybody watched the eyes dim out, and the statue strike Shaun's hand with a small shock, signifying the ritual. Shaun had the skills. Shaun broke the silence. "Mission accomplished. Gohan, what time do you have?" "6:42." ******** Ultimanium watched from the exhaust hallway as his crew members began to approach at various angles. Already next to him was Raynor, who held his newly-found briefcase at his side. The groups filed themselves in a huddle around Ultimanium. "We've got a lead," Ultimanium spoke. "Raynor ran into one of the Prospector's cronies while hanging out and managed to get away with his communicator. We've been keeping track of the Prospector's island's location, and Raynor insists that the island hasn't even moved from when he picked up the signal earlier today. Point blank, the Prospector's staying still for some reason, so we don't have to worry about him getting away on us." Eric stepped to the front. "Eh... Ulty, it gets a bit worse than that. Takato, Rika and I ran into one of the Prospector's goons, too. There was one thing wrong, though - he was able to Trance. We had a hell of a time trying to get rid of him, and that was clearly one of his lowest ranked people. I don't think Magnopolis has seen the last of Trance." Ultimanium paused. "...what... he's already deploying Trance? This could be worse than we thought... I normally had planned, since the Prospector is in our sights and a successful assault would take not much longer than a couple of days, that we'd head out into the Wastes of Kardis. Lord Raul tells me that's where Magnus has been hanging out since the end of the Argetlahm's first tour and that he could draw a signal on him. We were planning to head out and pick him up before we began our assault." "The radar I got from Magnopolis' visitors says that there are another five of the Prospector's henchmen sneaking around Magnopolis." "Exactly. So, I need some of you people to stay behind in Magnopolis and keep an eye on the place until we come back from Magnus', in case any other of these people ARE Trance-enabled. So, who wants to hang out here for a while?" Rika folded her arms. "We can watch the place. Scarred land isn't THAT exciting. And I'm sure goggle-head wants to do more card shopping." Gohan nodded. "Me and V2'll stay behind too." "I guess I'll stick around," Raynor said. "There's no telling what types might show up, even AFTER the Trances. I think Locke hasn't pickpocketed anyone here yet, either." Locke grinned. "I'm working on it." Shaun leant against a wall. "I need to learn more about the Miacas. Perhaps the libraries around here can give me some sort of insight. If you don't mind, I'll stick around here." Ultimanium looked around the crowd again, which had seperated into the two groups. "Okay, then...Cody, Armadillomon, Crono, Trunks, Goten, Raul and Eric are coming with me, then, and everyone else will stay in Magnopolis for the time being. Settled?" Everybody nodded. After exchanging goodbyes, the Magnopolis group departed, leaving the rest of the group to march down through the intake tunnels that lead back to the Argetlahm's bridge. "Hey, Ulty." Eric mumbled. "Yeah?" "You think Magnus might know anything about the Power? And if he did, would he even tell me?" "He's a bit more... easygoing than you might think, Eric. He tells US everything, I know that. As soon as he figures out that you're part of the Argetlahm, he'll be pretty openended. Don't worry, we'll get what we need out of him." Eric slowed down, allowing the rest of the group some distance from him. They were headed to the Wastes of Kardis. The place of no return. He was going to find Magnus, alright. And he was going to get answers. As he started moving at a respectable pace down the corridor again, a slim shadow unveiled itself from the background, pushing its visor above its forehead. An impatient hand twisted the ponytail on the back of its head. "The guy sure hangs out with some weird types. No matter. The Wastes of Kardis might be hot for Ulty, but I know ways to make it hotter..." AAAAAAHHHH!! SEXUAL PREDATOR ON THE LOOSE!!!!.... made you look. Well, it might be a little more literal soon... anyways, with the entire group heading out to the Wastes of Kardis in the search for Magnus, will Eric finally find the answers about the Power he seeks? And how about everyone else? Will Magnopolis ever be safe from the wrath of the Prospector and his Trance troopers? Find out next time, on Trance Trauma! Chapter 7: This is the Power! Magnus Explains All (A/N - This is a biggie... Okay, maybe the "references" in the last chapter weren't as plentiful as I had mentioned... by the time I got to the end I had totally forgot about it. Anyways... 1. Rika's snakebite. Anyone who missed that episode of Malcolm in the Middle missed a very sad fat dude. Sigh... 2. Firewood stacking, in a pub, in search of "information". Gosh, that sounds like a Steiner we all know and love. No more puzzles, I'm already aware I blow at implementing them anyways. Oh, and another thing - holy crap, last chapter was over 9000 words! Dude, that's Archive-size!... maybe I should get that phrase coined... um, never mind. See, that's what happens when you switch to 1024x768 after watching the screen flicker at 800x600 for three years... I had no idea how far I was through the fic at any given point. Damn... anyways, on with the next chapter. Oh, another thing - Tanya doesn't have blue eyes, she has BROWN eyes. Just a minor error. If you haven't guessed, she's a crossover too. The subject matter of the media in mind pertains jack all to our storyline here, so I'm going to let you figure out where she's from for yourself. Well, maybe I'll give you some hints if you be good little children and continue reading... And the name Argetlahm's history is mentioned in this chapter - and THAT is crossover material. Anyone who can tell me either where Tanya's from (hint: that isn't her real name) OR where the name Argetlahm actually comes from will get a cookie, honorable mention in later chapters, and I will have a statue of them erected in my front yard. Send wild guesses to ultimanium@hotmail.com, with "Name Game" in the subject line. (Ultimanium dodges garbage) The reason I had the people dumped off in Magnopolis that I did was to give some of the lesser used characters so far a chance to shine - something you may have noticed throughout the entire Ultimatum Saga that I was horrendously bad at. I wasn't actually intending to use either Lord Raul or Magnus throughout the entire Trance Trauma, but Eric's character description just SCREEEEEEEEAMED "reunite". How? Read on...) Cody, Armadillomon and Crono watched as the Argetlahm began to slide away from the Magnopolis drydock, and began exchanging waves between the half of the crew that waited inside the spaceport to watch the capital ship's exeunt. As the intake building began to leave the viewing area of the bridge windows, the three fighters returned to the main area of the bridge a short jog away, where the remaining crew members were gathered in a huddle. "We're going to be stuck hovering over the wastes before we actually find anything," Ultimanium announced. "the wastes DO take up a quarter of Earth, remember. Though the Argetlahm can jump dimensions, it isn't the fastest groundspeed flyer in the world... we should get there in a hour or two. Until then, I want everyone to lay back, and maybe actually get some training done. I'll see you then." Ultimanium gestured everyone out of the conversation and strided over to the main bridge panels a short distance away, where Minonim was already punching in coordinates. "We have a gym to invade!" Trunks cheered, speeding towards the turbolift followed close by Goten. Crono marched after them, taking the sword off of his belt.... he's going to go train!! As much as people want to kill those little bastards right about now, HE'S NOT GOING TO!! Geesh! Can't you people see? He's taking his sword, and... "SHUT UP!!" everyone else screamed. God, fine, it's just that people would get the wrong message. Screw you. Anyways... Cody, Armadillomon, Eric and Raul removed themselves from their room and took a turbolift down to their bunks, where they walked in a line down the hall. People were getting some goods from their room before training. "...uh..." Cody mumbled. "Raul, what are you doing down here? You don't have a room." "Are you kidding? I get the executive suite." Raul pointed to a room at the far end of the hall next to the furnace room, with a large sign that had RAUL painted on it. "If you don't mind, I have some reaquaintances to make." Cody and Armadillomon watched blankly as Raul hid himself in his chamber, the heavy iron door clicking shut behind him. "Well, he hasn't chaged any. I guess we could just head upstairs and see how the new guys are doing pounding each other." Cody ducked into his room quickly, nabbing the Murasame off of the desk. ******** Cody and his digimon were greeted warmly by the training center, which had apparently been cleaned by Ultimanium at some point after Shaun's little incident... the floors were as well polished as Cody remembered, and the walls were torn out above the weight room and the target range. In place, there was a large paneglass window that displayed the rapidly darkening sky as it whipped by the Argetlahm at a relatively quickly pace. The ship was approaching the outskirts of the massive wasteland ahead of them. Cody's concentration was broken as Crono strafed in front of him, parrying off fist blows from Trunks with the handle of his blade. Goten was busy sitting off somewhere in the weight room, marvelling at the vast armament of equipment that dotted the room. Crono deflected one last blow before Trunks set himself down on the floor in front of him. As Trunks began to speak, he settled himself into a defensive stance, with his blade held across his face. "Geez, are you going to hit me or something? You've been just defending yourself since we started here, and.. huh.." Crono grunted as his free hand pulsed a lemon yellow, and he thrusted it out in front of him - raining forth a gigantic bolt of lightning that struck the ground directly in front of Trunks with a rolling crack that made even Cody stumble. Armadillmon looked on. "I think he would know how to use that thing. I would say he's the one you'd want to practice Kendo on." Cody ripped the Murasame from the sheath that he had left on his belt, and held it firmly in front of him using both hands, assuming an offensive stand. "I think that'd be good right about now. Everybody else here has gotten into some sort of fight, pretty quick it's going to be my turn.. I have to be ready. Crono!" Crono froze where he stood, turning to Cody. He must've heard some sort of indication from his self-conversation, because he parried back from his magic attack and had his katana back up and ready for a strike. Cody's eyes went wide as Crono leapt in to start the fight, and Cody quickly resumed his defensive posture with his blade held high as Crono dove and threw his own weapon down, hitting the Murasame with an echoing clang. Trunks sat, mystified, as both combatants struggled for control of the attack. Cody finally surged up and shoved Crono's assault off, making him backpedal to his start position and begin to regain stamina. Cody took the oppritunity to make his own advance, slashing in an upwards cross, which Crono reflected easily. Both warriors caught themselves in a series of sideways slashes, which were defeated immediately by their opponents. After a long series of swipes from each others' blades, both fighters distanced themselves slightly, both with their blades held in front ready to intercept any attempts either side made. Cody grit his teeth as Crono began another charge. He held Crono down as he attempted a rising slash across Cody, and soon found himself under another barrage of slices. Cody soon began forcing Crono back, but it fell short as Crono dropped out and swept Cody out from underneath, flipping him over with a startled cry and landing on his back. As he began pushing himself up, he quickly found the tip of Crono's blade at his throat. Crono kept a watch on him, a smirk hiding on his face. He removed the weapon from his spectators' sights, slipping it back in its sheath as he headed for the double doors leading out of the gym. Cody began pushing himself up. "I don't get it! I had him... if he didn't..." "...sweep you?" Armadillomon continued. "Cody, I don't have the foggiest what Kendo is, but I'm sure our friends here don't exactly have the code of honor that you do. You're probably not going to be able to live by the sword alone." "Ugh.. you're right..." Cody muttered, dusting himself off. "...still, that guy gives me the creeps." ******** At this point, Raul had found himself back up on the bridge, supporting Ultimanium with work being done on some of the substations of the bridge. Eric kept a constant eye on Ultimanium's movements, as he was the one at the helm of the great ship, second only to Minonim who was performing some navigation work. "Magnus gave me the coordinates for his hideout," Raul murmured. "90W, 30N. I'm not sure exactly what he has there, if it's some sort of retreat or facility..." "We'll figure it out when we get there," Ultimanium spoke. "Minonim, redirect our trajectory. We want a straight-line clearance to 90W30N." "Aye." Minonim continued pressing buttons. Eric turned his attention out to the cracked plain that sped towards and underneath the cockpit of the Argetlahm. Jagged mountains could be made out in the distance. Just by the appearance of the land, it was easy to come to a conclusion that these wastes were created recently. But how? There's no destructive force in this world that could turn a quarter of the world into barren wasteland... Everybody remained quiet, remaining on the bridge, and watching with false wonder at the expansive lands that rolled out before the ship. A single voice broke the silence. "...so...how HAS Magnus been doing?" Everybody turned to face Cody. "..I mean, we never really heard from him after we left the Argetlahm... it's just a query, that's all." "He was in Albuquerque. The forbidden subdimension. That's all we know. He returned here and set up shop out in no-man's-land here, why, none of us have any idea." Raul shot a glance to Ultimanium. "Since then, nothing." Ultimanium turned back to the group as he finished punching several more keys on the panel behind him. "We shouldn't be running into anything more spectactualar for the rest of the ride, so you guys can hang back for a while, maybe continue your training. With our velocity, we'll get to the coordinates in anywhere from a half-hour to an hour." Everybody nodded, and began to slump off to their bunks. Eric continued watching the horizon as it slowly faded out under the cover of night. ******** Soon the bridge had emptied itself. Even Eric was eventually coaxed into sacking for the night, leaving Ultimanium and Minonim leaning back from operating the controls of the ship for nearly the past 20 minutes. The bridge lights were starting to dim, signifying the end of a day - however, they were still a short distance away from Magnus' hideout as Raul had interpreted it, and still nothing could be seen. "Um.. sir?" Minonim hovered over to Ultimanium, slumped in his chair, fast asleep. And he was drooling on the floor again. "Master, I just had the bridge cleaned. Could you please.." Minonim nudged the man's arm, but got no response. "...WAKE UP!!" Minonim yelled, his voice magnified by his electronic sound components. Ultimanium plunged out of his chair and landed on the floor facefirst. He quickly threw himself back up, brushing himself off. "..um.. are we there yet?" "If that's what you call it." Minonim pointed off into the distance. And it was quite strange. Sitting in the middle of the desert around it was a large patch of grass, on top of which sat a medium-sized chateau, with a deck. "...THAT'S Magnus' place?" Ultimanium droned. He smacked an alarm on the control panel next to him, causing U2 to blare out of the intercom. Soon, everybody was up on the deck in a half-awake stupor, with Eric leading the charge. The Argetlahm since then had landed a couple hundred of feet from the settlement, dwarfing the small house even at that distance. "We've located Magnus' chateau," Minonim announced to the group. "It appears that Raul's coordinates were indeed, correct. We'll be setting up the turbolifts to take you down to ground level. Until then, sit tight - with the proper security access this should take no more than five minutes." "Can do." Cody confirmed. Eric refused conversation with anyone else, as he worried mostly about his questions of the Power... and talking to a high-level government official didn't exactly throw away his fright. ******** Tanya ducked out from another corner, staying hunched as she jogged down the hall. She dove into a broom closet as she swore she heard footsteps, piercing the bleakness of the corridor. Swish, swish. "Damn it, a broom closet, and a janitor. Tanya, you suck." Tanya muttered under her breath, shoving a stack of mops away from her. She held her breath as the broom outside froze in the air, but was quite surprised when she heard the broom resume its attack on the floor, as the sound began to fade out. Cautiously, she opened the door a crack to get a look at the man. He was gone. "..whatever." She took a step out into the hall, and noticed the thrumming evident through all the ship's floors was missing. "...we must already be out in the Wastes! The ship's come to a stop... where are we?" Tanya peeked out the window nearest to her in the hall - all that could be seen on that side of the ship was the plain wastes, in all its non-glory. Tanya jumped as she heard conversation searing past her - further up the hall, several figures hopped between the turbolifts. Two children, one with spiky black hair and the other with sloppy purple hair that hung down in front of his face. "..children? This place is getting more confusing by the second. Maybe I'd just better confront Ulty now and tell him what went on.. oh, who am I kidding, I probably just ruined myself..." "Maybe you might be able to do something." Tanya leapt around, ending up staring Raul directly in the face, less than a foot away from her. "...you're that goth dude, that was in the bar with Ulty! What are YOU doing here.." "I was about to ask you the same question. I overheard your little conversation with yourself a minute ago, and I don't think Ultimanium will be as angry as you insist. It normally takes a lot to get him aggravated. Still, your presence out in the Wastes is dangerous. Do you have any idea what the crew of the Argetlahm is attempting to accomplish?" Tanya gulped. "Well, as a matter of fact, no." Raul paused for a second, giving Tanya a cold stare. "The situation you're part of is bigger than you could ever imagine. If you would allow yourself the priveledge, I will tell you the true happening with the Argetlahm and its crew. Ultimanium is more than a mercenary, Tanya. Maybe if you knew what he's done over his period of owning the Argetlahm you'd know what you're getting yourself into." "Well.. I guess." "I still don't know Ultimanium's possible reactions to a stowaway," Raul hissed. "but I don't THINK he'd do anything too rash... anyways, come. We shall return to my chamber, we have much to discuss." Tanya blinked, as Raul disappeared into the shadows. The natural obstruction of light caused by the girders overhead in front of the skyroof and windows was only magnified by the fact that the sun was nearly finished setting. Tanya followed Raul slowly as he began to disappear into the darkness. ******** It was night. Ultimanium and his crew marched onward through the sandy storm that laid before them, the only indication of where they were headed the floodlight from the landed turbolift behind them, and the search light that was planted on Magnus' deck. It had flicked on seconds ago, meaning someone had taken notice of the Argetlahm's landing at some point. "Who goes there?" A voice echoed out from the abyss ahead of the group. "It is I, Ultimanium," Ultimanium shouted. "Me and my associates seek an audience with the ruler Magnus." A short pause stretched out. After a couple seconds, the guard spoke again. "..proceed." The searchlight flipped to the side, pointing into the front yard of the facility. The area was small, a minor courtyard with a single sidewalk running up to the front door. The grass was well-kept. Everybody kept their eyes on their sides as they advanced to the door, wondering exactly how the grass was managing to grow so well in an enviroment as desolate as this. After the walk, Ultimanium shoved open the doors, taking the group into the middle of a hallway - the entire atmosphere didn't seem geared to defending the president as it did to comfort him. Pictures of friends and family lined one side of the hall as Ultimanium escorted his crew up a small flight of stairs, and into a moderately-large living room. Everybody paused at the entrance, and looked in. The room itself was a chateau, alright. A kitchenette sat in the far corner of the room, and the walls were log. A fire burned at the end of the room, in front was a bear rug, and then a recliner - an occupied recliner. The chair creaked around, showing the Saiyan Magnus. He was fitted in a burgundy housecoat, and his hair was plain black - not as nearly as wild as it was in the first tour, mostly due to the fact that he was out of Super Saiyan for the time being. "...Ulty, did you wreck my ship already?" "Whoa, whoa, YOUR ship? You hadn't even bothered to touch it since I gave it to you! If you don't mind, I'm going to go back on my word." Magnus gave a satisfied smirk to Ultimanium, before spreading his arms out behind his back. "Ah, hell, do what you want with it. I OWN this world, you know. I could always build a ship dozens of times better than yours if I really was up to it. Alright, you seemed urgent to talk to me about something - it's that entire Prospector situation, isn't it? What have you guys dug up?" "So YOU are Magnus..." Eric mumbled. "Well, you aren't really taking serious care of your city, because the Prospector is already attacking it. We already had to fight off his first wave, and our forces are divided trying to keep Magnopolis in line." "I knew you would show up, Ulty, so I just held back." "That's a bunch of crap," Ultimanium huffed. "You could at least put some sort of defensive perimeter up." "Cut to the chase, Ultimanium," Magnus muttered. "What are you here for?" "Well, we were hoping we could drag you out of your early retirement and help with the Prospector," Cody sighed. "But I don't think we're going to be getting anywhere with THIS kind of response." "Listen, guys, I'll help with what I can. I'll come aboard the Argetlahm if you really want me to.." "Do what you can?" Ultimanium scoffed. "What happened to the good 'ol days?" "Don't give me that bullshit," Magnus growled. "I've been through a bit more than you, I would say. I had to fight through Albuquerque to get to where I am today, and I can't say the Argetlahm had too much influence on that." "Don't even bother then." Ultimanium said, sadly. "I guess coming out here was a waste... well, the guy here wanted to talk to you about something. His name's Eric Cloud. He says that you might know something about what he calls the 'Power'." As the rest of the group shuffled out the door, scowling to themselves, Eric and Ultimanium were left standing in the expansive den. The fire in the heath continued crackling as both sides stared each other down. "Okay, then. But I wish to speak to him alone." Magnus said. Ultimanium glanced hesitantly at Eric before returning his distressed gaze back to Magnus, multiplied a hundredfold. "Lay a hand on him and I get medieval on your ass." Ultimanium abruptly turned on his heel and stormed out the door, and Eric kept a ear open until his footsteps faded out of view. "Now, Eric, you wished to speak to me? I'm not really into fighting and all anymore but I can talk up a storm if need be. Now, you were speaking about this.. Power. As you might've heard already, my full name is Magnus Power. I'm guessing the world Power is what drug you to this place, right?" Eric nodded. "...geez, don't get so uptight. Have a seat." Magnus gestured toward a smaller armchair that sat on one side of the fireplace. Eric slowly made his way toward the chair and plopped himself down. "..alright. I don't know why, but your name sounds familiar somehow. Did you use to be in politics?" "...no." "..star in a feature film?" "..no." "...are you a comedian?" "..no." "...are you a..." "No!" Eric scowled. "You aren't SUPPOSED to know me! All I know about myself is that the Power is somewhere in this universe, and it has some key to my heritage." At this point, Magnus had left his seat and was facing out the large pane window that occupied the other wall. "I was thinking Power meant I was part of your family or something." Magnus turned around suddenly. "There's just one thing, though. In order to be related to me, you have to be a..." "Super Saiyan?" Magnus' eyes shot open as he turned to the window, and back again. "...are you a... Super Saiyan?" "That's what Ultimanium told me." Magnus resumed his gaze outside, trying as hard as he could to keep surprise from his face. "Then I may just know the answer to your little riddle. Alright, you need to keep what I tell you completely confidential. I'm only telling you this because it may give you a lead and/or solve your problem, and I know I can trust you because you know Ultimanium. If any of this got out to the public I could be ruined. Understood?" Eric nodded. "Understood." "Alright.. where should I start... you're undoubtedly heard about my involvement with the first tour of duty of the Argetlahm, I'm guessing. The operation went relatively smoothly, as far as Magnus Power was concerned. It was when I regained control of the third dimension that things were starting to happen. Rumors were starting to arise of various atrocities that Magnus Power was committing, including the murder of several young children in the slums of Magnopolis. I was run out of Magnopolis for the time being, until I realized a master shapeshifter had stolen my identity. After realizing Magnus was on his trail, the shapeshifter, calling himself Shadow Man, led me to attempt to face him down and defeat him. I called upon many of my own mercenary sources, as well as some of the original heroes of the Argetlahm. "After a long battle we finally won. Somewhere along the line, parts of my past were outlined by various sources I met throughout my quest, that took me through the forbidden subdimension Albuquerque and eventually to Shadow Man's moonbase... oh, before I forget, do you want to hear a little history lesson?" "Depends what on." Eric said. "You know why this place is called the Wastes of Kardis?" "...actually... no. Why?" "Near the end of my adventure, me and the physical incarnation of... well... that would ruin the surprise, but we married. We're sparring partners... and we kind of destroyed this part of the world. No one really lived in these parts though, so it wasn't a big loss." Eric blinked. "This damage is catastrophic! Who WAS your sparring partner?" Magnus stopped to take a sip of hot chocolate. "The physical incarnation of Kardis, Goddess of Destruction." Eric nearly dug into his seat. "Kardis... Goddess... of Destruction?!" Magnus shrugged. "Yeah, she could probably destroy this planet if she wanted to, but she just used the very extent of her power when we had our first spar. She's too damn powerful, even at her lowest power level I have trouble beating her." Eric grit his teeth. "...o...kay. Is she here?" "Nah, she went back into the Astral Plane for something, I forget. Now, where was I? Oh, yeah... anyways, I was finally able to pierce together the facts I had received, and I was able to build my biography. It's being published right now and you can pick it up for three easy payments of $6.99.." Eric sighed. "...well.. I'll give you the gist of it. The biography doesn't cover me as much as it covers the events before my birth... It started a long, time ago... history states that the Saiyan homeworld Vegeta-sei was destroyed ages ago by the universal tyrant, Frieza, and his private army. What most people don't know, though, is that the battle for Vegeta-sei started much earlier than the main assault - what happened was simply a covert operation. A celebrity figure among Saiyans, the first-class warrior Lorack was supposedly the first Super Saiyan in existance, deemed a god by his fellow race when he went Super Saiyan level one in a brawl in a massive riot that occured on Vegeta-sei, over a new law that prohibited mating between Saiyans save for certain official mates, referred to as "birthers". The entire outrage over the situation was able to push Lorack over the top, and the riot was broken instantly, with the law immediately being abolished. As the new SSJ Lorack defended Vegeta-sei from invasions, both from internal and external sources, Frieza saw that the insane amount of Ki being given off by the man could be a threat to their invasion plan. Frieza quickly had a solution - assassination. He was going to head down to the planet in covert and take the pleasure of killing Lorack himself. Hopefully, he would be able to defeat the Saiyans' 'god', crushing the Saiyan ethic and making the invasion that much easier. Needless to say, Frieza was surprised by Lorack and a massive fight ensued, with Frieza barely escaping with his life. Lorack, knowing that Frieza would most likely go after him before even Vegeta-sei, fled the planet. Frieza was able to track his progress, and he threw a constant stream of bounty hunters at him as he attempted to escape the system and away from Frieza's wrath. While many of the hunters hovered around Frieza's power level, they were constantly defeated by Lorack as he made his way around uncharted space. Eventually, Lorack had enough combat experience to finally rise to Super Saiyan level six. However, the hunters Frieza was rounding up with his massive rewards were beginning to become as and more powerful than Lorack himself. Sensing that a last stand was approaching, Lorack settled himself temporarily on the planet Earth. He was actually able to settle there for a peaceful six years, in which he fell in love with... a summoness. They stayed quiet on Earth and sired a child. So, you can guess when Lorack heard that Frieza had located him and was bringing every last ounce of his forces to attack Earth, he wasn't too happy. He fled the planet with no indication of his direction, with Frieza trailing him. Frieza got no reports on Lorack for the next year, so the Saiyan was pronounced missing, and dead. Frieza immediately began his siege on Vegeta-sei shortly after and it fell to his forces quickly." Eric rubbed his chin. "So you're the child." "I was named Magnus, as sort of a thank-you to Earth for taking care of his family so well. Magnus is a Norse word, mostly signifying raw power. But that's not the length of it - it was revealed to our sources that the summoness beared fraternal twins. Lorack made the decision to ship the second child off to a foster home on a rim world, knowing that this second child would have the Saiyan genes, but also have an easier time harnessing the summoning abilities that were passed on. I would normally have no lead on who this person could be... so I took a look into both Ki usage and beginning summoning. Using information gathered from both sources, someone with both Saiyan and summoner genes master red Ki, the weakest kind, and fire summoning, aka Ifrit, before anything else. The attack would be a sort of Ki fireball." Eric's eyes widened. --------- A ball of red energy began to gather in his loose hand, orbits of energy swelling up against it. "....urrgghh.... you want to see how this little toy works?! NEUTRON FLARE!!" --------- "So..." "It would seem that way," Magnus spoke. "You have your answers that you seek, Eric... or should I say... Eric Power." ******** Raul sat sideways on his bed, his head lowered against his interwined hands. "So now you understand exactly what's going on here. This conflict could very well spend the end of Life itself if it were to get out of hand. If I were to make the decision, I would make sure that you were returned home as quickly as possible." Tanya was seated backwards on the office chair in the roof, facing Raul. She had her arms crossed, leaning forward on the back support. "I knew Ulty had some kind of fight going on that had something to do with the Argetlahm..." Tanya mumbled. "...but I had no idea that it was this serious. The Trance you talk about sounds really powerful.. can you guys beat the Prospector if he uses Trance on ALL of his troops?" "The Trance that Eric, Takato and Rika encountered was reported as insanely powerful.. it took Wargrowlmon to defeat him. And this was one of his lowest ranked officers. It's possible that people higher in his hiearchy may have different Trances, and they might be too powerful for us to handle." Tanya nodded. "I understand if I have to get off at Magnopolis. But can I at least get a talk with Ultimanium?" "I don't think you should unveil yourself. I say just make a break for it when the Argetlahm gets back to Magnopolis. You wouldn't get too much of a chance to talk to him right now, anyways. He's probably talking up a storm with Magnus Power right now, I mean, they haven't seen each other for practical years now." "Yeah, okay. Anyw..." Tanya paused. A gentle thrumming was echoing through the hall outside of the bunk, that stopped suddenly. "What was that..." "Damn, someone's coming back to their bunks!" Raul cried. "We've got to find somewhere to hide you... daaaamn... where can we put you..." Raul quickly glanced around, before throwing up his hands in disgust. "There's only one good place for you... quick, get underneath the bottom bunk." Tanya stuck her tongue out, but did as she was told. She slumped herself down onto the ground, dirtying up her clothes as she shimmied underneath the bunk bed. As she slid herself into place, she was down on her stomach, facing the bunk door. As she ducked her head, Goten bounded into the room, carrying a large box. "Who.. is..." Tanya whispered to herself. "...that?" "Hey, Raul," Goten chirped. "I was wonderin' if you still do that dupe thing that V2 talked about." "Additive Magic." Raul corrected. "I'm kind of busy right now, could you come back in a while?" "No maaaan, I need this now! I want you to make a copy of this computer monitor. I unhooked it from the rec room, so you could make a copy. The one at the Kame House is busted." Goten grunted as he picked up and tossed the box on top of the bottom bunk, sandwiching Tanya between the mattress and the metal plating floor. She struggled to wrench herself from the pin, but couldn't move. Raul sweatdropped as Goten began to watch the mattress with some suspicion. The large box had sunk little into the mattress. "...eh.. Raul, isn't your mattress a little stiff?" "Well... um... yeah!" Raul quickly spat. "I was going to switch the top and bottom mats tonight!" "I'll just jump on it, that usually snaps it back into place." Raul tried to stop Goten before he bounded onto the bed, but to no avail. Goten was already hopping up and down on it, making the wire caging on the botton of the mattress smack into the back of Tanya's head repeatedly. "Hmph!!... hmph!!...hmph!!..." Goten suddenly stopped. "Hey, Raul, your mattress is talking." "Oh... er.. yeah, it's one of those 'warning' mattresses that keep kids who like to jump on beds off. Just... move." Goten sighed, stepping off the bed. "..fine." Tanya breathed a sigh of relief - before noticing a section of her left ponytail was caught in the wiring. Raul picked up the box and placed it on his counter, before turning back to the bed. "...Tanya, you can come out now... Tanya? Hmm..." Raul bent down and attempted to lift up the mattress to get to Tanya - and in effect, ripped her ponytail up. "AAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!! WATCH IT, YOU MORON!!" ******** "It's your fault." "It's YOUR fault." "It's YOOOOUUURRR fault." "I'm not the hijacker!" Raul and Tanya continued screaming at each other as Goten kept an eye on his escortees - the smuggler and the smugglee. Goten drug both Raul and Tanya into the elevator and hammered the button leading up to the bridge. Soon, Raul and Tanya were thrown into the vision of Ultimanium, who just happened to turn around at the sound of the turbolifts. "Oh, hey, Raul, and Ta... TANYA?!" Ultimanium nearly knocked over Minonim as he marched over to the pair, and gave a heated stare to Raul as he pointed out a finger to Tanya. "What's SHE doing here?!" "She's a stowaway," Raul choked out. "Don't worry, Ultimanium, I've already informed her on what she's getting herself into. She's getting off at Magnopolis when we head to pick up the other team." Ultimanium quickly turned to Tanya, denying her an attempt to reason. "I enjoy the company of people as much as anybody, but we can only have so many people aboard this ship - and it's mandatory that they be fighters, people that can help us against the Prospector. Do you understand?" Tanya bit her lip. "Yes." She watched worriedly as Ultimanium went back up to the control panels - and that's when she spoke. "Ultimanium, I can fight." Ultimanium pivoted his head. "You.. can fight? Is that some sort of self-invitation?" ***What are you doing, Tanya?! You couldn't fight if your life depended on it!! You just want Ulty!!*** "Yes, I can fight! I have... mastery of sniper rifles!" Tanya fibbed, sporting a half-assuring grin. Ultimanium remained still, before looking back at Tanya. "You really want to stay aboard the Argetlahm? I'm not thinking you're the type that would generally like to fight... you sure don't look the part. Yet, a team sniper is a position I think we've been missing for a while, now that you mention it." Tanya lit up. ***Yes! I did it!*** "Glad to be of service!" "..okay, then," Ultimanium said. "Goten, tell the others that we're going to be leaving in half an hour. Raul, I want you to take Tanya down to the firing range and see how she does with the sniper rifles we have in stock." Tanya's eyes grew wide. ***well, you've really done it this time, Tanya.*** As Raul, Tanya and Goten left, Minonim floated next to Ultimanium as he resumed his gaze into the desert ahead of him, lit only by the moon. ******** Back through the desert winds, a new shape began to take form as it marched through the maelstrom. It cocked its fedora as it began to bear down on a series of lights in the distance. This was his target, alright. And it was time to begin the operation. There was a gleam in both his hands, and his eyes. It was a gleam of Trance. DUM DUM DUUUUUUUUUM!!! Big-ass fight scene with the little-used guys running the show! Can the divided Argetlahm crew stand to deal with another Trance? And how exactly is Tanya supposed to cover her position up with Raul watching? Find out next time... on Trance Trauma! Chapter 8: The Dark Switch?! Tanya in the Crossfire (A/N - Man, these author notes just get larger, and larger, and larger. I'll try to shut up a bit earlier this time. So far no entries in the Name Game, which really drives the point home that there are about four or five people reading this... and you know who you are. Heh, even anonymous reviews can't save you now! Nyah! That or either you all know already, which leaves me kind of defeated. =P Anyways, can you at least mention you're thinking about it? Oh, and there actually wasn't anything about the Argetlahm last chapter... I was mixed up with a profile of Ultimanium that I shipped off to Shaun Garin. Anyways... boy, I love saying anyways. Anyways.... anyways... okay, anyways, the actual fact about the Argetlahm is it's the name of a holy sword. Where from? Well, you'll get more indication next chapter. Oh, and there are two more hints about Tanya hidden in the text... one might not be so helpful, but the other one is a DEAD GIVEAWAY if you're in the right mindset. Enough gibberish! On with the show! (the camera pans over to Daisuke, decked out as a monk, who strikes a gong. Weird, funky ripples cloud the screen as we reenter Trance Trauma...) ULTIMANIUM (OS) - NOT the waves again! Damn it, my hair's all messed up now. DAISUKE (OS) - Yeah, YOU'RE one to talk. (starts casually combing his hair) ******** Ultimanium looked up, yawning, as Goten scrambled back into the bridge chamber. It was several minutes, but word had been passed out to the group. The Argetlahm was going to remain ground-docked for the night, and head out to pick up the crew in the morning. After, they would be able to begin their primary assault on the Prospector's hideout - Ultimanium kept a watchful eye on the receiver that sat on top of the panel to his side, and so far the Prospector's island showed no sign of budging. "Hey, Ulty!" Goten quipped. "The guys were asking if they could stay in Magnus' spare rooms at the chateau for the night!" Ultimanium lifted an eyebrow. "Spare rooms? That place is pretty tiny to accomadate a dozen more people.. what's wrong with remaining aboard the Argetlahm?" Goten grinned. "You haven't seen downstairs, have you?" "What's so special about it?" "Magnus has a full training operation going down underneath there. Magnus says that the chateau itself is situated on a really old abandoned underground military base, and he has an entire training facility going down there. Oh, and there's extra rooms." Ultimanium pushed himself up from his chair. "I don't know why people don't tell me these things. Minonim, can you keep an eye on the bridge? If Raul or Tanya come back, tell them that we'll be out shortly." Minonim gave a reassuring bob. "Affirmative. If you don't mind, I'm going to recharge myself. Is it okay if I lock down the bridge controls?" Ultimanium nodded. "Go ahead." "Thank you." Almost instantly, Minonim's eyes blanked out and he fell to the ground with a clunk, as the lights on the panels around him died, dumping the bridge into azure moonlight. Ultimanium basked in the moonrays before following Goten out of the great chamber. ******** Raul ushered Tanya into the expansive target range, which also was reshaped since the fight that occured in it. Some of the handguns were discarded and replaced with slightly newer models - still not the most recent, but they were applicable. Tanya waited nervously by the door while Raul floated over to a cabinet at the far edge of the room, unlocking it with a ring of keys he had taken from his pocket. A click echoed through the room as Raul pulled the lock down and apart, and tossed open the cabinet doors, exposing a full roster of sniper rifles. Raul ran his index finger along his available choices, muttering to himself, before ripping one out of the rack. He strided back over to Tanya's position and slammed it down on the table by the door, making her hop back. "HK PSG1 model sniper rifle," Raul spat. "One of the most heavy-duty models we have. If you're the master you insist you are, you should be able to handle this one," Raul slapped down a small shell belt next to the gun. "five shots. I'll be watching you." Tanya groaned as Raul left the room, and set himself up in a smaller room adjacent from the range. He watched her through a large plexiglass window. Seeing no other choice, Tanya took the shells and began feeding them into the rifle. While she had some minor experience with guns themselves and was able to identify the various components with some effort and load the rifle properly, she had no marksmanship experience to speak of - she had never actually fired ANY gun. "Okay, ready!" Tanya chirped, struggling to click the belt into its proper position. She placed the rifle down, sliding a pair of dampening earmuffs over her head before she took the weapon back in her arms. "Okay, then - fire when ready." Tanya held her breath as she knelt down, bracing the rifle against her chest. She knew nothing of the gun, its kickback, its shell size, nothing - so she was virtually screwed as far as hitting the target was concerned. "...okay, I'm going to..." Tanya breathed out again, relaxing the gun against her. Giving one last look through the scope, she yanked hard on the trigger, sending the bullet whistling through the air - Raul blinked, and heard a pop as the shell burst through the target backing. The hole was a good foot away from the picture's head. "...accidents happen, I'm guessing. Try again." Tanya focused hard back on the target. ***man, if I miss again I'll get booted for sure! There's got to be SOME way I can make a hit...*** ******** Ultimanium entered Magnus' domain the same way he had before, but was lead to the other end of the corridor, where Goten shoved open a stair access door. They both stepped into the stairwell, unfurnished with its concrete flooring and walling, with a simple black guardrail trailing alongside the stairs as they fell along with the floors. Ultimanium kept ahead of Goten for the remainder of the descent, for what seemed like several dozen floors. Ultimanium finally came to the end of the stairs, which lead out into a corridor that had been carved out of the earth itself - the tunnel was constructed to constrain the dirt around it, with small floodlights dotting the celing of the alley. At the end, another door awaited. Ultimanium and Goten stepped in, before closing the door behind them. They were in a small lobby, with shag carpeting and a booth that lead outwards to another stairwell. The entire structure was being supported in the corner and above a gigantic cavern, with outspikes of rock occuring frequently on the rarely-conditioned roof. Down on the ground several stories below was a mock city, with several dozen buildings set up around city streets. Ultimanium could make out the message clearly - the site was an urban ops training ground. A large section of the buildings nearest the lobby had been torn out, probably to serve as a more open training ground for the Ki fighters. Goten automatically sat down and started conversing with Trunks. Ultimanium was finally able to get a good glace at the room around him - it was extremely well furnished, at least when compared with the rest of the enviroment. A pair of large tables sat in the middle of the floor, with a pop machine and a snack machine side by side near the wall. Across the room, several rest mats were set up, and some of the members were already down on the pads for a snooze. Armadillomon was sleeptalking, and the previously mentioned Trunks and Goten were also down. Several of the blankets being used were retrieved from the Argetlahm. Down on the ground below, Cody and Crono could be seen attempting to hack away at each other, each blocking each others' moves flawlessly. As Crono dropped to perform his finishing sweep, Cody leapt above. Crono backed off and came back with a roundhouse, which Cody was able to back over to avoid. He quickly struggled to regain his posture as Crono resumed attacking with his sword. The cycle restarted. Ultimanium immediately set eyes on an unoccupied mat in the far corner. "..ah, maybe staying here can't hurt. It's not like anyone is going to come out here for us..." Within half an hour, everybody was down on the mats, sleeping. ******** The desk in the office was unusually crowded for the time of night, as several troops were huddled around the Prospector, having risen from his chair to pronounce his situation's urgency. The officers were all exchanging words, until the familiar click came from the other end of the room. As the group broke apart to allow the Prospector sight to his guest, the doors fell shut. "What's going on here?" Appleton huffed, making his way to the front of the office. "I just heard that Master Shutdown was being pushed forward half an hour.." "Hey, don't look at us," another high officer scowled. "We're not the ones that make the decisions around here anymore." "I recently heard the information myself," the Prospector growled. "I've been trying to get a hold of Servant, trying to figure out what the hell he's trying to do. It's bad enough that he's making my position of power a mockery, but I cannot stand for the sorts of insane plans he's trying to deal out to my troops!" Appleton gave every officer a respective stare. "Servant's going into the second phase of his operation with the Trances. He deployed another Trance trooper out to the Wastes of Kardis. It's where he knows the Argetlahm is, and he's got it in his head that he's going to get rid of them in one fell swoop." "That's where he THINKS the Argetlahm is," the Prospector interrupted. "Are you seriously considering that this... Servant knows all and sees all as far as my enemies are concerned? I'M running this operation, I'LL tell you morons what to do, and when to do it!" "So what do we do about the Trance, sir?" One officer moaned. "The orders were given hours ago, he's probably already out in the Wastes!" The Prospector's eyes narrowed. "Leave him out there. That will teach him for daring to listen to any command but my own. We're going to stay here for now, and wait for the Argetlahm to attack, seeing that bucket of bolts, you-know-who, has probably screwed up my offense plan permanently. I want you to keep the base running until 2400 hours. Until then, tell EVERY sentry to be on a lookout for Servant. When he is found, I want him brought to my office. I will deal with him... personally." All of the officials quickly darted out of the Prospector's office, spreading in different directions to get the news out. Appleton kept his eye on the Prospector for a second before turning and following the group. Nervousness could be felt in the air as the Prospector seated himself again. ******** "Alright, Tanya, it's pretty evident that.." "Wait, wait, I have it under control! Just... give me a second!" Tanya grunted as she pulled the safety lock back again, priming the gun for another shot. "Okay, I'm going to try again! I HAVE to hit it this time!" She tossed the large rifle back against her and fired again, this time forgetting to peer through the scope beforehand. The bullet punched through the target's hand this time. "Tanya, what I mean, it's that..." "I'm trying to CONCENTRATE here!" Tanya quickly loaded up another shot, and fired it off. The shell made contact with the target's foot. "No, really, I get what you're trying to do here..." Tanya finally slammed the barrel of the gun down into the ground, leaning on the rifle. "Fine, I give up. Maybe you know already..." "You have no gun experience. Tanya, you can try to cover up your misbelonging all you want, but in the end you're only putting yourself in danger. We have hired professionals working on the Prospector problem, and I don't think you can really cut it. I think at this point you should just tell Ultimanium that you're not supposed to be here..." Tanya lifted up the gun again, loading the last shell. "I belong here too! I HAVE to stay! I have my reasons!" Raul chuckled to himself, leaning himself up against the glass plating facefirst. "Sure, I know he's popular with the girls, but I didn't think you would take it THIS far." Apparently Tanya took that wrong. With a loud cry, she whipped around, pointed the rifle and fired. The shell travelled the 80-foot expanse of the room and left a sizable dent in the plexiglass - right between Raul's eyes. Raul grimaced as he stepped to the side. "...um... I.... that's... as good as a pass, I suppose..." he quickly resumed his neutral face. "That was still a long distance shot. Welcome... aboard..." Raul took care to leave the room swiftly. Tanya stood and watched the door close in the booth, confused as to what just happened. ******** It was nearly one in the morning, and the security above Magnus' compound had all but subsided as the personnel were inside, enacting a small break. Two of the guards had already fallen asleep in respective recliners on opposite sides of the break room, while the last entered the room from a small rest chamber on the other side, fully dressed in his outfit. It was clear that he was night shift, waken up from his sleep that had begun earlier in the day. He ripped the jug from the coffee machine on the counter, and poured some brew into a small mug. As he began taking a sip, a loud horn blared from outside. He placed the mug down and marched over to the sliding door at the end of the room, which opened on arrival. As he stepped out and scoured the ground with the searchlight, he finally set his eyes on a single man standing on the ground, in a heavy trenchcoat and a fedora. He was holding up an air horn in one hand. "The things it t-takes to get service a-around here." "Identify yourself." The guard barked. "Identity is n-no mat-t-ter. What matters is that the T-Trance has arrived. I wish an audience with the leader of the Argetlahm, Ultimanium." "Let me.. check the list." The guard dimmed the searchlight as he quickly ducked back inside, where a small server computer was set up. He began to scan down a list of writing. "Ted... Turner... Tracy... no Trance." He quickly cast himself back outside, and brightened the searchlight again. "We have no appointments involving a Trance. I'm afraid you're going to have to leave however you came." "That will not b-be an option." The voice reverberated, making the guard stumble back in shock. As soon as he finished speaking, the very ground around the man began to crumble, and a small torrent of dust was kicked up by an oncoming wind. He threw his hands across his chest then back out, thrusting himself forward, a bright yellow light exploding from within the heavy coat. His skin fractured into particles, leaving a white shadow where he once stood. His figure warped wildly before the ring of pieces began reforming themselves, leaving an extremely bulky being standing in the storm. He was covered head to toe in grey granite plating, in a chippy organization, save for a pair of black bracers and yellow glowing eyes. -------- The second incarnation of Trance. This Trance inhabits one of the Prospector's more able soldiers, whisked away by Servant for more "offensive" purposes. People'll have a hard time getting through his rocky skin, but the effort is made harder by his brute force, and his Grand Stone and Implosion attacks! -------- JAMES - Yellow Trance The guard was backing away, toward a Master Alarm button stretching out of the wall. "What.. the hell... are you?!" "We... are the Argetlahm's worst nightmare!" Another voice rang out. A similar Trance process was occuring in the background of James' light show. Out of the storm stepped a young woman, outfitted in blood-red battle armor, with the occaisional show of white. A small pair of demon wings protruded from her back, just missing her flowing crimson hair that was let down. --------- Another one of Servant's new.. servants, also drug out of the Prospector's main forces for Trance purposes. While a bit frail for combat, her supreme agility is what gets her foes, along with her primary attacks Hellfire and Burning Strike! --------- DIN - Red Trance A Scouter flipped down in front of the guard's eye, emitting a gentle beep as a small sheet laser extended from it and sweeped down in front of his vision. "They're too powerful... I've got to get Magnus!" the guard took his hand back and slammed it against the button, causing a red klaxon to open up on both sides of the deck. Meanwhile, an alarm hat started blaring from inside the building, as the guard hurled himself back inside to warn the chateau's occupants of the assault. "Well, we're off to a fine start," Din chuckled. "We can just bust in there and cause some hell." "No," James whispered, putting out a hand to Din. "Be still. We have the advantage out here, and they're bound to come out to try to gain the preemptive." Din folded her arms, pouting. "You're no fun, Jamey." It was less than two minutes later when Magnus burst out the doors, backed by a pair of guards. "These are the attackers, sir! What do you want us to do?" Magnus turned a wrinkled frown to the two Trances. "Not now. You, both of you, what have you come here for?" "We seek Ultimanium. We have come to challenge him in the name of the great ruler, Servant." Magnus smirked. "Ah, yes, you must be the Trance-types that Ulty's been screaming at me about. I'm denying you entry to my facility, so you'd better leave before I have to get nasty. Oh, and before I royally fuck you up, what does Servant have to do with all of this?" "You are not worthy of such answers," James boomed. "If you have the nerve to get in our way, then we'll have the nerve to defeat you! Grand Stone!!" James ripped his fist upwards, causing a tremor that broke apart the ground in front of him. Soon, several dozen basketball-sized chunks of solid rock were hovering in front of and behind, ripped up from the tears in the sand. James cast his hands forward, hurling the debris at Magnus. Magnus's limbs started flailing, crushing the smaller rocks and deflecting apart others. Soon the strike had subsided, revealing a pile of debris at Magnus' feet as soon as the dust cleared. "You're going to have to try a little harder than that." "James, James. You have to be a little more upfront in your attacks, ya know?" Din made her way inbetween James and Magnus, giving them both halfway stares before turning out to Magnus. "Alright, fatboy, you've got to be pretty confident in your own power to think about taking a Trance on so quickly. We are too powerful, get it through your thick skull." Magnus kept his frown for a second, but loosened up as his face began to twist into a wry grin. "Do you think I'd have enough nerve to hit a girl?" "I would. Burning Strike!!" Magnus blinked in surprise as Din hurled herself at Magnus, imprisoning herself in a cage of searing flame. She swung out her fist for an attack, the tip of her limb lighting up in a flare as it impacted against Magnus' chest. Magnus let out a pained yell as he flew back into and through the wall of the lobby, smoke curling from his normally invulnerable Saiyan skin. "Who.. what... what the hell?! Well, well, looks like you decided on the preemptive! But even that won't save you..." Magnus threw himself to his feet, stancing himself as he charged up for the primal scream, hurling himself into Super Saiyan level six. "Let's see how you handle... this!!" Magnus screamed again, as he flung both his hands forward, opening on arrival to deliver a flash of dozens of swarming Ki blasts toward Din. Din simply phased in and out of place repeatedly, watching with mild amusement as all the beams bypassed her. "Heh, Servant said this would be easy. It's looking like he might be right for once..." "Yeah, well, Servant hasn't seen what tricks I've learned in his absence!" Magnus held his arms extended out at his sides, both fists gathering white particles of energy. Finally, he brought them over his head, and down at the ground. "Tsuyoi.. wa nami!!" James and Din brought their arms up to shield themselves as a spherical barrier of Ki burst from Magnus, the attack crackling as it washed over both Trances. Both twitched, stung by the attack. "Nothing shall stop us from claiming our prize!" James yelled. It was at that point that a voice called out from the doors. "What the.." Everybody turned. Standing at the door was a half-awake Ultimanium, draped in one of Magnus' spare housecoats - which was several sizes too large, I might add. "Trances..." Ultimanium growled. "What do you want with us?" "Just a service run for our friend Servant," Din scoffed. "It seems that the Trance incident in Magnopolis didn't exactly point out to you the true power of Trance.. so we've got a little deal so you will." Cody, Armadillomon and Eric came up on different sides of Ultimanium. "Not much help it's going to do to convince me," Cody spat. "You are nothing but slaves to this power!" "Yes, but look at this power," James echoed, stretching out his arms. "I'm harder than any of you ever will be." Everybody sweatdropped. James' eyes slitted as he glared at the group. "...what?" "Eh... James..." Din whispered. "I think some of them took that the wrong way." James stared back at the group. "You're all just a group a sick, little freaks." "Takes one to know one." Eric muttered. "You seem pretty reluctant to fight, boy. Funny it is that you're the first one to speak! How about you have the first attack?" "My pleasure," Eric huffed, stepping to the front of the group. As he advanced the usual glowing aura erupted around him. "I bet you'd be interested to know that I was a vital factor in beating Luxator. You might look tough... but so did Servant's other recruit." "You still don't look ready. Maybe I should just have at you to start it off! Implosion!!" Eric stopped to pull himself back, but the sudden blast of movement from the ground beneath him hurled him forward onto his face. He struggled to resurface himself, but was being pushed down with colossal force. "...d-damn it! Have to... move..." Everybody watched Eric with an expression of dread, but leapt back as the aura around him roared upwards, as Eric slowly began to push himself from the ground. "..well.. it seems... even your little Trance can't stop me today!" James let out a deep roar. "Mock me, will you? Implosion!!" Eric hunched over from the immense pressure placed upon him, but he eventually regained his stance, and began a long, pained walk toward the Trance. "I guess I'm lucky I'm pissed off so much from a moron like you waking me up in the middle of the damn night!" Eric held his arm behind him as he gathered up his red pulse of energy, before chucking it at the beast ahead of him. "Neutron Flare!" James buckled as he quickly shifted his Implosion in front of him, keeping the Neutron Flare suspended meters from him. Eric loosened up from his grip and held his hands out in front of him, charging up a larger sum of energy. He simply gave a cry, then lashed out with a twin-beam of Ki energy, which clipped James' bracers. The impact forced the bulky limbs back and out of casting range of Implosion, causing the Neutron Flare to resume its normal trajectory. It contacted James' torso with a crunch, followed by a large explosion. Everybody, even Din, shielded their eyes from the showing debris and the dust uplifted from the ancient ground. James was still standing, with a large hole blown through his midsection. James himself didn't even seem fazed. "...well, that's going to take a while to fix. But still, is that all you have?" Din stepped forward. "I think we're going to take this oppritunity to kill you all." "Get ready!" Ultimanium shouted. "Working on it!" Cody and Armadillomon replied in unison. Armadillomon... digivolve to... Ankylomon!! "Tail Hammer!" James barely had time to react as a giant mace was headed towards his side. He quickly caught the ball and fought for control of it, as Ankylomon wrenched his tail to gain control of the spiked ball. "We can finish this quickly!" Magnus roared, charging up. "Everybody else hang back, whoever can use Ki, focus it on Jame.. wha!" Magnus hopped back as Din crashed her fist into the ground where he once stood. Din gave a stretching grin. "'fraid I can't let you do that." She wound up for another blow to Magnus' head, which he deflected barely with his wrist. Both fighters quickly grew into a blur of fists and feet, which was paused momentarily as Cody flung his Murasame into Din's side, slamming her armor and knocking her off balance. Magnus was able to land a knee to her chest as Cody backed off, and soon Magnus was dealing repeated blows to the red Trance. As Magnus held both his fists for an overhead smash, Din simply phased out of position and came down several meters away. "Well, I'll give you one thing - you hit hard. But do what you have to, you'll NEVER catch me!" Din warped out of her plane with a loud thrum, and started rouletting around the confused Magnus. "Watch out!" Ankylomon yelled. Overhead, Din was charging up a rather... large... ball of magma. As in 30 meters wide. "Hellfire!" Din screamed, slamming the massive meteor down in a spike. Everybody on the ground scattered, including James, to avoid the rippling explosion and subsiding lava flow from the shattered pumice. While some people were more fortunate in getting out, Ultimanium was thrown back by a large chunk of rock, hurling him into the ground several feet back. Cody pressed himself to his feet, grasping the Murasame in one hand, rubbing a cut on his forehead with the other. "Din's following some sort of pattern... she's phasing in an around Magnus before she does an attack." She was. Suddenly, she stopped the attack, and offered a hand to James. "Dahling. Care to take this trip?" "With pleasure," James said, grinning. As she phased away again, she took the giant rock man with him. It was quite strange seeing a behemoth like him moving that fast, but it was happening. They both phased around Magnus again, who was slowly losing his happy figure. James was on the outside of Din's ring of phase locations. "Stand still... and fight!!" Magnus bellowed. Cody watched the pair in amazement. "They're moving TOO fast. They're phasing... which means they're practically teleporting... there's got to be some way we can use that to our advantage... but how? They're too fast to hit..." suddenly Cody's eyes went wide, returning to their normal size along with a smirk. "...that's it! If we can't hit them, we'll make them hit us!" Cody drew his Murasame up to his shoulder with one hand, and charged toward Magnus. "Cody!" Ultimanium shouted. "What are you doing?!" "HURRAGGHH!!" Cody screamed out a cry, as he thrust his katana seemingly into thin air, and left it there for a second. Suddenly... James phased in. James peered down at Cody, seemingly miles below him. "Could I ask WHAT you're doing?" Cody looked up at James with a grin. "You should start feeling it... now." James' eyes flared as he caught sight of what had happened, and pain started to cloud his vision. He had phased in over the Murasame. It stuck cleanly out of James' invulnerable skin, black blood sheeting over the blade. "Telefrag." Cody muttered, before drawing the blade from the armored body, stepping back as James began to crumple to one knee before him. "This is impossible!" James screamed. "I'm invincible.. I am a Trance!! How can this kid defeat such a god as I..?" "Common sense," Cody said flatly. "Matter simply can't kick matter out of the way if it phases in over top of it... so when you phased in where the Murasame was placed, well.. let's say you were missing a few things." While the Trance was powerful, even a strike to its heart could bring it down. James was soon losing his composure, which left Din standing speechless. "HAAA!!!" Magnus thrust forth with his conceal charging, cutting loose with his Renzokamehameha. Din had no time to make an attempt to avoid the attack as all eight beams struck her dead on, sending her grinding across the desert sands at least half a mile. Across the flat terrain, she could still be seen, unwilling to get up. Magnus blew on his index finger, a draft of smoke drifing from it. "Is that all a Trance can take? I'm not impressed. Look at that, even Cody managed to beat a Trance. I think Servant's days are numbered." "W-we're not done yet.." James grunted. ******** Raul and Tanya faced out to the landscape ahead of them through the turbolift window as it decended slowly to the ground beneath them. "...I would say you're lucky," Raul spoke, ending the silence. "It was only because I said something about Ultimanium that you were able to lock onto me. Nothing more." "...I shot you between the eyes, didn't I?" Raul buried his face in his palm. "Whatever. Anyways, there's still something bugging me about you joining up. I sense.. uncertainty. You know nothing of what's going to be happening with the crew, and yet you jump at the chance to 'save the world'. Maybe you 'like' Ultimanium a little too much. If you still knew what was good for you, you'd return to Magnopolis." "I know what I'm doing." Tanya groaned, keeping a straight face. "Besides I.. well, you know, and... hey, are you listening to me?" Raul's sight was frozen on the distance. ***the Trances...*** Tanya tapped Raul's shoulder as the turbolift touched the ground. "Hey, you alright?" "I'll be back soon, Tanya. Wait here, there is trouble at the chateau." With that, Raul's boots lit up in a blue glow as he shot off across the cracked ground toward the house in the far distance. Tanya glanced down at the dirt beneath her as Raul soared off. The ground near Magnus' hideout was fairly flat and solid, packed and dryed dirt from the sandstorms that whipped through there occaisionally coupled with the extreme heat during the day. "Good, that should work for me.." She sat herself against the exterior of the turbolift and brought her shoes up, clicking in a button on the side of each. With a clank, four wheels flipped out from the bottom of each shoe - inline skates. She sat herself up and stood, getting a feel for the terrain before she pushed herself off toward the chateau, gaining speed with each forward motion she gave herself. ******** "You don't seem to get the entire point of our being here, Argetlahm," James coughed. "We simply wish to bestow a little 'gift' on your friend here, just to ward you away from engaging in the league of power we do, to defeat your little Prospector. Trance is bigger than all of you, and will be used for much greater things!" Din crawled forward, slumping her torn body over top of a dune. "We won't have died in vain. Ultimanium, prepare to receive your justice!" Everybody stumbled back as both James and Din fired out beams of yellow and red light respectively, which joined between them and arced out - headed straight for Ultimanium. Gasps rose from the crowd as people dove out of the way. Magnus leapt to deflect the beam but looked down in surprise, as the beam had completely gone through him, leaving no damage. Ultimanium tried desperately to climb out of the wreckage of earth where he lied, but was struck head on by the attack, causing him to scream out in pain. Magnus stood toward the two Trances. "There's no way that Ultimanium could be damaged so easily! What are you doing?!" James' eyes pulsed once more before dimming out into death. "Just.. giving him a taste of Trance." "Trance?!" Eric exclaimed. "Ultimanium's going Trance?!" "Oh, but in a little more of a negative manner," Din chuckled. "Some of the energies used to port the Trance condition over to your friend here are compliments of us.. so he might be a little... oh, how do I say this... evil?" Everybody was interrupted by a blast of energy that rose up from behind them. The mountain that Ultimanium was buried under was no more, instead standing there was a black outline of energy surrounding the man, now with gleaming silver hair and deep blue eyes. But they weren't exactly the friendly type. -------- The new experimental Trance forged from the ported energies from Servant's command have unwillingly corrupted one of the champions of the Argetlahm.. and it was too easy, also. If we're still talking about basic Trances, we could be in a very large problem when we have to take Gaia's Isle... now stands a figure of once-white power, refrained from his normally-good ways and utilizing a really nasty Super Shadow Surge... --------- OMNIMANIUM - Black Trance "Omnimanium!" Magnus gasped. "Yeah, yeah, we get the picture, you all saw Omnimanium during the first tour." Din droned. "How do you know about the first tour?" Cody demanded. "You DO forget that we're dealing with Servant here." "Er.." Eric stammered. "You're forgetting that we're dealing with a really powerful guy here, right? More powerful than the other Trances?" "Don't give me that," Din spat. "All Trances share the same power. It's what you do with it that counts." "That's the bad thing.." Ankylomon said, as Ultimanium began a plod toward the group. I think he knows EXACTLY what to do with it..." "What's going on here?!" Raul shouted, joining the group. "...the Gods.. what happened here?" "We have a.. tiny problem with Ulty here. I think we're going to have to restrain him a bit.. teach him some manners." Raul nodded. His hand flashed as a javelin of light formed in his hand. "Elmekia Lance?" He hurled the bolt at Omnimanium, who casually deflected it into the distance with a shock of Ki. He continued moving, slowing down, until he fell to his knees, grasping his head. Raul grit his teeth. "This is going to be a little harder than I thought.. we can't get close to him with all this Ki around in the vincinity. We're going to have to try something else.." Magnus sighed as he charged a small Ki blast in his hand and hucked it straight at the Trance, and watched in dismay as he bashed the attack straight back at him. Magnus bent to the side, and watched as the bolt streaked off into the darkness and eventually fizzled. Omnimanium resumed writhing, before throwing his head back and letting out a blood-curdling scream. "Oh, boo hoo," Din sighed. "Looks like your little friend here is having a little trouble fighting for his humanity..." "God, shut up." Magnus muttered, blasting Din with a gigantic wave of energy. "Well, this was to be expected," Din droned, as her armor began to shatter and dissolve away under the attack. "Have fun with your new playmate, regardless!" Din burst forth with a shrill laugh before being completely destroyed. "Super Shadow Surge!!" Magnus turned his head, and got so far as his mouth opening in shock before he had been slammed with the 20-foot wide beam, sending him shooting across the dirt terrain facefirst. He slowly struggled to raise his head, and spat out some dirt. "Okay, I did NOT like that." "We have nothing that can restrain him..." Cody murmured, backing off. "If we could knock him out from a distance..." ******** Tanya set herself up behind a small, wiry bush, gaping in awe at the lightshow that was going on before her. Between the light of the Argetlahm and the chateau, Omnimanium was giving off a radiance of his own - a black radiance, if such could exist, however. She patted the assault rifle, taking it off of the straps on her back. She'd been lucky to be able to keep her back from Raul during their entire descent, and now she'd be greatly rewarded - she'd have a part in the fight that was going on. She removed a small box from her pocket, also smuggled out of the range, and left it on the ground next to her, aside from the rifle. "We have to knock him ou-gh!" Cody gasped as Omnimanium threw a fist into his gut, sending him down. Omnimanium began to charge his fist with dark energy, registering cries from behind him. "Shit! We have nothing to use!" "If it weren't for that damn Trance..." "We have to get rid of the Trance, but we have to down him first!" Tanya knew what she had to do. She flipped open the box and loaded a small, square shell into the rifle. "A kill, I can't do. But a KO..." She cocked the safety and lifted the scope into view, flipping night vision on. "A headshot with a dum-dum is all it should take.." As Omnimanium bellowed and began to bring his fist down on Cody, he abruptly stopped, and fell to the ground. The aura instantly disappeared. Everybody froze. Raul was the first to let out a stupid-sounding "Huh?" Tanya flicked the safety back on, and scooped up the brass that had fell to the ground. "Okay, that should work." She grinned, gathering up her supplies and attempted to disappear into the darkness. Raul came up to the unconscious Argetlahm captain and leant down, checking him. "What happened.." he flipped him over, exposing a black bruise quickly rushing to the skin on the back of his head. "...why, that little..." Tanya skipped through the darkness, whistling - and straight into Raul. She stumbled back from the impact, her grin growing wider. "Oh! Um, hey, Raul...I was just.." "Thank you." Raul phased off. Tanya just kind of stood there, blinking. Magnus had since then picked up Ultimanium's lifeless body. "Quick, let's get him inside. We can do some autoposy on him, maybe figure out how the Trance affected him." "Sounds probable," Cody mumbled, dusting himself off. "Let's go." The effect, however, was a little discouraging. ******** "Ultimanium's in a coma." "What?!" Raul exclaimed. "How.." "That's horrible," Goten murmured. "This all happened with the Trance?" Crono gave the group a affirmative nod. Magnus turned himself, facing back towards the window. "I don't know what happened myself. It was revealed later that Tanya delivered the shot that knocked out Ultimanium... the autopsy showed that the headshot wasn't the thing that knocked him out.. it was the rush of power. I know myself that during the first tour Ultimanium transformed into Omnimanium when we were fighting Ultramagnus for the last time... but he seemed fairly in control of his power then. What we were fighting WASN'T Omnimanium, it was a Trance that was far more powerful than Omnimanium that shared some of the same appearance." Magnus pivoted his eyes at an angle toward his audience. "I know Ultimanium, he's built and can take a LOT of abuse. If something like a simple Trance can make him instantly devolve into a slobbering mess, then that leaves me to contemplate the fate of all the other Trances that have been attacking you lately." "Then what do we do?" Eric sighed. He was leant against the wall near the entrance to the massive den. "We can't just head for Gaia's Isle now and expect to breeze by their defenses, possibly every person there is a Trance." Magnus muttered to himself, before turning back to the group. "Raul, you're going to need reinforcements. Get more people from the original Argetlahm crew. I've been keeping in touch with a small number of them and they may be able to help you. Takeru Takaishi, Vegeta Briefs, Heero Yuy, and Serge have had little to no action in their lives lately and would probably be willing to take the positions. As for now, I have regained connections with the Galaxian Security Forces and have ordered out their most recently promoted soldier, Glenn Fields. He's part of the Galaxian air-to-ground jump trooper brigade. He should be here at some point tomorrow morning, if you'd like to remain here for the time being, maybe resolve a plan of attack." "I guess we don't have much of a choice at this point.." Raul groaned. "I'll head back aboard the Argetlahm and try to get a hold of Shaun and his group, and tell them we might be a bit late tomorrow." Everybody kept eyes on Raul as he left the room, passing Eric on his way out. "Alright, then," Magnus said, slapping his hands together. "What happened to our sniper-in-training?" "Right here," came a quiet reply. Everybody turned again to spot Tanya in a recliner near the far edge of the room. She gave a meek wave to everybody. Cody blinked. "...who is she?" "Raul gave me the 201 before you guys showed up... turns out she was a stowaway on the Argetlahm when it left Magnopolis on its way here. However, Raul was the one to spot her and realize that she was a master sniper." Tanya sunk into her seat. "Anyways, she's the one who capped Ultimanium. He's going to be left in our infirmary for the night to see how the coma is developing, but until then, Tanya, would you mind telling us a bit about yourself?" Tanya chuckled nervously as all eyes shifted to her. "...if you really have to know.... Tanya isn't my name." "Then what is it?" "..oh, Tanya's the name I use when I club-hop... that's what I used to do a lot when I was in Magnopolis... my name's actually... Charmy. Anderson." Eric grasped his chin. "Go on." "...I hung out with one of my friends a short while after I'd gotten out of college... we shared an apartment... we were referred to in the neighborhood a lot as the Citrus Sisters, 'vibrant club-hoppers' as the locals put it. Somehow I'd picked up the nickname Tanya, but I'm still not quite sure how that went..." As Charmy began to lapse out, Crono readjusted his seating position impatiently. "...I did some modelling for a while... some kind of new, space-age outfit..." Magnus lifted an eyebrow as he heard that. "...a while later, I'd dropped out of that business, and I was known as one of the top dancers in that sector of Magnopolis..." Everyone blinked. "You, are a bunch of sick bastards. Do you want me to keep going or not?" "Oh, continue," Magnus stammered. "Keep going," Eric said. "Please," Cody continued. Crono nodded quickly. Trunks and Goten exchanged confused stares. "Okay, then.. anyways, just a recreational dancer, you know, Soul Train, something like that. Suddenly, Keyvan burst out of a dimensional portal. "THAT WAS THE BIG HINT!!!" Keyvan screamed, before running and diving out a window. Everybody sweatdropped. "O...kay," Magnus sighed. "..THAT...was freaky." "Okay, now where was I... yeah, recreational dancer, Soul Train, yada yada. I kept that up for a while, living on marginal income, until I had reached the current low point of my career - pizza delivery. A couple nights after, I was on the usual club-hop routine, and that's when I found Ultimanium." "Sounds like as good a stowaway excuse as any," Magnus huffed. "Well, is that it?" "...yes." "Okay, then.. I suppose you'd like to get back to sleep.. It's nearly past one in the morning! I guess I'd better hit the sack too... oh, and Charmy..." "Yeah?" "Check out the Argetlahm, female bunks. The Argetlahm likes to customize its rooms automatically for its inhabitants." ********* Everybody had retired for the night. The chateau was quiet, the lights on the Argetlahm remained live with a constant buzz, and several robotic workers were keeping an eye on Ultimanium's unstable condition throughout the night. Charmy had since made it to her room, after getting lost once. The place wasn't as spectactular as Magnus had insisted, but it did show her essentials - the only thing that differentiated her room from an empty one was the abeforementioned poster, and the pocket wallet that sat next to the computer. Charmy sighed as she slipped under the covers, the lights deactivating on impulse. It wasn't much, but it was certainly roomier than her normal room. She didn't have to worry about concentrating herself to sleep, as the deep bass of the ship's engine in idle did that for her. She was free to pass her mind onto other thoughts. Ultimanium... ANOTHER FRICKING CHAPTER DONE! HOO-RAH! How is Ultimanium dealing with the Trance? What will the incoming Argetlahm veterans have to say on the situation? How is Shaun's group holding out in Magnopolis? And who exactly the hell is Glenn Fields? Find out next time, on Trance Trauma! (A/N - Oh, sweet Jesus no... Glenn, my friends, is ANOTHER crossover! So it counts as another entry for the Name Game. The only hints you're getting are the facts that he actually DOESN'T have a last name, and true to his jump trooper outline, he is wearing a jet pack right now. Whooee, I love annoying you people with pointless questions such as these! ^_^ Now, scram! Go back to normal life! This chapter is over, wait for another one! Oh, and that other one might not come so quickly, either - now that Christmas holdiays is drawing to a close in a couple days here, updates will become a bit less frequent. Well, whatever, see ya.) Chapter 9: Return of a Revolution! The Upgrade Begins (A/N - Quick update - one entry for the Name Game! Wahoo!... maybe it was one of the two people reviewing this, but, hey, results are results! Rakugo Lady states "Argetlahm" was the name of the holy sword used by the Magess Anastasia to defeat the Great Blaze in the PSX RPG Wild Arms 2, and she would be right! Actually, I forget if it was Argethalm or Argetlahm, Argetlahm just sounded cooler. =P As for Tanya, I have to say - you are close. TOO close. Almost there. Regardless, that's your fame, and I just contacted the masonworkers and they should be showing up at my place in half an hour. You know how much a block of stone costs?... and, before I forget, here's your cookie... oh.. oops! I accidentally dropped it into the abyss of doom. Oh, well, here's some spelunking equipment. Good luck! There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, a winner on one account. Tanya (Charmy) and Glenn are still up in air, so keep shooting, everybody! New posts will be slowed down slightly due to the composition of... the Argetlahm Deathmatch map! ^_^ The Argetlahm is being constructed, as we speak, as a Unreal Tournament deathmatch map. Walk around! Ride the turbolifts! Shoot a lot of people! Hoorah! So far I have the lower level bunks mapped out, and the turbolift only holds one person comfortably.. two if you crunch together... heh... but expect to see some faroff parts of the ship, whatever I decide to add on to the structure... including, of all things, a underhang on the ship which people seem to fall off a lot and a huge-ass indoor sanctuary/courtyard. Updates will be posted in later chapters.) ULTIMANIUM - Whoa, what a rush. (Meanwhile, Davis is sitting on a computer some distance away playing Quake 3) DAVIS - You seem to forget that we have no audience. ULTIMANIUM - ...damn. DAVIS - Hey, care to join me?... Booya! Railgun! COMPUTER - *pewow* SoccerGod was gunned down by Bitterman ULTIMANIUM - ...could we get back on topic here? ******** Last time on Trance Trauma, Ultimanium's group was rudely interrupted from their visit to Magnus' presidential retreat by a pair of figures that had apparently marched the entire way to the place. However, everybody's suspicions were confirmed when they revealed themselves to be Trances! Though the odds were stacked high, Cody managed to make use of a tiny error in James' judgement and was able to get his sword through him when he teleported in right over it. Din was more easily dealt with. However, that wasn't the extent of their attack - they both transferred their power to Ultimanium, who turned into the black Trance Omnimanium and went loony! Tanya had finished her "initiation" by nearly capping Raul with the sniper rifle provided, and she was able to sneak down to the battlefield where everybody was hopelessly trying to pacify the out-of-control Trance. Tanya was able to snipe Omnimanium with a dum-dum round to the head, giving him some head damage and knocking him unconscious. It was later revealed that Ultimanium was in a coma from the power surge, and there could be no telling when he would wake. Tanya attempted to make the effort to reveal her true self, which was taken by the crew more easily than she'd thought. Her birthname was actually Charmy Anderson, Tanya was just a nickname she'd picked up somewhere. With even their leader turned into a mess by a simple Trance, the morale of the group took a nosedive. Magnus made the decision to coax several more of the original Argetlahm members into the ranks to even the odds. Takeru Takaishi, Vegeta Briefs, Heero Yuy, Serge, and a new inductee named Glenn Fields would join up with the group once they started on the trek back to Magnopolis aboard the Argetlahm. Who knows, even more might show up... Cody was able to gain little sleep throughout the short night that the crew experienced. He'd gone to bed at one in the morning, opting to head back aboard the Argetlahm for the night, before the Argetlahm set itself on its course back to Magnopolis. He was up before six. The entire ship was clouded by a dull silence, which made for an eerie atmosphere aboard the ship. Cody remained for the time being in the mess hall, picking at a bowl of instant oatmeal. The actual hall was made a little more lively since the last visit due to the installation of several 3-foot thick glass plates in the floor at the major walkways between and from the regular organization of the tables, so they poked out beneath the ship around the bunk hallways beneath the room. This made it so that the terrain directly underneath the ship could be seen at any given point. While it looked incredible when the ship maintained a constant velocity and you could see the ground whipping beneath you several dozen feet below, it really strained on motion sickness if the ship was going at its normal speed. Therefore, the Argetlahm had been slowed down a fair amount whenever people would head for a meal. "..." Cody grimaced as he nibbled on the contents of his spoon. He soon finished, then remained standing, confused outside of the mess hall. The silence was incredible. "..I wonder how the rec room's doing." He slipped over to the turbolift, and slapped the corresponding button. The doors closed. ******** The bridge had fallen into a hush, as well. While no one knew it, Eric and Raul were already partially-awake, sitting at respective substations on the bridge. Minonim still laid in a heap at the main control station. "...well, this is just nice..." Eric muttered lowly. "Ulty's out of commission, Trances are on us like killer bees and the Prospector's STILL going strong. And now Servant's involved in this..." Raul sat with his arms folded. "Don't expect Fagnus down there either to come with us... he's stuck in his own little world down there. I really think we should've got someone else in charge of the World State Government after we overthrew Ultramagnus... now that he's stuck in politician hell, he's going to be little help to us other than funding. Not that he can be blamed... I mean, people are going to wonder when the leader says 'sorry, people of the free world, I'm leaving for a couple years to save our world! take care of yourselves, but wish me luck!', and leaves no one to look after things on the homefront." "That's just got to suck," Eric sighed. "What are we supposed to do now, though?" "I have an idea on what we should do," Raul commented. "We have to find ourselves a new leader until we get the information on Ultimanium's condition." Eric leant over. "What about the Argetlahm itself? Do you know how to work the thing?" "Hey, don't look at me, I do the subsystems." Eric rolled his eyes over to Minonim. "How hard can it be to move this ship?" Raul leant his head on his hand. "Eric, we are talking about piloting a destroyer-class CRUISER here. It's a little harder than leaving the afterburners on 24/7, I know THAT, at least." "Well, can't Minonim do it?" "He can only gain access to ALL the propulsion systems only when Ultimanium gives the correct passcodes. Other than that, he can only work the emergency systems." Eric lifted an eyebrow. "What would you classify as 'emergency systems'?" "...auxiliary thrusters..." Eric nodded. "That's all I needed to hear. Let's get Minonim up and moving, and we..." Raul glared at Eric. "You're forgetting something." "What?" "Auxiliary boosters are for docking only. They can move the ship in all the directions except forward, that's what the primary boosters are for. At that extent, they aren't as nearly as powerful as the main thrusters. If we intend on using those, it'll take us nearly triple the time to get back to Magnopolis." Eric shrugged. "So we'll just put full power on the central and rear aux boosters. Do YOU have any better ideas?" Raul blinked. "Wait, wait, wait.. are you INSISTING that we fly the Argetlahm BACKWARDS all the way to Magnopolis?" "I don't hear YOU giving ideas." Magnus walked onto the bridge. "How's my ship doing?" "You gave it to us." Raul growled. Magnus slapped his forehead. "Oh, damn, I keep forgetting that. This ship is ANCIENT compared to the stuff I can get at my place, but still... anyways, I need a lift into Magnopolis, I have a trade pact to sign with Kenya. Mind if I board?" "Do you have full access to the Argetlahm?" Eric asked. "No, why?" Eric and Raul groaned. "Well, we have only one thing to say - it is going to be a looooooong trip." "It looks like it's our only choice, though," Raul grunted. "I guess we should just take the Argetlahm as it is and fly it in reverse to Magnopolis. It'll give our friends here some well-deserved rest... say, Magnus, was the returning crew planning to meet up with us when we were scheduled to arrive at Magnopolis?" "No, I just told them to start warping aboard people in.." he glanced down at his watch. "...about an hour and a half. You guys have the J3 with you at the moment, I'm guessing, so they should just warp straight to the Argetlahm." Raul nodded. "Excellent. Scratch the rest.. we have the resources we need to make a conference call. Magnus, go operate communications, tell everyone to meet with us aboard the bridge in an hour and a half." Magnus eyed Raul snootily. "Who died and made you king?" "You mean, who fainted and made me ruler. I'm the one running this show for the time being, you just do as you're told." Magnus growled to himself as he seated himself in his old command chair offside of the main bridge and opened the commlink. ******** Everybody had arrived. The stage was set. It was nearly an hour and twenty minutes after the announcment had been made that much of the crew present was set up on the bridge of the Argetlahm, the rising sun setting a blue-purple backdrop on the terrain as it scrolled away from them. Yes, the Argetlahm was flying backwards. Don't even ask. Meanwhile, Ultimanium's old transciever had been set up on one of the bridge countertops, displaying the rest of the crew which was huddling around Raynor to get a good look at the Argetlahm as they'd left it. Cody, Armadillomon, Crono, Charmy, Trunks, Goten, Magnus and Eric were lined up in front of the master bridge controls, with Raul occupying Ultimanium's usual chair. Minonim was up as well, having to have been interrupted from his sleep to link through to the Argetlahm itself and get the ship going.... god, that still bothers me, did you have to fly the damn ship backwards? Wasn't there another way? We're going to look stupid as hell getting into the Magnopolis spaceport. Raul immediately cast a spell and engulfed the narrator in a ball of flame, incinerating him instantly. He was replaced by a new one. Hi. "Current business," Raul mused, leaning on a panel. "We're going to get to Magnopolis a bit slower than we had anticipated, mostly due to the fact that we can't get the primary boosters online due to our lack of an Ultimanium to access them. No one else has access, not even us. Speaking of which, how is Ultimanium? Has his condition stabilized?" "Affirmative," Minonim buzzed. "We still can't draw a line on when Ultimanium will awaken, however, he's in non-serious physical condition. Our medical systems still can't figure out what's causing the Trance to take its roots in Ultimanium's mind, though. We expect a sizeable delay until we can figure out exactly what mental stimulus is causing the Trance to operate, and what we can do to reverse its effects." "Wait, wait," Rika burst, her voice coming in gravelly over the speakers of the transceiver. "Ultimanium's out of it? You mean, like.." "In a coma," Cody interjected. "Some Trances attacked us at Magnus' chateau and they used some kind of attack on Ultimanium that made him Trance too. We managed to knock him out and we haven't got anything from him since." "It's kind of creepy," Armadillomon quipped. "Oh, this is just fantastic," Raynor snarled. "Even our 'top' guy gets creamed by a Trance? This isn't too spectactular for the morale over here, you know. We didn't even get any results since we remained in Magnopolis, so the Trances must've been after Ultimanium in the first place!" Magnus' eyes narrowed as he glanced back at the monitor. "Ultimanium's power level is well about six million. If it can turn someone like him so easily.." Raul slapped his hands down onto the hard seat's armrests, pushing himself forward. "But we're all wasting time here. Ultimanium could easily be out of the picture for the remainder of the second tour, so we have to get ourselves a new captain for the time being." Magnus immediately leapt into a pose. "Then I, Magnus Power, shall lead the next crew to victory!! Booya!!" Everybody just kind of stared at him. Raul frowned at Magnus. "Hmm, you didn't want anything to do with us any time before." Magnus grinned sheepishly. "Can I?" "No." Magnus turned, stamping out of the chamber. "Stupid damn newbies and their damn stupid.." his voice was eventually drowned out by the aux engines beginning to choke. They soon returned to normal. "So, then, who?" Charmy sighed. "We've got no one else qualified for the job..." "We don't techincally need qualification. This is a mercenary band, if you haven't noticed," Raul spoke. "I'll simply make the decision based on your experience. Heh, the sad thing is, I'm not even going to think about choosing myself. I mean, my spells are all rusted to hell, I'm going to need to practice my arts before I can even think about fighting alongside you new guys in the first place. Until then, I want Eric and Shaun to remain in charge." Eric and Shaun's jaws dropped. "...huh?!" "Next to Ultimanium they are the two most powerful people on the crew as we speak. To tell you the truth, I have little to no idea on what plan of action we should take in pursuing the Prospector now, so I'm going to leave it up to Eric, Shaun and the rest of the crew to take charge of planning a successful operation." Shaun shook his head. "I might be fast, I can punch hard, maybe, but I'm pretty sure I'm NOT the most powerful person here." Raul faced out to the sky. "Regardless, you seem like the people we can trust." Trunks, Goten, and Crono all nodded. Eric half-smiled. "Eh.. Raul, I've always wondered... what's ever stopping us from using Magnopolis' latest R&D developments?" Raul blinked, turning toward the turbolifts. Magnus was leant against the wall, arms folded. "Funding." Eric smirked, turning to his relative. "Hey, Magnus, you're the bigwig around these parts, how about we stop in Magnopolis?" "What for?" "We're going to be making some enhancements to the Argetlahm. I want to park the Argetlahm in the city for another night, and we're gonna overhaul this thing - I want the best armor, the best engine, the best everything. Maybe even a bigass laser cannon, you know, something we can trademark with the Argetlahm. We're going to remake this thing into a better capship." "Eric," Magnus spat. "Even if I WANTED to help you, which I don't, we simply don't have the manpower in Magnopolis to completely redo an old fossil like this thing. If I were you, I'd just get a new ship." "Ulty wouldn't like us just dumping his old ship like this," Cody mumbled. "We would know, it's like an artifact to him. If we could make adjustments to it, give it new stations, new powers, a new finish - we would both impress Ultimanium and boost morale around the group... maybe both scare some sense into the Prospector and make the ship more powerful." "You're forgetting, Magnus..." Armadillomon piped. "We have some Saiyans that would be more than happy to help you. We have the Tamers, everybody, we would all do what we can to upgrade the Argetlahm into a fully-functional warship." "...if I can get you clearance into the Magnopolis shipyards, you'll help with all of this? I still have a problem with you polishing the Argetlahm at a time like this, just promise me that you'll be in and out of there in under two days. I have the little fear that the Prospector might get a little trigger-happy with the J, and I want to clean out or help with cleaning out his hideout." Eric nodded. "Can do. We'll get the Argetlahm in and out of there before you can blink." Minonim suddenly lit up as a blue flash swept through the room. "Well, Raul, it looks like our company might be here. Tell the crew that we're closing the link, the veterans should be here." "You heard him," Raul said. "We'll talk to you guys in a couple of hours. We'll be down at the Magnopolis shipyards. We'll need whatever help you can supply to help get the Argetlahm finished up." Takato smiled. "Kay. See you guys later." Raul flipped the screen down on the transciever as it blanked out. "Let's meet our guests," Cody chuckled. --------- ******** TAKERU TAKAISHI, the first of many Argetlahm veterans to make their return, had saved his mythril armor from his ending fights aboard the first tour for his adventures after the end of his own Digimon adventures - pronounced Seeker near the end of the first adventure, Takeru was given possession of the Sword of Truth, a treasure handed down from one Seeker to the next throughout the generations. The Sword of Truth takes on properties and skills from each swordsmen lucky enough to lay their hands on the artifact, and passes them on to the next person to take the title of Seeker. Simply put, Takeru has fully tapped into the age-old powers of the Sword and has gained master swordplay skills on impulse... over a period of one week. As it stands, he could easily outdo Raul himself in a duel. He has also gained many of the magicks of spellswords, Raul included, making him extremely potent with moderate-expert elemental magicks. ******** TK stepped out of the shadows of the hangar, revealing himself. His mythril armor was painted a dull shade of green, and a long, darker viridian cape hung loosely behind him. His blond hair had grown shaggy, drooping down just to touch his shoulders. His playful blue eyes had seem to have grown a shade darker. His D3 was clipped into a slot that had been carved into the armor, held there tightly by a pair of metal bonds. "The place's 'ure fancy!" Patamon yelped, fluttering to the ground aside Takeru. "How long did it take you to polish it up?" Cody shrugged. "Beats me, we just got here and it was in the process..." ******** VEGETA BRIEFS shows no sign of slowing down, even after his long lapse in battles. Vegeta has continued to devote his life and soul to training himself at extreme conditions, only aspiring to push his power level as high as his own physical stature will allow. Vegeta accepted the reinvitation aboard the Argetlahm warmly, anticipating another great crusade in the coming days. ******** Vegeta knew to arrive to the occaision. He was already outfitted in his battle armor, slipping his gloves back on as he arrived. "...it has been years since I returned to this place! I wonder if the inductees Ultimanium speaks of have what it takes to rise to the challenge that Magnus speaks of..." Gohan smiled uneasily as he shoved Trunks forward. "...um.. Vegeta, I was thinking you would've noticed.. that Trunks isn't kind... of at home." Vegeta glared at Gohan. "I'm quite sure we know that, you moron. But I know Trunks can take care of himself, and do what he needs to. He's my son, you know. But that stupid woman is worried sick about him, I'm guessing. She was rambling on about how you kidnapped Trunks, and what she was going to do to you." Gohan's grin grew wide as he sweatdropped. "...oh." ******** HEERO YUY prefers to remain confidential as far as his purpose aboard the ship. While he is primarily a Gundam/mobile suit pilot, forces testing has had him marked off as a fairly competent melee fighter and a crack shot with most basic firearms, and general one-man stealth operations. Who knows if he'll ever get back in another mobile suit, having the Wing Zeromus confiscated by the forces that be, but if such occurs you can be sure that he'll take the oppritunity eagerly. ******** "I vaguely recall having NOT to come back here," Heero mumbled. "So, what's going on? From what you people make it sound like.. it could be pretty urgent." Eric nodded. "You don't know the half of it." Heero's right hand's fingers drummed on the side of a blaster holster that laid stapled to the side of his belt. The handle of the hand cannon could be noticed sticking out of the side of the concealment. ******** SERGE led a relatively quiet life in El Nido for the past several years, having the campaign against both FATE and Ultramagnus having passed by him in one fell swoop. Serge abandoned his home at coming-of-age, in an attempt to relocate Kid, whom he was briefly reaffirmed with during the crew's short stay aboard the Argetlahm. Several years of searching have yielded nothing, though Serge believes he may be on the right track, with a recent string of adventures taking him back and forth across Arni continent several times, and to several far-off islands in the El Nido Archipelago that had been accessed by him only for brief moments during the FATE days. ******** "...you've been letting this place rust again, haven't you?" Serge shuffled his feet across the floor, kicking up a small cloud of dust. Everybody pointed at Magnus. "...what?" "So," TK spoke, eyeing the group once more. "What's going on here? We got all the info about the Trances... though I have to say we need to see one in action before we can really believe what you're saying about their power levels..." Raul lifted an eyebrow. "Do we lie? The problem is more serious than you think, Takeru. Magnus himself was nearly overtaken by just a pair of the weaker Trances, there's no telling what we mind find further down the road, or during our attack on Gaia's Isle, for that matter." "Regardless, it's great to see everybody here again. Is there any chance that anybody else is going to show up?" Cody smirked. "Not unless they're instructed to," TK said. "I even managed to get a hold of Davis a couple of hours ago. We share the same dorm, in a college in East Shinjuku. Turns out some of the higher-level people wanted all the information on the Digital World that could be dug up. With even the information that they were provided, it's unlikely they'll come up with any solutions. You know, just enough to get some working theories in effect concerning the six dimensions. Anyways, we'll probably be able to drag him up here too if things get REALLY desperate." Raul smirked. "Shinjuku, huh? Takato'll have a fit when he figures out where you guys were all the long." Patamon blinked. "Takato?" "Oh, he's swell," Armadillomon quacked. "He's coming aboard the ship when we return to Magnopolis." "Is he a digidestined?" "..well, not technically, but a digimon's accompanying him, he also seems to have some sort of knowledge of digimon schematics. He's been a huge help since the start." "Well, that's fine and all," Vegeta barked. He stood out, facing to the side, making sure not to draw an eye on the discussion. "but I'm sure we were a bit more interested in the state of the situation you seemed to be so pissed about, you know, these entities you label 'Trances'. Does ANYBODY around here have any sort of indication?" "Trance is imbued on normal people," Eric spoke. "It shoots their power levels straight up, that's all we know. How the Prospector and Servant are accomplishing this, we have no clue. There's something going on here that we don't know... hey, Raul, do you think that the J might have some sort of part in this situation? I'm not thinking the guy would go through the entire struggle to secure the J and just let it sit until he decides to destroy the world." "It DOES sound like a possible explanation, but I have no idea what factor the J, or dimensionsplitting for that matter, would have in a major jump of these peoples' power levels. The fact that we have no theory for what's happening with the current events is what frightens me the most about the entire situation." "This is just swell," Heero hummed. "So we have NO indication of where to go from here, then, do we?" "The only thing I can think of is..." "Hold up, hold up," TK interrupted. "Hasn't Ultimanium had any insight into this entire situation? What's up with him?" "We were getting to that," Magnus muttered. "Ulty here was whipped hard by a Trance, and a couple of them slammed him with some kind of attack that infused him with the ability. To stop him from wasting us all, our sniper Charmy nailed him with a dum-dum round to the head, enough to knock him unconscious and keep him stunned. Later it was revealed that he was in a coma from the power rush provided by Trance, and there's no telling when or if he'll come back to his senses." Patamon and TK exchanged stares. "...oh... no." "We're meeting up with the others in Magnopolis, we should be there in a couple of hours," Trunks murmured. "From there, we're going to meet up with the other group. Then we're getting the Argetlahm completely upgraded from the ground up. I don't think there's anywhere to go from there save for a direct attack on Gaia's Isle. It's STILL in the same place as it was a couple of days ago. He's waiting for us to make a move, probably - and the bad news is that we're the only ones that CAN make a move. He's got something up his sleeve, alright.. and we're going to find out one way or another." Serge nodded. "If we're going to make a direct attack on the island, the best way to do so would be to haul the Argetlahm straight in there. You heard what's going on at Gaia's Isle, the place is a full military compound - the ship's going to take a beating, but it's our only chance." "We COULD sit tight, you know," Heero sighed. "It might not be an available course of action in this case, but if I could I would." "It's not a case of NOT being able to wait," Charmy mumbled. "It's the fact that all of Magnopolis and the entire crew is pandemoniac over the entire situation. It would only take one swift strike with all those Trances to bring the world to its knees." Everybody shuffled to stare at Charmy. "...what? Geez, you look at me like I know NOTHING about the subject!" Raul blinked. "That's the problem. You don't." Meanwhile, Patamon had positioned himself on top of Takeru's head like he had many times before, mostly to either give his wings or legs a rest. But this time it was a different story. "Whoa, TK, get a look at the ca-cas on that one!" TK rolled his eyes up. "...Patamon?" "Yeah?" "Could you get off? You're giving my head... ahem... VERY bad vibes." Patamon glanced down, and just then noticed himself shuffling impatiently across TK's scalp, trying to get a better grip. He was just trying to hide any nervousness he had, but his movement seemed a little... suggestive. He grimaced, sweatdropping, before sliding nonchalantly off TK's cranium and staying at a hover in midair. "Well, you guys probably know the drill," Raul said. "You guys can just hit the bunks or the training grounds, we should be arriving at Magnopolis in a couple of hours from now." "One last thing," Serge interrupted. "Why... is the Argetlahm flying backwards?" "...it's a long story." All the veterans nodded in unison, and turned, heading for the turbolift in a line. The doors slid shut, leaving the remaining crew standing in the open. ******** Time went on. The Argetlahm continued its journey, deep within its off-limit corridors containing Ultimanium and the pair of workers that kept a constant eye on him. One of the abandoned bunks had been linked up to medical statistics machinery, which lined the entire room with a constant blur of beeps and lit displays. One man, with a grey beard and a dim white lab coat, kept a watchful hand on his patient's chest, glancing at his stopwatch every so often to trace his heartbeat. "Condition is stable," he muttered, flipping the gold watch shut and sliding it back into his jacket pocket. "Heart rate has returned to a below-average pulse." He turned, and snatched a clipboard off the wall, beginning to sketch down readings from the monitors around him. "Mental activity has returned to average status... what's wrong? These are normally perfect conditions for someone to come out of a coma..." Another worker came into the room, much younger. "How is he doing?" "Rufus. I can't see anything terribly wrong with this man... all his lifesigns have returned." "Get a look at this," Rufus shoved a heap of papers into the other scientist's hands. "These are more indepth psychological readings I picked up about half an hour ago. We were able to trace Ultimanium's synapses only back as far as two hours from the accident, but I think we have an explanation, now." "Shoot." "I got readings from when the crew insisted that Ultimanium was smacked by that attack that the Trances used. You know, like some sort of short-term memory recording. Anyways, I was able to slow the recording down one hundred times and I found a couple of adjustments to the body that you might find interesting. You know that people normally can't take power roughly three times their original power level before they start taking brain damage, right?" "Yes." "Check this out," Rufus pointed down the sheet. "Ultimanium's power level started at six million. As the attack impacted him, it sent a shock through his nervous system and boosted his power level in six extremely quickly steps, with each taking place in under 0.000001 seconds. First, his power level increased by 2. Then, it increased by 16. Then, 100,000. Then 1 million. Then, another six million. Then, one BILLION." "So what is this supposed to mean?" "Omnimanium was too powerful for his own good," Rufus sighed. "The power surge he experienced would've incinerated any other person just from the feel of the energy. He was able to harness the power, though with extreme difficulty. But, still, it was too much. His power level was slowly rising up the one-billion step, so if Charmy hadn't knocked him unconscious and halted the Trance, his head would've wound up exploding less than a minute after." "Any side effects from halting it?" "His power level's dropped 2 million from its normal level, since we got him. I'd think it's safe to say that Ultimanium is officially handicappped." The worker looked down at Ultimanium, sadly. "Well, I guess it's better than having your head go boom. Isn't there anything that can be done to stop it?" "It's going to spread, slowly. His power level is in a freefall. If he really wanted to fight alongside his crew now, the only way he'd be able to do so is by going Trance again. It'd boost his power level beyond everybody elses', but that would speed up his deterioration further." "So the guy's got himself in a lose-lose situation." Rufus nodded, tossing the clipboard to the computer desk. "If he remains in a coma, the lethal effects shouldn't kick in for at least years. However, he is unfit to fight. Make sure that the crew understands that." Rufus glared at the worker, shoving him out the door simply with his glare. "Okay, I get the point. But how do you think they're going to take it?" "Oh.. they've got methods of dealing with these sort of incidents." Both workers stumbled forward as the Argetlahm lurched into a slower velocity. Almost immediately, the intercom started out, exposing Raul's voice to the halls of the capship. "We're going to be docking at the Magnopolis shipyards within minutes. I've already gotten a hold of the other crew and they'll be showing up at the main site shortly. We expect that the Argetlahm will be taking anywhere from a day or two to fully upgrade, if we get everything working properly. Until then, we're going to be stuck in Magnopolis again." Rufus stared blankly up at the intercom in the corner of the room. "That's not wise. The Trances are undoubtedly going to strike the crew again if they try to take a breather." "They can handle the Trances, let's just do our job." ******** The sun had already begun its descent as the Argetlahm slid at a crawl into the massive multihangar that made up the opposite end of the great city Magnopolis. Emergency backup lights pulsed up and down the ship, subsiding only when the ship vanished into the massive corridor. A hover lift was already dragging the Argetlahm down into the underworkings of Magnopolis, while TK, Patamon, and Eric watched from a small service exit of the bridge. The grating walkway was enough to support the three, and easily more, though it wasn't necessarily the most popular choice of leaving the ship. Takato poked his head out the door. Guilmon's stuck out from underneath it. "...eh, hey, Eric. What's going on here?" Eric glanced over. "Oh, hey, Takato. Back already?" Takato grinned. "Yeah, I had to do some digging, but I found one of the cards I needed.. I'm almost done my dream deck. Check it out." Takato shoved a small set of cards in Eric's face, which he soon took into his own hands. "..Imperialdramon, Fighter Mode. How expensive was THIS one?" "..I found it in a gutter." Eric facefaulted. TK nudged Eric. "Hey... you mean this is... Takato?" "And Guilmon," Eric sighed, tossing the card back to Takato. Guilmon forced himself out of the doorway, nearly topping Takato over the edge of the railing and into the abyss that lied below the ship. "AH AH AH AH AAAHHHHHHH!!!" Takato leant himself over the bar. Eric muttered to himself, before dragging Takato back into place by his collar. TK smirked as he caught sight of Takato. "Oh, you must be the Takato everyone's talking about. A digimon?" Takato refitted his goggles, and swept his hair back. "Guilmon. His attack is.." "Do NOT start that again." Eric growled. TK's grin grew. "Hey... are those Davis' goggles?" "..." "He's been looking for those for eons. I wonder what he'd say if he figured out that he'd left them on the Argetlahm for all the new people to mess around with. Man, I can't wait to see the expression on his face..." "He can't function properly without them," Patamon chirped. The grating beneath the group shook with a clank as the Argetlahm finally came down on the floor of the underground base. "It looks like we're here," Eric whispered, glaring around at the base, carved out of the earth, ahead of him. "The Argetlahm's going to be refitted soon with Magnopolis' best ship parts. I wonder how Ulty would respond if he knew what was going on with his pride and joy here." TK leant down on the railing. "It's going to be hard letting the old design go... but I'm still interested as to what the Argetlahm Mk.II would look like." "Then let's go," Takato said. "Raul said he's got clearance at the resting quarters here, so we'll nap there while the guys work on the ship." "Sounds like a plan," TK spoke. "All this dimensionjumping is already tiring me out. Am I getting old or something?" Patamon stared out at the compound ahead of them. "...is it the twenties that are old? Or is it higher? I forget." As everyone shuffled back into the Argetlahm to gain access to the main turbolift exit, Eric stared with a snarl on his face into the rafters. "Something's not right here..." "Eric!" Takato shouted, trailing behind Guilmon. "C'mon, break a leg!" "Breaking a leg sounds like fun. Can I do it to you, Takato?" "How about.. not." Eric took one last worried stare into the cavern's supports before turning and reentering the bridge. ******** Eric's assumption wasn't TOO far off the mark. Where he had sensed a sudden burst of Ki was actuall several meters higher in the protrusions of rock in the cavern celing, in the form in a pair of dark figures that watched the action below. One was an old man, dressed from head to toe in light beige robes, with an overflowing beard. The other, a young woman with dark blue hair and outfitted in a tank top and heavy jeans, sat hunched and watched the crew below her with invading eyes. "I really don't know what's stopping me," the girl growled. "They're simple idiots. I don't sense any LARGE power levels. Ultimanium isn't with them either, so James and Din must've finished what they started. This should be a breeze." "Be calm, Shiva. We have been instructed to wait for an opening. We shall wait for the night to rise before we begin our attack. The crew of the Argetlahm will least expect it then. As soon as the remainder of the Argetlahm is destroyed, Servant will finally reward us." "...the Prospector has NO idea what's going on yet, does he?" "He knows nothing about Servant assigning us to launch our second attack on the Argetlahm crew, no. Now that Ultimanium is out of the picture, the rest of the crew shall, as you insist, be a breeze. But we must plan our attack right." Shiva turned back to the ground below. The crew had completely moven out of her view. "Servant is planning something, alright. But how come the Prospector is having no part in anything that's been going on lately? I mean, ever since Servant got a hold of Trance.." "Servant is simply destroying the Prospector's only threat. As soon as the Argetlahm is crushed, Servant will finally be able to launch his attack on the Van Eltia... and gain the Power." Shiva blinked. "Wait, wait, wait... the Prospector did NOT show up in that last sentence." "Indeed he didn't. Servant is the one that needs the Power that exists in and around the Van Eltia, not the Prospector. As soon as he taps into this omnipotent power, the Dark God shall walk the mortal realm once again." "...come again?" "You will learn soon, grasshopper. Now, come, we must find bunking for the night." Shiva scratched her neck. "...uh... okay..." With that, they both phased off. Who are these two mysterious people? Well, you should know by now... will Ultimanium show any sign of recovery? Even after the Argetlahm II takes to the skies, will they stand a chance against the Prospector and Servant? Find out next time, on Trance Trauma! Chapter 10: Infinite Modification! Takato and the Wildcard (A/N - Still no more Name Game entries. GARRRGHHH!! Well, Shaun's got Charmy figured out, which means it can't be too far out of you guys' reach. Everybody's giving me weird stares about Glenn, I take it, so the idea might not be as swell as I thought. Damn. Regardless, DM-Argetlahm is still in the works, and the next couple floors are turning out as UNglamourously as I was expecting - waaaaaaay too much clipping, though I did get the floors all shiny. ^_^ Well, I'm not going to be keeping you. Onward ho!) (As for the Trance section (you'll see what I mean later) I'll be using the song Paranoia Rebirth from DDR 3rd mix. Just envision all the weird lettering and the freaky female voice saying "Trance" for the first ten seconds and start the transformation right after that. ...okay, I'll shut up now. ^_^ Boy, I gotta find another smiley emoticon... and for the battle between the Trances (near the end, during the Prospector's part, you'll know it when you see it) have either Duel of the Fates or Liberi Fatali playing.) (This chapter has been exceptionally slow in production, mostly due to the fact that it was being fabricated during my term exam period. I aced English =) I aced Physics =) I failed Math Pure =( Locke (VO) Last time on Trance Trauma, the planning for the attack on the Prospector's hideout was finally underway. However, the unnerving topic of Servant arose, and the mood was kiboshed instantly. A short time later, Raul greeted the next wave of Argetlahm veterans aboard: TK, Patamon, Vegeta, Heero and Serge. They don't seem to be taking the entire situation seriously for "veterans" but I'm guessing they know what they're doing. Eric, under command of the Argetlahm, decided to have it docked at the Magnopolis shipyard for the time being to upgrade its systems into a ship that could possibly launch its own assault on Gaia's Isle. Set down in the depths of Magnopolis, we've got to keep an eye on ourselves, in case Trance decides to make an early reentrance. Ulty's still lost in dreamland, and his power level is dropping steadily. No one around here is getting any evidence that he even WILL wake up. You just gotta hope. ******** "Whaddya MEAN you're leaving?!" "You heard me," Raul growled. "The spells that I'm using aren't satisfactory for the situation. I HAVEN'T had to use any of these skills for the past nine years, so if you knew what was good for the crew, you'd let me head OUT for a good while and reestablish contact with the Spirits. I'll head back to the Temple of the Winds, perhaps the Great Smiths might have some contacts with some deceased master mages... or I might be able to boost my magical aptitude somehow to get on even ground with the Trances." Takeru's face twitched. "Raul, you know it yourself, Ulty's library is PACKED with those skills." He winced as Raul pivoted back and stared him in the face. "...Takeru, I have personally RANSACKED that library. If you wish to know, I have every technique that's scribed mastered. But that's not the issue now. You have to understand - this isn't my fight. I myself lack the power, I need more of it. The really bad thing is if even we, the super-ultra-mega powerful demigods that run the great capital ship Argetlahm, then no one else is going to think that they can. I need to boost my fighting skill and deliver the finishing blow against the Prospector, that's when you'll regain your confidence." Takeru lifted an eyebrow. "Excuse me? Are you supposed to be some sort of role model of mine? I just was the next in line to take your power, you said it yourself. That's not supposed to mean I'm required to look upon you for enlightenment. Apparently, with everyone ditching the Argetlahm, even YOU, we're going to have to be the ones to take care of ourselves." "...well, to be perfectly honest with you, I am absolutely DISGUSTED with the treatment you're giving your senior Seeker... but at the same time, I realize it's that self-confidence that will push you forward in the absence of our authority. I hate to leave the Argetlahm at a time such as this, but you have to realize... I must." Takeru's glare slowly turned to a respective glow. "Do what you must. I might be totally disgusted with you too, but as long as you help us at SOME point I really can't hold anything against you." "Thank you, Takeru. You, Eric and Shaun will be able to guide the Argetlahm in this time of anguish. Now, I must make haste to the Temple of the Winds.. perhaps I can find answers there. Takeru, as I said before, I hate to depart at such moment's notice, but I leave you with the promise that any new spells I find will be transmitted directly to you at moment's notice." Takeru blinked. ***Heh, does that make me a demigod or what? Viceleader of the Argetlahm, and first shot at new spells!*** "I must waste no more time, I have to get a transport arranged. Sword be with you." Takeru nodded. "Sword be with you." He watched with authoritive eyes as Raul turned and quickly departed, his cape swaying mystifyingly as he disappeared into the crowded main halls of the shipyard compound. "I'll bet YOU feel elite." Takeru quickly turned to see Locke and Serge leaning on nearby walls, totally congruent to one another. "Don't think your little promotion SCARES us now, Takeru," Serge chuckled. "Say, do you guys know where everybody else is?" "Last I heard, construction had started on the Argetlahm and everybody was making their way to the lower levels of the shipyard. Whoopee, ANOTHER night in cramped quarters. Man, this NEVER ends." Locke forced himself off the wall, coming to a stop standing straight with his arms folded. ******** "More readings," Rufus blurted. The other scientist was completely caught off guard by his coworker's entrance into the room and spilled a small amount of his coffee before turning and facing his associate. "We've been keeping constant mental conditioning on Ultimanium, and we've been recording the Ki waves being given off by him. What we found was absolutely wacked out." "You look like I was expecting something reasonable." "Ultimanium's Ki level has dropped off dramatically since we last checked. He's down to 50,000. FIFTY THOUSAND. He started at six million. Meanwhile, his mental activity has increased thousandfold. I remembered that our Ki/power level detection equipment, and that used all over the planet, even the military models, follow the same schematics - they simply measure the Ki given off by someone in the force of energy waves. These nerve movements show that massive amounts of Ki are being manufactured but the mind itself is deteriorating. I gave him some sedatives and the Ki pulsing stopped, it should return to normal levels for a couple of days. But meanwhile, I had to figure out where that Ki was going. I took tests, and I measured the Ki in his nerve endings and bloodstream instead of on the exterior." The scientist took another sip of his coffee. "And what did you get?" "3 billion." Coffee was profusely spat out onto the bunk floor. "And mind you, his power level was still rising at a constant level before I gave him the sedatives. Somehow the Trance is gaining more power while Ultimanium is in suspended state than would be normally possible without killing its host. My guess would be that if he were to wake up now he would be able to control that power..." "That would be absolutely INSANE. Not even Magnus himself possesses that much power, and there have been no recorded events aboard the Argetlahm with power levels anywhere upwards from 50 million." "But still, it must make you wonder... if so much of a change like this can be warranted with a person as high a power level as Ultimanium, then that makes me wonder exactly HOW powerful the Trances that the Argetlahm crew has been running into so far..." "Three have already been defeated. It is not impossible." "But they were easily identifiable as the grunts of the coming forces. There is MUCH worse we can expect in the coming days." Both workers turned their heads as the heavy bunk door slid open. "Who's there?" "Just me, just me," Charmy coughed, sliding inside the chamber. "What's going on in here? I just heard that Ulty was here, and people were..." "Excuse me, miss, but this part of the Argetlahm is off-limits for the time being. Only Argetlahm crew members are allowed in here." Charmy sighed, and removed a small access card from her pocket. A simple white piece of plastic contained several lines of encryption code, the Argetlahm logo; a shield similar to Ultramagnus' insignia but had several curved spikes jutting out of its sides sideways, upwards and downwards, and a small black-and-white shot of Charmy. Rufus blinked. "...well, we won't be keeping you, then. What would you like?" "Just... seing how he's doing, that's all," Charmy moaned, making her way closer to the still body slumped on the bottom bunk with various cords hooked up to it. She began to lower her hand to him... "Hey, hey, hey. Look, don't touch," Rufus huffed. "We still don't know if the Trance is contagious or not." "We fought them enough times, got up close and personal.. if it were we would all be statues like Ulty here by now..." Both scientists tried to stop her as she lowered her hand to nudge Ultimanium's side - but everybody hopped back as a tiny bolt of purple lightning shocked Charmy square on the palm. "Ultimanium's power level's dropped 5,000!" Rufus shouted. "Excuse me, ma'am, but you're going to have to stay with us, you might have..." "Hey, don't look at me!" Charmy pouted. "You're not looking at me, I'm no Trance, I'm not powerful, I've got no power, I'm no threat! Now.. just let me go!" Charmy stormed over back to the entrance, shoving back both workers as she reached a finger to press the door control panel... ...and her finger punched right through it. ******** "Modifications are coming along quite smoothly," the worker stated, pausing occaisionally to glance down at the clipboard in his hand. Various probes and manned vehicles streaked by in different directions in the background, weaving around and underneath the great ship Argetlahm, that hovered in an idle about 60 feet off the ground. "I must commend your friend, wherever he got a ship like this. The design is relatively new and the module and station upgrades are perfectly compatable with it. So far, we've tuned up the primary thrusters..." He gestured to the rear of the ship. "...we were able to install Chronoshifter space-displacement engines, nearly tripling its maximum top speed... we put minor Chronoshifters in strategic places along the ship's hull..." the worker shoved the board into Magnus' face, who stepped back to examine the small computer display that took up the majority of the space of the portable panel. Near the back and front of the ship, smaller engines, signified by large red blips, were slipped onto the ship in four-engine rings. "...yeah, that's nice. Now, this is a fairly ancient model of ship we're dealing with here..." "Actually, Magnus, with this sort of design Ultimanium has employed on the outer shell of the Argetlahm... the Chronoshifters will be approximately 20% more manuverable than our current destroyer-class ships." Magnus glared daggers. "Oh.. that's.. nice." "We've already got the plans necessary to install 80 new automated pulse-cannon turrets in more vulnerable places on the ship... and large-scale EMP cannons at the top. We've also been able to link the J3 up to the main defense systems, and we've been able to utilize a weakened version of its anti-dimensional field. The massive dimensional turbulence generated by the field isn't exactly enough to make people phase out of existance, but with this kind of force we can stop most heavy munitions." "...yeah." "All the bridge consoles have been upgraded... Minonim seemed to be particularly happy with that. Remote control has been provided to the defense system, and primary control of the ship has been generally 'tightened up' and enhanced, and control to every new aspect of the ship has been enabled." "...sweet." both the worker and Magnus turned to see Heero gaping upwards at the parked cruiser. "Wonder if Ulty would notice all of this crap happening to his ship." "Ultimanium's just lying on his ass right now. He's not a concern anymore." Magnus spat. "Oh, and you're doing any different?" Vegeta snarled. Magnus pivoted again, spotting the Saiyan standing a short distance away from the main facilities, simply dressed. "You don't seem to want any sort of part of the Trance situation, ever since we started talking to you in the first place." "Oh, just CAN IT!!" Magnus roared. Vegeta rolled his eyes before stepping off. "Go blow it out your ass." "Um.... Magnus..." "What do you people want?!" Shaun gave a weak grin, sweatdropping. "Uh, nothing. We'll go now." ******** Further inside the compound, things were a little more hectic. "Hand of Fate!!" Angemon thrust his hand forward, searing out with a white-hot beam of energy. Knightmon bounded out of the way, narrowly dodging the blast. He landed back asides from Takato with a crash. "Now what do we do? We're totally out of options.." "Use the sword with one hand," Takato commanded. "I'll cover you." Knightmon nodded, and began his charge back at the angel standing unfazed before him. "Digi-modify! Wargreymon's Brave Shield... activate!!" Knightmon held his open fist forth midsprint and held it back into a defensive stance as a pair of beveled plates formed in the air and clicked together into a barrier, solidifying themselves to Knightmon's hand. Angemon raised his staff as Knightmon began to drive his massive blade down. "Takato, what the hell are you doing?" Takato blinked, shoving the image out of his mind. He looked down on the board, quickly looking over the Knightmon card in front of him, and the Modify card lying in its respective slot on the game table next to him. His opponent sitting on the other side of the lobby table, one of the local workers on a break, slapped down another Modify card next to his Angemon. "Excuse me, but I think your..." "Yeah, yeah, I get it," Takato muttered, checking off his Knightmon's health appropriately. He scowled to himself as its life dropped into the negative, and he swept it off the board and placed it back in his plastic card sheet. "Alright, who interrupted me..." "Ugh," Rika grumbled. "Takato, we're supposed to be on guard." "Why is it always us, though?" Takato linked the plastic sheet back into the binder before tucking it under his arm. "What's everyone else doing?" "Trunks and Goten are screwing around like usual, everybody else is ready to return to the main level at a moment's notice. Wherever we go, there's bound to be Trances sniffing us out. We've got to be on our toes.." Both froze and stared at each other for a second, then glanced at the source of their pause - a robed man was seated at the far edge of the break room, watching the two with heated blue eyes, sheathed under heavy eyebrows. He had a long, flowing grey beard. "That guy gives me the creeps..." Rika turned back to the man. "Oh, DON'T tell me..." "We're giving you one last chance," he said. "Give up your little crusade. Either join us or perish." "Oh, you little.." Takato reached for his D-Arc, but was stopped by Rika's hand. "We don't have the room to take him," Rika spat. "we're just going to have to wait him out." "You really should be thankful I would allow that," the man growled. "you'll be happy to know that I'm the most lenient of the Trances, so I'll let you decide before I do anything too rash. But I'm not sure if my partner will be so willing to give you Argetlahms a chance..." Takato glared back at Rika, following suit with an affirmative nod. "Looks like we have some announcements to spread. Well, we hate to say it, but if you aren't going to kill us now then you aren't going to get another chance." The man shook his head. "Ah, Argetlahm alright. Always so confident in your own abilities.. you think you've seen the best Trance has to offer..." he opened his eyes to see both of his audience members had left. "...but you're gravely mistaken." ******** Eric, Gohan, V2 and Trunks were cramped into a small bunk for the night, similar in appearance of that of the Argetlahm's, but slightly expanded to allow for extra accomodations. Everybody sat and stared at each other. And stared. And stared some more. "This place sucks," Eric grunted. And they stared. And they stared some more. "Penny for your thoughts," V2 mumbled. "I'm just trying to figure out more about Trance..." Trunks replied. "You know what the medical staff told Charmy... Ultimanium's rising power level is what put him down..." "Thank you, Captain Obvious." V2 sighed. "No, it's not that... but look at the reports they got... his power level jumped at six tiny intervals, each larger than the other. I don't know why, but I think that the entire dimension structure might have some factor in Trance. It might explain why the Prospector wanted the J so bad in the first place - I mean, it would've been easier just to stockpile a bunch of nukes and hold the world hostage with them." "Are you insisting that the six jumps represent the six tiers?" "I don't really know.. it just sounds probable. I mean, every living thing in existance is at its weakest in the first dimenson, because in a sense it's all been already crushed into that line and had its life force squeezed out of it. That remaining life force, I'm guessing, is part of peoples' life force in the higher tiers - like dominos, if you didn't exist in one dimension you can't exist in three." V2's ears perked up. "What are you saying, that there's alternate versions of us in different dimensions?" Eric rubbed his head. "Could we just forget about all of this and just fight the Trances? This gibberish is starting to make my head hurt." "Eh.. Eric... I think Trunks might have a point." Gohan stepped forward. "The Trances might not be so harsh now, but I'm ready to guess that this is just the first wave. We're already having trouble with them now, so I'm guessing the only advantage we might have on our side when the assault on Gaia's Isle starts is knowledge of the Trances and the quickest method of dispatching them. ...Trunks, work at it." Everybody's eyes turned to a creaking at the far edge of the room, as the interior bunk's heavy iron door swung open. Standing there was Shaun, reading a sticky note that he was carrying. "...guys, I hate to interrupt whatever it is that you guys do, but we got an announcement from up above." "Is the Argetlahm finished?" Eric asked. "..well... no. Estimates say that if everybody's still working around the clock, the Argetlahm should be finished by tomorrow morning. However, there's someone that wants to see us. All the secretary got was that the chick that wanted to talk called herself Shiva." "Is she expecting us to fall for that?" Eric sighed. "I'm presuming not," Shaun chuckled. "Fall for what?" V2 said, in a quite-stupid manner. "SHE'S A TRANCE!!" everybody else screamed. V2 grinned, rubbing the back of his head as a sweatdrop rolled over his face. "...heh.. my bad." ******** Magnus kicked open the great door leading out into the expansive cavern before him and the rest of the group. It was glass. KRRAAASHHH A worker nearby sighed, and began sweeping up the shards of glass with a broom while everyone else walked over the debris. "Damn, man," Locke mumbled. "Someone's in a bad mood." As the group slid to a halt a short distance from the gate, in front of the woman standing before them, Locke slid a hand to the dagger on his belt. "This the one?" Raynor nodded. He had detatched a portion of plating from his marine armor and clipped it over him, creating a small breastplate, allowing for a balance between mobility and defense. In his hand he let his gauss rifle drag along the ground. As the crew filed into place, the woman let off a smirk. "Greetings, Argetlahm cr.." Armadillomon rolled his eyes. "Cut the crap, lady, just transform if you have to." "I see you've gotten waaaaaay too accustomed to fighting Trances. I guess it's no surprise that I'm a Trance, but to tell you the truth, I'm going to refrain from fighting you before I let you make up your mind whether you wish to join the great empire of Servant or wish to get crushed underneath its boots." Everybody exchanged disgusted stares. "...tsk, tsk. Well, I shouldn't be blaming you, I should've expected an uneducated comback like that. Now, I shall have to resort to destroying you." "I've heard this before." Locke droned. Everybody braced themselves as a larger flash erupted in the background. Out of the mists stepped the mysterious man. "...Shiva, I told you not to provoke them." Shiva grimaced. "Oh, come ON, Stratos, this'll be over in a heartbeat. These are non-Trances we're talking about here." "Famous last words," Eric muttered. "...fool," Stratos spoke. "Do you wish to suffer the same fate as your self-proclaimed 'leader'?" As Eric attempted to think of some witty comeback, a pair of auras, green and blue, erupted around Stratos and Shiva, painting them a pale hue of each color. Shiva groaned as the aura warped wildly to fit her, and she threw her arms back as her skin/clothes shattered and the particles orbited her, replacing themselves with an outer casing of light blue skin, her only covering being several strands of grey metallic ribboning that placed itself in the positions necessary to prevent this fic from becoming R-rated. A white spire of skin stretched from her back and pointed upwards as the aura began to fade off. ******** This Trance, the near-end of the main elementals, employs the forces of both water and its cold counterpart to great effect in its attacks. While generally frail, its attacks are still not to be underestimated. Absolute Zero and Diamond Dust can still make most aspiring heroes into popsicles! ******** SHIVA - Blue Trance Rika kept a constant eye on the Trance, before noticing Eric staring straight at her, eyes wide, not blinking. "...you remember what I said? Will you stop STARING at me?" "Don't... mind... me," Eric stuttered. "I'm just... trying... to take my mind.. off... THAT." Eric pointed toward the rest of the group, with eyes spread open, watching Shiva. They were all holding back nosebleeds. "Forfet Charmif," Patamon coughed. "Loof at the ca-casf on THAT onf!" Right on cue, Stratos hunched himself and let out a low-pitched yell as his aura roared up and consumed him, dissolving his attire as well. The particles impacted against each other on their way back to their disappeared host, and remained in the air as they began to phase back into existance. His robes had turned a pitch white, and suction from the fallout began to pull him apart, piece by piece. Soon, he was standing, his very body phasing apart from time to time into small particles before coming back together. ******** A most unique Trance! Easily the fastest of the elementals, it has mastered the art of phasing to get it where it needs to go quickly and to assist its attacks. Commanding the very force of airborne projectiles and mastering the air itself, this Trance is going to be a handful! His Wind Knife and Reflector skills will put a dent, or at least a cut in any opposing force! ******** STRATOS - Green Trance "Well, we have nothing holding us back," Renamon began to brace herself for a strike. "Let's give this all we have." (A/N - Insert stock footage of Digi-modifying here. ^_^) Rika rammed a random Modify card through the slot on her D-Arc, keeling back as a small shock erupted from the opening. "Digi-modify! Pidmon's Pid Speed... activate!" Renamon had already started toward Stratos, but felt a boost as her image shaved out of the air for a split second, and reappeared next to the man, swinging a limb out. Stratos caught the fist with ease and shoved it back to her. "Still not fast enough!" Rika grit her teeth as Renamon and Stratos began exchanging blows again, while V2 darted in front of her. "Hell, that is NOT going to work! Let a Champion handle this!" Veemon... digivolve to... VEEDRAMON!! Veedramon flung himself into the fray faster than Rika could notice. She gasped as he hurtled toward the furball that had devolved from Renamon's fight. Veedramon held himself on the other side of the fight, and with perfect timing, swatted Stratos out of the fray, sending him rolling. A gust of wind rushed along the cavern floor as Stratos rolled onto his feet. "Wind Knife!!" Renamon eyes slitted as rocks and pebbles began to rise from the floor, a good sixty of them orbiting around Stratos. Several arm gestures rose from the man, and a cloud of dust fell to the floor. It was soon evident - every one of the pebbles had been carved into a razor sharp dart. With an extended whistle, the wall of stalagmites rushed towards the Rookie. "Air Valm!!" Renamon sprung back up as the projectiles aimed at her hit the air in front of her and were instantly scattered back in their direction, slamming into and deflecting off of the floor and rock walls with high-pitched pings. Off in the distance, Takeru held his arms together, the energy of the spell dying in his hands as he struggled to catch his breath. "...man, now I know how Raul feels." "We have to step it up a notch!" Rika reached for another card and ripped it through the device in her hands. "Digi-modify! Digivolution... activate!!" ******** Raynor, Cody, Crono, Locke, Takato and Guilmon all struggled to push themselves forward against the storm of cold air that was blasting off of Shiva's skin. She held her arms back and behind her head, charging up a blast of blue energy in her hands. The energy only worked to heighten the cold that was slowly beginning to pierce through the group's phalanx. "Just the cold itself is way too powerful!" Cody grunted. "We're dealing with something far worse than before, guys!" "Pyrosphere!" The entire force let up their guard slightly as a small ball of flame roared into view, blasting the dropping temperatures up for a brief second. Shiva grimaced as she saw the attack begin to breach her attack. "Oh, is THAT it... you wanna turn up the heat? Well, we're just going to have to bring it back down to room temperature.." Shiva stretched as she began to bring the ball of frost in front of her. "Diamond Dust!!" Everybody gaped as a flash erupted from her grasp and shot toward them as a speed glacier-esque beam of frost. The very ground it flew over was instantly covered with a thin sheet of ice. "Shit!..." Raynor instantly flung his rifle in front of him on impulse and fired off several controlled bursts, that pierced through the incoming energy blast and sent several fractures of it off in different directions. Still, a large brunt of the surge was ready to hit Raynor. "...sheeeeeeeet!!" "Guilmon!" Locke screeched. "Do something!" Takato tore a card through his D-Arc, simply on instinct. "Digi-modify! Power Charger... activate!" "Py..ro...sphere!!" Guilmon struggled to control himself as he shot a larger blast from his mouth, nearly a foot in diameter. The ball of flame impacted against the blast of ice, both attacks disintegrating each other. Raynor's trembling hands fell from his face, to see the battle continuing as usual around him. He wasn't dead. "..whoa.." "Oh, THAT'S it.." Locke growled, drawing his azure-shaded dagger from its holster. "We're finishing this before this gets too out of hand! Cody, you ready?" With a quick nod from his partner, both fighters hurled themselves at the female Trance, edges held high. They were both greeted by a pair of blue lasers that slammed against them, throwing their limbs back. The ends of their limbs had been fused together in a slab of ice. Both of them started blaming their problems on one another while they sat on the ground, with everyone else watching. "Diamond Dust!" everybody quickly noticed Shiva's command. Cody winced as he felt the shockwave of another comet of ice slamming against the ground near them. Within a split second, a small flat of ice had formed around the group's feet, leaving them frozen down to the layer of dirt that lied on the ground. "Now!" Shiva shouted. "You shall all be eradicated!" She growled as she held up her hands, priming herself for another strike. All the combatants quickly felt the cold searing forth from the gathering of ice fragments forming on her fingertips. "Heh, sister," Locke sputtered. "You s-seem to forget-t-t that we can do things wi-with our hands!" He quickly reached down back to his dagger, and with a single swift movement slung it at the Trance. Shiva blinked as she watched the projectile spin through the air at her. ***I can't quit while charging! I'm defenseless like this!.... Damn it!*** She squealed as the tip of the blade pierced just into her tough skin. While it wasn't enough to do permanent damage, her concentration shattered and the energy gathering at her hands collapsed. Cody finally yanked his left foot free from the ice and began to pull hard on his other leg. "This isn't working!" Locke shouted. "We need more power!" "Magma Burst!" Shiva glanced down and shrieked as the ground beneath her was beginning to crack into several dozen blazing red fissures. Before anything could be done, the ground exploded into an upheaval of molten rock, the force sending everyone to their feet, and blasting Shiva up into the air. A pair of Ki blasts flew out from the darkness and clipped her elbows, sending her body flipping down into the ash at the surface of the compound. "Vegeta! Serge!" Gohan called out from across the battlefield. Everybody quickly glanced up to see Vegeta charging up another blast, with Serge on the ground quickly shuffling through Elements. "Don't think we've gotten rusty, now." Vegeta snickered. "Trance or no Trance, you shall never defeat us!!" Shiva laid on the ground, several spots on her blue skin melted and dripping to the ground as a clear liquid. "We aren't done yet! Absolute Zero!!" Shiva slammed her arms against the ground, sending a dark blue wave of energy crackling from her, radiating in all directions. Everybody's eyes went wide as the wave swept over them, blasting them directly in the face with paralyzing cold. Everybody dropped, nearly fully contained in ice. "Dandy." Raynor said flatly. His head was the only part of him not completely frozen solid was his head. Vegeta crumpled to the ground, his entire torso encased. Takato had some freedom of movement, with the freezing scattered all over him. He ripped Crono's katana from its host's solid hands, and began to hack away some of the ice from his legs. Shiva was back up on her feet, striding slowly to Takato, pausing every so often to take care of her wounds. "You're all alone, boy. I can sense it, you're no magic fighter or whatever, you're just that - a boy." "A Tamer!" Takato coughed out. He slashed again at himself, ripping off a large chunk of ice from his arm. He began to haul himself slowly across the ground to where his D-Arc lied. He quickly took a card from the case that was scattered near it and ran it through. "Digi-mo... hell, screw that! Meramon's Red Flames!" Guilmon laid completely stiffened in the distance, but blinked as his skin erupted in a flash of red light, causing the ice around him to instantly dissolve into a puddle at his feet. The first thing he saw was Shiva beginning to bend down to Takato, a cold charge directed straight at his head. "Takatoooo!!" ******** "Kyuubimon!!" Rika screamed. "End this!!" "Dragon Wheel!" Kyuubimon curled herself up and flung herself several feet forward, her outline continuing on as a ring of white-blue energy. Veedramon shielded his eyes as Stratos kicked up a tropical-storm wind, blasting the energy into different directions and sending it around the Trance. "Not good... at all." Gohan began to brace himself. "We need more people!" Eric stumbled in front of the Demi-saiyan. "Allow me!" He stanced himself and began charging his ball of red energy in his hands, and still continued after it had reached full size as he saw Stratos beginning to approach them. "Neu..tron... FLARE!!" the attack was nearly 3 feet in diameter when he launched it. The attack hit the ground directly in front of Stratos' next step, kicking up a giant explosion. Veedramon grunted as he struggled to keep himself from falling back. "What's going on?!" Gohan yelled as the flames roared back at the group, apparently having been blown offcourse by Stratos' counter. "He's repelling every thing we throw at him..." Veedramon drew himself back, a blast forming at his lips. He thrust himself forward accordingly. "V-Breath Arrow!" Veedramon watched in disgust as that attack, like the others, was blown away by Stratos' influence. "Huragh!!" Stratos sent his hands high, whipping up another torrential breeze around himself. "I was really expecting more of a fight then target practice, but I see this will never get beyond that! Wind Knife!!" Rika froze. "Um.. guys.." Eric glanced over. "What's the deal?" CRACK Everybody quickly looked up on the celing. Several large stalagmites had been carved clean off the celing - and were falling. Towards them. Gohan ripped Veedramon from the fray. Rika gasped as Eric quickly dug his fingers into her shoulders, and gave off a yell as he channeled a short burst of Ki through her, creating a forcefield around the two. Kybuuimon was quick enough to dive out of the way as debris started to rain. Gohan winced as the largest stalagmite drove itself into the ground, inches away from where Eric and Rika stood. Eric grinned. "Whew." Several more large spikes fell around the group, caging them in. Eric frowned. "Crap." "What's the big deal?" Rika scowled. "You CAN use your super-duper-mystical-key-crap-stuff and get us out of here?" "Yeah, but the backlash at this proximity would implode you." Rika rolled her eyes up. "Useless, JUST useless. And you DON'T have to slide your hands down any further." Eric sweatdropped. "Er.. yeah." A contained snicker made them both look up. Stratos had taken to the air and had another spike of rock in the grasp of his wind, ready to drop perfectly into the cage of stone juts. "Perfect," Stratos chuckled. "This will be far easier than I'd hoped. Say goodbye to your friends... er... um... crew." Gohan turned to Veedramon, shrugging. "I don't get it." "Normally we start screaming in despair for our friends' safety." Gohan blinked. "Oh. Oh, yeah! Okay, then. Shall we?" Veedramon nodded. "Let's." "AUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Stratos lunged out of the air, dropping the stalagmite into the ground a fair distance away from Eric and Rika. "What the hell!!.." everybody stared up at Stratos, reeling back as a streak of smoke sped by him. The group watched as it flew into a nearby wall with a crashing explosion. "Who was that?! Show yourself!" Veedramon smirked. "Well, my lungs were getting tired anyways." Another figure hovered up from the ground, finally exposing itself in the air. Glenn bobbed in the air, supported by his back jetpack, a large missile pack still smoking suspended on his shoulder. In his other hand he held an oversized revolver, linked up to an energy pack on his back. The klaxons on both of his shoulderpads were pulsing a steady, dull red. "Oh, master of the air my ass! I want to take YOU.." Glenn made an expletitive gesture over to Stratos. "..to take ME on instead. I'm a lively fight, I'm sure, given we share the same element." "Glenn!!" Gohan shouted. "Don't underestimate him! He's more powerful than he looks!!" He checked over his shoulder, to see Eric lowering Rika down on the ground outside of the wall of stalagmites. "Be careful!!" "Master of your element?" Stratos bellowed. "We'll just have to see about that!!" Both Glenn and Stratos let out warcries as they rocketed toward each other in the mock skies of the expansive underearth. ******** "Pyrosphere!" "Oh, don't get me started!" Shiva spat, slapping the fireball out of the way. Takato shoved himself from the ground, driving a fist into Shiva's gut. "Oh, looks like YOU still have some left in you.." Shiva kicked Takato back down, moaning as his head landed less than an inch away from his D-Arc. Shiva groaned as a burst of electricity pierced her in the back, sending a pulse of agony through her. She lowered herself down onto one knee, feeling her back to find most of the surface of it disintegrated by the blast. A fair amount of blue blood was scattered around her on the ground. She turned a ferocious face back onto Crono, barely standing with his hands clasped together to cast the lightning spell. His hair was standing on end more than ever from the shock run through him. "Rock Cracking!" Shiva stepped to the side as a fissure rushed through the ground beneath her. Digmon stood on the opposite side of her, looking up with a smirk as his drill arms laid dug in the ground. Cody shoved himself slowly to the ground, having shaved most of the paralyzing ice off his limbs with the Murasame. Shiva felt herself tear apart in her back again, emitting a shrill scream. Raynor stood, hunched against a small outgrowth of granite, his rifle held up. Several more bursts tore from the barrel of the gun, punching through Shiva's already tattered body. Vegeta nearby let another large beam of Ki roar from his hands, roaring over Shiva. A red aura surged around Serge as he held up an Element, charging several small red beams. "Well, I'd say we're almost at room temperature! We just gotta push up the heat a little more! Inferno!!" The entire group immediately scattered from the impact site of Serge's attack as the air itself's temperature suddenly leapt. Shiva let out another pained growl as the very ground within her radius erupted in the flames of burning air. The attack quickly subsided, dumping the area back into its cool breeze, but leaving a Shiva sheeted in third degree burns to crumple to the ground. ******** Glenn flipped around the gun in his hands, rapidly changing his aim and his backwards trajectory as he soared around deep within the caverns, while Stratos spun through the six axes with him. By now the two had sped far off from the main compound and were now approaching the abandoned section of the facility, their altitude lowering as they began to fight their way into the recesses of the cavern. The light around Glenn was beginning to fade as his depth in the caverns of him and Stratos increased. "Damn it!.." Glenn jeered out of the way as Stratos attempted to drill him with a kick, and let off several short bursts from his revolver. All went silent after his shots had clipped several small rocks from their perches on the walls, sending them tumbling into the pit below him. "Alright... you heard what he said, Glenn... elemental of the wind... what can you do to stop wind..? Actually, come to think of it, how is wind getting this far underground in the first place?" "Give it up!" Glenn squeaked as Stratos launched himself at the soldier again, assaulting him with a flying kick. The attack connected with Glenn square in the chest, sending him back into the rock wall behind him, and flipping downwards into the abyss. A quick thrust of his aux boosters righted him and sent him forward, narrowly missing Stratos' fist as it drilled into the wall. "Gah! There's got to be some sort of disadvanatge he has underground.. if I could find where he would be getting fresh wind from.." his eye caught on a small fan suspended on the cavern celing, lazily turning. It was undoubtedly connected to.. "..a escape shaft! Magnus' workers probably have these things all over the caverns! Can't blame 'em, the place STILL is pretty stagnant with all the fresh air running through.. if I can cut off the intake, then there's probably not going to be another one running close enough by to keep Stratos afloat..." Glenn grimaced as he spotted Stratos close underneath him, rearing for another strike. "Uh, nice seeing you, old man, but I have better things to do.." "Quit stalling!" Stratos roared. "You wished to combat the great Trance so badly, now come and be finished!" "Would it matter too terribly.." Glenn pivoted the missile rack up so it pointed at the fan. "..if I did this?" Stratos appeared dumbstruck for a brief second, before resuming his charge. "I guess not." Glenn bit his lip as the kickback from the rocket launcher tossed him back a good couple feet in the air, but watched with grim satisfaction as the missile slid up the shaft inbetween the fanblades. A rippling explosion roared out of the opening, followed by a rush of dirt. The draft from the caved-in access shaft quickly halted, as Glenn felt his hair recover from its blown-back position. Meanwhile, Stratos started to sink out of the air. "W-what is happening?!" Stratos bellowed. "I.. am not quick..." Stratos hurled himself forward through the air, though much slower than before. Glenn fired an aux booster and spun, delivering a perfectly timed roundhouse to Stratos' jaw as he approached. He lifted both his fists and slammed them against the Trance's back, sending him down. He recovered slowly, but found himself face to face with Glenn, who rocketed several quick hooks into Stratos' face, sending him back against the wall of the chasm. Glenn swung his pistol around his hand and pumped several heavy shots into the stunned man, each impact rocking his head back into the wall of earth. He began to slide down the sheer drop, clutching his wounds as he began to pick up speed. "This.. is not possible!! Just the simplest of warriors.. routing a Trance?! How?! I demand to know ho...how, Servant?!? HOOOOW!!" Glenn shielded his eyes as further down the gap, Stratos' skin exploded into the customary shards of white, soon replaced with its host's body as it plummeted down the shaft. Glenn peered down into the bottomless pit before him. He was convinced that there could easily be lava down there, but he wouldn't be the one to check. "Well, I guess I AM the master of air... Dude, I should get that copyrighted." ******** "I am sick of this meddling!" Shiva choked out. Somehow, through the injury, she had managed to lift herself to her feet for one last stand. With Stratos being taken care of, everybody was able to turn their attention to the last remaining Trance. "Last I recall, you DON'T have the upper hand," Shaun sighed. "Oh, that is a bunch of bull," Shiva chuckled hoarsely. "Haven't any of you figured it out yet? Trance... is immortal! Power in the Seventh Dimension goes unregulated.. if a Trance is defeated, that power will be spread throughout its immediate surrounding! You Argetlahms are no exception." "Seventh Dimension?" Vegeta grunted. "Quit with the gibberish and just die already." Shaun quickly glanced around. Next to him was a bench, with a small fighter craft nearby. Near him was a toolbox, and a small crate. "..hmm... 'custom 30 hammer set, a hammer for every sort of nail'." Shaun ripped a smaller rubber mallet from the chest and held its handle firmly with both hands. "Alright, then... use what skills you earned..." Shaun growled as he channeled his inner energies through the weapon in his hand, it slowly beginning to glow with yellow energy before the end burst into bright yellow flame. "...whoa!" Gohan, Eric and Magnus all crumpled down to the ground, rubbing their foreheads. "Um..." Cody glared back at the group, falling to the back lines. "What's going on with them?" "Negative Ki," Shaun muttered. "It's what makes these hammer techs so powerful... it negates high power levels! Which should make this real handy against Trances!" Shaun yelled as he began to charge forward, placing himself in a better place to throw the mallet. "Pow Hammer!!" The weapon sailed from his hands, hurtling forward through the air to Shiva. "You think I'm... affected by your little mental distraction? You think I'm done yet?! Alright, buddy, you seem pretty powerful next to Ultimanium.. so it's time you joined him!! Dark Switch!!" Shiva reeled back, blasting a black/blue aura from her fingertips, which tunneled through the air with a deafening shriek. The blast swept around Shaun's Pow Hammer, sending it down and spinning across the ground, and slid to a stop as it lost its glow. Shaun gaped at the blast headed for him. ***Okay, think of a possible response.. okay, that should work. 1, 2, 3..*** "FUUUUUUUUUUCK!!" Shaun threw up his arms to shield himself as the blast began to surge over him. His power level jumped slightly... ...and fell again. SCRAKK "Wha?!" "Shit!" "No! No way!" "Get out of there!!" "What's... going on?!" Shaun continued holding back the blast - which had somehow been diluted. Several small rays of the Dark Switch were hitting him... but most of the rays were being absorbed by... "I'm.. not.. letting you... get him!!" Shiva blinked. "Damn! Not YOU again!" ..Takato. Takato Matsuda stood in front of Shaun, braced in the exact same stance as him, writhing in pain as his front took the blunt side of the meter-wide laser. Shiva gave off a sly grin as she let the attack go, the encroaching darkness backing off as the beam died out. She slowly pushed herself back up from her fatal state and stood semi-proud as Takato crumbled to his knees. "Takato!!" Takeru cried. "Crap... well, maybe Shaun here isn't Tranced, but, regardless, your little friend here is ready to suffer the full brunt of Trance's effects. He isn't particularly desensitized to the power level, so his head'll probably explode in about a minute if he can't discharge that power." "That's insane!" Vegeta bellowed. "It takes eons for a power level like that to wear off!" Takato slumped his hand against the ground, struggling to keep himself up. His hands padded the ground, searching for something. "...I... d-d-d-d-d-don'tttt.. neeeed the power-r-r-r-r-r-r... I know exac-c-c-c-ctly what I wanna... ugh..." Takato plunged facefirst into the deep dirt ahead of him, his hand movements slowing to a crawl. "...c-c-c-c'mon... buddy... maybe you can take the power-r-r-r-r.." Shiva was expressing some concern. "...what the... what is the boy doing?" "He's fighting the Trance... until he..." Eric dropped off. Shiva glared back at Eric. "Oh, are you expecting me to believe that he would pass it off to one of you? If he did, then YOU would be the one on your face. The effects are universal." "C-c-c-c-c..." Crono quickly rushed over, and bent down to Takato, giving an acknowledging nod. "G-g-g-get the whit-t-t-te caaaard.." Crono quickly glanced to the side. Near Takato's overturned card box, many of his cards, including the Imperialdramon card, were scattered along the ground. Crono dashed over and picked up a blank card, which Crono quickly recognized as the custom type of card, its surface blank for custom artwork purposes. Crono quickly rushed back over to Takato and passed him the slip, all under Shiva's watchful eye. Takato convulsed as he lightly plucked the D-Arc from his pocket. "A-alright, Shiva, you win. I might not be able to handle the Trance... but maybe a card can!!" using the last of his strength, he tore the card through the slot, making everyone jump back as the crackle of electricity echoed a thousandfold off the hollow cavern walls. A short shower of sparks rained from the D-Arc's opening, before its screen blanked out. Takato let out a pained scream as he launched himself to a stand, performing a complete double flip before landing back on his feet. "The leader-Tamer-dude whatever is scaring me," Patamon squeaked. "What in the world.." Magnus sat, jaw dropped. Everyone else followed suit. "This is your Trance, Shiva!" Takato screamed, whipping out the card for all to see. The scanning surface on the side maintained a perfect silver sheen, while the rest of the card glowed a perfect neon purple. On its surface was the familiar blue card emblem. "This.. is... the Wildcard!!" Shiva stumbled back. "I-impossible! How did he learn to transfer the Trance... and how.. did he get it into a THING?!" "I think we'd better be ready for the Digi-Modification to end all Digi-Modifications." Veedramon said shakily. "Guilmon!" Takato commanded. "Get ready for a power trip!!" Guilmon never saw it coming. ******** TRANCE... ******** Takato cackled evilly to himself, which managed to freak out his fellow crewmates. The card hovered in midair and spun before Takato caught it again, a shock of purple lightning drifting off the card. Takato immediately brought it through the scanner as he held it above his head, multiple times right after another. "Digi-modify! Hyperspeed Activate!" "Digi-modify! Power Charger Activate!" "Digi-modify! Devil Chip Activate!" "Digi-modify! Ground Seventh Activate!" "Digi-modify! King Device Activate!" "Takato, you dumbass!" Rika shouted out. "You don't even HAVE half those cards, and most of them won't even work on a Rookie!" Takeru's eyes went wide as he backed up to Rika's position. "Um, then I think you'd better take a look at Guilmon then." Rika turned to face the Rookie, sprung up from his position also. What was really disconcerting about the situation was the fact that he had a somewhat extremely-gargantuan-bigass aura of perfect black orbiting him, and the Pyrosphere he had hovering in front of his lips was three times larger than him. "Oh.. no." "Pyrosphere!!" Guilmon reared his head back and flung the massive meteor of flame striaght at Shiva, who let out a scream before she was clobbered by the missile. The explosion sent everyone in the vincinity flying back several dozen feet onto their backs, and somewhere in the base the Argetlahm shook slightly. Takato grinned in a way that made everyone sort of get the creeps. "MOOOOOOORE!!" "Digi-modify! Imperialdramon Fighter Mode's Positron Laser... activate!!" Guilmon clapped his arms together, which burned a bright light as they fused into a huge energy cannon. Guilmon hopped and dove straight into the ground, punching straight through it and developing a tunnel. "TAKATO!!" Rika shrieked. "ARE YOU INSANE?!" Shiva frowned. Somewhere, under all that dirt, she'd swore she'd heard someone shout "Positron Laser". Well, when Guilmon tore up the ground and blasted Shiva somewhere into the next dimension with the giant Positron Laser, everybody who was left on the battlefield was sent flying straight through the walls of the main facility, and slid down the hall to the far end of the building. Meanwhile, Magnopolis experienced a 4.8 earthquake. ******** "No trace of Shiva was found afterwards," Magnus slapped the papers down on the table. "I don't have much to worry about as far as anyone attacking the facility, I think they've all learned their lesson.. as for damages on Magnopolis, several buildings were completely uprooted. I demand compensation." Raynor smirked as he stretched back in his chair. "Well, NOW you want compensation, because that was OUR fault. It's not THAT serious." Magnus quickly glanced around the room from his desk. Everyone was giving him disgusted looks. "...well, geez, I DO care about my people.." Everybody leant forward. "God, get out of here." ******** Takeru rounded the corner, checking again to make sure Patamon wasn't following him. He counted down the doors as he marched down the hall, then turned and pushed the adjacent button causing the gate to slide open. Inside, Rufus and his superior were still staring at Ultimanium, but Rufus hopped up and attempted to shove Takeru out of the way as he made his way out of the cluttered chamber. "Hey, what's the deal? Isn't Takato supposed to be here?" Rufus never turned his head. "No, he's still going through preliminary testing upstairs." Takeru and Rufus departed from the room, kicking up small talk until they had worked their way around the entire ship and found themselves in the training chambers. Rufus gestured both of them over to the weight room. Takeru blinked as the door in front of him opened. All the workout machinery in the room had been shoved off to the far edge of the corridor, and the dumbbells stacked in a pyramind alongside them. In the center of the room were Takato, shirtless, jogging casually on a treadmill, and Guilmon alongside him doing the same. Both had various patches planted all over them, wires stretching off the implants and linked to a small computer on the far edge of the room. Rufus nodded. "Takato. Guilmon. That will be enough for now. Takeru wishes to see the nature of the Trance." Takato grinned. "Woohoo! Guilmon, water break!" Guilmon and his partner hopped off the backs of the conveyors as the slid to a halt, and immediately darted off to a small water cooler in the corner. "The condition of Trance in Takato is quite perculiar," Rufus grunted. "He's displaying none of the symptoms that Ultimanium showed during his Trancing, though his power level has come quite close to his during several incidences." "Could you explain a little further?" "Takato," Rufus called. "Slash your Wildcard through again when we tell you." Takato shrugged. "Can do." He reached over to a coffee table next to him and picked up his two artifacts as Takeru and Rufus seated themselves in front of the computer. "Watch carefully," Rufus murmured. "The readings here read Takato's current power level at 3. Now... Takato, slash the card." Takato sighed, and whipped the card through the slot. Takeru nearly fell out of his chair as the rippling shock through the air assaulted his ears. He quickly fought to sit upright, and glanced at the screen. "...3. So?" Rufus shook his head. "You had to see it all the way through, not fly out of your seat at the slightest high sound. Takato and Guilmon's power level jumped briefly... BRIEFLY... 1, 2, 8000, 1 million, 10 million, and 50 million." "WHA?!" "The key word is briefly. The addition of the six powers occured even quicker than Ultimanium's, but he returned to his normal level seconds after the card went through. I think the reason Takato was able to survive the Trance and Ultimanium didn't was the fact that he only accessed it for a brief moment and didn't give it any time to root itself in his mind. Something in him made him transfer the power of the Trance to that card he holds... so the Trance is only activated when the card is linked directly to him, presumably making Takato's lifeforce itself a catalyst for the card's Trance..." "But those people we fought were able to sustain their Trance all the time we fought them," Takato mumbled. "How?" "It's beyond me," Rufus sighed. "The Prospector must have some manner of accomplishing this... anyways, we might have found a possible method of Trancing ourselves without our heads exploding, but we would only be able to do so for about 6 seconds before side-effects begin to kick in.." "..but we have nothing to start the Trance." "...well, that's the problem." Takeru drummed his fingers on the desk. "The Trances never made any reference to the Prospector during the fight, only to Servant. Do you know anything about that?" "Hey, I just solve equations and read monitors all day. If you want intelligence reports, I'm not the person to come to." Rufus chuckled. "...anyways, about Takato's Wildcard... Rika said that Takato didn't even have half of the cards he yelled out, and many of them wouldn't work on a Rookie." "Then that is probably what his Trance is capable of... bypassing standard Digimon card game rules, and summoning the powers of Digimon cards out of his memory... all accessible through the Wildcard. From what I've seen, each person's Trance has a different 'identity' if you know what I mean. Luxator was a white-elemented Trance, you know what I mean, each Trance so far has had its own unique attacks, appearances... the list goes on." Takeru stared at the monitor for a short while, before the lights above the group began to dim. Eric's voice came over the Argetlahm intercom, with various crackles in the background. "..uh... hey, guys, if anyone's left aboard the ship other than the worker-scientist-researcher dudes, then could you please head for your bunks in the facility? People are going to start coming aboard for the interior renovations... and... um... well, you know. *CLI-CLICK*" Takeru sweatdropped. "Something about this leadership doesn't sound too reassuring." ******** Night came, basking Magnopolis and its region in the cover of darkness. Elsewhere, darkness was in full swing... and claiming victims... ******** The Prospector darted out of the building, sloshing his heavy boots in the rain-soaked mud beneath his feet. The storm was continuing on, the falling monsoon giving no respect to him. He fondled the floodlight in his hand with delicate fingers, and tugged on his cloaking overcoat with the other. In the giant parade square and around the facilities near him, soldiers, workers, everybody was outside, dashing between buildings in the search for the elusive Servant. "What the hell is going on here?!" the Prospector bellowed at a lower-ranked trooper as he attempted to slip by unnoticed. Shivering, he twisted back to his leader. "Servant... has yet to be found." "Why the fuck?! For Christ sakes, this place isn't THAT damn big! Have all the Trance research centers been cleared?!" "Everything up to and including floor 70, sir." "Then shut up and keep going!" As he darted off, searchlights swept by him. A loud buzzing ripped apart his thoughts. The Prospector tore the walkie-talkie from his belt and held it to his face. "What's going on?" "Sir! Brigade 14 has encountered resistance on floor 61... GOD!! DAMN IT!!" the Prospector quickly started hammering buttons as the signal began to fade out. Letting out a deep-pitched growl, the Prospector flung himself back into the building, treading muddy footprints on the normally polished floor. Hurling himself inside an elevator, he hammered the up button until the display read 61, and grunted as a small knife of energy poked out of his wrist. The display blinked out, and slowly began to count up to 61. His concentration was suddenly wrecked again as the doors slid open with a ding, the entrance leading out into an expansive cubicled office. Many barriers were blown down, computer parts lying scattered in the walkways. Many of the windows were completely blown out, and an ominous dark blue light flooded the open area, shattered only by the occaisional flash of lightning. He bent down, lifting a soldier's lifeless head from the ground before slamming it back down into the moist carpeting, dampened from the extreme amounts of water vapour drifting down from the storm. "This is insane! How could the troops have been downed so easily...?" The Prospector held a blade to his face, ready to strike, as a ruffle from across the room drew his attention. "I see I've gotten your great glare," Servant smirked, stepping out of the shadows. "I really hate to make the announcement, but now that the Trances are in full operation and I have the information I need, I now have the means to my power. You have no reason." "No way in hell are you getting the Van Eltia!" the Prospector scoffed. "Do you think I want the Van Eltia itself? Come on, old man, you talk like the thing like it's the Golgotha of your retarded little cult you have going here. That will simply be the epicentre of the Master Trance, from which all other lifeforms in the universe shall become a part of. Seeing you're going to be dead in a couple of minutes, maybe it would be nice to see that you get the point of my plan." "I'm kind of lost already. Just surrender yourself and no harm will come to you." Servant turned, a deepening face glaring out to the hurricane. "These weaklings.. plaguing this world... they cannot even remain in Trance without crumpling at the power. When the Trances are defeated, they expend their remaining energy using the Dark Switch and pass their Trance energies onto the next closest lifeform. When every single living thing in this galaxy has been corrupted and destroyed with their own Trance, soon this energy will have nowhere else to go... which gives me quite fine clearance to scoop it up for myself." "Oh, come now, that is absolutely insane. Even if you were able to gain that sort of power, you would have nothing to do with it! You are a simple android!" Servant began to pivot back slowly to the Prospector. That's when the Prospector knew something was wrong. "An android? Oh, that's a little off the mark... I'd say... a cyborg. I'm not TOTALLY machine, you know. Otherwise I wouldn'tve come up with such a wonderful plan such as this." "Dare I ask who you were?" "An outsider, as you third dimensioners might call it. I don't think I need to go into any more detail than that." The Prospector's eyes narrowed. "You come from a higher dimension. I don't know what you want here... but I can tell already it isn't good." "Let's put this bluntly, Mr. Prospector... or, should I say, Balkan Kovosochek." The Prospector stumbled back in shock. "Y-you know me?!" "Oh, DO I! Balkan, you're a dimensional split just like the rest of us, you're doing your disasterous experiments with the J in other dimensions! Accidents and injuries kept you from actually getting on the verge of doing anything drastically damaging with the technology... except for..." Servant spread his hands. "..this wonderful little corner of space-time. That's when I knew I would have a faithful pawn that I could use to finally gain access to the J probes and take control of the situation where my lower deriative could not." Balkan's eyes went wide, as he fumbled for something to back himself on. "You're not insisting that..!" "You should tell Ultimanium, when he comes for you, that even his patented super-safe J3 has its own problems. The damage, when looked at the right angle, is actually JUST AS severe as the original J when it was used. It won't rip apart dimensions, sure, but it only stops the damage at a safe level, 'thinning' the dimensional structure. Which leaves certain people, like the six-Ds, who have the astronomical power levels necessary to obtain minor influence on the dimensional structure, able to make the break. I am the most powerful entity of the sixth dimension, Balkan. I was the only one with enough power to get through. Now, I shall succeed where my former persona has lost! I entered the third dimension years ago, Balkan, during the days of Ultramagnus. I altered my cyborg systems and appearance to match those of Ultramagnus' official models. When Ultramagnus was looking for a replacement for Minonim, his lower officals started a little competition among the lower level statistics androids for the title. That's when I kicked into gear, and began to think things thousands of times faster than every other machine Ultra had, defeated 100 of his elite droids in under three minutes, and appeared to be the first android capable of moving fast enough to phase. Thus, I got the title, and waited for a chance to see Ultramagnus fall so I could take the reins of the universe-conquest game." Balkan crossed his blades, firmly caging his face with provoked power. "You... are... the sixth dimensional Magnus." "I am Servan... hell, that name's starting to suck. Magnus? Bah, don't get me started on that fool. Hey, how about this, call me 'Anti-Magnus'. I will defeat Magnus, and I will defeat everybody, until I have control of every Trance in existance!!" He paused as he noticed Balkan edging forward. "Oh, what's this? Is Balkan playing good guy all of a sudden?" "You.. are a madman!!" Balkan roared. "And you weren't? You were practically holding the world by its nads with the entire J thing, I mean, you got ULTIMANIUM of all people after your hide." "I never intended to take it this far!! I would never have activated the J, I simply desired the fast funds to complete the Trance project. After that I was going to immediately shut it down.. I never even intended to use it for attack purposes in the first place, either!! It was a goal of our religion, to finally ascend to Trance and head for the stars!! And you've turned it into some sort of mockery for your own personal gain!! I DETEST you!!" Antimagnus sighed. "Oh, and tell me, what are you going to do about it?" Balkan and Antimagnus stared each other down, through the chaos that lied between them. Off in the distance, the lightning crackled through the night sky. "The same thing you would've done to the Argetlahm!!" ******** TRANCE... ******** "Trance... it... UP!!" Balkan screamed as he planted the blades into the ground on both sides of him, the carpeting blasting out of the floor, and pens, mugs and computer parts hurling in the cyclone orbiting him. He bellowed again as a dark twisting aura flared up around him, as his skin shattered and swirled around him in a tight ring, before sheeting him in a suit of gigantic, grey metal plates. His shoulder pads stretched out nearly four feet, both linked to extremely bulky arms with three-inch thick magneta blades, sticking nearly another six feet out of the center of his palms. He stood at an height of Luxator's, nearly taking up all of his available vertical space. ******** This super-powerful Trance is lightyears beyond the elementals! Granted full access to the Trance's capabilities is a big plus in Balkan's offensive, and even the most basic of unholy arts can destroy foes in seconds! His Argon Blade and Zanetsuken attacks cleave the opposition straight! ******** XAEROS - Dark Trance Antimagnus still held a straight face, though the edge of it could be seen cracking. "This must be your 'Trance' as you people call it. Well, tell me, will you crumble like the rest of your little soldiers? You might be interested to know that I'm more than educated in your methods of power - I AM running your show, you know. Come, let me show you how it's done." ******** TRANCE... ******** "HUUURAGGH!!" Antimagnus threw his arms back as he was surrounded in a barrier of light, blinding Xaeros. A seemingly inverted version of Balkan's transformation was occuring, with the same objects he had hurled out earlier flying in through the shattered windows and landing in his vincinity. A bright beam of light tore through the celing and floor, encasing Antimagnus in a sheet of white. Feeling the supports above him beginning to fail, Xaeros hopped out a nearby opening with assistance from the rocket booster on his back and hovered away backwards while he watched the beam of light tear through the roof of his facility. Xaeros watched painfully as a giant shape tore through the side of the building, from his floor. It was a giant dragon, ablaze in gold flames as it began to lower itself to Xaeros, taking up the entire sky above him. Massive sheets of rainbow-shining armor began to funnel out from underneath him, clanking into place all over his gargantuan body. His mouth opened, it sticking open as a massive laser cannon forced its way out. Though he wasn't sure how the hell he talked, Xaeros could notice the dragon's eyes pulse with blue light as he spoke. "Chew on this." ******** ????????? ******** MILLENIAL - Ultimate Trance "How.. can you Trance?! Magnus' fourth dimensional form is dead! Ultimanium killed him... and you told me 3D Magnus was currently with Ultimanium!" "So maybe I had a couple fewer sources of power throughout the dimensions. But every single one of them is a maximum-level Super Saiyan, unlike Ultimanium who is a human and who's lower forms are less powerful than his current. As for Magnus, let's just say he's not in full health as we speak. Alright then... you started this, let's finish it. You, weak-ass mortal, versus the almighty 6D Ultimate Trance Antimagnus." The lightning rippled through the air again as rain beat down on both combatants. This fight was certainly going to be noticed. All over the freaking planet. HOLY TOLEDO!!! Okay, forget it, I'm just going to announce. With Xaeros and Millenial fighting for supremacy, is no one NOT going to notice? And what purpose would the Argetlahm have in a confrontation like this? Find out next time, on Trance Trauma! (Oh, and don't worry, this series is FAR from over ^_^')