Kenta felt relieved to have finally settled into a routine.

 

But what a routine it was! Swan hadn't been kidding around when she’d said her work schedule would run him ragged.

 

One hour home room and two hours Sports class with his students every day, then reporting to MG Headquarters for training that often went long into the night. More often than not training was fraught with disaster, with him often struggling to get through stuff Sunset had already mastered in a timely fashion. Then there was the attempts to speak with ATHENA, which had so far not produced any results. Rakuraizer’s Artificial Intelligence continued to be as silent as a tomb.

 

And then there was his love-life. Bache, Mai, Roll, Sunset and Terezi were all very demanding, all five of them eager to find ways to slip illicit encounters into his schedule. Sunset was mostly hands-off, in line with making their upcoming date special, but she still teased him and rubbed her butt and breasts on him at every opportunity.

 

And the upcoming appointments he had to keep: a proper first date with Sunset, and clubbing with Celestia. Celestia's group had swollen up to include Athena, Clarissa and Mika when he hadn't been looking, meaning that was probably going to be one hell of a night.

 

But still, he was keeping on top of things. And he was learning the controls of Rakuraizer, albeit slowly. 

 

Surely when the next attack came, he'd be ready.

 

Still, how in the world was training this hard? Kenta's whole thing was fighting people! It turned out that following orders and having to use things like tactics were a lot harder than he thought they could ever be. He secretly wished he could just go gung-ho with the whole thing and throw caution to the wind, but he knew he’d be letting Swan and her team down in the process.

 

He had a brand new appreciation for everything that Sunset went through. Six months of this? The girl must have been a prodigy to be able to keep up with it all.

 

It didn't help that SciTwi kept personally 'checking his vitals' in the process, either. It seemed that everyone was either insatiable, or they just loved to mess with him. Was it his reactions? Whatever it was, he was getting better at multitasking and staying focused (even though he hadn't mastered maneuvering during orgasm, maybe that came later).

 

As far as school went, Mai made good on her threat to prepare Kenta a bento, complete with rice and those little weenies cut into octopuses. It wasn't bad, he thought, but he could see where she could improve her technique or maybe enhance flavor. Not that he was about to tell her something like that, though, because who knew how she'd get back at him for it.

 

Bache was a handful and it seemed like the handjob from the tiny slut just opened the floodgates for a whole bunch of teasing. Kenta had to scold her several times that she shouldn't be smoking in the restrooms or showers, and it felt to him like she just did it so he would get onto her more. Like it was some kind of weird game to her. She'd sit with her legs spread and if Kenta glanced by, pull her panties to the side to show off her bare slit, relishing the look her teacher gave her.

 

It was all a blur, but Kenta figured that it wasn't too bad, all things considered. Sure, it was hectic, but he was slowly coming into a routine.

 

---

 

It was next Tuesday. Exactly one week after the alien's last attack.

 

In a deep, dark room in a deep, dark place, where human eyes had never glimpsed, five figures gathered.

 

Four of them stood on glowing plates brightly emblazoned with their personal symbols: a pink candy, a black horned helmet, a white pegasus filly and a moss-green horn standing bent, cracked and jagged. The fifth sat silently high above, watching them bicker from a yellow coral throne bearing the symbol of Pisces.

 

"That last plan sure was a no-go, huh?" giggled the smallest one, a pink brat with her hair in curls. "He got squashed like a bug!"

 

"Fool! I had that immature pilot dancing to my tune before that second robot appeared," shot back the tallest girl of the four, with a horn just like the one on her podium.

 

"Wood isn't exactly the sturdiest material, though, is it?" said the third, a tall, green-skinned girl in a long black dress. She was busy tossing a fireball from one hand to the other. "A little flame and... poof~"

 

"Hahaha... Does that mean you're going to be volunteering to go next?" asked the fourth member of their group, black-sclera'd eyes flashing malevolently. Her face was barely visible shrouded under such a big head of snow-white hair.

 

"Oh, you guys need me to bail you out that bad? Well sure, I got the crystal for it. And I even got a plan that'll knock your socks off... That new guy they got, the teacher: he's good at posturing, but when push comes to shove he'll crack just like anyone else."

 

"Yeah," she said smugly. "Just leave it to me, losers."

 

One by one the podiums turned dark, leaving the figure seated on her throne alone in the room. Then, she too winked out of existence.

 

---

 

Kenta had had a busy night having Adagio Dazzle, Mizuki Tachibana and Trixie staying over... the sounds from the bedroom had been even louder than usual that night!

 

He was just seeing them out the door at around 8 AM when his M-Watch suddenly buzzed. He barely got somewhere private before Roll's face appeared on the screen. 

 

"Kenta! We need you at MG Headquarters immediately! It's an emergency!"

 

Kenta paled at the sudden call, but he quickly hardened his face. He gave her a stiff nod. "... Right! Right I'll be there as quickly as I can!"

 

That would mean leaving the girls by himself while he went out. For a split second, he thought about bringing them along for safety, but quickly waved that thought away. He wasn't supposed to tell anyone about all this, right?

 

Switching his M-Watch off, he dashed to the bedroom door to interrupt the fun on the other side with a rapid series of knocks. 

 

"Really sorry about this, girls, but you're gonna have to head to school on your own." Kenta sighed, putting his hands together in an apology. "Emergency came up, and I gotta go right now. Gonna try to get in contact with Miss Celestia and see if she can spring a substitute on such short notice, but if she can't... Adagio, you’ll need to take roll call for the day."

 

Without waiting for an answer, Kenta took off. "... And be safe!"

 

Once he was out of sight of the trio, he pulled out his phone to text Celestia.

 

---

 

 

<Kenta> Miss Celestia, I'm sorry about this in advance!

<Kenta> An emergency just came up and I can't make it to class.

<Kenta> I don't know if you can find a substitute on such short notice, but if not I told Adagio Dazzle to take roll.

<Kenta> Please forgive me! I'll try to make it up to you in the future!

 

<Celestia> My, my... 

<Celestia> Tardy in only your second week? Not a good look, Mr Tadashii!

<Celestia> I can overlook it... as long as you're available tomorrow evening.

 

<Kenta> If I am, I'll do whatever you want me to do!

 

<Celestia> Good to hear! Do your best out there!

 

Do your best? Did Celestia know, somehow, or was Kenta just being paranoid? He shook it off. Whatever, monologue later, action now.

 

---

 

Kenta dashed out of his apartment in time to be startled as a sudden squealing of tires made him freeze. Darting his eyes sideways, he caught a glimpse of the source of the sound: a flashy red convertible coming roaring out from a side street. As he watched, the vehicle turned an enormous circle in the middle of the street, tires protesting every inch of the way, nearly battering aside a dozen other cars as it came screeching to a halt right in front of him.

 

The driver pushed down her pink, heart-shaped sunglasses, giving Kenta a deeply serious look from beneath that puffed-up perm. "Hop in!" 

 

Kenta hopped over the door of Swan's convertible so she could take off faster. He was pretty sure that it would be a miracle if she hadn't caused some kind of accident before with driving like that, but there wasn't much room for him to complain, considering the circumstances. 

 

The second he was in, she was off again, leaving a huge black cloud of exhaust in her wake. As they raced through the streets, Swan directed Kenta's attention to a console built directly into the passenger seat, perfect for on-the-go briefings.

 

"It happened just an hour ago... Oh, this is terrible!"

 

The video displayed a news report, showing footage from a helicopter soaring high over the city. Kenta could hardly believe his eyes when he saw it: it was one of the Tokyo Metro trains, those charming, reliable workhouses, but refitted as if pulled straight from a nightmare. All eight cars had turned a shifting, shapeless amalgamation of deep blacks and violent reds, interwoven with criss-crosses of curled, jagged red spikes. The front car had been transformed entirely, all the metal warped into a frozen statue of a snarling wolf's head. What few windows weren't completely covered over showed terrified-looking passengers looking out as the train barreled down the track, going faster and faster and faster.

 

"It's the SIF again! They transformed one of the city trains... with the passengers still onboard!"

 

Beside her, Kenta studied the footage of the weird transformed wolf-train thing in silence and shock. He clenched his fist as he stared at the screen. There were people inside that thing? He couldn't believe it. Where were these monstrosities coming from?

 

Swan continued: "All it's done so far is continue along the track. We're keeping an eye on it... but the sooner we formulate a plan to rescue them, the better!"

 

"Damn the SIF for getting innocents involved..." Kenta turned to Swan and punched his palm. "Let me at 'em, Director! Just tell me what to do and I'll be there!"

 

---

 

Shortly thereafter, the pair stood in the Mighty Guard Headquarters Command Centre where a dozen or more technicians were already typing away at their workstations. Athena, Roll and SciTwi were already gathered, while Sunset stood on standby in her school uniform. She gave Kenta a serious look, just to let him know now would probably be a bad time for ogling and drooling... not that he was in the mood to.

 

The main screen showed the target racing around Tokyo, rapidly approaching bullet train speeds. Tracks were left warped in its wake, as if its next revolution could be its last. 

 

Time was definitely on the shorter side here.

 

"What prompted the transformation?" asked an exasperated Swan. Twilight was quick to answer:

 

"It seems like whatever force was onboard the train was lying dormant until some requirement was satisfied. We're not sure what that is... other than something to do with the Iidabashi station."

 

"Here's security footage taken at Iidabashi, right before the train transformed."

 

Grainy black-and-white footage flashed on-screen, and everyone narrowed their eyes to study it. It just seemed to be the usual fare of Japanese men and women getting ready to start their day.

 

But something stood out.

 

Kenta immediately noticed, faster than anyone else there. Not just because of his strong sense of justice, but also because he'd been staring at those breasts constantly all last week.

 

And most of all because he felt a strong sense of protection for these young women, a responsibility to them that went deeper than words.

 

Five of his students: Ema Skye, Gwen Poole, Lynne, Mika and Samus had been waiting on the platform when the train pulled up, eager to head to his class. And the second their heels touched down, the train had begun to change. 

 

The pit dropped out of Kenta's stomach as he watched the screen. It was all the evidence he needed: this was an abduction, and his students were the cause. Sure enough, as soon as Mika wobbled her way onboard, the train's doors slammed shut, not even bothering to let the rest of the passengers onboard... and then it was roaring out of the station, already beginning the early stages of changing into its current ghoulish appearance.

 

"<Oh noooo!>" Swan had noticed it too. 

 

Kenta immediately turned to Swan. "We have to get out there now, Director!"

 

In truth, every muscle in Kenta’s body was urging him to leap into action, like he’d always done up till now. He stood before the screen, shaking, fists clenching and unclenching, knowing he had to do something... but also knowing this was one problem he couldn’t handle by himself.

 

“I... Ghhkk...” 

 

He could make a difference. He could pilot Rakuraizer, wield the mighty machine. Rushing off half-cocked right now would just put the lives of his students in danger, and undoubtedly cause a huge headache for Swan in the process. 

 

Thankfully, Swan was of the same mind: she saw the pain evident in Kenta's expression, but at the same time she knew rescuing the girls wouldn't be easy. "Kenta, please! We'll do everything we can to rescue them, but... We need a plan first!"

 

Sunset stepped forwards, raising her fist. "There's no time for that! That train's already been picking up speed for an hour... The tracks could break at any moment!"

 

"We just need to stop it, right? All we need to do is wrench that tin can open and pull out whatever's guiding it... so come on, Kenta!"

 

When both women turned their eyes on him, Kenta was hit by a wave of nausea, a rush of blood in his ears. This... was the price he had to pay for having the power to make a change. Having to make a decision, and knowing someone could be hurt by it. 

 

Perhaps feeling like he was more likely to side with Swan, Sunset raised her M-Watch to her lips and spoke her command phrase. "G-Corona, activate. Kenta, if you're not coming with me, then I'm going to go it alone."

 

Sunset turned towards the door... only to find Kenta blocking it, staring at her with determined eyes. 

 

He’d made his decision. 

 

“Sunset, wait!”

 

“Out of my way, Kenta,” she shot back.

 

“Just let me talk to Swan.” He turned to Swan without budging an inch. 

 

"Director, I can't just sit back and watch while my students are on that train. If I have the power to save them, then I should be saving them! We need a plan, but that takes time, right? Well, I still have to get my suit on, and we have to GET there. And the robots have communication devices right?" 

 

Kenta glanced back at Sunset. "Sunset’s right. ... Not about tearing it apart, I don't think that will work. But maybe together we can at least slow it down while the smart people actually figure out a real plan."

 

Sunset didn't look happy, but she assented all the same. "If we see an opportunity to save them, promise me we'll take it."

 

“Of course. Now let’s - ” Kenta didn’t get to finish his sentence, because that was when the announcement hit. This was a difficult situation and they were caught in the thick of it. Which meant for a cynical-mind villain, this was the perfect time to throw the heroes even further off-kilter. 

 

Which was why, at that moment, the viewscreen depicting the subway footage, and all other monitors in the building suddenly went dark.

 

It wasn't just in the Mighty Guard building, either. All over Tokyo, televisions and electronic billboards were changing over to a shot of an inky, dark-black room. A video feed direct from some unknown location.

 

And in that feed two red eyes suddenly flared in the darkness, before slowly giving shape to a sinister, green-skinned woman, with white hair styled into a rather extravagant sidecut... and some of the biggest breasts he'd ever seen not on a high-school girl, but that was neither here nor there. She was beaming, looking rather excited with herself.

 

"Greetings, lameozoids freakshows of planet Earth! My name is Dominator... and I'm here with a very special message for the people of Tokyo from the Geomorph Empire!"

 

A buzz immediately went up around the control room. Up until now the aliens had always carried the rather clinical moniker of the Space Invasion Forces. There was something chilling about hearing that an enemy they’d previously thought of as a collection of mindless animals had been more than intelligent enough to name themselves all this time.

 

Geomorphs. So now their enemy had a name.

 

"By now you've probably noticed there's a runaway train rampaging around the city... You can thank yours truly for that one! Our Control Crystals are pretty good at co-opting your primitive human technology into whatever forms we so desire... you'd hardly even think monkey hands had been all over it in the first place!"

 

Swan looked to her assistants aghast, then swiftly ordered Athena to try to get a location on where the broadcast was coming from. 

 

Meanwhile, Dominator continued, placing her head on her hand and turning her other hand in lazy circles. "Now I could go on-and-on with the whole villain spiel, but I'm just gonna cut to the chase. Between now and the next sixty minutes, that train's going to keep getting faster and faster until it flies off the tracks and ka-splooshes everyone inside. If you try to save them...? Same dealaroonie. The speed will shoot up in no time flat."

 

"But we're not really the badguys here... We're just scared of the MG and their big, nasty robots! So all you have to do is power one of those suckers down and hand it over to me... and all the innocent civilians will be spared. Capiche?"

 

"Okay, you've been a great audience. Dom out."

 

The display immediately changed back to its prior broadcast, and the vile alien woman vanished from their screens. Swan looked understandably shaken... This was humanity's first spoken encounter with the alien forces that hadn't even had a known name until today.

 

When she looked at Kenta, he stood with his arms folded, shaking his head. “What an ultimatum,” he spat. “It’s obviously bullshit.” 

 

“But... we don’t have any reason not to...” Swan began.

 

Kenta just shook his head. “No. Anyone putting lives in danger like that is never going to have any desire to stop putting lives in danger. Giving into their demands is just asking them to keep their boot firmly on Humanity's neck.”

 

“Like hell I’m going to let them do that.”

 

Kenta moved past Sunset to Director Swan, grabbing her hand and clasping it between both of his. The look that he gave her was determined and full of a barely-contained fire. "You can do this."

 

And Sunset was right there with him. “Kenta’s right. There’s no way we can give into a demand like that. But we can make them pay for making it, right boss?”

 

And Swan seemed to find her courage. She looked from one to the other, set her jaw firmly in a resolute smile, and nodded. “Y... Yes. You’re right. I lost my head for a moment... Twilight, any ideas?”

 

From the command centre, Twilight whizzed back on her chair and looked up at the three of them. “Well... Getting close isn’t going to be easy. We can only assume this 'Dominator' has some remote communication method with the train, which she'll activate the second either of you become visible. It's speeding up enough already, but with the data I have I can’t even begin to estimate how much time you’ll have..."

 

“Of course not,” Swan began to laugh, moving to reassure Twilight. But it wasn’t necessary. Because the bespectacled dork suddenly sat bolt upright as something popped up onto her display.

 

Twilight was looking at a string of calculations, which she quickly ran her eyes over. "This is... these calculations are from ATHENA."

 

Athena's head shot up at that, an outburst out of her lips before she could contain it. She shoved herself in alongside Twilight. 

 

"... If these figures are correct, and they seem to be, the train can reach its maximum possible speed before detachment within... one minute. So once you’re detected as closing in, you’ll have exactly one minute. Just... give me a second to calculate a safe approach route from Tokyo Bay, and...” Twilight’s hands were already flying across the keyboard.

 

"But what's all this data on the aliens...?” asked Athena. “Where did ATHENA get all this?"

 

Kenta was staring at the screen just as intently. “This means she’s trying to help us, right? ... Alright, screw this, I need to get in Rakuraizer already! I can figure this out from there!”

 

Without a second thought, he bolted off to the material synthesizer yelling behind him. "Sorry to dash, Swan, but I’m gonna go get suited up! You can discipline me later if you need to!”

 

“Wait for me!” called Sunset, dashing after him.

 

Swan watched them go, sagging. When she spoke, it was in a low voice only heard to her: "There's nothing I could do to you that's worse than what you'd do to yourself if those girls were harmed. Just... please bring them back safely.”

 

The pair dove for the exit, racing side by side. Kenta’s strides were long and loping, accounting for the sizable height difference between teacher and student, but Sunset wouldn’t be Sunset if she didn’t put every bit of energy she had into keeping pace, pumping her arms like a maniac as she charged down the corridor beside him.

 

It was the right move for both of them, they couldn't waste any time in getting prepared. Smarter people were handling the data right now, all they needed to do was fight. 

 

Without slowing down or even waiting to reach the synthesizer room, both pilots began shedding their clothes as they raced down the corridor, leaving a lengthy trail behind him, male and female garments intermingling. Jackets, shirts, shoes, socks, belts, pants, it all came flying off, man and woman discarding everything that separated them from piloting, until they were both only warriors.

 

Kenta didn’t drop his boxers until he reached the synthesizer room, much in the same way Sunset kept her panties wrapped tightly around her oversized rear. Only once they were inside did they leap, fully naked, landing on the platform with a "toh!", both of them skidding to a halt in the center.

 

The synthesizer ring descended, circling around Kenta and Sunset, immersing the pair in that shiny black material that he was quickly becoming used to. It passed over their heads and trailed down their bodies, immersing them in that slippery, shiny black sheath that traced down the contours of their bodies, colour shimmering in its wake. 

 

Now that Kenta had a suit in mind, materializing one to match Sunset's was easy. Out of the inky expanse a choker formed around his neck. Angular shoulderpads as well as wristguards. A plunging V pattern on his chest formed from the blackness as it expanded downward, his suit beginning to brighten into blue and white to contrast with the main black. The skintight midriff that cinched into his v-cut and the enormous popped collar were some little touches of vanity to say 'hero coming through!'

 

As the ring finished its job, heavy shin guards formed. Kenta clenched his fists and flexed, green crystals popping onto his chest, arms and legs.

 

---

 

Shortly after, Rakuraizer and G-Corona were both ready to launch, the two impatient pilots loaded into their avatars of battle. Unable to use the surface launcher they instead were delivered directly into the bay where they began the process of swimming to the surface. Rakuraizer used its thrust in minimum bursts in order to stay submerged until just precisely the right time, its scarf making a slow-motion trail as it danced behind the blue giant.

 

Sunset contacted Kenta on comms, bringing up his favourite sight in the world: his jiggly, buxom squadmate squeezed desperately tight into her latex pilot's suit, hands wrapped tight around her controls and with a serious expression on her face. 

 

"The train is completing circuits of the line over and over... When it comes close to the bay, that's our chance to strike. Right?"

 

Even in the moment he took a second to drink in the vision of loveliness she was, Sunset's naturally lewd body basically poured into that restrictive but oh-so-flexible latex suit. However, there were way more important things at hand right now, so he instead gave a nod. 

 

"I think so, if that's what SciTwi was saying. One minute to get up there and get the train stopped..." Kenta thought for a second. 

 

"One minute..." Kenta thought out loud. What in the world did he have on hand that could stop a train going that fast? He checked his systems as he waited for it to come around the bend.

 

"What if... I use the Rakuraizer to give the train a shock and get it to stop? And then Sunset could get the passengers out!" Kenta’s eyes darted over his systems, seeking any sort of confirmation from the numerous readouts that he had the power to do it. 

 

He... really wasn't exactly sure about how the science worked. "Worth a shot, right?"

 

Roll appeared on the comms screen. "We've just finished talking to the passengers and asking them to move backwards in the train. If you can detach the first car, that will be as good as stopping it altogether!"

 

"And we've got an anti-gravity rifle ready to be air-dropped in if you need it," added an excited Athena. Unlike everyone else, she actually sounded giddy.

 

Sunset nodded, her eyes fixed on the train coming around the corner up ahead. "Alright, we got a plan. Kenta, you use your lightning thingies to detach the front car. I'll go right and cut it off."

 

And then, just like that, she was off.

 

G-Corona suddenly rose up from the water, striking up and out of the bay, racing along her designated path. The larger robot’s strides ate up the ground in leaps and bounds that made Kenta feel slow in comparison. "Alright, let's go!"

 

"Right!" Kenta flexed his hands around the Rakuraizer's control, and the bright green lines from before began to creep up his hands. He felt a yell rising in his throat, and shouted as the thrusters on the robot kicked into full action, bringing him out of the bay in an exploding splash taller than a house.

 

From its vantage point in the air, Rakuraizer reared back its right fist, blue electricity surging over the surface and casting a light that enveloped its entire arm.

 

"VOLT COLLIDER!"

 

The surge of lightning shot forward towards the train, aimed at the connecting joint at the head.

 

The lightning arced through the air with a thick stink of ozone, immediately being soaked up into the electrical rails en-masse. The train jolted and lurched as electricity sparked up and down its length, systems overloading and frying in the wake of the devastating attack. When the smoke cleared, the train’s speed had dropped significantly in the aftermath.

 

... But the cost was considerable. Kenta’s heart nearly stopped as the train lurched around its next corner, looking ready to come off the tracks entirely. 

 

"Gh!" Kenta scolded himself for missing! What was he doing?! In trying to disconnect the train he’d just ended up jostling around the passengers. If he wasn't careful, then he'd have the blood of his students on his hands!

 

Distance was the issue. There wasn't anything he could do from back here... and suddenly it seemed like slowing it down was going to be even more of an asset than he’d first imagined. As it was now, the train was a sitting duck for his next attack.

 

Crouching like a professional sprinter, Rakuraizer burst into a dash, lightning trailing behind its legs as Kenta pushed himself to get closer to the train. Sunset’s G-Corona might be faster, but he'd be damned if he didn't try!

 

Rakuraizer took off through the street, running diagonally to try to catch the train. Prior to his intensive training under Swan and SciTwi he would have been daunted by the mess of cars and pedestrians before him, but now he was able to pick his way carefully through them, avoiding harm. Sure, he still left a trail of truck-sized footprints and broken pavement in its wake, but it was much better than the alternative.

 

Once again, green lines of pure energy marched up Kenta's arms as he leaned forward in his seat, setting his jaw. His eyes were rooted to the view screens all around him that formed the globe of Rakuraizer’s cockpit, every last one displaying the corrupted train ahead. 

 

He was catching up! With one final push...!

 

"Come on...!"

 

By the time Kenta reached the tracks, the train was back up to its previous full speed, and then surpassing it, Dominator's plan to hurl it off the tracks rapidly coming to fruition. It was enough to make Kenta’s heart sink... until he caught sight of the people inside the train, pressed against the windows.

 

What he saw took his breath away. He’d been expecting expressions contorted with fear, people facing their deaths, but instead they were... cheering him on! Ema, Lynne, and plenty of others, had their faces smooshed to the glass, banging their fists on it, silently mouthing what could only be words of encouragement. They must be yelling their throats out in there! Cheering him on!

 

More than ever, he wanted to teach these aliens a lesson for messing with the goddamn human race.

 

Regardless, man and machine ran in a dead heat for a moment, side-by-side in a stalemate, before Kenta’s eyes dropped to the train tracks. If he just let it get ahead, then he could...

 

Deliberately dropping his running speed, Kenta waved to the passengers as he dropped off. And when the last carriage of the train pulled ahead of him, he leapt sideways, coming crashing down on the tracks with an enormously heavy impact.

 

He was just about to start running again, when...

 

“Activating Volt Collider,” flashed on a screen by Kenta’s head and he felt his stomach lurch. Firing it here, at this range? 

 

“No no no, abort!” he began to protest, only for the program to activate... just not in the way he’d planned.

 

Instead the discharge came from Rakuraizer’s legs. His screens flurried with text as ATHENA ran through some complicated backend procedure he’d never even seen before, somehow knowing the exact moment to execute it. And while he couldn’t make heads or tails of it, Kenta soon saw the outcome for himself: Rakuraizer’s feet were suddenly magnetized to the track, propelling him forwards and gaining on it by the second.

 

As Kenta leaned forwards, starting to skate on the rails, he let out a whoop: "ATHENA, I think I love you!" He leaned forward in his cockpit and slammed the controls forward, taking off like a jet.

 

Unfortunately, the wolf didn't like that. Compartments opened up all along the front car and those jutting spikes prodding up from it began to vibrate. An array of spike-shaped missiles came pouring out, leaving smoke trails as they spun through the air towards Rakuraizer. This guy wasn't going to make it easy for him.

 

But it would take more than that to deter Kenta, not now he was so close. Not now his students were watching! 

 

But he couldn’t jump out of the way either, not here in the city. This wolf wasn't going to bite anyone!

 

"Not yet! MAGNET WALL!" 

 

Rakuraizer thrust its hands out, electricity beaming outwards from its arms and forming into a large, circular shield in front of it. The giant wolf-tooth missiles collided with the barrier, stopping in their tracks and exploding harmlessly within its field. It was working!

 

However, the explosions caused the integrity of the shield to eventually fail, and one stray missile got through! Thinking as quickly as someone like Kenta could, he pulled back on the controls and slammed them forward again with a grunt, sending Rakuraizer's fist slamming into the projectile. 

 

Rakuraizer's body was enveloped in an explosion, rocking the fist that connected with the missile backwards. The resulting shockwave rattled Kenta in his seat and almost sent the blue robot off-track.

 

But he finally shook it off, lightning once again enveloping the robot’s damaged arm as the blue colour returned to it. "Not gonna stop me like that! You are going to let these people go!"

 

With a yell, Kenta leapt. As his dumbfounded students stared on at their teacher, their teacher propelled Rakuraizer high into the air, vaulting over the train, soaring over the city’s electrical cables. The wolf could only look upwards as he soared overhead... just in time to see him swinging one arm down to point directly at it, an arm infused with the full power of yet another Volt Collider. 

 

He aimed his fist square at the car beneath him and let go another devastating blast of energy, fingertips gliding over the wolf's nape like he was giving him a nice little pet.

 

But instead, lightning rippled through his fingertips as he poured it all out, blasting the front car at point-blank, frying every last one of its systems. But most importantly, detaching the car from those behind it. 

 

It swayed, lurching for a moment. And by the time the Geomorph had the front car back under its control, all the others were long-since gone. It swung out, the rails below squealing and shooting sparks as it nearly lost its balance altogether.

 

But it wouldn't need to. Someone else was about to handle that for it. 

 

A few hundred metres ahead, Sunset Shimmer's G-Corona stood in the middle of the track, the huge, towering mechanical being's fist pounded into its other palm as it watched the train growing closer and closer and closer.

 

"Awright," she said, before hunkering down, making a few short hops as she repositioned the enormous machine's body-weight, making sure its legs were properly braced.

 

The train collided with G-Corona's outstretched hands, guided up and off the track as she shovelled it back into her arms, and...

 

"TOH!"

 

Sunset grasped the bull by the horns, turned her body, and swung G-Corona’s whole centre of gravity upwards at once, taking the train's existing momentum and adding to it. When the moment passed, G-Corona stood in a magnificent Judo pose, while the monstrous train car hurled high into the air, soaring over the streets and bearing down on a wide open park Sunset had been aiming for.

 

At the same time, Athena released the anti-gravity rifle they'd prepared for this moment, and sent it plummeting out of the sky straight down towards Sunset. G-Corona caught it, spun, cocked the hammer and began pounding round after round into the airborne Geomorph. Kenta had been taking that moment to check on the other train cars, but when the sound of gunfire made him whip his head around he couldn’t help cheer at the sight of Sunset going to work.

 

The Geomorph spun in the air from the impact, before crashing to the ground in a smashed-up heap.

 

Kenta leapt from the rails, landing beside Sunset. Both pilots paused, breathing deeply, watching the park for any signs of movement.

 

“Did we get it...?”

 

“Not sure...”

 

For a moment, a haze of smoke hung over the clearing... until a ghastly scraping, groaning sound reached Kenta's ears. The wolf geomorph was rising, scraping together whatever nearby metal it could, building a scrap body from fallen girders, sheets of metal, anything else it could find. Its features turned dark as it roared at the two robots standing around it, clearly not ready to go down yet. It seemed to have every intention of dying fighting.

 

Sunset hoisted her anti-gravity rifle again, ready to pull the trigger. She yelled.

 

"Kenta!"

 

"On it!" The Rakuraizer broke off to the side, diving forward and thrusting a lightning-laced fist into the ground.

 

"THUNDER HOLD!"

 

The sound of thunder cracked the air. A rising bolt of electricity snapped up from underneath the wolf, raising it off of the ground. The geomorph's absorbed metal limbs began to attract to one another, an electric cage sheathing its surface as it held the beast suspended in air. 

 

As it squirmed in the grip of Kenta's Thunder Hold, the monstrous wolf tried firing more missiles, but Sunset wasn't having any of it. She grit her teeth and pulled the trigger, a cloud of dust and debris exploding behind her, kicked up as the powerful shot rang out. A dark purple beam blasted forth from the barrel to connect with the Geomorph, tearing an entire clump off its body with a single blast and vaporizing the monster's flank in the process. 

 

After taking the combined barrage of Sunset's fire and Kenta's crushing electricity, it looked like the Geomorph was finally ready to throw in the towel. Released from Kenta's grip, it crashed to the ground, trying to stand on heavily-weakened legs.

 

And as it rose, that was when G-Corona grasped Rakuraizer by its arm. Lightning coursed between the two robots, and Sunset yelled, suddenly hurling the smaller Rakuraizer into the air with just as much force as she’d thrown the train car a moment ago. The blue mecha spun into the air far above their foe.

 

Sunset dropped her rifle, firing the thrusters on the back of the G-Corona. She ducked inwards, like a boxer who found an opening, and brought her fist back with the cocking of a piston, energy engulfing her entire arm. 

 

Rakuraizer spun around in the air, its red scarf trailing in a spiral behind it. Kenta threw out another Magnet Wall in the sky above, colliding with it upside down, whereupon he propelled himself straight back down again. With a yell that combined his will to win, his love for his students, his hope for humanity, all into once forceful release, Kenta kicked off in a shining blue streak, extending a foot like a lance, a falling thunderclap from Zeus.

 

"RISING THUNDER! - " Sunset screamed, the piston on the G-Corona's arm slammed forward, bringing its fist upwards and into the Geomorph's midsection, rocketing her and it upwards into an awaiting strike!

 

" - SETTING SUN!" Kenta finished, the Rakuraizer's electric-wreathed foot piercing the back of the wolf, causing the monster to break in half as the robot-turned-projectile shot past, making contact with the ground in a furious strike of lightning. 

 

The result was a cross-shaped mark in the sky. An intersection of fire and lightning. Sunset landed on the opposite end, the monster falling towards the earth. The exhausts on the side of the G-Corona bellowed with smoke.

 

As the Geomorph crested the horizon, it exploded in a brilliant ball of flame.

 

It took a long moment for the two heroes to realize the roaring sound they heard wasn't the rush of their blood, but the cheering of the gathered crowd, the people of Tokyo who'd witnessed their spectacular battle. The prisoners on the train had long since been freed and now crawled out of the carriages - Kenta's students included - to thank the mighty giant robots with belts of enthusiastic screaming at the top of their lungs.

 

Sunset was shaking. Her lip curled involuntarily into a half-smile, her shoulders shaking as her joy involuntarily began to leak out. Then she let it all out in a scream, bouncing in her cockpit with tears flowing down her cheeks. The G-Corona jumped up and down on the spot as she squealed at Kenta over the intercom, and soon Athena, Roll, SciTwi and Swan's voices were added to it. She rounded it out by stomping over to Rakuraizer and high-fiving the other robot.

 

"We did it! Everything came together perfectly! We're heroes, Kenta!" Then G-Corona hurled itself at Rakuraizer, hugging the other robot tightly with a worrisome groaning and grinding of metallic parts.

 

Kenta considered shoving her off to save on wear and tear, but seeing her so happy made him beam like an idiot and he threw the Rakuraizer's arm around her as well.

 

He was exhausted. The green lines that had made their way up to his face again began to recede. The relief of saving his students and stopping their rampaging foe was overwhelming.

 

"You were AMAZING out there! The way you tossed that thing around like it was nothing was so awesome!"

 

"You were pretty great yourself, stud. Looks like you fight as well as you fuck~"

 

---

 

The clock ticked over to 9 AM. That meant class would be starting around now. Kenta wondered if Adagio was having trouble taking attendance. She almost certainly was.

 

Well... some of his students were going to be late after this, too. Maybe there was still time to get to class.

 

"Alright, come on home!" called an exuberant Swan.