The six of them soon gathered in the bridge where a table had been cleared for the proceedings. Kenta and Sunset stood at one end, Cozy stood at the other, and Swan presided over it all from her command chair. "Alright... Let's begin. I hope you were able to learn everything you could about this incident in the interim, Kenta. Cozy?" "Yeah! Roll the tape!" Cozy directed their attention to the command room's rge screen, where grainy, low-quality security camera footage soon appeared. She sat back on her chair, folding her arms behind her head as she watched it py. The video started with Sunset standing in front of her locker in the changing rooms. That much corresponded with what she'd told Kenta earlier. Unfortunately, after that there was a big diversion. She left the room and headed to the boratory, moving quickly with her head lowered and her shoulders squared. Entering, she went to Pochi's cage and released him, putting the dog over her shoulder. She quickly carried him to the hangar. At this point, a disruptive sound erupted from the video. It sounded like some kind of arm? "That's a system installed in the hangar... It wesponds to the presence of a Geomorph by evacuating all staff! That's what she needed Pochi for... the crystal inside of him set it off!" Once all the staff had evacuated, Sunset quickly moved to a nearby workbench and fetched an axe lying on top of it. She carried both the dog and axe over to Rakuraizer. The camera lost sight of her movements for a moment... but when she reappeared, she was standing in front of the busted cockpit door. She quickly entered, which was where the tape ended. Security Camera Footage added to the Court Record --- Security Camera Footage Sunset Shimmer stands at her locker for a moment. Then, she goes to the base’s boratory and retrieves Pochi. She takes the dog to the hangar, whereupon the contamination arm is triggered and the staff evacuate. She collects an axe from a nearby workbench. The camera loses focus of her momentarily, but when she reappears the lock on Rakuraizer’s cockpit has been destroyed and she is carrying Pochi inside. --- "Seems pretty open and shut if you ask me!" gloated Cozy. "She used the doggy to set off the arm, not caring if she got caught ter. It was just the thing to get everyone to clear out!" Gah, that's pretty damning evidence! thought Kernta. Sunset had told him she was unconscious after she opened her locker, but on the video it's showing that she did a lot more after that. Something must be wrong here. Why did the camera lose sight of Sunset? Kenta thought back over Cozy's words intently. That's a system installed in the hangar... It wesponds to the presence of a Geomorph by evacuating all staff! She was right. The MG base responds to Geomorph activity with an arm. Kenta still wasn't used to the sound of that thing... That's what she needed Pochi for... the crystal inside of him set it off! This statement felt wrong, for some reason. He couldn't just let it slide. Kenta yelled out and smmed his hand on the desk before he could think about what he was doing. Well, no time for regrets, he had to come up with something... Why couldn't Pochi have set off the arm? He thought back to the file that Twilight gave him as he began to speak up. "Yeah, the MG base has an arm for just the reason you said. Geomorphs trigger the arm and the staff evacuates. But there's no way that Pochi could have set off the arm, because..." Kenta held up the Geomorph Behaviour File, patting it with the back of his free hand. "This is the file on Geomorph behavior that I got from Twilight. As it says right here on the first page: 'Heavy physical trauma to a Geomorph Control Crystal will cause damage and reduce function. Sustained damage will eventually cause a fracture, whereupon function ceases. Once broken, a Crystal cannot be restored to a functioning state.'" He put down the file, pcing his hands on his hips. "And I'm pretty sure Pochi's Control Crystal was good and shattered, because both Sunset and I saw it happen right in front of us!" As the music changed, Cozy nearly fell off her chair, bsted back by the force of Kenta's logic. Her many blue-tinged sweet-roll curls fell down over her eyes, until she angrily shook them back into position. Athena thumped her fist into her other palm. "Oh! That's right! Pochi couldn't have set off the arm if the crystal wasn't active... and once they're broken, it's impossible to restore them to a functioning state. That's by design, actually... Like if they fell into enemy hands! Like it did with us!" "No... Nnngh... There has to be some misunderstanding..." growled Cozy, but it looked like she wasn't coming up with anything. Thankfully, while she was floundering for something to say, it was Roll who spoke up in an unexpected counter to Kenta's argument. "But... We're inside MG territory, aren't we? That Control Crystal is the only one in the entire base." Cozy perked up, regaining some traction. "Y - Yeah! That's right!" Roll fshed her eyes sideways to Cozy as if bothered by her outburst, but continued in her professional tone. "Something set that arm off. Unless you can expin that, then... your entire theory is no good, Kenta." "Yeah! Expin that!" Cozy looked to have completely recovered from her former embarrassment. As the wind quickly drained from Kenta's sails and he slouched down a bit, he couldn't help but wonder just who's side Roll was supposed to be on, here. Though she did bring up a good point. If Pochi didn't set off the arm, there had to be a good reason that it did trigger. But how? It was a long shot, but was there another way that the arm could have triggered? "Maybe..." Kenta scratched the back of his head and fshed a sort of a nervous smile. He was taking a bit of a leap with this one, but if Pochi couldn't set off the arm, then that only meant one other thing. "...There's another Control Crystal we don't know about...?" Swan looked aghast. " A second Control Crystal? But when could it have gotten into Pochi?" Could it really be? Not just one Control Crystal inside MG Headquarters... but two? It was a crazy theory, but there might just be a piece of evidence to support it. Kenta crossed his arms, thinking. "I'm not sure that Pochi even has one, considering that Athena was just as confused as we were, and I'm sure she would have been able to check, right?" He didn't really want to be thinking what he was thinking right now, because if it was true, then the end result meant some pretty bad things for the current people in the room, and would probably also come with some pretty bad regrets for him personally that were... kinda unreted. But that was neither here nor there, and he hadn’t quite connected those dots yet anyway. Regardless, he pushed forward, picking up another document and patting it like he did the previous one. "When I spoke with Sunset, she mentioned that the st thing that she can remember is that she opened her locker, and something inside suddenly moved towards her. She lost consciousness after that." Kenta pced his hand on his chin and looked away for a moment. "I thought that was kind of weird, but when I got the Geomorph Behaviour File from Twilight, page 2 shed a bit of light on that: 'An impnted Control Crystal may depart one host and enter another. This causes considerable shock and often unconsciousness in the former host.'" "Has anyone examined Sunset? Because from the sound of it, I don't think she's the culprit, I think she's the victim!" A heavy silence fell over the command room. Cozy was staring straight ahead, sweating bullets. Meanwhile, the other four girls were considering the facts before them. Twilight eventually picked up a hand-scanner and walked over to Sunset. "Only one way to find out... This should determine if Kenta's theory is correct or not." Without asking permission, Twilight ran the device over Sunset's body, then turned her around and rolled it up her back. Sunset shuddered, moaned and stuck her tongue out, being her usual pleasure-wired self. "Ahhhn!" Twilight brought the device back and checked the readout. "Well, I think that settles it. It looks like a Control Crystal was inside Sunset at some point, sure enough..." Sunset breathed a sigh of relief, then looked at Kenta with sparkling eyes, her lips curled up in a smile that could only be called adoring. She unexpectedly threw himself into his side, hugging him. "Kenta! Kenta...! You did it!" And Cozy... looked very unhappy. "I..." She reeled, squirming in her chair, bouncing, getting visibly more angry. "I..." She pced a trembling hand on the table, running her fingers over the paneling... And then she was climbing on top of it, standing, stomping on top of the table. "What? That's stoopid! I won't accept it! You don't know what you're talking about! Stoopid, stoopid, stoopid!" She continued stomping angrily... until she mispced one of her high-heeled shoes, slipped, and facepnted directly onto the table, where she y... unconscious? She certainly looked like she'd given up for the moment. Twilight still looked unhappy with the readout for some reason, but for the moment it looked like they'd won! At the same time, Swan voiced another concern: "I still don't get something, though... Does that mean Dominator got a second Control Crystal into the base somehow? Something about that doesn't quite add up..." Kenta looked over at the unconscious Cozy. The fact that another crystal made its way onto the base. Cozy's insistence in getting rid of ATHENA. The fact that the culprit didn't know about MG's systems, meaning they would have to be new. The way that Sunset currently looked and the fact that the Control Crystals take on the traits of their creator... She wasn't just Cozy Glow. She was Geomorph Empire General Cozy Glow. Everything clicked in Kenta's head and it was impossible to deny the fact that MG had an infiltrator in their midst. The brat was an alien invader sent here to throw a wrench into their cogs. Guess it made sense that they wouldn't just resort to giant monsters and city-wide havoc. He continued to stare at Cozy as he gave the Director his response. "... Yeah, I guess... Maybe it just got into her when we weren't looking or something. Who can really even say?" It wasn't like him. He should have called out the injustice. He was charged with saving the citizens of Tokyo, so he should be doing what was right. But, at that moment, he thought that maybe he could save Cozy, too. Maybe she could actually come around. He'd have to talk to her after all of this, but right now, he was just gd that Sunset was okay. Cozy raised her head, looking directly at Kenta. Their eyes met. Something like understanding fshed in her face, then she puffed her cheeks out and furrowed her brow (much like a brat not getting the candy she wanted), before looking away. "Hmph." Bckmail me all you want... Just keep your big fat mouth shut, her expression seemed to say. But before anyone could address the elephant in the room, SciTwi raised her hand. "Uh, hello, was anyone listening?" Roll had been busy picking her nose, but popped her finger free suddenly to look over in Twilight's direction. "Ah?" "I said... a Control Crystal was inside Sunset. You know, PAST participle? As in... it's not there anymore?" "Oh..." "Uhh..." "Whoops." "Oh." Kenta stared at Twilight as she spoke, unable to really form any kind of sentence as the realization of what she said exactly meant. Which was when they all heard a terrible, thrashing, rending of metal. The most awful grinding, crashing, cnking sound any of them had ever heard in their lives, a deeply chilling artificial roar. "Ohhhhhhhhhh," he added to that thought. Even Cozy had turned pale as a sheet now. "Shit," she swore under her breath. "That sounded like it was coming from... the hangar! Rakuraizer and G-Corona!" Another creaking, grinding, scraping sound rang out and Kenta shot off like an Olympic runner just hearing the starting pistol, immediately clearing the table he was standing behind and bolting out of the door towards trouble. Athena, Swan and Twilight were right behind him: the augmented Roll even ran fast enough to overtake him, legs almost moving faster than his eyes could follow. Cozy and Sunset both made it like ten steps before they fell against each other, panting and out of breath. "How do you live like this!" groaned Sunset, smashing her stupidly-huge tits against Cozy's out of frustration. "I get carried a lot!" grumped back Cozy, before they both colpsed in an exhausted heap. Anyway, Kenta and the girls burst out into the hangar just in time to have their worst fears confirmed: the enormous figure of Rakuraizer was struggling in its restraining bolts, fighting to be free. Staff scattered every which way as it kicked its powerful legs, technicians screaming as explosions ripped apart the air just metres away from them. Expensive systems were going up in fmes before their eyes, and they could only watch. Rakuraizer was changing before their eyes, becoming more monstrous as it struggled to be free. It broke the belt across its chest and lumbered forwards, turning towards the other two robots in the hangar: G-Corona in its housing by the wall, and the shadowy figure of the third in-development robot currently ying on the floor like an enormous morgue body. That thing... the “ST-00” - or the “Thoth” as Athena and SciTwi had cheerfully codenamed it - it was a prototype, right? After all, they had no shortage of potential pilots so stepping up production in the face of the invasion was a no-brainer... But no time for that now! Was it operational? They’d called it a Support and Tactics unit, but maybe it still had some weaponry? As white-hot panic coursed through Kenta’s veins, he looked for any sign it could be the thing to salvage this worst-case scenario. But no... it had no weapons. And more importantly the build wasn’t even finished, the prototype’s body terminating at the waist. This thing wouldn’t stand a chance against Rakuraizer at full power. This was horrible. And it was about to get worse: Kenta heard the hum of Rakuraizer charging up its RAI-OH system, even as it raised a gauntleted fist to point directly at him. Kenta's face bnched. That was a Volt Collider and it was aimed right at him. If a Geomorph could get crumpled by that kind of force, then what kind of chance did a normal human have? With only a split second to react, he dived, hopefully out of the way and hopefully out of the way of anyone else, too. Lightning shed his back, rending his flesh. Kenta's back felt like it was on fire. He could feel the skin boiling and peeling off of him from where the Volt Collider tore into him, destroying his jacket and shirt along the way. But it was a miracle that he was still alive at all. Sunset immediately appeared to dash over to him. "Kenta!" He barely had time to worry about that, though. It looked like something was happening with the Rakuraizer. It suddenly looked to be struggling for control... and the reason was immediately obvious. Somehow, ATHENA was fighting the infection struggling to take her over. The robot stumbled drunkenly about the hangar, colliding with G-Corona and tearing it down, dropping both of them into a broken heap. Was it over...? He prayed it was over. It looked like Rakuraizer had stopped moving finally. But then, something glimmered directly over the Thoth. That half-finished figure, more like a skeleton than a finished mech, with all its exposed joints and interiors, suddenly jolted. It twitched on the floor. Its legs were far from finished, ending in stumps, and it barely had even half its torso and head, which made the sight of it moving even more disturbing. It started to prop itself up on its skinny elbows, trying to roll over, looking like it intended to crawl over to the downed Kenta and finish him off. At the same time, something manifested in its chest: a huge lump of malformed metal and crystal, a Control Crystal Core just like the ones the other Geomorphs had possessed. With it so completely exposed it would be easy for an active giant robot to destroy it, but G-Corona and Rakuraizer were totally inaccessible in their current states. For a moment, Kenta just didn’t want to deal with any of it. He just wanted to y there in agony. But the danger wasn't over at all. There was a giant metal skeleton coming towards him as if death itself had determined that his time was up. “Goddammit!” He wasn't going to go down that easily. There were people he needed to save. The tatters of his shirt slid from Kenta’s body as he staggered to his feet, the pain of moving causing him to wince and suck in air. However, Kenta powered through it because there were people behind him. Sunset moved back as he started to rise... but maybe she wouldn't have if she'd known just how insane his pn was. When he did what he did next, she regretted not pulling him back very deeply. Kenta grasped a long metal rod, tore free from the hangar railing where the bst had made its thunderous impact, gripping it firmly in his hands. He then slung it over his shoulders, pointing towards the lumbering machine. "Hey, Geomorph! If you want me, I'm right here! You're not that good at walking, so don't worry, I'll come to you!" Powering through the burning and aching, Kenta forced his legs to move. The man bolted forward, running directly at the mechanical nightmare, all fear within him quelled. The pain he was feeling wasn't nearly enough to make him stop. To make him give up his desire to protect. The robot's crawling position pced the core right in front of Kenta. If the core was right in front of him, then all he had to do was break it...! Kenta threw himself forwards with all the force any man had ever mustered, the adrenaline poured into his system blotting out the pain. He leapt through the rubble and dashed between the technicians running in the opposite direction, finding a toppled workbench and jumping onto it right as the machine swung its enormous right arm. Kenta jumped and nded past it, nearly losing his footing... but the way to the Core was open. He charged forwards. Kenta leaped, rearing back the metal pole and smming it forward as if it was some kind of weapon, hoping beyond hope to hit paydirt. He struck the Crystal directly with the tip, twisting it deep into the creature's heart. It roared again, lurching, for a moment looking like its whole body was being kept propped up by his stick like some oversized puppet, twisting so much it nearly pulled him off the ground. It wrenched the staff out of his hand and rolled to the side, decimating half the hangar with revolutions of its jagged, unfinished body. If it had rolled the other way, Kenta would have been crushed... but his heart leapt when he realized it was trying to get away from him. The girls couldn't believe their eyes. As Thoth y on its back trying to pull the steel rod out of its chest, Swan suddenly shouted: "K - Kenta! Go for Rakuraizer! You can defeat it!" As if a dam had broken, all the other girls started shouting too, cheering him on. It wasn't every day you saw something like that, after all! At the same time, Swan raised her hand to her mouth, pulling the antenna out on her wrist communicator. "Release her! Anything to slow that thing down!" As Kenta's aches and pains began to catch up with him, he found himself stumbling forwards, barely keeping his feet underneath himself. Behind him, the robot had ripped the metal pole out of its core and turned back over, snarling hungrily as it hurtled towards him, leaving a deep furrow in the steel floor as it dragged itself through the wreckage. He looked over to Rakuraizer. Just get in and defeat this thing, right? Easy. Except there was no way he was getting there in time. The Geomorph was already stretching a hand out towards him, and when those skeletal fingers wrapped around him... that would be it. His resistance would be over. That was the thought flickering through his mind as a bck shadow suddenly appeared in the air before him, a flickering fsh of movement. As he ran from the mechanized beast, that thing went flying past his head in the opposite direction. Steel fshed. Something came crashing down on Thoth’s head hard enough and heavily enough to make it lurch. The outstretched hand reaching for Kenta smmed into the ground, clearing his way to Rakuraizer. Taking a moment to gnce back, he got a good look at his saviour, perched on top of the robot's head as she was. She wasn't human. He could tell that immediately, even with her body shrouded in darkness. She squatted on top of the robot's head (in a posture that added immense shape, size and heft to an already enormous, oversized shelf of ass, he might add) using the anchorage on her feet from two pink high-heeled shoes... and on her hands from two pink-handled katanas, driven deep into the steel. She looked to be smiling, ughing, as she drove them deeper and deeper, plunging them into the robot's forehead. "Haha! Come py with me for a bit instead, sweetie!" The prototype tried to raise its hand to swat her off, but plunging those katanas another foot deeper made its arm go limp all over again. The girl was around three feet tall, significantly shorter than him, and seemed to have been poured into a bck tex bodysuit. Of course, Kenta was no stranger to tex by now, but her pink bustier fitted over her watermelon tits was definitely a nice addition. And the booty in back surpassed plenty of the girls he knew... a heavenly donk. More to the point, she had the unmistakable aura of a professional killer about her, gleefully fighting in a battle to the death against a much rger enemy. Then there was the bat ears, the bat wings... and the strangely rge eyes that took up almost two thirds of her face. Yep, definitely not human. Maybe he'd have stared longer if he could, watching her shapely ass flexing as she used the strength of her massive thighs to sensually work those bdes deeper and deeper, like a stripper on the pole... but he didn't really have time for that right now. Kenta stood speechless, staring at the sight of the tiny, voluptuous bat creature as she squatted down. Shiny, bck thighs parted out to the sides with a pink-handled katana thrust up between them, embedded in Thoth’s skull and blocking his view of a vacuum-sealed cunt. She looked down at him through blue-lidded eyes, a predatory smile forming on her plush lips as she ran her fingertips up and down the hilt of her bde, almost lovingly stroking it as if it was something else entirely. "Shouldn't you be saving the day, hero~?" The ninja teased, rolling her hips forward until her plump mound pressed against the backside of the bde, spilling around and caressing the metal. She dragged her crotch upward, working it like a stripper pole as she stood, eventually raising her heeled foot high above her head to bring down onto the top of the katana's hilt with a loud cck and another spray of sparks. The resulting shockwave caused practically her entire body to jiggle wondrously. "I'm not doing this just because I like it, you know." The sound rang out in Kenta's ears like a gunshot, finally snapping him out of his trance. "Er-... R - Right!" With an awkward response, he took off for the Rakuraizer's cockpit in order to end the fight while the tiny, sensuous warrior held the rampaging robot at bay.