Less Than Heroes, More Than Friends (Jade)

[Nemesis]

December 26th
Lunchtime
Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean

"We're lost!"



The ocean waves streched in all directions. A barren, perfectly hemispherical plane of water, tranquil save for the back and forth of the waves. This tranquility was interrupted, however, by the aforementioned wail, sending birds scattering as something crude and bulbous cruised languidly into view over the horizon. The off-yellow form of Getter-3, slouched down as if it were withering under the heat of the sun, floated aimlessly across the waves, buoyed by a collection of airbags packed about its treads. On its back, hiding in the shade, Seti Veasna let out a low moan and sank to her knees.

"Why, oh why did I ever agree to this? It's been days since we've seen land! How could we foul up the landing this badly?"

The former test pilot's suit had been stripped down and wrapped about her waist, leaving only a black vest, her dark hair bound up in a ponytail that felt stiffened by the salty air. Glaring over her glasses, she jabbed an accusing finger at the figure seated at the edge of the treads.

"And you! How can you be so calm-"

Solana, blonde hair bobbing in the wind, raised a finger to her lips. The former luchador hardly seemed bothered by the heat, and had rigged up a rod of sorts from the machine's emergency supplies and spare parts, a length of cord trailing into the water beneath.

"Shh. You're scaring away the fish, niña."

Seti glared holes in the back of the woman's head. They hadn't caught anything either in days. It was the Getter, she was sure of it - life was just allergic to it. Even the birds seemed to grow quieter and steer a longer path around them. If she had chicken nuggets, she was almost sure they'd will themselves to bounce free of their packaging and into the ocean, just to escape its looming shadow.

She slipped down to her knees, propping her head up in her hands.

"I can't believe I'm gonna die out here." She said, hoarsely. "I never even got to see Cephiro."

"Que? Cephiro?"

"Oh, it's a beautiful place!" - Seti clasped her hands together, gazing starry-eyed towards the heavens in longing.

"It's like a fantasy kingdom, ruled by an all powerful princess. The people are kind, there's mystical creatures, castles..."

Solana waited expectantly, nodding along, before Seti's hands grabbed her shoulders, shaking her back and forth.

"...I was gonna go there and marry a rich, handsome prince! It was my dream!"

Fortunately, before she could continue her caterwauling, the two were interrupted by a wry snicker from the often-silent third member of their little would-be menage-a-trois. #55 hadn't strayed far from the head of the craft at all times, always, it seemed, ready for combat. The rags of her clothing, ravaged as they were, remained untouched from her time in imprisonment, giving her a sort of wild look as she glanced over at the two of them.

"Wow." She said; "That is... the lamest dream I've ever heard in my entire life."

"Oh yeah? You got a better one, convict?"

"Never had the luxury. A roof over my head. Warm food. Safety. Stability. You don't know how valuable these things are until you go without them."

There was a low rumble, and #55 put a hand on her stomach, wincing in pain. The three gave a collective sigh, under the shadow of the Getter. It wouldn't be long before their emergency rations gave out. There wasn't even the distant crowing of seagulls to reassure them.

"...We're in trouble, aren't we?"

The other two gave weary nods of acknowledgment. Solana opened her mouth, as if to reassure them further... but the words, for once, died in her mouth, even her sunny disposition seeming to wilt in the face of their predicament. As their thoughts danced about, Seti finally spoke:

"Hey, convict. Is it true what you said? About being... "cursed by the Getter"."

All three craned their heads up, looking at the back of the Super Robot. It shielded them from the shade, its shadow stretching across their features as they regarded it. Just as #55 had said - it needed to be sealed, hidden away somewhere it could never blossom - but where? They'd been musing over the question in orbit before the machine, seemingly on its own, had dragged them down... and now here they were, days later, without a clue where they were or what to do.

"It's just something old man Saotome said, once." Said #55, wearily.

"That Getter only brings misfortune to those that it chooses."

They mulled over the thought, each in her own way, a silent cascade of emotions, hopes, thoughts, doubts and dreams - but it was Solana who spoke up, eventually, slinging the fishing rod over her shoulder.

"Well... It could be a lot worse. At least we have each other."

Seti gave a nervous laugh, and pushed her finger tips together anxiously, starting to mumble under her breath:

"So... if we have to eat someone-"

A loud roar, however, interrupted her thoughts - a terrible slurping, groaning noise as the Getter tilted treacherously under them. Solana's hand snatched out, grabbing Seti by the wrist as she tumbled forward. The sound of rushing water rose in their ears, to an almost deafening pitch as #55 stared out at the sea, wild-eyed, as it began to shift beneath them.

"...What was that? Are we sinking?"



"Worse. Everyone, get in! Go, go, go!"

They scrambled across the metal into the cockpit as water churned all about them. The last thing Seti saw before the hatch closed should have been impossible: The seas parting, a vortex widening beneath them of infinite blackness, an inescapable whirlpool that thundered and howled, bolts of neon-green lightning bursting from its depths to lash them hungrily, drawing them in closer with every passing second.

The other two were shouting something to one another, and to her - but she couldn't hear it. Overwhelmed by hunger, thirst, and far too much time in the sun than a desk-jockey was ever meant to take...

Everything went black.

 

[Chaos]

Down and down. Through the endless dark they fell. As Jonahs before a whale, the yawning void swallowed them whole, and they fell ever deeper into the abyss.

The only light was that which they brought with them aboard the Getter. The only sound that which they, and it produced. Their only companions beyond each other the veil of seawater just beyond the Getter's sphere of influence. Beyond which, nothing could be seen, for there was nothing for light to fall upon, nothing for perked ears to detect. Only the solitude of the deep, the Terran sky a pale blue dot receding above them until lost to the depths.

Some time into their descent, should their gauges be able to estimate time and distance and relative speed in a place where there was no up, down, side, or passing substance, it might well have indicated enough distance traversed to have hit the bottom of the sea by now. And yet down and down they fell, their continued direction only passably indicated by the rise in one's belly from inertia, and the shape of the surrounding droplets to indicate downward trajectory. Beyond that, there was simply not enough... anything to indicate they were even moving.

The longer they fell, the more oppressive the darkness about them became. As sensory depravation threatened to set in, fleeting flickers filtered through the surface ripples of the waters without. Glimpses of ghosts glanced through the prismatic gloom of single droplets. Just beyond the edge of hearing, the churn of the spray shed murmurs of voices, too faint to be anything more than the tickling of beetles at the tips of the fine hairs upon one's ears...

 

[Nemesis]

"-ead! Hey!"

Seti Veasna's eyes creaked open... and saw only the dim lighting of the Getter's cockpit. The yelling of her compatriots, however, was as loud and intrusive as ever. Groaning, she tried to piece together her memory. They had been out on the ocean, and then... a whirlpool? No... A gateway. The word leapt to the front of her mind, and yet she couldn't fully explain why. There was a distinct sense of movement, of her stomach pressing up into her ribcage that was anything but pleasant - but it woke her up faster than a syringe full of caffeine.

"I'm alright. I think." She groaned;

"What's happening? How long was I out?"

There was a moment of awkward silence, and Seti began checking the various instruments before the other two spoke up, more tepidly than usual.

"We were, uh... Hoping you could tell us."
"It feels like we're falling to the center of the Earth!"

She rolled her eyes, clicking through various menus and readouts.

"Don't be ridiculous..." She started... but soon caught her breath after seeing the depth measurements. She checked and rechecked the readout, tapping a varnished finger against the screen skeptically. Of course there were phenomenon that defied understanding, she realized. Nergal, tight lipped as it was about its experiments with Boson Jumps, had reported similar breakdowns of recording and measuring equipment during tests. But if that were the case, wouldn't they all be dead? No living person had ever survived a Boson jump, at least in what trials had been attempted thus far.

Her trail of thought was interrupted by a faint, distant noise. Whispers... the kind that made the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. Seti was a scientist. She didn't believe in ghosts - the suits at Omer that had raised her weren't ones for superstition. But at that moment, surrounded by complete darkness, plunging towards an uncertain fate?

She believed, alright.

"...I don't think we're alone here." Seti whispered, feeling cold sweat start to drip down her face.

Somehow she willed her fingers to move, flicking over the many switches inlaid into the side panels. Brightness burst from Getter-3's face - simple headlights, as it turned its gaze about, searching for any other sign of life in the abyss...

Praying it didn't find it.

 

[Chaos]

The lights filtered through the curtain of water, individual clouds and waves vying with each other as they hung suspended just beyond the Getter's reach. Beyond them was an ever-present emptiness, the sort whose very lack of existence made the imagination grope for definition. One could easily have pictured a great leviathan snaking through this primordial void. Or perhaps the world serpent, gnawing on the very roots of creation's foundation. No matter where they might look, hallucinatory phantoms retreated to the edge of sight and hearing. Flickers and movements always just out of the corner of the eye.

Uncountable, seemingly eternal moments passed thus - the machine's head turning, the filtering droplets lining out the conical shape of its head lights. The silence so thick as to conjure thoughts of a scream to the mind's ear. The dark as oppressive as a crushing weight all about them, the unseen serpent threatening to tighten its coil at any moment, and wring out their last breaths.

Until the vibrations started. Faint at first, but slowly building. A low quiver. A faint trembling. A gradual, rising turbulence snaking its undulating tendrils ever upward. Close in the distance, faint motes of light began to appear. Vague glimmers like dim stars or dying bubbles, floating past one by one. There was a distant, watery groan, as the release of the last rattle from a drowning soul, reduced to the thud of expelled oxygen.

All at once, the abyss opened beneath them, flickering lights sailing past as aimless comets. Shards of crystal and ice doomed to wander endlessly in the void, shedding their dying light in a tail behind them. Waning bubbles of time and space, their last breaths peeling off in strings of particle pearls. Each wandering light pulsing with the thoughts of lost souls - their ghostly images and voices wafting from the shards as they passed.

... even now, I remember standing there.... locked in a moment where the sky is aflame...
... maybe that'll teach you not to screw around with random passersby...
...there's no point letting loose and leaving yourself open...
... wouldn't have remembered if you didn't put the water on my head...
...neither time, nor death, can be cheated...
... you're choosing a man who cannot die to embody your ideals. That is dangerous, you know that, right?
... a new vein opened up last week.... there may be hope yet...
... every soul gets one item... one memory to hold on to... here... take it. I don't need it anymore...
... -ow me! I will lead you to victory, to close the World Scar!
... should never have returned to this land... not after...
... avenge my father... by taking you from yours!​

Screams. Moans. Triumphant cries and torturous wails. Words of inspiration spat with passion. Words of solace whispered with tenderness. A cacophony of voices, all ages and emotions, all eras and places. All of it rose as a roaring sea. And through it they yet plunged, falling ever deeper down the rabbit hole.

 

[Nemesis]

A spellbound silence settled in the cockpit as Seti watched the phenomenon around them play out. Not in all her life, she thought, would she ever have guessed she'd behold such wonderment. Even as they tumbled through the abyss to parts unknown... she felt, for a small moment, grateful to be alive. Solana's voice eventually crackled in over the radio.

"...Oh. I think... that was my Papi just now."

"You heard him?"

"Yes, but... He passed a long time ago, when I was little. I remember his voice, though."

The two sat in humbled silence, watching the stars glimmering in the great beyond. Seti placed her hands on her lap. Once you got used to the endless sense of falling, she thought, it wasn't so bad. Something had been on her mind, anyway - ever since the blonde girls' reappearance, but she'd never managed to muster the courage to say. Not until now, at least.

"Hey, Solana?"

"Si?"

"I'm sorry I... shot you down. That I didn't believe you, when you said you'd come back for me."

There was an amused chuckle on the other end, the kind that immediately deflated whatever sincerity Seti had tried to infuse her words with.

"De nada. Lucky for both of us, you're a terrible shot."

This time... Seti laughed along with her. Seti turned to address the third member of their group - but instead, her voice crackled over the radio, low and trembling.

"...Stop it..."

Within the Eagle Machine's cockpit, #55 had curled up into a ball, hands clasped over her ears, eyes clenched tight. She shivered uncontrollably, turning her head back and forth, whispering timorously into the dark.

"Please...! Leave me alone...!"

"Hey-"

"#38...! #92...! I can hear them... again...!"

---

20 Years Prior
Mars Main Hive Assault
Alternative III

"One within, one without... one within, one without..."​

She repeated the mantra, hoping it would calm her shaking hands as the F-4 Phantom reloaded. The roars within the tunnels were deafening now, and it was impossible to separate the screeching of the monsters from the endless chattering of gunfire. Up came the assault cannon - and she was into the breech again, darting out from cover, raking the roving, living carpet of horrors with molten death... but for every one that fell, another two rose in its place. A fight for conquest had quickly devolved into a fight for survival, and while some combat groups continued to advance mindlessly, most were left fighting back to back in close quarters and unfamiliar tunnels, cut off from support.

-Advancing according to the route...
We're cut off! We need reinforcements!
#18, #86, heavily damaged...
Destroyer Classes advancing down shaft D-​

The voices. All of them were networked together, a psychic gestalt that would repel the BETA once and for all. That was the plan. That was what she - they - had been born to do. One was all, and all was one. Every one of them was responsible for holding together the link. This had been drilled into them from day one, building powerful psychic bonds that couldn't be broken by fear...

But they could only do so much.

The mass of Tank Classes surged forward - and lunged, their tiny crimson bodies slamming into the TSF in front of her. Its assault cannon fired madly into the air as it crumpled, the horror's jaws snapping and chopping away at its armor, edging closer and closer to the cockpit.

She knew that girl.

#38.

A sweet smile. Loved to paint. Had gotten them both scolded once, when she'd befriended a stray cat and hidden it in their dorm. Little dimple in her cheek. She was real proud of that, for a clone.

Never was much of a fighter.



She knew what she was supposed to do. The Assault cannon came up, pointed at #38's fallen TSF... and froze. All around her, battle raged, a cacophony of bloodshed and violence as her sisters fought for their lives. It was as if her blood had turned to ice. All she could hear was the others - their dying thoughts, screams, begging for life, begging for death, echoing through her mind.

#55? #55! What are you waiting for?!

​

And then, before her conscious mind even registered it - she was running. As far and as fast as she could go. Fleeing in blind terror into the waiting darkness. The link had been severed, and with it, each now fought alone. She'd severed it. Behind her, there was a distinctive click - and the telltale, riproaring explosion of a self-destruct device billowed out of the cavern, filling her world with light and fire as it scoured friend and foe from the face of the Earth.

She didn't remember how she made it to the surface. How many bodies she'd climbed over. How she'd managed to escape, when everyone else perished. No, when she'd let them die. All she remembered was how only one of the vaunted Super Robots that was supposed to bring them victory remained: the only other thing salvaged from the operation... Getter Robo.

Those chosen by the Getter are cursed forevermore.

---

"#55! EMMA!"

CRACK!

Her face hurt, suddenly. The sharp, stinging shock of a slap jolted #55 back to reality with a gasp. Seti Veasna lowered her hand, shifting back somewhat in the cramped cockpit space with a wince of pain. Overhead, Solana peered through the emergency access hatch linking the three machines together, her features etched with concern.

"Come back to us. It's over, alright?"

Emma ran a hand over her face, and tried to shake her head. No, it wasn't over. It would never be over. Not for her. Nothing she could ever do in life would make up for that one moment of frailty that had cost so much.

"The Hive... I..."

I was the weak link. That was what she wanted to say, but the words wouldn't come. Finally, Solana spoke, softly.

"...Alternative III. The lone survivor... That was you, wasn't it?"

Emma nodded.. and then, felt a strange warmth. Arms wrapped around her, pulling her close to the hatch, as Solana embraced the shuddering convict. The feeling was... indescribable. She'd never had parents. Never had loved ones. Only raised as a weapon to fill a purpose. Not even once had she been held... and she closed her eyes, letting the blonde stroke her hair, as Seti looked on, solemnly.

"Lo siento."

 

[Chaos]

... if this is a museum, and the exhibits are supposed to be interesting. That means it's a museum made to be looked at... at night.

... back there, left at the oil barrels, right at the fishmonger, then straight until the...​

...will take two months between the three forts probably, depending on the weather...​

...no beer. You'll just sweat faster, sir-rusts-a-lot!​

.... these two are my greatest treasures. I'm counting on you to carry them to "me", wherever "I" end up in the new world...

... who will remember us... who will remember we were here...​

...it is as close to an impervious fortress as one is likely to get... ​

Save this world, legendary Magic Knights! Save Cephiro! ​

A particularly large and radiant shard hurtled past the Getter, only barely missing collision. As it passed, they could see the vision of a woman silhouetted against a blinding light, and a ghostly voice calling out for saviours. Just as swiftly, it was gone, lost in the sea of souls and stars. Every point of light and every voice they heard came from a shard of a time and a place, voices from across history and reality. Onward still they plunged, traversing the nexus of dimensions, and the void memories that resided there.

Eventually, the voices drew more distant, and the lights began to dim. Whether they were weaker or just further away, it was difficult to tell. That task became even more difficult as a crackling began to ring out beneath them, and the swirl of water accompanying their passage began to freeze, to crystalize into stagnant purple shards. Within fractions of a second, the growing wall wrapped up and around them, cocooning they and their machine. In the last fleeting moment before their vision was obscured, there could be seen only a great twisted lump of... something, ahead, casting a baleful light.

Then, all was only silence, and stillness.

 

[Nemesis]

It was a good thing the Getter Team were clustered together in the one cockpit as the entity of light blew past them. A short scream of surprise went up... and as the seconds ticked by, #55 reached up to unlatch Seti's grasping hand from her face. The former Omer Test pilot gave a nervous laugh before scampering back up the emergency shaft, as quick as a rat and as red as a tomato.

"That thing almost hit us."
"It was a woman."
"Eh?"

Solana stared pensively up at the ceiling - ostensibly, in the direction the being had shot off towards. Ever since meeting these two, she thought, her senses had felt keener than usual. What was happening to them? Was this because of the Getter? She pushed those thoughts aside for a moment to address the convict, pausing at the shaft's entrance.

"Emma, are you-"
"I'm fine."

The former wrestler nodded, but before she could dart away, #55 added gruffly:

"...Thank you."

There would be time, Emma thought, to properly mourn the dead later on. Meanwhile, Seti had settled back into her seat, strapping herself down as she began to talk excitedly to the other two:

"Did you hear that? Cephiro! She said Cephiro!"
"Sounds like they need help. We should-"
"Ohhh no. No, no way, absolutely not. This thing is way too dangerous."
"How can you say that? The princess could be in danger!"
"Seti, just wondering but... have you ever even been there?"
"I've... read about it in books! And on the internet!"
"Oh, Lord."

As the Super Robot drifted into the deepest depths, reality itself seeming to crystalize about them, the three were so caught up in their bickering they didn't notice the darkness until it had descended upon them fully, wrapping them in startled silence...

 

[Chaos]

As there had been before, so was there now a long passage. Sealed within the orb of frozen crystal, they were spared gazing into a featureless void, and the pressure that could bring to bear. But the interminable monotony now lacked any sensation to suggest they were even moving at all. Their passage had largely maintained a constant speed so far, and no further actor had interceded. Yet even the stomach-turning sensation of momentum had ceased.

Minutes passed. And nothing happened.

Somewhere about the same point of time it had taken them to transit from the portal to the nexus, there abruptly came a great THUD. A resounding noise that made the crystalline orb groan, and send a rocking vibration through the machine, as it was forced to collide with the crystals beneath it. It seemed they had landed.

With the impact, a number of fractures were sent radiating along the shell around them. It was yet thick and sturdy enough to present some solid resistance, yet the damage did dislodge some rather small fragments, which fell like stray crumbs upon the figures below. Of sizes varying from palm-size hailstones to jagged grains of sand, the shards were universally purple, and their glint only effected by the nature of their facets. They did, however, tingle to the touch with some internal energy, and produced a peculiarly marred luster.

After a few moments they were gifted more samples, as a faint whirring noise started to make the top of the shell quiver...

 

[Nemesis]

So it was, like a colossal jewel dropped from the gaudy plastic necklace of the Devil himself, that the Getter in its crystalline prison finally hit rock bottom with an unceremonious THUD. There were a few seconds of awkward silence before someone finally spoke:

"We landed!"
"Thank you Seti, we noticed."
"But, where are we?"

The headlights swiveled back and forth, examining the crystalline material that had built up around them. There was the roar of treads grinding underneath, as the Super Robot's axels spun, sending up sprays of dust and splintered gem in all directions. Emma scowled and thumped the roof of her cockpit irritably, calling out to the blonde:

"Solana, get us moving! What's the hold up?"
"...We're stuck."
"Sealed, more like it."

Seti tapped away at her monitor. The crystals around them radiated a kind of... energy, it seemed. Was it some kind of... dimensional quarantine measure? Clams, after all, coated grains of sand to create pearls. She zoomed in on the residue on 3's fingers, as its accordion like arms began to stretch, trying to force itself free of its prison, clearing away as much of the substance as possible, hands moving like massive shovels. As they began to work, Solana tilted her head up in the direction of the cracks, listening... and her brow furrowed.

"You hear that?"
"What?"
"Sounds almost like... a drill?"

After this realization, the team swiftly redoubled its efforts, trying to extract itself from the shell whilst its head tilted up in the direction of the noise, headlamps focused on its source...

 

[Chaos]

Between the forces within and the forces without, the orb trembled and echoed with mechanical din. For as peculiar as the crystal may have looked, it was ultimately as brittle as flash-frozen ice. The walls crackled as more fractures appeared, and more stray shards rained down from the ceiling. Like a gargantuan egg beginning to hatch - or, rather, being forced to crack open by violence against its shell - the walls began to splinter into disparate sections of varying sizes. Entire sections of the inner layer fell off, their crashing to the ground only adding to the cacophony.

Finally, all at once, the ceiling began to cave in, a massive section falling from just off-center, shattering against the Getter's hull like a doomed chandelier. What presently filled the opening was not the same absolute darkness that ruled the interior, but nor could one exactly call it light. There was only a differently colored patch of voidal gloom, within which came to loom a silhouette.

Which was strange... because even now, the headlights were still pointed right at it. Their beams simply weren't illuminating anything beyond the breach.

What could be seen of the figure was small compared to the Getter - larger than a normal person, certainly, but still only a handful of meters. Its hull resisted even the light its own body cast, leaving the incandescent patches of gold and purple to strain impotently against the gloom. In one hand it seemed to hold an apparatus resembling a chainsaw - similarly shrouded, save for the glowing teeth of its saw belt.

For several moments, it seemed content to rest where it was, perched atop the orb watching the Getter try to dig itself out. The shell was no match for the mighty super robot below, to be certain - but it was so fractious that punching, scooping, or shoveling were like grabbing handfuls of snow and sleet. Holes began to form as the material thinned, and more sections began to lose integrity and fall inward. And still, their visitor watched.

... you're a lively one, aren't you...​

The impression sprang unbidden to their minds. Not heard, nor spoken. Not even as much as a voice in their head. Simply an impression of something having happened, without it ever actually happening. The figure's head tilted slightly, and at last its body rose, moving to hover above the sphere. It was a timely gesture, for no sooner had it stepped off than one entire side of the sphere finally collapsed outward, shattering nearly to dust under its own weight. Without its other half to buoy it, the remaining hemisphere began to implode atop them, caving in on itself in massive blocks.

It was now they could see their surroundings at last - the lights they cast never seeming to land on any surface, only to project as cones into space, and fizzle out but a scant distance beyond their own wingspan. With the orb destroyed, the Getter sat in something of a crystalline snowdrift in the middle of a barren, rocky plane. The sky - if one could call it that - was strung between patches of inky clouds and smears of night with specks of dim stars. The only thing to lend their gloomy surroundings any definition were the occasional bursts of static and amethyst lightning, the flashes serving to silhouette anything in the intervening distance.

They were on an island, it seemed. A chunk of wasted stone floating in a field of countless like it. There was no land, or sea. And judging by the almost randomized alignments of the detritus around them, there was no real up or down either. There was enough atmospheric haze to suggest they weren't in space... but whatever they were on, it couldn't rightly be called a planet either.

They were simply... adrift.

 

[Nemesis]

"We're out!"

Seti exclaimed, once again seemingly unable to prevent stating the obvious as their crystalline prison shattered, Getter 3 trundling through the rubble with rumbling treads. For a moment, the three simply stared in collective, silent awe at the yawning void of darkness that surrounded them. It felt as if they had collectively fallen out of the bottom of the world, out of the world of light and into somewhere... different.

And then they "heard" the entity - not so much a "voice", but a "sensation" that all seemed to feel, as though it were projecting a state of mind into their own. The Getter's head swiveled to take in the newcomer, and the unnerving way it seemed to swallow the light directed at it. After a moment's heavy silence, #55 growled, reaching for her controls:

"Shoot first, ask questions later-"

"¡Espera!"

-But it was the arresting tone of Solana that won out. She brought a manicured finger to her lips directed at the other two... who, for once, decided to let her take the lead in cowed silence. There was no guarantee, after all, that violence would get them anywhere in this place. The Super Robot's speakers crackled to life, as it lowered its hands to its sides, letting them rest near the treads. From the sight of the tool it was carrying, perhaps they were to thank for cutting the trio free?

"Excuse us, but... where are we? We were dragged here through some sort of vortex all of a sudden."

 

[Jadwiga]

The figure tilted its head to one side momentarily, as if straining an ear. It then just as smoothly righted its posture, and rather calmly lifted its left arm, lining up the knuckle of the index finger with the giant below. There was a faint, nigh-imperceptible glimmer as a wire swiftly crossed the distance, and attached itself to the Getter's hull. Presently, a feminine voice seemed to muse to itself through a tinny, vibrational distortion.

"... you're not rusting. My, how interesting.... I wonder how long that will last..."

With the obscuring terrain gone, the shadow was readily evident as a scant nine meters tall. The only features that could be made out - beyond its humanoid shape - were the violet eyes in its head, and similarly glowing seams that lined its figure. Here and there, bulbous bones of gold peeped from within its complex frame. A quartet of angular shapes rested idly just behind it. And atop its head, a massive pair of curled horns.

"What is it they say? 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter'?"

It seemed to simply float, weightless and motionless, like an eerily still ballon to which they held the string. Having taken their measure in turn, the voice seemed to speak up a bit.

"Few are those who come here intact... and fewer, those who can return. I suppose your word for it would be... Makai? Or perhaps... Hell?"

 

[Nemesis]

Solana listened carefully as the entity spoke, the wire being accepted without resistance. At the mention of rusting, her eyes flicked momentarily to Seti who, wordlessly and as if on cue, began running whatever environmental analysis she could on their current status, as well as any unusual qualities in the surrounding air. Was it some kind of corrosive effect? Good thing they hadn't tried to breathe it in...

"Did she just say Hell? Are we... did we..."
"We're not dead. Not yet, at least. It's an allegory... I think."
"That's not reassuring!"

The former wrestler closed her eyes, mulling over the words they spoke. Hell? Her family had warned her of such a place many times when she was a child. Her fingers drifted to the rosary she wore about her neck, gently touching its iron cross protectively. A cheap little thing, but she never left without it. After all, the world they lived in now was very different from back then - Demons were real, who was to say Hell wasn't too?

"Thank you, but... We can't stay here. This machine, this Getter Robo, is extremely dangerous. I'm sure even a place such as this wouldn't be spared the ruin it would bring if left unchecked."

She wondered if the entity could sense the power streaming off them - or, for that matter, how it was reacting to the surroundings. A quick glance - so far, so good. The last thing she needed was for the machine to decide to take matters into its own hands again.

"And, who are you? My name is Solana... with me are Seti, and Emma."
"Don't tell it we're here!"
"Shh!"

 

[Jadwiga]

A side glance to a companion. The figure remained.
A momentary closure in self-reflection. The figure remained.
One more glance to check the Getter's status. The figure disappeared.

"Ruin?"

The figure was now behind them - joining them on the surface, but as yet keeping a healthy distance. The line now adhered to the Getter's backside, the silhouette now in profile with its arm extended sidelong. There was no passage between - it was simply in one place, and then in another. A faint giggle came across the line.

"You can't break what's already broken. I told you, this is Makai. This entire realm -is- ruin."

The sensors busily groping at the dark would find their range a bit hampered - past a certain distance, nothing seemed to come back, like tossing stones into an abyss. Within what could be detected, the readings were fairly unremarkable. There was breathable air above, and stable stone below. There were no immediately detectable toxins or corrosives, no acids or airborne pathogens.

In fact there wasn't anything. Beyond the Getter and its immediate aura, there was not one sign of life. The area was dead, right down to the atomic level.

"And now, you are stuck here. With that machine as your coffin. It cannot leave here, and you cannot leave it. The miasma, you see."

The figure turned its gaze to the Getter upon being asked its name. After a long pause, the voice answered with a hint of bemusement.

"I'm just a passing scavenger. You don't need to remember me. There'll be others soon enough."

 

[Nemesis]

As the figure vanished, Solana's eyes widened with alarm - and whirled, as the HUD trilled a warning, the tread-equipped Getter turning on the spot to view them face to face once more. The former luchadore's face fell at their countenance. The imagery of vultures circling over a fallen body in the desert, ones with horns and teeth, stood out in her mind as clear as day. At least on the high sea, they'd have died under the light of their own sun.

"You're making a mistake-" She said, the first tremors of tension entering her voice... but was interrupted, as #55 called out loudly.

"Enough, Sola."

"But..."

Within the Eagle Machine's cockpit, Emma had her arms folded, eyes closed as she'd listened to the exchange. There was a time for chatter, and a time for action... and they weren't getting back topside with the former.

"You heard her - She can't get us out of here. Not her problem."

Solana sank down into her seat, evidently dispirited. She read through Seti's analysis as she did, flicking slowly across the readout... at the very least, it seemed the place wasn't poisonous. Just a whole lot of nothingness, exactly as the scavenger had described. Of course, that wasn't going to stop some people.

"Hey. Change with me. Egghead, start looking for pathways."

"To where?"

"Anywhere. We gotta get moving."

With a roar of its engines, the Super Robot rose off the ground - and then split apart, three pieces dancing and weaving through the air momentarily before, in mere moments, reforming in a completely different shape. The Getter-1 landed heavily back on the platform, sweeping its arm aside dramatically as a red cape billowed out behind it. Emma locked eyes with the scavenger - or tried to, peering into the depthless darkness as boldly as one could.

"Thanks for the info, lady. But we're not gonna give you or your friends the satisfaction of picking our bones clean. Pass it on."

 

[Jadwiga]

The figure remained still and uncaring as the Getter changed form. The comms cable retracted into its hand, and the arm lowered idly to its side. The head tilted to keep its gaze on the giant, watching it split into three, and then fuse back into one. That one came crashing back down to the surface, pulverizing scattered crystal to a fine powder underfoot, and kicking up a shockwave from its impact.

It also happened to land just a little closer to the unmoving shadow. Just close enough that, as the aura of its power brushed against the veil of darkness, the shadows parted from the machine within. It ultimately made little difference - the hull it revealed was just as black as its shadows, only differing in having a glossy coat that glinted in the Getter's light. On the tip of each foot was a long and wicked spike. On the back of its head it wore a segmented tail as a queue. Upon its back were four binders mounted as wings. It was a tiny machine compared to the Getter - and yet it struck no less confident an aura.

As the Getter-1 regarded it and #55 addressed it, the machine's binders spread behind its unflinching figure, spitting out plumes of twilight. Upon these plumes it casually rose until it was at eye level with the Getter, meeting its gaze. Once more, the impression of speech despite its absence came to them. A bemused chortle, and then a wry, smirking tone.

"It won't matter... they're slaves to vice, they can't help themselves. Only demons dwell here, for only demons can. But don't worry. I'll be watching~"​

Upon that fading strain, the figure blinked out of existence, leaving only the impression of a smile behind.

 

[Nemesis]

Getter-1 watched the dark figure retreat into the darkness, glowing green eyes staring after it. Emma exhaled. Now, they were back to square one. She looked back and forth, trying to discern one patch of darkness from another. Demons, huh? She punched a fist into a waiting palm in anticipation, her hunger briefly forgotten in all the excitement. Well, bring 'em on.

"...Did anyone else see an Paramail just now?"
"Que es?"
"It's... a kind of lightweight mobile weapon for aerial, anti-dragon combat used on the surface. Omer studied its airframe when designing Fragile. What's it doing here...?"

As Seti lapsed into thought, rubbing her temples in contemplation, there was a distinct booming, crunching noise, as Getter-1 made its way to the edge of the platform. It looked down into the pitiless darkness speculatively, causing Seti and Solana to collectively turn their gazes up at the woman they'd handed the controls to, as if they could hear the (admittedly rusty) gears turning in her head. The Super Robot took a few ponderous steps back, as if preparing itself, bending its knees in anticipation.

"Oh no."
"Emma? What are you doing?"
"Well, it's worked out for us well so far. Might as well keep going. Maybe we'll come out the other end."
"That's not how it works!"

"GERONIMO!"

Too late. As the other two opened their mouths in protest, the Super Robot took a running leap off the platform, plunging down with its cape behind it as it accelerated down, into the darkness, like a blazing red comet. If there were other horrors lurking within...

They now had competition.

 

[Jadwiga]

What there was of a sky receded behind them as they plunged headlong into the dark. Apart from the fact they were headed away from the atmospheric horizon, and thus presumably on some downward trajectory, the field of debris they now encountered gave few indicators which way was which.

Upon shattered chunks of land sat crashed vessels and ruined cities of various sizes, styles, configurations, and technological levels. Here the floating husk of a dead tree shattered against the Getter's shoulder. There the partial hull of some long doomed sailing ship creaked as it glided past.

There were the ruined mecha as well - types familiar and alien, intact and rent asunder. Almost all of them were pitted and corroded, some lined with the same purple crystals as the sea spray had formed. Others had come to sprout marbling in gold and purple, lending them a sickly, prismatic sheen around the stark veins of corruption. None held life signs, residual power, or even heat. Every craft and every structure that passed before their sight rendered the same readings as the first island - completely sterile of all life, with not a scrap of flesh or bone of their former inhabitants.

The crew of the Getter was far from alone, however.

While there were no signs of known life, there were teeming throngs of creatures skulking in the shadows. Elongated canine shapes scrabbled into gloomy corners as the massive robot hurtled past the wreckage they squatted in. Leering, winged imps stalked the scarlet titan from sector to sector, snickering in anticipation of its demise. Gnarled abominations encumbered by their own gratuitous mass snarled and brayed in protest at the Getter from whatever artifice they were stuck upon. Winged serpentine monsters flicked their lolling tongues and screeched at the super robot as they ventured nearer with prey on their mind - only to veer off again once they got close enough to fully perceive it, and think better of trying their luck.

No matter what ventured forth to scuttle at the edges of sight, or spray a mix of saliva and vitriol into the air at their passage, the readings were always the same. No life. No warmth. No heartbeats. Only ruin, and the demons dwelling in darkness.

 

[Nemesis]

There was a long silence as the Getter continued its downward plunge. All three, perhaps, were contemplating the series of events that had taken place... Or were simply absorbing the scenery. There was the occasional click as Seti snapped pictures of the monstrosities they passed, in equal parts wonderment and horror. Eventually, she opened a channel to the Bear Machine's cockpit.

"Sola."

On the other end of the line was only static, but Seti continued, earnestly, trying to life her friend's spirits:

"You tried your best. Don't be too hard on yourself."

"...Mm."

It wasn't much, bit it was something - a minute affirmation that she was, at least, awake and present. Seti then turned her attention to the Eagle's pilot, who was currently charting a course through the debris to nowhere in particular. Horrible faces leered out at the darkness at her, and she leered back until they shrunk away, never shying from giving them a little "encouragement" by flying a little closer to their hideous hides when needed.

"Aren't you scared, Emma?"

"I've seen worse. These ones at least keep their distance." Said the convict, surprisingly lighthearted. Flying wasn't something that you needed to think hard about, once it was all committed to muscle memory - and it was there she was in her element.

"You don't know fear until you're in a Hive. When the enemy can come at you from any angle, and if you're just a bit too slow... They'll chew you up. Literally."

Right, she thought to herself. Someone like Emma had been in similar situations to this. She and Solana had combat experience true, but they weren't survivors the way #55 was. She had to start thinking like a survivalist. And what they needed now, more than anything... was information. Seti scanned the surroundings, and focused on the floating wrecks, setting a waypoint for Emma to see.

"...Can you take us towards those? It's a long shot, but... we might be able to learn something from their black boxes."

Complying, the Getter slowed its descent, drifting over to some of the less lively looking debris. Carefully, with its wide open palms, it set about gathering that which looked the most recent and intact, eschewing anything that seemed to have new residents, drawing it together under the eve of a floating tree...

 

[Chaos]

Looming within the darkness was the shattered hulk of what had once been a massive carrier. Its hull bore both the telltale scars of its final, losing battle, as well as major structural damage from subsequent collisions, presumably while adrift. Several of those otherwise mundane markings had festered in the abyss - they were lined with the same crystalline rime as had tried to encase the Getter. What wasn't damaged was soiled from exposure to the vacuum, the miasma, and whatever peculiar creatures might have explored the wreckage before them.

What visible markings remained indicated the vessel as the Passchendaele. Guantanamo-class.

Littered upon its deck and strewn through the area between were a number of partial, but otherwise relatively intact machines. There were a number of Scopedog Turbo Customs, all in drab olive - save the one who still had its red left shoulder. While the others looked to have been shot down in conventional battle and pried open from the outside, that one alone appeared to have been wrenched open from the inside. The cockpit and warped hatch were lined with the same purple rust and crystal rime afflicting other compromised scraps in the vicinity.

The specimens resting atop the vessel were poised in awkward positions - some laying, some sitting slumped. Trails had been cut in the grime where their bodies appeared to have dragged, or been dragged. Apart from the Turbo Customs, there was an assortment of machines, all either colorful or still shiny in some places. Numbers and letters lent them names. MBF-M1A. VA-3M. RPI-11. Type-77. XCA-00. M4. F-4. KG-7.