Ok, here's chapter 1 to the beginning of my Guyver Quadilogy. This is the new version of the old beginning, basically it has the same aspects as the original, but at the same time, I've also changed a fair bit of stuff.

This, is the beginning
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Dawn of the Dark Hero’s

Rising Dawn

The large and spacious office was filled with cool air from the air conditioners as the man behind the large hard wood desk signed daily reports and read over others. He did not look like a healthy man; he was in his sixties, balding and had a very sloppy appearance. His stomach was very round and he seemed to find trouble breathing after even the easiest of physical tasks. There was no doubt in his mind that he would soon be leaving this world for the great beyond, but he paid no attention to such thoughts for very long. As long as he was alive, he was going to pour his heart and soul into his company, he had worked tirelessly for many, many years to get it where it was today, he had paid back every single one of his debts and was now the proud owner of several islands around the world, not to mention one of the top five most wealthiest men in the world.

His company was his whole life, and he had been grooming his son for years now to take over when he died, and to ensure that it would continue to be ran with the same dedication, he would be able to rest peacefully knowing that his son would still be around to take care of the company.

He didn’t look up when he heard the door to his office slide open, and simply assumed that it was his secretary.

“Mary, I told you that I didn’t want to be disturbed while I was working” he said calmly as he signed his name on another piece of paper.

“A good thing then I’m not Mary” his head shot up this time at the sound of a young man’s voice, and sure enough standing only a couple of feet from his desk was a young man no older twenty wearing a very expensive looking business suit. The young man’s emerald green eyes seemed to burn with an unearthly glow in the dark office, lit only by the desk lamp.

“Who are you?” he demanded in shock and anger.

The young man smiled and walked casually closer to the desk and sat down in one of the high back seats in front of it and continued to stare at the old man.

“Mr. Wiccam, who I am is not important, who I work for and represent is” started the young man, pausing a second or two to observe the old Wiccam’s expression. “I’m gonna get straight to the point. We know that you have been sending corporate spy’s into our company to try and steal trade secrets for your pharmaceuticals research division. As you are well aware, none of your spy’s planted in our company have reported in like they are suppose to, this is because we have made them better offers and they now work for us ………… are you with me so far or would you like me to slow down so you can catch your breath?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about, now get out before I call security!!” Wiccam ordered.

The young man smirked. “Mr. Wiccam, do you honestly think that I came up here without having to eliminate your security force? Now where was I? Oh yes, that's right, we were talking about your spy’s. Now, we are very displeased with your actions Mr. Wiccam, which is why I’m here. Your company now belongs to us, it will operate as a sister company and we will use it as a smoke screen to direct attention away from our true operations.”

Wiccam couldn’t help but laugh. “You honestly think I’ll stand for that and let you take control of everything I’ve worked so hard to build? Your insane!”

“I never suspected you would Mr. Wiccam. Your son however has already agreed to our terms and is quiet happy to continue with them as we will provide this company with more then you ever could, although rest assure that this company will be doing a service to the human race, you can be sure of that and for that we thank you” the young man explained.

“My son is in no place to agree to any terms. He doesn’t own this company until I’m dead!” Mr. Wiccam shouted.

“Oh we know” replied the young man with a casual tone, his eyes suddenly glowing bright green.

Without warning, Wiccam was sent flying backwards and crashed through the floor to ceiling sliding glass doors and over the balcony, where he plummeted from the top floor to the ground below, his screams cutting across the sleeping city like a whip cracking through the air. The young man smiled and leant back in his chair as his eyes returned to normal.

“That was a little anti-climatic Rivanous” said the man that suddenly appeared in front of the broken glass doors. He also wore a business suit, though it was of a lighter color then that of the young man called Rivenous. He had white hair, and cat like eyes, but the most interesting feature about him, was his elf like ears.

“Please, if I had went any further he would have had a heart attack, now where would the fun be in letting that happen father?” Rivanous replied with an amused smile. “How is the son’s zoafication process going?”

“He’ll be ready to take control of this company within the week” Alkanphel said absently, then he reached inside his jacket and pulled out a manila folder and handed it to his son. “Something important has arisen in Australia, I need and want someone I can trust to handle this. As you’ll realize when you read the report, this mission is of the utmost importance and takes precedence over all of your current assignments, I’m sure you’ll agree.”

Rivanous’ eyes widened as he started reading the report and looked at his father in shock.

“Six!?” he nearly choked.

“Yes, we were quiet shocked as well when we got the final bio reading” his father nodded calmly. “We believe that the reason why we’ve detected them now and not before is due to the recent seismic activity in that area. So, you will be leaving immediately for Australia, a small costal town called Nelson Bay. You should be able to complete this mission quickly and without calling to much attention to yourself.”

“It will be as you command then father” Rivanous inclined his head as he stood up and went to walk out of the office.

“One more thing” Alkanphel said softly, causing his son to stop. “When you return, Valcus has a new procedure he wants to try out, he really thinks that he may have it that time.”

“That's what he said the last five thousand times, you’ll forgive me if I don’t get my hopes up” Rivanous sighed, then disappeared.

* * *
America, Los Angeles

Half way across the world, a young man walked the dark and lonely streets of LA, his hands stuffed in his jacket pockets and his hood pulled up over his head. It was a cold night and every time he exhaled his hot breath causing a puff of mist to appear in front of his face. He tried not to paid attention to the sounds of the footsteps a bit behind him, coming from the person that had been following him for five blocks now, nor did he pay attention to the shadows running along the edges of the buildings on either side of the street.

Sean Barker just put his head down and continued walking as if everything was fine.

He knew Chronos were still looking for him. They would always be looking for him, there was no doubt of that. He had thought that by moving back to the place that it had all started that he’d stay off their radar for a while, as they wouldn’t expect him to move back to LA. He was right and it had worked for a while, but he now realized that someone working for Chronos had recognized him and now they knew he was there, living under their noses for the past year. He knew this would happen sooner or later and it had worked for a lot longer then he had originally hoped for, but now it was time for him and Cory to move on again.

But first things first….

He ducked into an alley way without warning and started running as hard as he could, only to run straight into what felt like a brick wall. He bounced backwards and slid across the wet, hard ground on his butt. Quickly his head shot up and saw a large zoanoid standing there with its arms crossed. It was one he had never seen before, its skin was green and a horn protruded from its forehead, it was large, putting even the most dedicated body builder to shame.

“What the hell are you?” Sean asked.

“I’m a Gregore type” it simply replied in a deep and monstrous voice.

“Ah…..GUYVER!” Sean shouted.

The blast field erupted around him, ripping through the immense zoanoid as the guyver armor wrapped around Sean’s body. When the smoke around him settled, Sean stood there with his control medal glowing brightly as air was blasted out of his breathers. As he stood there, several more zoanoids dropped down all around him and more poured in at the ends of the alley ways, cutting off his escape routes. He watched them carefully, he had never been attacked by this many before. His head sensors twitched and he spun around, extending his swords as he did and slicing one of the monsters in half at the waist. A second came at him by the side, he turned and let the zoanoid’s punch slide between his arm and the rest of his body, and then trapped it as he wrapped his own arm around it and then pulled it out of its socket before firing a laser into his attacker’s head.

The lifeless body slipped to the ground and he refocused his attention back on the rest of the group, they were all closing in slowly, probably thinking that there was safety in numbers, surely he couldn’t kill them all.

Spinning on the ball of his foot, Sean planted the heel of his foot into the neck of one zoanoid and fired a fury of lasers into a another three before finally getting under a fifth and slicing upwards with his vibrational blades. He jumped back, flipping over a bunch of zoanoids and landed in a crouch, and ripped open his chest plates. As the dual cell particle cannon charged up, all the zoanoids rushed him at the same time, some jumping into the air as the others just charged forwards. They got barely within and inch of him before the mega smasher finished charging and blasted out its destructive energy, catching all of the zoanoids in its path and vaporizing them within a matter of seconds, and put a hole through many buildings for quiet a few blocks.

On reflex the guyver closed his chest plates and observed his surroundings, there were no more zoanoids around that he had to worry about so he calmly retracted the armor, slowly turned around and ran off, not stopping until he reached the door of the apartment he and Cory lived in. Fumbling with the key’s he managed to unlock the door and rushed straight for the phone, ignoring his wife’s confused look as he rushed past her without a single word.

“What’s the matter Sean?” she asked him, concerned as she noticed the panicked look on his face.

“We have to leave, Chronos know we’re here. Pack what you need and be ready to leave” he told her without looking up as he flipped through a small pocket size phone book. Finally he found the number he was looking for and quickly punched it into the phone. He paced back and forth impatiently as the phone dialed a couple of time and was ready to hang up when he heard the phone on the other end being picked up.

“Who the hell is this? You know what time it is?” came a tired yawn on the other end.

“Atkins, its Sean Barker….” The young man said.

“Sean?” What is it?” Atkins immediately sounded like he fully woken up.

“Chronos have found us again, I don’t know how long its gonna be before they track us back to this apartment and send zoanoids to deal with us. I’m hoping you could help us? We’ve done pretty well by ourselves since the Utah incident, but I don’t think Chronos will let us disappear so easily again” he explained, hating himself for knowing what he was getting himself in for. “Before you say anything though Akins, I’ll only help where Chronos is involved, I’ll fight and kill zoanoids, but don’t think for one minute that I’ll do any more then that for the government.”

“Deal” Atkins agreed instantly. “Where do you want to be picked up?”

”Los Angeles international airport, twenty minutes” Sean told him.

“Done. See yah soon kid” Akins replied and hung up the phone.

As Sean put the phone back on the cradle, he heard the window in the living room smash and spun around to see a strange looking zoanoid crouched on the window seal, its arms were swords and it looked like it was built for speed.

“You didn’t think you were going to get away from Chronos did you?” the Thancrus smirked.

“I was gonna give it a shot” Sean nodded.

Quickly he summoned his armor for the second time that night and attacked.

Sean feinted to the left and swung his right arm blade around, he was not prepared for the sheer speed that the powerful zoanoid had. It blocked the attack like it was nothing but a child’s swipe and planted its foot in Sean’s abdomen. The American guyver was sent flying backwards through a wall with shocking force, crashing into his and Cory’s bedroom, whom was packing her suit case and screamed when her husband crashed through the wall. Without pausing, Sean flipped up on to his feet and charged at the zoanoid as fast as he could. He had been a guyver for nearly two years now and his mastery of the guyver had become much greater after his fight with Guyver Zoanoid, Arlen Crane. He thought after that battle he could handle anything

He leapt at the zoanoid and spun through the air, landing his foot against the zoanoid’s face. The impact sent the hyper zoanoid staggering backwards as Sean landed and attacked again, bringing his left arm around in a wide arch as he attempted to deliver a knife strike, but the Thancrus was ready and caught his arm before it landed the attack. Before Sean could react he was sent flying out the window and across the street, where he landed on the roof of another building and rolled across it, the Thancrus followed quickly and landed in a crouch a few meters from him.

“Sean!!” he looked up and saw Cory at the window of their apartment.

“Get going Cory! Get to the airport, I’ll catch up!!” he ordered as he got to his feet.

Again the two combatants clashed, their blades smashing against each other and sending high frequency wave vibrations out in every direction and hurting the ears of their welders, but still the guyver and zoanoid continued to battle, their movements a flurry of movement.

Strike.

Block.

Parry.

They continued out with no other thoughts except those of winning. Both were covered in cuts and scrapes, but the Thancrus was getting the worst of it, being that he couldn’t regenerate like Sean could. But still they kept going at it, their attacks meeting faster and heavier each time. Sean jumped back out of the reach of the blade zoanoid and fired his head laser, but the Thancrus was too fast and easily avoided the infar laser as it whizzed past its head before it leapt at its prey. This time though, Sean wasn’t ready and the Thancrus’ blades slid smoothly into his abdomen. Thinking quickly the guyver grabbed his opponents wrists and rolled back, getting his feet up under the zoanoids and then kicking up with all the strength he could manage and knocked the zoanoid off him. He was on his feet quickly as the Thancrus flipped through the air behind him.

His attention though was caught be the familiar sound of Cory’s truck and ran to the edge of the building just in time to see it peel out of the apartments underground parking lot. He jumped off the building and ran after it, easily closing the gap between them and when he was within arms length of it, he grabbed onto the back and then jumped in, his immense wait causing the truck to sink closer to the ground for a few seconds before adjusting to the new weight. He was breathing hard, the battle with the Thancrus had been hard.

He reached to the small window that separated the cabin of the truck to the back section and rapped his knuckles against it lightly so as not to break it. Cory turned around and immediately opened it.

“L.A. International Airport driver, and make it snappy” he said, trying to make light of the situation.

As he turned back around though, he saw Thancrus running after the m and like Sean a few seconds earlier, he was quickly closing the gap between them. Sean quickly realized that Cory would only be able to go faster if he wasn’t in the back of the truck. Without hesitation he threw himself off the back of the truck and tackled the zoanoid to the ground. They rolled along the road kicking and punching at each other. Sean smashed his fist repeatedly into the hyper zoanoid’s chest until it conceded and released him from its grip. Sean leapt away from it and took up a defensive stance.

But as he did, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Cory’s truck go out of control as a blast of bio energy shot out of nowhere and hit the ground beside the truck, causing it to fish tail before suddenly slamming into the back of a telegraph pole at a 180, causing it to flip on to its side and slide across the road and into the path of an oncoming petrol truck. The crash, even as it was spectacular as something caused a spark near the breached petrol tank, causing both vehicles to go up in a gigantic ball of flames.

“CORY!!!” Sean screamed.

He went to run towards the flaming wreckage, but as he did the Thancrus attacked, forcing him to stop and defend himself. The hyper zoanoid kicked Sean in the chest followed through a strike to the guyver’s face, missing the control medal by mere cm’s as it did. Sean tried to recover as quickly as possible, but his only thoughts were of Cory, he couldn’t even worry about the zoanoid he was fighting at the moment. His only goal was to get to the car and save her. But at the same time he knew there was no possible way she could have survived…….

He let out a howl of anguish, dropping to his knee’s and smashing his fists into the ground. The hyper zoanoid smirked in triumph and prepared to deliver the final blow by removing the control medal while the guyver was incapacitated. Suddenly then blade it was going to use to cut out the control medal went flying before the Hyper Zoanoid could either react, Sean’s elbow blade extended and humming loudly as it rested in front of his face, only one of his eye plates were visible, and it was glowing a deep and dangerous red. Stale air shot out of the rebreathers and the hyper zoanoid backed away slightly, suddenly feeling very nervous.

“Because of you……..Because of you!!!” Sean roared.

He attack without warning, leaping from the ground and slashing his blade across the hyper zoanoid’s chest, leaving a deep gash with blood spurting out of it. Without stopping, Sean spun on the ball of his foot and delivered a second slash attack, this time he sent the hyper zoanoid’s head flying across the road. Sean stood there like a statue as the zoanoid’s body finally fell to its knee’s and then slumped backwards as it started to dissolve and leave no trace of it ever having existed. Sean was almost ready to deactivate his unit when four more shadows suddenly jumped down around him on both sides of the street.

“You bastard, you’ll pay for that with your life!” snarled the Zektole. “Get him!”

Sean’s head sensors twitched and he slid to the side as the Darzerb came at him, swinging its gigantic fist around ready to flatten him. Sean kicked the big zoanoid but it had little affect on it though, but as he went to pull his foot away, the Darzerb grabbed him by his ankle and started to swing him around above its head before sending him flying into a building. He twisted through the air and landed against building in a crouch, before pushing off and launching himself at the hyper zoanoid, crashing tackling it to the ground with surprising force and smash his fist into its face repeatedly until finally with the tenth or twelfth punch, the Darzerb’s skull gave away and its head exploded under the vicious force of the berserk Sean.

His fist covered in blood, Sean stood up, looking like a demon of hell as clouds gathered over head and lightning started to shoot out from them. As it started to rain, he looked around at the hyper zoanoid that looked like an eel, with its tentacle whips hovering about it, ominously discharging electricity every few seconds. His control medal glowed brightly suddenly and he charge. His only desire now was to kill them all, and neither heaven nor hell, or anything else on earth was going to stop him now.

Elegan smirked, thinking that he had this battle already in the bag and sent his tentacles shooting towards the mad guyver, but without out stopping, Sean slipped in between the tentacles and kept on coming without so much as slowing down. The Elegan was taken aback by this and was caught off guard by one of Sean’s punches. Quickly the zoanoid tried to maneuver its tentacles but Sean was too fast and in one motion he sliced away each and every one of them before turning around and firing two point blank shots from his head laser into the Elegan’s chest, causing it to explode in a shower of blood and drench the guyver.

“What the hell are you?!” Zektole cried in disbelief. “Gaster, destroy him for crying out loud!!”

Sean snapped his head around and as his head sensors picked up several objects racing towards him. He rolled to the side and fired his head laser at them, blasting two of them out of the sky, but the other two slammed into the ground on either side of him and sent him flying into the air and landed on his back a couple of feet away, his armor scorched from the intense explosion and smoke rising up off him. He detected another group of the bio missiles coming towards him and jumped on to his feet and started running, the missiles slamming into the ground at his feet as he narrowly avoided each one with determination. Again the Gaster fired his missiles, but this time Sean changed course and started charging straight at him, his blades humming, ready to be used. The missiles angled around so that they were coming up behind him, skimming mere inches off the ground, but Sean paid them no mind as he closed in on his target, and then, at the last second he flipped over the hyper zoanoid and delivered a slash to each pod on its shoulders, causing colored liquids to spew out and mix, whilst at the same time the missiles that had been chasing Sean, slammed full force into the Gaster zoanoid, causing an explosion that knocked Sean off his feet.

Every muscle in his body ached as he laid there for a few seconds. Every muscle was screaming and protesting against any more punishment, but he ignored the needs and wishes of his body and struggled to his feet. He was exhausted, he could feel it, but that wasn’t going to stop him, nothing would.

Immediately his sensors picked up the last of his attackers and he started lumbering running at it as best as he could manage in his condition. He charged through the smoke of the exploded zoanoid and emerged just in time to have his left hip grazed by Zektole’s bio laser, causing him to stumble a couple of steps, but he forced himself to keep going, ignoring the pain and howling with a voice of uncontrollable anger. Zektole drew back his fist as Sean got closer and at the same time they attacked, their fists smashing into each other with tremendous force, but Zektole received the blunt of the attack, and the bones in his arm were shattered from the impact. He grasped his arm and staggered backwards howling in pain. Sean didn’t wait for his opponent to recover though and started landing punch after punch to the hyper zoanoids chest, it quickly became apparent to him that the punches were having little to no affect, as the chest would simply dent from his punches, and then pop back out again. Sean realized that this was what the zoanoids bug like body was designed for.

Zektole swung its other fist around and smashed it into the side of Sean’s face, knocking him to the side. Both opponents circled each other calmly, never taking their eyes off each other. Sean tried to think off a way to hurt the hyper zoanoid, wondering if his blades could cut through the armor effectively enough. He inwardly shook his head, he needed more power to beat this zoanoid, he knew it.

“You cant beat Chronos you pathetic human!” Zektole snarled.

“I’m not going to beat them, I’m going to destroy them!” Sean hissed.

“We are too large, too powerful, you stand no chance in hell of ever destroying us, worm” Zektole boasted arrogantly.

“We’ll see” Sean growled.

Unconsciously, Sean moved his hands to his side as the orb at his waste started to flash rapidly in synchronization with his control medal. Dark energy started gather in his hands as he felt more power being drained from his body so much faster then he had ever felt, except for when he had used the mega smasher, but her had only ever used that twice in the past and knew that it was best used on enemy that couldn’t move out of the way before it had time to charge. His unit though knew how much to take from him and how much to leave in case of an emergency. And so, with his unit guiding him his arms shot forth and three balls of dark energy fired from his hand and slammed into the Zektole’s chest, one after another until a crack appeared in the beetle zoanoid’s chest and blood spurted out from it. Zektole cried in pain and grasped at his chest.

Sean saw his chance.

He ripped open his chest plates, the last of his energy already gathering into the mega smasher cells, and glowing brightly as the powerful weapon charged up. The Zektole finally took note of what was happening and screamed in horror as a blast of white energy ripped out of the cells and consumed him, vaporizing his body, cell by cell until at last his screams faded into nothingness and his body disappeared from existences.

After letting the mega smasher run its course, Sean closed his chest plates, and slumped to his knee’s, breathing heavily. Slowly he looked over at the burning wrecks of the trucks and under the armor, tears flowed freely from his eyes as he cried over the loss of the one he had loved so much. It wasn’t fair he thought, why did Chronos have to take away everything that he held dear, why?! It didn’t matter now though he thought, from this moment on his only goal in life was to destroy Chronos, he would make them all pay, a thousand times over they would pay, for he would not rest until they were all dead.

Silently, he stood up and forced himself to start towards the airport………

* * *
Australia, Nelson Bay

The recent earthquake that had struck the area had been a big one, and the first in over fifty years. No one had been prepared for it and everyone was still in shock from the damage it had caused. While the damage wasn’t anywhere on the scale of the damage caused by the Newcastle quake of eighty nine, which had nearly leveled the city, but still, this quake had been bad enough to bring the town to a stand still as they cleaned up the mess that had been caused. Buildings had been damaged; a couple even had been demolished.

The most interesting that had happened as a result of the quake, was that in the mountains that surrounded the bay town, a ravine had been opened up, and despite its size, no one had yet to find it. No one that is, except for seven teenagers, that now stood upon the edge of it, staring down into the darkness of the void below.

“How far down do you think it goes down?” asked the young man with waist length black hair and crimson red eyes. His name was Rune Daniels.

“Can’t be that deep, the quake wasn’t that strong” said an older teen who sported short black hair and blue eyes. His name was Jason Daniels.

“What’s the matter Rune? Scared?” as the young woman that looked remarkably similar to Rune, having waist length black hair and crimson eyes as well. She of course, was Rune’s twin sister, Kelly Daniels, and though they were different genders, it was often difficult to tell the two apart if you gave them a passing glance.

“Of course not!” Rune replied defensively as he pulled his hair back and put it into a pony tail, before proceeding to put on a climbers helmet, with a light attached to the front. “Come on, lets hurry up, we’re burning daylight as it is.”

“Impatient much?” Kelly rolled her eyes as she followed her brother’s example.

The other four that stood along the edge of the ravine were Alex, she had long blond hair that fell a bit past her shoulders and emerald green eyes. She was also Rune’s beloved girlfriend. Then there Trey, one of Rune’s closest’ friends, the young man had short brown hair and a very muscular body. The third and quietest of the group was Stephanie, with long dark blue hair and black brown eyes had known Kelly and Rune since forever it seemed. The last, was a young man by the name of Anthony Styles, he had dirty blond short hair, blue eyes and was also Rune’s nemesis, which led them all to wonder, Anthony included, why he was part of this little group………

Save for Stephanie, the others went about securing ropes to tree’s and pulled safety harnesses before checking to make sure that everything was in working order. While Stephanie sat down and pulled out a book, the other six stood at the edge of the ravine decked out in full abseiling gear, ready to descend into the abyss below and see what they could see. Abseiling was one of the various group sports they participated in, the other most popular of those sports being martial arts, none of them could explain it, but somehow it seemed to forge a stronger bond between them all, even making Anthony and Rune’s rivalry stronger when competing against each other.

After taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down a little, Rune was the first to step backwards slowly and lower himself down a bit, before crouching almost against the wall of the ravine and then pushing off as hard as he could, letting the rope slide through his gloved hand as he descended quiet rapidly, then he was swinging back towards the ravine wall again. He braced himself and when his feet touched the wall he bent his knee’s so as not to jar them. He quickly looked up and saw that he had descended quiet a bit.

“What are you all waiting for, and invitation?!” he called up to them with a cocky grin and started descending again.

“Hey Rune! Wait up!!” Kelly yelled.

One by one they all left the edge of the ravine wall, trying to catch up with Rune whom seem to disappear into the inky black void below. When it got to the point that he could barely see, Rune stopped and turned on the light of his helmet and then anchored himself to the wall before pulling his shoulder bag around in front of him and pulled out a long high strength glow stick. With a powerful whack he cracked it against his thigh and shattered the thin glass tube inside the outer plastic tubing, and shook it, mixing the chemicals together, producing a bright green glow. Without a second thought he let go of the long glow stick and watched the green glow fall into the darkness, and continue falling for a good while, until he finally he couldn’t see the glow anymore. He gulped at the sudden realization that he could fall for good time before he hit the bottom.

“Long eh?” he almost jumped out of his skin as Kelly landed next to him casually.

“Jesus Christ Kelly! Why the hell would you do that here of all places!” he snapped, trying to get his heart starting again.

“Jumping are you?” Alex said as she landed on the other side and touched him on the shoulder without warning, making him almost scream with fright.

“God damn you both!” he growled through clenched teeth. “If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m anchored to the wall I would have fallen to my death then. On the plus side, I know what heart tastes like now thanks to you two making my heart jump practically into my mouth!”

“Oh don’t be such a big baby Rune” Trey said as he calmly descended past the three, followed quickly by Anthony and Jason.

“How about I come over there and cut your line!” Rune offered.

“Bring it girly boy” Trey replied with a not an ounce of fear in his tone.

“What did you call me muscle head?!” the long haired teen demanded.

Alex put her hand on his cheek and made him look at her. “Forget about him, remember, you have something he doesn’t” she pointed out before kissing him.

“What's that?” Trey asked them as he came to a stop a few feet below them.

“A girlfriend” Rune, Alex and the other three all said at the same time.

They continued to descend for what felt like hours, there’s arms were aching and sweat poured off their foreheads from the strain they were putting themselves through, weary of the fact that they still had to climb back up. Rune was once again ahead of the group, having descended by long bounds and paused to take a sip from his water bottle and catch his breath. He looked down at the darkness with awe and wonder, wondering what would be at the bottom, if they finally managed to get to the bottom. Suddenly, a terrified ear splitting scream cut through the air, causing Rune to look up. He saw Alex hanging from the wall, flailing about madly. Then he saw it, her line was breaking.

“RUNE!!” Alex screamed.

“Alex, stop moving!!” he shouted then he looked over to the others who were all trying to climb back up to her as fast possible.

He started swinging backwards and forwards along the wall, practically running along it, gaining more and more distance with each pass, until he was running backwards and forth in long wide arcs. Alex’s terrified screams became louder and more desperate and she was too panic stricken to stop moving like he had told her. The others weren't going to make it in time, he could see it, even Trey and Jason with their powerfully muscular arms they wouldn’t be able to pull themselves back up fast enough. Rune gritted his teeth and focused on what he was doing.

It was on his swing farthest from where Alex was, that his girlfriends line finally snapped and she started to fall through the air. Rune quickly spun back around and started running along the wall as fast as his legs could manage. He opened his mouth and let out a cry of determination as he held onto his line with one hand and held his other arm out from his side. Alex’s scream echoed loudly off the ravine walls as she fell, farther and farther.

The gap between the two was closing…...

Rune descended more as he ran…….

He wasn’t going to make it…….

He knew it….

She knew it…..

He reached out with his teeth clenched tight and the muscles in his arm feeling like they were being stretched beyond their limit. She was about to pass him when, with one final act of determination and desperation, Rune launched himself down and forward just as she came along side him, and grabbed her by her safety line and stopped feeding the rope through his hand, bringing them both to a stop. They started swinging backwards and forward like human pendulums, just hanging by the rope trying to catch their breaths and let their hearts return to normal.

“Can’t say our dates aren't interesting” Rune told her, causing her to laugh in relief as he pulled her up so he could hold her better

“You two ok?!” Rune looked way up and when he heard his brother call out to them.

“Oh you know, just hanging around!” he shouted back sarcastically. Suddenly he felt the line jerk and he dropped an inch or two, a sick sinking dread sitting in his stomach as he looked up. “Oh shit….”

The line snapped and with their screams echoing throughout the ravine, Rune and Alex plunged into the darkness……..

* * *
Hours Later

It was dark, and quiet and when Rune opened his eyes and groaned, he echoed loudly off the ravine walls. His entire body ached and he had the grand daddy of all headaches. Very slowly he managed to sit up, holding his head in one hand and supporting himself with the other. His mind was slow to start processing so it was a few seconds before memories of what had happened came rushing back to him, causing his eyes to widen in horror, and shock. He looked, a little too quickly and winced, he pushed the pain in his head aside and tried to focus on something, but he soon realized he was surrounded by darkness.

“Oh god” his voice was barely a whisper as he realized the situation he and Alex were in. Then it hit him. “Oh shit, Alex, where are you? Can you hear me?”

He felt his bag still attached to him and fumbled with it, trying to find the glow sticks. He found the secondary bag they were in and quickly pulled it out and unzipped it. As he had expected there was a couple that had been ‘activated’ in the fall and were now glowing brightly. He sat one down next to him and through the other in front of him, and proceeded to crack a few more and spread them evenly around him. Within a matter of seconds he had lit up a large area and looked around frantically for his girlfriend, praying that she was alright. But she was no where to be seen. This was good, was his first thought, if she wasn’t anywhere to be seen that meant she had survived the fall and was walking around somewhere, but he soon realized that it was also bad, thinking that she could be in shock and wondering around in the dark. His imagination started to run amuck as he thought of almost everything that could happen to her down here.

Then he felt something clamp down on his shoulder and he screamed out in terror.

“Rune its just me!” Alex said quickly, jerking her hand back.

He stopped screaming and looked around a little sheepishly, but relieved nevertheless to see that his girlfriend was alright.

“Jesus Alex, you nearly gave me a heart attack” he breathed. “And what were you doing walking off like that, do you know what could have happened if fell through a crevices, or what if part of the ravine walls had fallen off and got you?”

“Then I’d be dead, now stop complaining and get up” she told him.

“How did we survive anyway?” he wondered, deciding to change the subject.

“I was wondering that too after I came to. I finally worked it out though” She said and took one of the glow sticks from him, cracked it and walked off to the side, using the green glow to reveal a the ravine wall. At first Rune didn’t get what she was trying to show him, but she quickly explained herself. “Its sloped. The wall of the ravine slopes on a steep angle most of the way down, but towards the bottom here, it becomes wider. At some point during the fall, we hit the start of that slope and rode it all the way down to here, and we rolled across the ground and landed where you are. Were it not for that slope we would have died.”

“We were lucky not to have broken anything” Rune said.

“So what do we do now?” she asked, crouching down beside him.

Without replying, he turned to his bag and started searching through it, pushing aside the energy bars and bottles of drink he had in there along with other supplies, until he found the hard plastic case stuffed at the bottom of the bag. He held his breath as he pulled it out and opened it, only when he was sure that everything inside was still in working condition did he exhale. It was an emergency flare gun, one would always have it on them, just in case, he was just grateful that it had been his turn to carry it.

“Thank you Jason” He said with relief in his tone. He loaded one of the four flares into the chamber, locked the chamber back into place and aimed upwards and fired. The red flare zoomed straight up, a column of smoke trailing behind it as the light became a faint spot high above them, then it arched downwards and landed a yard or so away from them. He sighed and lent back on his hands. “I hope the others are still up and were able to see that.”

“They wouldn’t leave us down here, not even Anthony would” Alex told him as she sat down next to him.

Rune snorted sourly. “I wouldn’t be too sure of that.”

“One day the two you are gonna put aside petty rivalry and become a force to be reckoned with Rune. The two of you individually are dangerous, especially when you fight each other, but on those few rare occasions where you have teamed up, you’ve both proved that nothing in this world could stand up against you” she told him, resting her head on his shoulder.

He didn’t say anything at first. He knew she was right. Truth be known, he didn’t really have anything against Anthony, the whole bitterness between them was all from Anthony. Rune had never been able to work out exactly what it was that made that guy dislike him so much, at some point he just gave up trying to figure out what it was he had done to piss him off and started obliging Anthony’s, seeming need for a rivalry and made a point of having sarcastic comments ready for when the guy said something stupid or needed his ego busted. The had fought each quiet a few times in the past, they had fought each other at least fifty times this year alone already, but neither of them had really cut loose in those fights, choosing to hold back.

He wondered what would happen if they went full out against one another…. For some reason the word Armageddon popped into his mind….

“Perhaps one day, but I’m not the one you should be talking to about this. Anthony’s the one with the problem, not me” he told her.

“Boys” Alex sighed in frustration, shaking her head.

Rune smiled slightly and laid back, putting his bag underneath his head and stared up at the top of the ravine, just a thin sliver of light far above them. It would take them hours he realized to climb back up to the top. He sighed, starting to regret having made the suggestion of abseiling down to see what was at the bottom. They had been picnicking the day before in the area when the earthquake had struck, and the ravine had opened up only a few feet from them . At first they had been terrified, but once the earthquake had stopped and they had got their wits about them again, they had been undeniably fascinated by the newly formed ravine.

“I’m sorry for getting you into this mess Alex” Rune apologized quietly.

“Its ok Rune, you didn’t know this was gonna happen” she reassured him gently.

“If I had been paying more attention maybe this wouldn’t have happened at all” he sighed.

“And maybe if my mother had been a bird I would sprout wings” Alex said snappishly.

Rune chuckled. “That would be something to see now, wouldn’t it?”

“Point is Rune, its happened, you cant change it, there are no what ifs and it wasn’t your fault. If it was anyone’s fault it was that guy’s that sold me my climbing rope and told me it was perfectly safe” she told him firmly. “So stop brooding and get over it, ok?”

“Yes hun” he said with a mocking tone, only to have Alex flick him painfully in the ear.

“Shush” she said playfully.

Rune was about to reply when he heard a strange rumbling noise, causing him to sit up in alarm as he tried to locate the source of the rumbling. For a couple of seconds he though that it was another earthquake and that they’d surely end up dead, but it quickly became apparent that this was not the case. He looked around in confusion until he was sure he knew where the rumbling was coming from. Without saying a word he stood up and started off in that direction, with Alex following close behind him. They both carried glow sticks and stepped cautiously as they got closer and closer to the source of the noise. It didn’t take them long before they found it though. They arrived just in time to see a large section of the rock wall, slide into the ground, revealing the large entrance to a dark and creepy, looking cave.

“What in the world?” Alex said quietly in amazement and disbelief. Almost without thinking about it Rune started to step towards the entrance, only to have Alex stop him. “What are you doing?!”

“What? I just wanna to have a look” he replied defensively.

“Are you nuts? Have you forgotten where we are?!” she demanded in disbelief.

“Alex, have you forgotten what we just saw? A section of this wall just slid away. Look at the edges, they’re all flat and smooth, like the door was carved out of the wall itself. In a ravine that was only made yesterday Alex” he said, stressing the word, yesterday.

“Rune, you know nothing about that cave. We’ve trapped at the bottom a friggin huge ravine waiting for someone to come down and rescue us. For all you know, this cave has an unstable structure and might collapse at any given moment” she hissed.

“I didn’t say there wasn’t any risk Alex” he replied, then he looked back towards the cave. “I cant explain it Alex, but I need to see what’s down there. You don’t have to come with me Alex, in fact its probably better that you stay here…. Here” he said as he grabbed the rope that was still tied to his safety harness and handed it to Alex. “Every few minutes, I’ll tug on this to let you know I’m ok. If I see something that doesn’t look right, I’ll come straight back out, ok? Look, I’ll be fine Alex, trust me.”

Without giving her much time to reply, he kissed her on the cheek and started into the cavern, trembling from anticipation at what he was doing. However he had walked no more then five feet into the dark cave, his glow stick still in hand, when all of a sudden the ground beneath him angled down sharply. The ground was slippery and he quickly lost his footing and fell to his ass, and then with alarming speed he started to slide down, all before he had the chance to scream out in alarm. Alex wasn’t ready for what happened the rope started to slide through her hands and when she tried to grasp it almost sliced through her hand it was going that fast.

“RUNE!!” she screamed.

Rune slid through the darkness –having drop the glow stick when he fell over – for what felt like forever, only the rush of air going past him and the feel of the cold hard ground on his back. Then finally he hit a flat level and tumbled across the ground head over ass until he slammed into a wall and stopped dead in his tracts. He stared up at the ceiling for a long time with wide and breathing heavily, unable to believe the day he was having. He could just imagine Alex preparing half a dozen ‘I Told You So’ lectures.

With a tired groan he sat up and looked around for his glow stick. Nothing but darkness. He swore, starting to wish he had listen to Alex. He stood up carefully, holding his head slightly. He felt his way slowly calmly towards the section he came out, hoping that he would be able to climb it, despite how steep it was. He was trying to pull himself upwards when he heard another rumbling noise like the one from before, and started to panic, thinking that it the section of wall at the top, thinking that it was closing up on him. In his mad panic though, he failed to note two things.

One, the noise was too loud and too close to be the section at the top.

And second, light was starting to flood the room he was in.

It wasn’t until he the whole room was filled with orange light that he stopped and finally noticed it, and slowly he turned around, not knowing what to expect. His eyes widened and his jaw slowly dropped as he saw the wall disappear into the ground, and reveal another room bathed in bright orange light. Unconsciously he started walking forward until he was standing in the middle of the new section that had opened up and gasped. It was a gigantic cavern, with rivers of lava flowing down out of holes in the walls and gathering a large lake. But that was only half of what caused him to gasp in shock and disbelief. There were natural bridges all over the cavern, some that were as large as football fields that were holding hills of what he assumed was dirt, and there were some that were as big as footpaths, and they all led to a center island at least the size of three football fields that raised up out of the lake of lava, and on that island was a structure that could only be described as a giant egg, one that reached from the island up to the roof of the cavern.

Unable to think of anything else to do, Rune simply sat down and just stared.

He rubbed his eyes and pinched his arm, making sure he wasn’t asleep, and yet he still couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He couldn’t believe something like this could exist under a place as boring as Nelson Bay. Sure they had learnt in school that more then half of the surrounding mountains were volcano’s, of course they were sleeping volcano’s, but still. Then it clicked. He was in a giant cavern with a lake of lava, yet he could feel any heat………

“What the hell is this!?”

Rune screamed into terror and scooted forward before finally turning around. Standing there with shocked looks on their faces were Kelly and Anthony.

“I swear, if one more person scares me I’m gonna rip them apart!!” Rune growled angrily.

“Oh stop grumbling” his sister replied dismissively causing him to scowl at her. “What is this place?”

“What do I look like? The great depository of knowledge?” Rune replied sarcastically.

Anthony looked around silently before adding. “There’s no heat. How is that possible?”

Rune crossed his arms. “Yeah, I noticed the same thing. I don’t how its possible, but I bet you five bucks, that that thing over there on that island is emitting some sort of shield or something that holds the lava back, as well as the heat. See that lava fall over there, see how it looks like its hitting something and bouncing back off it? And before we go any further, I think its safe to assume that this place, was not, built by the hands of humans.”

Neither his sister or rival said anything, what was there they could say to that, they had no evidence that this wasn’t what Rune was suggesting, indeed everything about the place feel in his favor, so they remained silent. Rune looked back and forth between the island and the way back up to the ravine, then he looked to his sister.

“What did you two use to get down here?” he asked.

“Ropes, Jason’s back at the top of the ravine, keeping an eye on the other ends of the ropes to make sure they remain intact, we had Trey and Jason give us their ropes and the spares just incase. Why?” Kelly replied calmly.

“Just wondering” he said absently, then he looked at the island and shook his head. “I have to take a look. I can’t explain it, but I really have to have a closer look at that thing before we leave. Damn I wish I had brought my friggin camera with me, I don’t wanna have to climb back down here again to look at this thing. You two don’t have to come, in fact one of you should probably go back up to let Alex know I’m ok.”

“If you think I’m gonna let you get to have all the fun your sadly mistaken” Anthony replied frown.

“Your choice” Rune shrugged indifferently, then looked at his sister. “What about you?”

“Of course I’m coming along you twits. Come on, lets go” she told them as she pushed past them suddenly. As she was walking though, her eyes were drawn to the hills on the larger bridges, she frowned slightly and stopped. “What are those hills made of?”

“Rubble probably, rocks and dirt” Rune shrugged. “Its hard to tell with all this glare from the light of the lava.”

Silently Anthony pulled out a pair of sunglasses from his pocket and put them on so he could see the hills better, What he saw though, shook even him and caused him to suddenly go pale. Slowly he removed his sunglasses, but continued to stare.

“Bones, countless human bones” he said, his mouth dry.

The three of them remained silent for a long time, suddenly wondering if they should continue any further. Rune though made up his mind first, and swallowing his nerves he forced his body to move and continue on towards the structure without a single word, his sister and rival following soon after. As they got closer and closer to the structure, all three of them started to realize just how big it was, and were soon able to make out more details about it, like its color and what exactly the surface of it looked like. It was purplish blue and its surface almost seemed to look like flesh of some sort, then there was the eerie look of it, being that it looked like it was pulsing slightly.

It took them nearly fifteen minutes before they had made the journey across the bridge to the island, and when they finally made it, they felt like flea’s compared to the structure. They wondered how anything this big could exist under their town without anyone ever finding it, but then they looked at the hills of bones and thought that maybe there was a good reason why no one had found it…..

In front of them was a wide set of stone steps that led up to a circular opening in the structure they could see inside that there was some kind of purplish pink light that revealed the corridor, and for some reason that was some how more unsettling then the pitch blackness that they had been expecting. Taking a deep breath, Rune led the way to the opening and calmly entered it, stepping into a circular corridor, he wondered inwardly if there was something special about circular things with the people that had build this thing. The corridor was long and seemed to stretch forever until they eventually came to a fork in the corridor.

“Why did I not expect this?” Rune sighed.

“Because you’re an idiot” Anthony replied and pointed down one of the corridors. “I say we go that way.”

“And you’re an asshole. We’re going that way” Rune told him, pointing at the other one.

“Stop, you’re making me blush” Anthony said dryly.

“Would both of you shut up and stop acting like little boys!?” Kelly snapped. “Jesus Christ, its like babysitting for four year olds. We’ll check this corridor out first, then we’ll check that one out ok?”

As she walked off Rune whispered to Anthony. “She must be obeyed………”

“I heard that!!” she shouted back at him.

A bright light suddenly filled the corridors and before they could blink, the three teens found themselves standing in a large dome like room. They remained still for what seemed like an eternity before they managed to conjure up enough nerve to look around at the room they suddenly appeared in, each of them silently hoping they were still inside the ship. The dome like room was simple huge, the walls were lined with pot marks like the skin of a fifteen year old with bad acne, and in the center was a type of alter thing with the same pot marks as the bluish purple colored walls and a column in the center that extended upwards and branched off into many more ‘catwalks’ with an opened door at each end, which they all quietly realized, were the only doors in the room. When Rune looked again at the ‘alter’, he noticed six objects all scattered about it, resting in one of their respective pot marks.

“This your fault” Anthony scowled at the two twins suddenly.

“Say what?” Rune asked in disbelief, his hand twitching and slowly forming a fist.

“If we had just gone the way I wanted to, then we wouldn’t be here now, would we?” But as always, you two have to have everything your way!” he accused them.

“Have you finally gone off the deep end Ant?” Rune shot at him, flinging the nickname that he knew Anthony hated more then most things in the world. “We’re inside an alien….thing! It could have transported us from anywhere, it wouldn’t have mattered where we were inside of it you stupid shit!”

“I guess we’ll never know now will we, thanks to you two!” Anthony replied coldly. “Why I ever listen to fools such as yourselves I’ll never know.”

“That's it, I’ve had it!” Rune snarled.

The teen suddenly launched himself at his rival with all his strength, punching Anthony in the face with enough force to make him stagger backwards. Anthony stopped himself and stood still for a second, his head turned from the twins and a rivet of blood trickling down from the corner of his mouth and already a big nasty bruise forming on his cheek. Then he looked at Rune from the corner of his eyes suddenly, and glared.

“I’m going to make you pay for that” he said darkly.

“Try it” Rune told him.

The two teens leapt at each other and the fight begun. They laid into each other with all the strength they could summon into limps. Their attacks were fast and precise, inflicting maximum damage each time, but neither was willing to let the other win and so they kept going, punch for punch and kick for kick. Rune ducked beneath Anthony’s round house kick and then shot up, slamming his fist into back of Anthony’s knee and knocking him of his feet at the same time. Anthony chewed back on the pain and before Rune could react, the other teen had swung his good leg around and knocked Rune’s own legs out from under him, dropping him in a flash. With both of them now on the ground next to each other they started kicking each other with their heels, slamming them down into each other’s chest.

Rune, his chest aching and his heart pounding, knew he couldn’t take another hit to the chest, and as Anthony rose his leg for another attack, Rune rolled away and his opponent’s heel slammed into the hard ground, his tough shoe’s being the only thing that stopped him from smashing his heel apart.

Both of them jumped to their feet and started attacking again. Anthony grabbing Rune in a head lock and punching him repeatedly in the stomach, Rune coughing up blood and splattering it across the floor, until Rune suddenly slipped out of Anthony’s headlock and grabbed him under the arms, lifting him off the floor and running across the room, ramming Anthony hard into the wall before he started punching him again.

“Rune! Anthony! Both you stop it!!” Kelly shouted at them, but both teen’s ignored her.

Behind her, Kelly didn’t notice one of the objects on the ‘alter’ start to glow, over the grunts and snarls of Rune and Anthony beating the crap out of each other, she did hear a loud humming sound and turned around to see the object glowing rapidly. Curiously, she picked the object up slowly, almost unconsciously………

“ARRRRGGGGHHH!!”

Both Rune and Anthony stopped immediately as they heard Kelly’s scream. They spun around just in time to see her clutching her head with tendrils of brown slime encircling her body. She screamed louder as the slime started to spread across he body, covering every inch of her, eating through the straps of the bag on her back, letting it drop to the floor. All the two teens could do was watch as it engulfed her entirely, making her look like some kind of hideous monster as atop her head a horn like fin emerged, made of the slime, and then suddenly, the brown colored slime changed, turning into white armor like pieces with black ropey coils in between the pieces. The orb on her forehead flashed rapidly as the process seem to enter its final phase, small blades growing from her elbows and unnecessary body fat immediately being eaten away.

Rune stood there, stunned and horrified at what was happening to his sister.

And then she turned and looked at them, her eye plates glowing red and stale air shooting from the rebreathers on her face. Rune and Anthony and started to back up slowly until their backs were pressed up against a wall, both were well aware that they had no idea what they were dealing with.

“Think that's one of the previous occupants of this thing?” Rune asked.

Suddenly Kelly leapt at them and slammed her fist into the wall, her fist sinking and disappearing into it as both young men jumped to either side, Rune cartwheeling through the air and landing in a crouch while Anthony rolled across the ground and came up on the balls of his feet, sliding backwards a foot or so from the momentum.

“I think it’s a safe bet” Anthony replied.

* * *
Above Nelson Bay

The army camouflaged helicopter flew across the tourist town of Nelson Bay, flying over the mountains with Atkins in the co-pilots seat in the cockpit and Sean sitting in the back, starting aimlessly out the window at the ground below. While Atkins attention was focused almost entirely on the giant ravine that been opened up during the earthquake below, Sean’s attention had been completely focused on Cory, the last fateful seconds before her truck had slammed had slammed into the petrol truck.

He squeezed his eyes shut at the memory and forced back the tears, instead letting the anger and hatred he felt for Chronos fill his entire being. They would pay.

Silently, Atkins snuck a quick glance back at Sean, the government operative had been concerned about the vigilantes state of mind ever since they had left Los Angeles. He himself couldn’t believe that Cory was gone, but unlike Sean, he knew how to deal with the death of those close to him, having seen many of his own friends fall in battle during the Gulf War, after which he had been recruited into the agencies he was with now. He had learnt to deal with it though, and soon he thought, Sean would have to as well.

Without warning, Sean was forcibly pulled from his thoughts as a strange sensation wash through him, making him flinch slightly like he had been shocked by a static shock. He looked around, the sensation was still there, at the back of his mind, and unconsciously, he then looked out the window, down at the ravine below. Realization hit him, as he suddenly knew what it was.

“Another Guyver?” he said quietly…..

* * *
Inside the Alien craft

Rune screamed as he was thrown through the air and slammed into the wall beside Anthony. He bounced off it and fell straight to the ground, landing on his stomach trying to get his breath back and ignore the sharp stabbing pains that were shooting through him. He breathed heavily as he staggered to his feet, his right arm hanging lifelessly at his side, one his eyes was swollen shut and more then three ribs were broken. Anthony seemed to be fairing only slightly better, due to the fact that Kelly had being going after Rune more then him.

“Any ideas Ant head?” Rune asked, his breathing labored and his shoulders drooped.

“Yeah, I escape while she’s tearing you apart!” Anthony answered sharply.

“You like me, admit it” Rune said.

“Yeah, about as much a root canal” Anthony replied dryly.

Kelly came walking towards them slowly, the orb on her head flashing rapidly as one of the blades on her elbows suddenly lengthened into a foot and a half long sword.

“Aww crap” they both said at the same time.

As Kelly lunged at them, Anthony ran off as best as he could, but Rune couldn’t move fast enough and was pinned against the wall, with Kelly’s blade buried in the wall a hair’s width from his ear. Mustering all the strength he could, he balled up his good hand into a fist and slammed it into the side of Kelly’s face, only to shouted in pain as the bones in his hand fractured in multiple spots. Suddenly Kelly’s hand was wrapped around his neck and he was lifted off the ground, gagging and gasping for air. Without warning she threw him straight up into the air and grabbed him by his ankle before spinning around and sending him flying through the air.

“SHIIIIIIIIT!!!” Rune screamed as he sailed through the air towards the center pillar connected to the ‘alter’ and slammed into it was a sickening crunch and fell to the ground, crashing first on the alter and accidentally dragging one of the objects to the floor with him.

“Rune!” Anthony shouted in slight horror and disbelief as Rune laid there in a lifeless state. He turned his attention back to Kelly, the white armored and out of control young woman stalking towards him like a lioness stalking her prey.

He went to run but she was quicker, sliding in front of him and kicking him in the face and sending him flying backwards in a wall again and nearly knocking him down. Even as he raised to his feet she was in front of him immediately laying into him with her fists until he was coughing blood all over her, staining the white armor. To simply say he was in agony, was a gross understatement at this point, he felt like his guts had been turned into a fine soup. His vision was starting to darken, and his mind was dizzy with pain, he knew it was only a matter of seconds, maybe minutes before he blacked out.

Kelly wrapped her hand around his neck and lifted him up until he was eye level, his body hung there, no strength left to struggle or say a thing as she slowly drew back her fist, stale air shooting from her rebreathers and her head orb glowing brightly. Anthony stared defiantly at her, he wouldn’t beg for his life, he would cry out for mercy. Instead, he simply spat in her face and glared at her. And then she moved her shoulders, ready to deliver the final blow, he closed his eyes and waited for the end to come, to wait for the sweet release that death would bring him………

……… But it never came………

Slowly he opened his eyes and found Kelly’s fist no more then inch from his face, and then he saw the slightly larger white armored hand, wrapped around her wrist, stopping her. His eyes traveled from the fist to the owner of the other hand and nearly gasped when he saw an almost identical, armored being standing at the side of them, save for it being obviously male, and different placement of the blades, the male’s being on his wrists, pointing forward..

“Rune?!” he choked.

The orb on his glowed brightly like his sisters, and air shot out of his rebreathers.

Just as Kelly released her grip on Anthony’s neck, letting him drop to the ground like a sack of potato’s Rune tightened his grip on her wrist and flung her across the room like a rag doll. Kelly had barely touched the ground before she was on her feet again and charging across the room at him, but as she came within reach of him, Rune lunged forward and grabbed her by her throat and slammed her fully into the floor. She kicked and thrashed, grasping at his arm and trying to free herself, but his grip was like a death grip and he just kept on tightening it, his strength being far superior to hers. He lifted her effortlessly off the ground, his left blade lengthening to its full length and jamming it into her gut multiple times until blood sprayed his armor and pooled on the floor at his feet.

Rune’s head snapped back as Kelly nailed him with a powerful punch, causing him to stagger backwards before regaining his balance. She started kicking him in the abdomen, her super enhanced strength making her brother’s armor crack and warp with every impact, until finally he let go and she dropped into a crouch before tackling him into the ‘alter.’ He rained down punches on her back while she laid into his sides, neither was giving an inch as they savagely beat the crap out of each other. All the while Anthony watched the fight with shock and disbelief, it was unlike anything he had ever seen in his whole life, it was all like something out of a sci-fi movie.

Kelly placed her hands against Rune’s shoulders and then put her feet on his abdomen and pushed off, somersaulting backwards through the air and landing with both of her elbow blades extended, humming from extreme vibrations running through them. Rune straightened and held his right arm bent at his side, just staring at her for a couple of seconds, and then his right blade extended to its full length.

Anthony’s eye darted back and forth between the battling siblings as they charged each other. He watched as Kelly raised her right arm and blade high above her head, and then looked at Rune and saw him holding his left arm at his side and his left blade pointing straight forward, and the right blade positioned in such away that her knew Rune would be able to finish the battle in two strikes, leaving Kelly dead.

But he couldn’t bring himself to say anything……..

It all seemed to happen in slow motion.

The two siblings charged across the room with the blades poised and ready.

Kelly jumped into the air.

Rune stopped suddenly, skidding a couple of feet and readjusted his stance.

And as Kelly fell down on him, something clicked inside Rune’s mind, the orb on his started to glow once more, his eye plates flashed and suddenly he was back in control of his body, finding himself staring up his sister just as she fell upon him, slashing her blade down through his collar bone and through his chest and abdomen. He tried to scream in pain, but the sudden agony of it all overwhelmed him and the scream caught in his throat as he collapsed underneath Kelly’s weight. He laid their for a couple of seconds, his mind working a mile a minute, panic filling him, knowing full well that he just been dealt a fatal attack, yet he only felt pain, and no onset of death. And then he unconsciously raised his hand to protect himself, and that was when he noticed that his hand was encased in the same stuff as his sister.

The orbs on the side of his head twitched and his attention snapped to Kelly as she pulled her blade free and prepared to attack again, but with the split second warning, he was faster and grabbed the tops of her arms and threw her to the side and quickly jumped to his feet. For the first time he was keenly aware of his increased strength, he could feel it flowing through him, and it wasn’t just his strength though, everything was enhanced, his speed, sensors, agility, reflexes, he could feel the power filling his entire body. The wounds he had suffered at Kelly’s hands earlier were a thing of the past, having been completely healed.

“Anthony! What the hell is going on!!” Rune demanded, shifting into a defensive stance.

“I think its fairly obvious!” Anthony snapped at the absurd question.

Kelly was on her feet and charging once more, but this time she did not attack. This time she jumped into the air and landed on one of the cat walks and disappeared into one of the doors, leaving Rune and Anthony standing there in shock. After a few minutes, Rune had got his wits about him and looked over to the ‘alter’ where the for remaining objects laid. Silently he walked across the room and grabbed Kelly’s ruined bag off the ground and started stuffing the objects into it.

“What are you doing?” Anthony asked as he hobbled over.

“Anthony, can you imagine what would happen if these things were activated by the wrong people? Imagine if the military got their grubby little hands on these, those guys are as responsible as a five year old on a sugar rush” Rune told him, and then sighed. “I’d rather know these things are in a safe place, then in the hands of those that would use them for war.”

Anthony said nothing, he simply glared slightly………

“Come on Ant, we’ve gotta get out of here and stop her before she kills anyone” Rune said suddenly.

He grabbed Anthony’s arm and launched himself into the air with a powerful jump, soaring into the air and landing gracefully on the catwalk Kelly had landed on, with Anthony yelping in pain. Not giving the teen enough time to complain, he grabbed the horizontal strap of Anthony’s climbing harness and started running down the same passage Kelly had. If it weren't for the thing that was now encasing his body, he wouldn’t have the faintest idea where to go, but what ever this alien thing was, it was telling him where Kelly was inside the structure, and he could see all the corridors and passage ways laid out in a 3D design.

For five minutes he raced through the structure before he saw the entrance, the orange glow of the lava filling the cavern outside. He jumped through the entrance and landed a yard in front of the ship, on the walk way that crossed the lake of lava below. He didn’t stop though, he hit the ground running, slowly closing the distance Kelly had put between them. Soon he was running up the slope he had fallen down and a few seconds later he emerged in the ravine and stopped to get his bearings. His head sensors twitched a second before a terrified scream filled the ravine, and he spun around to see Alex sitting against the rock wall staring at him in terror.

“Alex, its just me!” He shouted at her, and then he dropped Anthony to the ground and knelt down in front of her and carefully placed his hands on either side of her head, causing her to scream louder. “Alex, its me, RUNE!!”

She went silent.

That got her attention.

She stared at him, unsure of what to say or to believe, terror was clearly evident in her eyes and he could see she was close to screaming again if he didn’t do something to prove that he was who he said he was. He then turned to Anthony.

“Anthony, tell her” he said.

Anthony growled angrily, wincing and clenching his teeth in pain. “Its true Alex………That thing is Rune, and that other one that came through here before us was Kelly. They’ve both been exposed to an alien object. Kelly’s out of control but Rune managed to regain control himself.”

She looked at him, slowly she brought her hand up and touched his armored face. “………Rune?”

“Yeah……… its me” he said quietly, he shook his slightly and pulled himself together. “Listen to me Alex, I’m about to do something that's really going to scare the crap out of you, but I want you to know right now that I’m sorry in advance, and that I have to catch up with Kelly as quickly as possible, so this is kind of necessary……… ok?”

“……… Ok” she said slowly.

Anthony’s cries of alarm and pain were rivaled only by Alex’s scream of terror as Rune rebounded off the walls of the ravine as he ascended towards the top with Anthony under one arm and Alex under the other – Kelly’s bag entangled around his hand – at astounding speeds. His mind was focused more intently then it had ever been before in his life, whether it was due to the alien armor, or because he knew he had to stop Kelly he wasn’t sure.

With a final leap he emerged a the top of ravine, shooting high above the ground and then landing in a crouch a few feet from the edge. Carefully he let go of his passengers, both of whom were sickly pale and looked ready to vomit as they tried to get their balance again. Inwardly he grinning deviously, but said nothing about their. The orbs on his head flicked back and forth as three figures emerged from the tree line. Rune shifted into a defensive stance, instinctively he was ready to attack if need be, but when he recognized his brother and two friends, he immediately relaxed, but the three of them stared at him in complete shock and fear.

“Alex………what the hell is that?” Jason asked.

“I resent that comment” Rune replied, feigning hurt. “You’d swear you’ve never seen your own brother in alien armor before.”

“Rune?!” Jason, Stephanie and Trey all shouted in unison.

Rune looked at Alex. “They seemed to have a problem grasping the obvious don’t they?”

“Then….who was that other one that came rushing through a few seconds before you got up here……. And where’s Kelly?” Jason asked him.

Rune threw the bag containing the alien artifacts at him. “Hold on to that, don’t open it or anything, just hold on to it. Anthony, fill’em in on the details, I’m going after Kelly before she gets too much of a head start on me.”

* * *
In The Town

The screech of tires filled the night air as a car swerved to miss the thing that landed in the middle of the road, and nearly slammed into another car. A pick up truck shot part the two cars that had nearly collided without seeing the humanoid looking creature, and when the driver saw it, it was already too late as the armor encased teen slammed her fist down on its bonnet and caused it to flip over her and land on top of its cabin section and slide across the ground with a sickening grinding noise. Kelly turned away from the destruction and started to walk calmly down the street, dismissing the vehicles that swerved and stopped to miss her as any kind of threat.

The police were quick to react. They blocked off all the streets a T intersection, trapping her in the middle of it, snipers took up positions on buildings while police choppers monitored everything from above. Kelly stood there staring at them silently.

“Get down on the ground and put your hands behind your head!!” shouted one of the officers.

Kelly turned and stared at him. The orb on her head and the one at her waist flashed at the same time suddenly. The police officers flinched backwards and steadied their aim, ready to open fire on her. They never got a chance. She cupped her hands with out warning and blasted a sphere of transparent black energy at the car of the head officer. Immediately he ordered them to take cover, running from the car and diving to the ground a second before the sphere smashed into the car and sent a ball of flames into the air.

The police officers watched in horror and amazement at what they had just witnessed, frozen in place, unable to do anything else.

“OPEN FIRE!!” the head officer screamed into his walkie talkie.

All at once storm of bullets cut through the air and smashed into her. The ping of bullets bouncing off a hard surface nearly rivaled the sounds of the small explosions that came from the guns as Kelly stood there, unaffected by the bullets that impacted harmlessly all over her body. Her rebreathers vented out stale air and her head orb started to glow once more. Another sphere appeared in one of her hands and she threw it up at one of the buildings a group of snipers were situated on. A few seconds later the corner of the building exploded, sending a shower of concrete falling to the ground below.

“Pull your men back now!” came a sudden order.

The head officer turned around and saw a black man standing there wearing military fatigues.

“Who the hell are you?!” the officer asked.

“Commander Atkins. Now pulled your men back of she’ll kill each and every one of them. She perceives you as a threat and thinks she’s defending herself, but make no mistake, she WILL kill without hesitation and show no mercy to your men when she gets serious” replied the black man, his American accent not escaping the officer.

“We cant let her run free, there’s innocent people living in this town, Commander” the officer said with contempt.

“And if you push her far enough, her killing spree wont end with just your men, she kill anyone she comes around. But if you’re worried about her attacking someone after your men pull back, then don’t” Atkins told him calmly. “We’ve got our own secret weapon to deal with her.”

“Why am I not surprised” the officer replied sarcastically.

Atkins ignored him and stared up the building across the street from them suddenly and with a smile he nodded, seemingly to no one. The officer was starting to think he was mad. Without warning something dropped out of the sky and landed in front of them, causing the officer to shout in alarm and jump back in fright as the ground shook and cracked. Atkins continued to smile as he stared at Sean’s armored body, this would be over quickly.

But, even as Sean shifted his stance, readying himself to take on the offensive, Kelly was already moving towards him, charging a top speed across the street and slamming the full weight of her body into his and sending them both sprawling to the ground. Kelly was like an animal, she was all over him slamming her fists into him with a savageness that Sean had never known as he guarded against her punches as best he could. He kept reminding himself that the thing he was fighting wasn’t the host, or else she’d have spoken to him by now. No, the same thing was happening to her as it had to him the night he had become the guyver, and knew that ‘she’ wouldn’t have any qualms with killing him if he gave her the chance.

His hand shot up and grabbed her throat, immediately her own hands went to his, trying to pry it away, but now that he was gaining the advantage he was rising from the ground, never removing his hand as he forced her to move with him and soon he was standing on his feet again, holding his opponent at bay, and then he slammed his fist into her face. The force of the blow would have caved a normal human’s head in, but to another guyver it was only strong enough to send the receiver flying backwards through the air.

With the unit controlling her though, Kelly quickly recovered from the hit and attacked again, her elbow blade extending as she tried to slash him. Clumsily he avoided the attacks, skipping back out of reach and ducking under each attack and only receiving a few nicks here and there, but he couldn’t keep it up for long he realized.

His head laser flashed and he fired. The Laser lanced through her shoulder, cutting through the top half and nearly removing it. Kelly staggered back, grasping at her partially severed limb and Sean made his move. He attacked with everything he had, he slammed his fists repeatedly into chest and face and abdomen, inflicting as much as he possibly could and fired his laser into her body a few more times to keep her off balance, ignoring the looks of amazement from onlookers.

Sean stepped back slightly from the ragged looking female guyver, breathing heavily himself slightly as he looked at the wounds he had inflicted on her, all of which were already starting to heal quickly.

“I’m sorry but this has to be done! I cant let you hurt these people!” Sean shouted at her, his right elbow blade extending to full length.

He lunged at her, the light of the moon glinting off his blade as it reflected the light of the upward arc it cut through the air as it traveled to Kelly’s head. Without warning a boom of sonic vibrations exploded outward and the surrounding onlookers screamed in pain as their ear drums were nearly blown apart by the intense sound vibrations. Sean’s head sensors flickered with alarm as he stared into the eye plates of a second guyver that had blocked his sword with one its own forward facing swords, it was almost identical to female one except for it being male.

“I don’t know who you are, or what the fuck this shit is on us, but no one touches my sister like that you son of a bitch!!” roared the male guyver.

Sean’s eyes widened beneath the arm plates in alarm and he was sent flying backwards down the street as an invisible wall appeared between them and exploded outward towards him. The blast field Sean realized too late, but he couldn’t understand how this male guyver had activated it without disengaging the armor first and then reactivating. More surprises the guyver units had he thought to himself as he started to pick himself up.

“I don’t want to fight you, but if you come near my sister I’m going to rip you to shreds!” the new guyver growled.

Sean straightened himself. “If she’s allowed to roam free, someone is gonna get hurt! I have to stop her before that happens!”

“If I can regain control of this friggin thing, so can she!” Rune shouted. “I admit I’ve only had this thing on for not even half an hour but you had better believe me when I tell you that I my sister can and will regain control of this thing!”

Sean clenched his teeth under his armor, he didn’t need this shit he thought angrily, but Cory wouldn’t have wanted him to kill an innocent………

“Then follow my lead rookie, and lets wake her up………”


To Be Continued………

Next time on Dawn of the Dark Hero’s!

Rune and Sean go head to head with a berserker Kelly through the town of Nelson Bay with the thousands of lives at stake. Meanwhile Rivanous and his team of Hyper Zoanoids draw closer to Relic, and the curse of the Guyver strikes when someone close to Rune is taken by Chronos, but this may be the least of his worries if he can’t stop his sister from killing him first.

Stay tune for the next action packed episode of

The Guyver: Dawn of the Dark Hero’s!!

They’re coming to get you!

I'll be damned. You've done it again. Very nice.