Millennium Man tome #19:
"Shift Into Turbo"
(Mirrennium Man DX Act III)
by Jacob Milnestein

The car swerved violently out from between the rows of slow moving traffic. The sound of car horns screamed out as the immaculate, wine red Toyota Cresta screeched up onto the pavement and slammed hard into a fire hydrant. For a moment there was no movement in the car before the passenger door flew open and spilt out a thin girl, blood running down her forehead, dressed in a heavy green parka. Her legs and feet were bare, much to the confusion of witnesses who simply stood by and watched her sprint away from the scene, running back towards the evacuated city centre. Those not thoroughly stupefied by the scene reached out and tried to prevent her escape, to warn her of the danger she was heading towards, but she simply shrugged free of their grasp, slipping through their fingers as if they were never really there. She leapt up onto the roof of one of the many stalled vehicles and jumped from car to car, her naked feet only brushing against the surface of each car as she continued her elaborate path into danger. From the driver's side a bruised and exhausted salary-man escaped from behind the steering wheel and air bag, trembling slightly as he fell out onto the street. Glancing up he caught sight of the girl fleeing across the car roofs and lifted his shaking wrist communicator to his dry lips. "Neo, Lightning.I think we have a problem." He whispered softly.

* * *

Lightning side-stepped, throwing up his right arm to block a punch from Archangel Albion before ducking down and bringing up his left fist in a deadly uppercut that sent sparks flying from the Cybernetic Man v2.0's chest. He turned, a card already between his fingers before Albion could react and shouted out:

"ELECTRON LIGHTNING BREAK!"

Veins of jagged lightning exploded from his fingertips, piercing Albion's skin as if each strand were a physical weapon. The archangel avenger staggered, blood running in thin trails down his bare chest as the lightning sparked into tiny explosions. His body ruptured, bare flesh burnt and bleeding he collapsed to his knees.

Millennium Man Lightning smirked beneath his dark mask and lifted his right leg up in a fluid kick. Before any of Albion's colleagues could react he slammed his foot into the side of the archangel's neck and shattered the bone within. The skin darkened and then a trail of blood escaped from Albion's mouth, his eyes fluttering with furious surprise. A moment later he crashed down against the pavement and exploded in a flurry of sparks and flame.

There was a scream of sorrow and rage and he turned to see Sheena Clandestine, her face transfigured by grief and her hands outstretched towards the burning corpse of her comrade.and his murderer. Beneath the mask, Lightning's eyes flickered as he searched for the best way to efficiently destroy Clandestine whilst she was unable to react and then he caught sight of Neo, rising up in the air behind, the Explosive Dash Scythe once more in his grasp.

With tremendous accuracy he brought the blade of the weapon down upon her, splitting her lithe body clean in two. Sparks exploded from the kinetic energy the blade gathered and Clandestine's torn aspect exploded at Neo's feet.

"Not bad," Lightning murmured. "For a novice."

Neo flicked his thumb across his faceplate.

"I was designed for combat. This is the only path I fully understand."

Lightning nodded sadly.

"The only path I believe in is that of." He twisted, turning and catching Cybernetic Man v2.0 in the stomach with his boot. "Vengeance!"

Neo flipped backwards, avoiding a punch from the gnarled, mechanical fists of Johnny Faustus and landed directly behind him. The old robot turned, machine features registering sudden and terrible surprise as the scythe punctured his chest impaling him. He faltered and then, like Albion and Clandestine before him, exploded.

Terra Firma dropped to his knees at the side of the felled Cybernetic Man v2.0 and turned his wide, fearful eyes up towards the two fearsome Millennium Men that had destroyed three members of the Despair Brigade in only a matter of moments.

"P-P-Please," He begged. "I-I never really liked my cousin anyhow.whenever he stayed over he'd take too long in the bathroom.and he'd always use up my hair-gel.my special hair-gel.from the Old Country.You don't have to kill us, we know when we've been beat."

With delicate movements, Lightning slowly reached down towards to his utility belt and flipped open one of the many compartments. From within he retrieved a single card, showed the back to the last trembling members of the Brigade and pulled it slowly through his lecteur de tarot device. Sparks flickered with every inch of movement. When the card was halfway through he flicked his wrist and abruptly tore it through the remaining distance. Fork lightning flickered in the sky above him and from deep inside his chest his voice welled up:

"SUPER...ELECTRON...SCYTHE...LIGHTNING!"

Energy gathered around Lightning's right hand and transformed into a powerful metal staff, its end a twisted arc of raw lightning. Terra Firma's mouth opened, sweat pouring down his smooth forehead as he desperately tried to find the right words - any words - to prevent Lightning's use of the devastating scythe. He failed.

In a single swoop, the Super Electron Scythe tore through not only his only flesh but also the synthetic structure of his last remaining comrade. They exploded simultaneously, their flames entwining with one another as Millennium Man Lightning turned his back on the fire, striking the scythe against the ground and holding his pose.

Beneath his mask the eyes were closed.

"The evil spirit;" He murmured. "Expelled."

* * *

Eumi's feet bled as she sprinted over the rooftops of the cars, their progress almost grounded by the heavy traffic and distraction. Ahead of her, towering over the immobile vehicles and their panicked occupants the terrible shape of the silent robot stood amongst the skyscrapers and office blocks, brooding and ominous, the sword held firmly in its right hand.

It was colossal and she found herself unable to fully articulate the sense of awe she felt with the words she had at her disposal. Its shape was roughly human, though its limbs and digits featured none of the subtle curves of human anatomy. Every aspect of its body added to the reinforced psychological impact of design rather than birth. With its smooth black and white metal skin and lightning tattoos it represented the architecture of a new kind of machine, a machine that could, with the assistance of a human pilot, articulate all the endless grief and sorrow of the human condition on a grand scale and bear it upon metal shoulders to the heavens above.

This machine, she reflected, could show all of space why none of us down here are truly comfortable in our skins. If she could understand the machine then surely should could understand the mystery of Yujiro's return.

With an effort she forced such thoughts from her head, concentrating only on the perpetual motion forwards and the feel of metal car roofs under the soft skin of her feet. Then came the unexpected. She felt the cold alien metal snare her arm, but had no time to slow down. She tried to pull away, to continue forwards and instead stumbled, her momentum suddenly used against her as she was thrown down from the stepping-stones of the traffic jam and slammed into the concrete beneath. She cried out as all air was pushed up through her lungs and felt suddenly nauseous. Her eyes rolled and fixed upon the shape of a grizzled old man bending over her, his skeletal robot arm clamped tightly her.

The expression the old man wore was one of inept fury and barely suppressed rage. His face twisted, lips twitching beneath his flared nostrils and his hard, fierce eyes.

"You." He whispered, the words trembling in his throat. "You are the sister of Yujiro Komatsubara."

She nodded weakly, a faint whimper escaping her lips.

His eyes glazed over, clouding with nostalgia and bitter memory.

"Yujiro...I would have made you strong, Yujiro.the strongest of all Japan, of all the world...and instead you repay my trust, my patronage with this." The expression soured as his lips spat out the final words.

Her eyes widened as she saw the metal hand twist up into the air and curl into a fist.

"Yujiro." She whispered weakly.

"URAGIRIMONO!" He screamed with rage and slammed his fist down into her stomach.

For a moment her eyes flickered before her head lolled sideways and she lost consciousness once more.

* * *

Instinctively Neo placed his hand up to the side of his head.

'Neo, Lightning.I think we have a problem.' The slightly distorted voice of Ohshiba murmured through the communications array in each of the Millennium Men's helmets.

The ground trembled softly; a faint rumble of warning that the city's indigenous population had learnt to live with over the many generations of habitation. To be aware of every tremor, every murmur from beneath the concrete and soil would have driven many to distraction and possible insanity, better to become indifferent, to shrug shoulders and feign ignorance, such was popular opinion.

'It's Eumi...she's escaped...'

"Shimatta!" Lightning spat with contempt.

The ground trembled with more force than before, rattling the remaining glass in the buildings around them. Neo turned, every one of his senses suddenly trembling with anxiety.

Lightning turned away, leaning forwards as he prepared to dart away in the direction he expected Eumi to approach from and froze.

"Wait." Neo whispered softly, his voice barely audible. "Something's coming."

The ground shook with terrible force, the glass shattering around them and falling like the sharp blossom of some cruel and vicious tree. Without warning a tremendous metal fist suddenly punctured through the ground before Neo. He stood resolute, watching the fist grow into an arm, shrugging free shards of shattered concrete and debris as the shape of a second giant robot emerged from beneath the city.

"Kaiser V..." Lightning murmured and, for the first time, Neo thought he registered something not entirely unlike surprise in his voice.

The robot rose up from the darkness, sewer water and dirt running down its smooth body. It was, Neo noted, incredibly similar to the machine Lightning had used to defeat Gift Horse, which even now stood sentinel like behind them. The only small difference was in the lack of the lightning tattoos on its limbs and the fact that the black and the white colour scheme of the alternative robot had been reversed.

Lightning turned and stood alongside him as he looked up at the machine, steam gushing from its detailed mechanical joints. The chest unfolded revealing an abnormally tall Caucasian man in a Millennium Man costume, his arms bound with strips of leather and his eyes covered by a pair of heavy welding goggles.

"Greetings, gentlemen." He called down to them in Japanese that was heavily warped by his Australian accent. "I trust I have not kept you waiting too long."

"Who are you?" Neo demanded, raising a fist and stepping forwards.

Lightning reached out and caught his arm, shaking his head softly and whispering: "Be careful."

The third Millennium Man laughed heartily, crouching down on the ramp that unfolded from the cockpit.

"Your comrade is right, Neo, you'd do well to take his advice. As to my identity, well, you can call me Doctor Todd if you like or Millennium Man if you'd prefer."

Neo felt a sudden twist of pain in his side.

"Are you the one? I mean, the one that I was created from?" He asked, his voice trembling.

Todd shook his head, a wry smile curling on his gaunt face.

"Not quite, I'm afraid. Although the Millennium Man in whose image you were forged is alive and well and currently waltzing about on the moon, or so I'm told. Perhaps not the most inspiring of father figures for you to have, but still, there really can be no accounting for tastes in these matters. I blame Ohshiba and his somewhat overeager attitude to providing you with your powers. If he'd taken a moment to research then he would have found that both Millenius and Ura God would have been far more interesting subjects to emulate."

"I don't understand." Neo called up, his brow creasing in a frown.

Todd's face became suddenly serious.

"Of course you don't. You are a work of fiction, Kenta. An impossibility birthed from the shattering of a terrible conspiracy theory and Ohshiba's own flawed loyalties." He straightened up. "If you listen to Ohshiba or your little friend Lightning then they will both tell you that you were once Kenta, a freelance journalist who became too involved with SUNNY's high end development schemes for Ooba's comfort. What they won't tell you is that before that, you were also the most detestable and corrupt of criminals, a villain of such brutality that he crippled his own sister when she announced her intention to marry a man considered beneath his family's status."

A sudden sickness rose up from the pit of his stomach, his vision suddenly blurring as he slumped down to his knees.

"N-No." He whispered. "Is this really who I am?"

"Onore." Lightning spat at the other before placing his hand on Neo's shoulder. "You're a liar. Do you think that we're stupid enough to believe that Ohshiba would risk his life for a man like that?"

Todd's face became deadly serious, losing all emotion completely.

"I believe it. Because I know it to be true."

'Neo! Lightning!' A voice shouted over their array. 'Don't believe him! His mind is warped!'

All three men looked up to see Ohshiba sprinting down the street, his face red and damp with sweat. He raised a shaking hand and pointed directly at Todd.

"That man has no knowledge of you whatsoever. His mind was so damaged by the transition from his original dimension - his original Earth - that he has come to believe that all threads of time are merely facets of the facts that took place on his world. The only Kenta he has ever known was on his Earth and I...I know you are not the kind of person...niisan."

Neo turned, his faceplate sliding open as he regarded the other with wide eyes.

Ohshiba smiled weakly, tears running down his face.

"That's right," He nodded. "You are Kenta Ohshiba...my brother."

A sudden blast of light slammed into Ohshiba's chest knocking him backwards into the debris.

"OHSHIBA!" Neo shouted, his head spinning as he leapt over the rubble towards the older man...and his rediscovered past.

Lightning turned to face Todd, crossing his arms and looking up. The other stood for a moment on the ramp that opened from Kaiser V's cockpit; smoke issuing forth from the palm that had expelled the energy attack. He glanced down at Lightning and smirked viciously.

"Tell me, Yujiro Komatsubara, do you think your G Kaiser robot can win against Kaiser V?" He asked nonchalantly.

"Kaiser V was not built for the likes of you." Lightning snarled.

Todd dismissed the comment with a wave of the hand, turning his back and walking back into the depths of the cockpit.

"Somehow, I don't think Neo is in any fit state to pilot it right now. Board your machine, Lightning; let's see what you're really made of."

The chest unit sealed up once more and Kaiser V's eyes flickered to life. Lightning grunted angrily and leapt into the air, landing firmly within the nest of machinery at the heart of his own machine.

Mockingly Kaiser V bowed, a gesture born from its pilot's grotesque confidence and arrogance, and drew forth a sword the equal of G Kaiser's from behind its back.

A moment passed as the two giant robots faced each other and then G Kaiser swung its mighty blade and dashed forwards, ghost fire flaring up about its tremendous metallic body. As the two swords collided with each the very ground trembled.

Ohshiba's eyes flickered, looking up into the face of his brother and smiled before losing consciousness completely. Beneath his shirt a terrible flower of damp red blossomed.

* * *

Kenji Ooba leapt gracefully over the cars, his geta denting the flimsy metal bonnets and shattering windscreens as he hoped determinedly from vehicle to vehicle. Under his left arm rested the unconscious body of Eumi Komatsubara, whilst the mechanical appendage that had been grafted onto the torn flesh of his right shoulder twitched, the liquid metal shifting and transforming as it flickered between two states, its form agitated by the psychic link between limb and owner.

He landed in a crouch, the girl's feet dragging against the concrete and turned to look over his shoulder. The sight that met his eyes turned his stomach. Filling the very city horizon were the two most expensive pieces of hardware the SUNNY Corporation had ever dared engineer...and they were at war with one another.

His mouth shrivelled and his forehead crumpled in a frown, as if he had just ingested a fruit so incredibly sour that it curdled the stomach. The girl dropped from his arms and hit the ground with a thud. Slowly he raised his right arm, eyes glazing over, and levelled it at the back of the giant lightning tattooed machine.

The world shifted out of focus as his mechanoid-arm twisted itself into blasphemous new configurations, transforming itself into a powerful beam cannon several times the capacity of the one the standard dolls were able to form. Light gathered about the snub of the cannon, its great double barrels like sunken eyes.

There was a moment in which the light simply hung in the path of the cannon, flickering like fireflies about a lantern. With a tremendous roar he unleashed his energy, channelling sheer chi energy through the mechanical limb and out into the gathered radiance. The light magnified his chi and reacted in such a way that a spear of energy shot across the city, tearing through pavement, flesh and metal alike. It arced upwards before finding its final target in the exposed back of Lightning's G Kaiser robot.

Metal blistered and then exploded in vicious flames that cast a terrible glow of its expressionless opponent.

A cruel smile spread over Kenji Ooba's face, smoke rising from his cannon-arm as he threw his head back and lit out a sharp, bark like laugh.

G Kaiser faltered for a moment, its machine legs staggering beneath the force of the damage and then fell abruptly forwards towards its foe.

* * *

His vision blurred, the vast screens left, right and centre of his seat spewing static as the dashboard before him exploded in a flurry of colourful warning schematics. Blood ran freely over his forehead, smearing beneath the mask at the point between his eyebrows and streaming either side of his nose.

A sudden contracting pain filled his head, and his vision flickered causing him to squeeze his eyes shut and try to force the pain out. Abruptly the warning sounds of G Kaiser's cockpit died completely. His eyes snapped open and instantly grew wide with fear.

No longer was he trapped within the cramped confines of the damaged robot but instead he found himself standing in the endless vacuum of space, chunks of planetary debris floating past him and towards a fierce red sun in the distance.

"K-koko wa...?" He murmured, turning a full circle.

Dimly he registered that he was once more without his armour, his bloodstained face naked and his reconstructed kaizo ningen body concealed beneath leather trousers and gloves and a black T-shirt with a simple white circle in the centre. The only exposed machine parts were his forearms, which glimmered silver in the starlight.

"There used to be a lovely beach here once." A voice suddenly cut into his thoughts, the polite Japanese of his words not quite obscuring the over-English accent.

Yujiro Komatsubara turned once more and his eyes fell instantly on a tall man with pale blue skin and long blonde hair. He stood for a moment, unable to say anything, his mouth opening and closing instinctively as he searched for words to express his surprise.

"Hajimemashite. Watashi wa Ura God desu. Yoroshiku." His pale lips curled in a smile and he bowed curtly.

"Hai..." Yujiro nodded dumbly, his brow twisted in a frown. "Watashi wa Millennium Man Lightning."

Ura God nodded, his right eyebrow arching.

"Yes, of course." He murmured absently and clapped his hands together. "Now, I suppose you're wondering where exactly it is that you are, hmm? Well, the answer is quite simple - you are standing amongst the remnants of the planet Braeburn." He held a finger up, preventing Yujiro from interrupting. "You may find this a little hard to believe but I assure you that it's true." He flashed a smile of brilliant white teeth and reached out with a gloved hand, trailing his hand through the stars as if space was nothing but a stream between fields. "The reason Braeburn was so important is that it was the generator for the power which you have tapped into. From this world radiated the Millennial Spirits that made each Millennium Man so unique." He paused and smiled. "As you can see, this world is very much dead now."

Yujiro blinked, the soft tissue of his brain intersecting with the hard reason of his machine side.

"Then where do my powers come from?" He asked, forgetting all other questions.

"Residual energy. Every host of the Millennial Spirit is like now like a battery, whereas once they were tied to a single power source that replenished their energy constantly now they only have what little traces remain in their own bodies. You, Komatsubara-san, much like your colleague, Millennium Man Neo, are of a new breed of Millennium Men. I allowed Braeburn to be destroyed in order to restore the Millennium Man of Pacific City. I failed to explain to him, or his employers, about the time span allotted to his powers because it is not in my nature to be so generous. I am a jealous god, Komatsubara-san, and I guard my secrets well."

Yujiro tightened his fists. "Then why have you brought me here? Why are you explaining all this to me?" He demanded.

Ura God smiled sadly. "Because, my millennial friend, you stand on the threshold of releasing a second wave of power over the planet. Your sacrifice and the death of Doctor Todd will result in the Millennial Spirit being spread across all humankind. Every single individual, consciously or not, will become a potential Millennium Man."

Yujiro nodded solemnly. "I understand."

Ura God's eyes flashed with intensity. "Do you really, Komatsubara-san? I mean really understand." He gestured vaguely into space with his hand. "Are you sure you know what it would do to your planet, to your species, to your future?" He stepped forwards, closing the gap between them. "If you kill Todd and sacrifice yourself in the process just to protect one city then you will change the path of human evolution. It won't happen all at once but sooner or later your world will begin to change. This is something I refuse to take responsibility for."

"You don't have to." Yujiro smiled and whispered: "I do."

The world shifted and the light of the screens washed over his bowed head. With a half smile he lifted his head and began pulling on the twin sticks that guided the machine's motion.

"I never told you my real name, you old goat." He smirked and slammed the sticks forwards.

G Kaiser rose up, its back smouldering with flame. With shaky, broken movements that drove the battered machine to its limits it brought the blade up over its head and threw itself forwards. There was no time for the opposing machine and its pilot to react.

The sword punctured the robot's cockpit and exploded from its back, the former pilot nailed to his seat, bleeding eyes transfixed on the site before him. The two robots staggered and then collapsed. Steam gushed from Kaiser V's cockpit and then an abrupt explosion of raw energy burst out of the confined space, ripping through the damaged G Kaiser and expanding across the city in a shimmering blue wave.

The explosion tore across the planet's surface in moments and then expanded out into space leaving nothing but silence in its wake. From the skies above a gentle rain of shimmering blue dust descended upon the planet.

* * *

Kunihiko Ohshiba's eyes blinked open and he found himself looking up at the sky as a strange blossom fell down across the city. Gingerly he touched his chest, felling the damp bloodstain on his shirt but no trace of wound beneath. He swiftly leapt to his feet and stopped abruptly at the site of his brother, Kenta Ohshiba, standing in the uniform he had given him looking sadly towards the fallen Kaiser robots.

"Kenta?" Ohshiba whispered.

Millennium Man Neo turned to look at him, the faceplate of his helmet drawn open and tears marking his face.

"Brother." He whispered.

"I-I'm sorry...I shouldn't have lied to you...but you have to understand...I had to protect you...Ooba was going to kill you."

"Lightning..." Neo whispered. "Lightning is dead." He collapsed into Ohshiba's arms, his chest heaving with sobs.

It was only then, as Kunihiko Ohshiba held his younger brother, that he saw the silver lecteur de tarot device on his own wrist.

* * *

Ooba's skin blistered as the dust fell upon him, the metal of his replacement limbs corroding and decaying on contact with the alien substance. In agony, he collapsed to his knees, blood spilling from his eyes. It felt as if a thousand malicious spirits swooped about his person, displacing ghosts of other times.

'I'm so sorry, princess...so very, very sorry.' A weeping American voice whispered inside his head.

His eyes bulged, veins bursting in his face.

'Millennium Man #746387 is not Bruce Todd. Repeat: Millennium Man #746387 is not Bruce Todd!'

Monstrous, horned creatures composed of shadow passed through the air around him, their faces caricatures, perfect white circles burnt into the shadow substance of their chests.

The machine arm rotted away into red powder on the ground and his skin blistered, bubbling like liquid.

"W-What...are...you.?" He whispered.

For the briefest of moments stars and debris replaced the city. Desperately he tried to steady himself, to drag himself up from the ground but failed. The veins of his remaining arm burst open, lashing out like serpents as each severed artery grew a tiny mouth and began to snap at his face. He screamed out in horror but no longer had in voice. Falling backwards, the serpents bit at his chest, tearing his shirt open and revealing a perfect white circle burnt into the mottled skin beneath.

His mind screamed whilst his eyes rolled back and in that moment Kenji Ooba, former director of the expansive SUNNY Corporation, abandoned his sanity.

* * *

Kunihiko and Kenta Ohshiba turned to see the giant beast as it grew from the mass of parked cars and buildings behind. Its flesh was a mottled black with patches of a grey and in its chest was a white circle, the universal indicator of millennial power. From its misshapen head sprouted two massive horns and serpents of twisted flesh grew from its limbs, tearing into the buildings about them of their own free will.

"What is it?" Neo gasped.

"Millennium Man Hell." Ohshiba answered, his voice reverent and subdued. "When we were developing Project Lightning we discovered an ancient Chinese text depicting what was then called 'the millennial daemon'...it the distillation of a thousand years of negative energy given form. The book explained how the great devil rose from the oceans and almost swallowed the world with eternal night had it not been for the effort of a heavenly bodhisattva with blue skin."

"H-How can we fight that thing?" Neo exclaimed in terror.

Ohshiba set his face in determination and placed two fingers against his lecteur de tarot.

"We have to combine the mech." He whispered.

Between his fingers a single card shimmered into existence. With an elegant twist he drove the card through the silver reader.

"Millennial access!" He shouted out, balling his fists together.

His entire body ignited with silver wisps of spirit energy as he summoned the tarot's power out of the adjacent dimension where it resided. His suit was replaced with a silver Millennium Man costume identical to Neo's and his head covered by a silver and black helmet.

"Millennium Man Silver!" Ohshiba called out, instinctively striking a fighting pose.

Neo nodded and his faceplate snapped closed. They turned back to face the damaged millennial machines and leapt upwards towards the individual cockpits.

* * *

"Eumi..."

Her eyelids fluttered.

"Eumi...you really have to stop falling asleep on me."

Eumi Komatsubara's eyes snapped wide open.

"Oniisan!" She gasped.

Standing in shadow before her was Yujiro Komatsubara.

She twisted, pulling herself up to her feet with a wince of pain. Behind her the ground trembled as something stomped away into the heart of the damaged city but Eumi paid it no heed, her eyes fixed solely upon the dark image of her brother.

She reached out for him and stopped, noticing suddenly the black box with the stylised lightning designs on her wrist.

"Oniisan? What is this?" She whispered.

"I want you to look after Kenta and Kunihiko for me, Eumi." He answered sadly. "Watch over them but never become involved in their struggles unless there is no other alternative. They are brave men and will need all the support we can give them."

She looked at the strange device and nodded, suddenly aware of the awesome responsibility with which she had been charged.

"Then why not lend them your support also, oniisan?" She questioned. "Why leave now?"

He turned his back on her.

"Forgive me, Eumi-chan." He whispered and began to walk away.

"Oniisan!" She cried out, tears in her eyes. "Oniisan!"

The image of Yujiro Komatsubara shimmered and faded away.

* * *

"Toh!" Neo exclaimed as he landed inside the cockpit of Kaiser.

A rumble filled the air as Ohshiba guided G Kaiser's sword from the wound it had created in the opposing mech and Neo disdainfully dragged Todd's corpse from the pilot's seat, trying not to think about the way in which the man had died as he placed himself in the same place. Screens flickered and gently the vast robot came once more to life.

He snapped a card from his utility belt, tearing it through the lecteur de tarot and installed it in the centre of the control array.

"Shin Kaiser GATTAI!" He shouted as the array ignited with light, the card burning with energy at its centre.

The robot's body trembled, the legs folding up into its body as it transformed itself into the upper body of a larger machine. He flicked a screen in time to witness G Kaiser undergoing a similar transformation, the great lightning tattooed machine transforming itself into a powerful pair of legs. The two robots united with a satisfying crunch of machinery, swords melding together into a colossal single blade.

'Shin Kaiser X...' Ohshiba shouted out over through the communication link.

"...L Formation ga okotta!" Neo completed the statement.

The hideous form of Millennium Man Hell stomped towards them, its massive feet crushing building and cars. Around its mutant form, the fierce tendrils snapped like the limbs of some aberrant sea monster.

Pulling the controls of the upper body, Neo aimed the machine's vast sword at the circle burnt into Hell's mottled chest.

"The final attack;" Neo murmured. "SEIGI ROBOTTO USEI!"

With a burst of speed Ohshiba drove the giant machine forwards and Neo twisted the controls for the arms, carving a massive star into the flesh of the creature. It cried out, stumbling back as blood bubbled up out of its mouth and then the star pattern ignited with solar power.

Shin Kaiser X turned away, sheathing the giant sword at its side as sparks exploded from Millennium Man Hell's chest and it tumbled backwards, clawing at its wounds. A moment later and its entire body exploded, spraying blood and chunks of flesh across the city and the valleys behind.

'It's over.' Ohshiba whispered over the communicator.

"No," Neo shook his head. "We have an obligation to justice, to the Earth. We must protect the people from tyranny and evil."

The cockpit doors hissed open and both men leapt down from the combined machine, landing with ease on the cracked concrete beneath. Neo's form flickered and he transformed back into his normal self, his hair blowing in the warmth of the fire. From the skies above a gentle rain of cherry blossom fell over the stoic form of Shin Kaiser X and its fallen foe.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Kenta?" Ohshiba asked, likewise transforming back into his business suit.

Neo nodded.

"I want to understand what I've become, Kunihiko - what we've both become. I want to know what it means to be Millennium Man and where this power radiates from."

"I understand." Ohshiba smiled and ruffled his younger brother's hair. "Together?" He asked, offering his hand.

"Together." Neo answered, grasping onto his brother's hand as they both shouted out: "SHIN SENTAI MILLENNIUM MAN!"

Above them both the cherry blossom continued to descend unbidden.