Voltiana

In an unknown place…

Venire collapsed on the floor, looking at the ground with an emotional expression.

"Damn it! Damn it! I had one job! I should have never tried to use those siblings to boost our power!"

The reality of her situation dawned on her. "My portal summoning won't work here. I'm stuck for now."

She sat cross-legged, closing her eyes.

"Ionix…it's all up to you and that boy now. Please…please win, for all of us."

She could almost sense the events of the battle, picturing it in her mind. "Yes…you've already brought him out. Finish our mission."

Meanwhile, inside Raijin Arena…

"Marachii…!" Dachii murmured, staring at his brother. "What have they done?"

Marachii's face was ravaged by black lines, and his black eyes only blinked shades of red periodically.

"Kill Mode: Active," Elara announced, her voice entirely different.

"Good," Marachii responded. His body began to form bladed armor, and his face became covered by a metal mask with glowing red eyes.

Dachii, Akari, and Hikari all watched, utterly horrified.

"Who is THAT?" Aoki asked, skeptical.

"Wait…" Tsugumi realized.

"That…is that…?" Tetsuya wondered.

"It couldn't be…no way!" Kazue stammered.

"Marachii!" Himeka greeted. "Nice to see you again!"

In response, Marachii's arm formed a plasma cannon, and it aimed it right at Himeka's head.

"WOAH THERE!"

The blast fired and Himeka jumped out of the way, causing it to strike one of the arena walls instead, severely damaging it.

"That wasn't nice!" Himeka exclaimed. "Plasma guns before saying hello?"

"There's more where that came from."

Immediately, a cluster of tendrils began to emerge from Marachii's back, each with sharp plasma blades on the tips.

"Marachii!" Hikari called out. "What on earth are you DOING?"

Without even giving her a look, Marachii used a tendril to slash Hikari's face and eyes, making her stumble before Akari caught her.

"Hikari!"

As Marachii prepared to attack again, Akari set Hikari on the ground and stepped in front of her.

"Marachii Jones, as your Princess, I order you to STOP."

Marachii sized her up with an unimpressed look before sending a volley of plasma-infused tendrils at her, causing her to put up her forcefield.

Once she found an opening, she dropped her forcefield and grabbed one of the tendrils in mid-air.

"Hey, I said STOP!"

But in less than a second, Marachii was in front of her, with a small nanotech blade sticking out of his palm.

"What—?"

"DIE."

Akari managed to grab his hand before the blade could get to her, but parts of his armor started to glow red, making Akari back up.

"Hostile Entity Detected," Elara reported. "Activating Automatic Defenses."

Two small machine guns popped out of Marachii's shoulders and started firing at Akari, who grabbed Hikari's and Dachii, surrounding them in her forcefield.

"He's not the same anymore," Akari noted. "His moves, his entire demeanor, it's all different!"

"What do we do? We can't hurt our own teammate, can we?" Hikari asked.

They both looked at Dachii, who was still visibly in shock.

"This…can't be real. I'm dreaming, I'm dreaming…"

From his position, Ionix merely laughed.

"This isn't the same comrade you're all used to. I've taken the liberty of…improving him, and with that boost from the Umego bar in his system, it makes it all the much easier!"

From behind, Aoki tried to slash Ionix, but Marachii wrapped a tendril around her body and slammed her into the ground.

"Fine," Aoki stated, getting up. "You'll go first."

"Aoki, wait!" Akari called out.

Aoki threw a yellow card at Marachii, and once it got close, it unleashed a powerful electromagnetic blast and temporarily disabled his powers.

"An EMP…" Marachii remarked. "Interesting."

Aoki quickly moved in front of him, swinging her sword, but Marachii put up one hand and blocked it.

"EXPLODE!"

Aoki threw a red card at him, causing an explosion that sent him to his knees. Akari dropped her forcefield, getting in between the two.

"Are you CRAZY? That's our TEAMMATE!"

Aoki scoffed. "So what? We're supposed to sit here and let him kill us? I think not—-!"

Before she could finish her sentence, Marachii shot a missile at the two girls, which exploded and disoriented them. As he prepared to fire again, Hikari jumped in front of him, waving her arms.

"Hey, Marachii! Look, it's me Hikari! You remember me, right?"

Marachii watched her for a moment, before firing his missile. "No, wait—-!"

BOOM.

"HAHAHAHA! Well done, Marachii! Well done!"

Ionix watched the battle, amused, but a boomerang interrupted his entertainment.

"Hmph, pest."

He batted the boomerang out of the sky, just as Himeka called out to her Squad.

"Hey, team! Go for Ionix! That should break his hold over Marachii!"

"Sounds like a plan!" Kanai answered back.

As both of them went to attack him, Ionix yawned. "This dance again? It's almost like you're trying to DIE."

And then…

"THUNDER!"

The electric currents forced them back, and he turned his attention to Kazue, Tetsuya, and Tsugumi, who were attempting to back away.

"What now?" Kazue asked.

"What else?" Tsugumi replied. "We HIT him. Enough of this other nonsense. After all…"

She picked up a spear, running her magic through it.

"Playing scared only gets you killed."

She threw it with all her force at Ionix, but he simply caught it and threw it back twice as hard, hitting her in the shoulder.

"OW."

Kazue and Tetsuya both immediately examined the wound, shocked.

"It's pierced all the way through!" Tetsuya commented. "Tsugumi, why do you keep getting yourself hurt?"

"Pull it out…" she muttered.

"Excuse me?"

"Pull it out and hit him with it!"

"No, no, no!" Kazue shut her down. "That's way too dangerous! First, you've been shocked, then poisoned, and now—-!"

"DEAD."

They all looked back to see Ionix behind them, moving his arms in an arc and then a slashing motion.

"THUNDER SLASH!"

Kazue only had a few seconds to put up a gingerbread shield before a sharp jolt of electricity shot out, cutting through the shield like tissue paper.

He motioned to the Zharians behind him. "Kill the stragglers! Me and the boy will handle the rest."

Mar nodded and directed his attention to the other soldiers. "FOR VENIRE!"

Tsugumi ripped the spear out, gritting her teeth in pain. Kazue immediately patched up her wound with bubblegum.

"Don't use your left arm too much, it still needs to heal!"

Tsugumi ignored her and threw the spear at Ionix, who casually side-stepped it. "Weak. Just a hallowed mask of a girl, pretending she belongs."

"Hey!" Tetsuya yelled, attempting to punch Ionix. "Don't talk to her like that!"

"LIGHTNING RAIN!"

A storm cloud emerged from his hand, floating over Tetsuya, and once it settled, it started unleashing a rapid amount of thunder strikes.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

Tetsuya tried to dodge them, but eventually, he couldn't keep up, and two caught him.

"Crap! I've been hit!"

Tsugumi tried to get up and help, but she didn't have the strength to move quickly enough.

As more lightning rained down on him, Himeka pulled him out of the way before a bolt could strike his head.

"You stay here, Tetsuya!" Himeka ordered. "Leave him to me!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Ionix sighed. "This is why you should have been the last General I dragged here. So much energy, so much naivety, so much of a pain in MY—-!"

"Hey!" Himeka interrupted. "There's kids here!"

Ionix glanced over to Marachii. "Grab the Holder. We're done keeping up this dance."

"Yes, Master."

Marachii rushed at Dachii and tried to punch him, but Dachii summoned a gauntlet and grabbed Marachii's fist.

"Snap out of it, Marachii!" Dachii pleaded. "We came here to save you! Mom, Morino, the Squad, they all want you back!"

Marachii used a tendril to backhand Dachii.

"Lies. Those Voltians have poisoned your mind."

Dachii wiped the blood from his mouth and stood up. "NO. You're COMING back."

"Really?" Marachii asked, shifting his arm into a cannon. "Try and make me."

"Oh, I WILL."

They both rushed at each other, attacking faster than the eye could see. The crowd gasped and watched in awe as the two brothers started fighting all across the arena.

"You can fight back all you want, but my Master and his power are unmatched!"

He fired a missile at Dachii, but Dachii used his gauntlet to punch it into the sky.

"You don't have a master!"

They continued battling it out, while Himeka confronted Ionix in the center.

"Are you planning to take me down solo?" Ionix questioned. "Even with your entire Squad, there's not been a single scratch put on me."

Himeka made a clone of her boomerang and combined them into a mega-boomerang, holding it up like a giant axe.

"Challenge accepted!"

Ionix shook his head. "You're a strange girl."

Then he got into motion.

"LIGHTNING SLASH!"

Himeka hid behind her boomerang, allowing the lightning to bounce off of it.

"Go, Gigarang! Take him down!"

She tossed the boomerang at him with every bit of strength she had, but a powerful blast from Ionix stopped the boomerang in its tracks. With a burst of lightning, he surged forth toward Himeka.

While the fighting occurred, Aoki, Akari, and Hikari looked between the two battles, split on a decision.

"Who do we help?" Hikari asked.

Akari frantically looked between Dachii and Himeka. "I…I don't know!"

Aoki groaned and began heading toward Himeka. "Idiots. I'm going after Ionix, you help Dachii!"

"Well, she is just RUDE, isn't she?" Hikari grumbled.

Dachii went flying in their direction, crashing into the wall behind them.

"Dachii!"

He fell face-first onto the ground, and Marachii was waiting for him when he got up. "And you're supposed to be my brother? I expected much more!"

He raised his plasma cannon, but Akari fired a blast near his feet, making him turn around.

"Princess. You don't know how to mind your own business, do you?"

"This is my business," Akari remarked. "And don't worry, once we get you back to the mansion, I have the PERFECT punishment for your little insubordination."

"Funny," Marachii said, pointing his cannon at her. "Elara, fire at 100% power."

"Firing."

Another cannon formed on his left arm, and they both pointed directly at Akari, locked on.

Hikari threw out her hands, her body starting to glow pink.

"Marachii, no!"

A wave of pink energy, the same as earlier, rushed from her body, hitting Marachii square in the chest and causing his cannons to malfunction.

"Witchcraft!"

"Your new attack worked, Hikari!" Akari said. "Keep using it, maybe we can stun him!"

"I can't control it!" she responded. "It's totally random!"

Right in front of their eyes, Marachii's body transformed into his car form and started firing at them.

"Take cover!" Akari exclaimed.

She tried to put her forcefield back up, but Marachii kept on shooting at her, leaving her with no window to do it.

In the middle, Himeka and Ionix were engaged in hand-to-hand combat, with Ionix deflecting each one of Himeka's strikes and kicks.

"Primitive fighting skills."

Himeka blew him another kiss, but he ignored it and dodged her right kick. When she tried to come back with a left jab, he caught her hand and sent shocks through her body.

"Ow…not…fair…!"

"Never challenge me. I've been fighting wars longer than you've been alive girl. I've watched your leaders LIVE and DIE. My storms rage throughout the lands, causing all who witness them to scream in terror!"

He noticed a blade heading for his neck from behind, and he chuckled.

"Watch."

He lifted an arm, and lightning shot out from it and shocked Aoki, who rolled to safety.

"Getting in close is a death sentence," she thought. "I'll have to play this from afar."

Ionix noticed a lock of green hair on the ground, and he stopped to pick it up. "Don't worry, Venire. I'll see you soon."

But once he stood back up, the ground beneath him shook, and he was unable to move.

"Kanai!" Himeka said. "You're back!"

"Of course I am! I'll hold him in place, you two finish the job!"

Ionix tried to move forward, but his body failed to respond. Himeka picked up her weapon, and she and Aoki both went to attack Ionix.

"Master!" Marachii cried out, shifting back into his normal form and running toward Ionix.

Aoki threw down a yellow card, which disoriented both Ionix and Marachii.

"Now, we WIN."

The blade traveled straight, heading directly for Ionix's chest. And as it did, time seemed to stop.

"Come on, Ionix! Never back down, never surrender!"

"Huh? Who's there?"

The world seemed to shift around Ionix, and in the next moment, a young Voltian girl with radiant orange hair and eyes was standing in front of him, holding a basket of fruit.

"You…" Ionix said, seemingly in a trance. "Where…where did you come from?"

She pulled an apple out of her basket, handing it to him. "You looked like you needed help, so I wanted to offer you this! Do you remember what Runea said?"

"Hmm?"

"How can you forget? After all, you're the one always hollering about how you want you and your ranks to be treated like an 'Elite!'"

Ionix held his forehead. "Yes…I remember now."

The girl set the basket at his feet. "Well, what are you waiting for? Show off that cool lightning power, and bring glory to all who would be called weak!"

As the scene began to disappear, she smiled and left him one last message.

"And…please, once you do, come find me."

Then everything went black, and Ionix was all alone, a tear falling down his face.

"For everyone deemed weak…for those not blessed by the gods…for those I've lost…and for the trials yet to come…"

He closed his eyes, imagining a flow of power through him, and finally, he understood what Runea meant that day.

"And now, UNLEASH."

The power burst out of him like an explosion, and when he opened his eyes, his entire body had transformed…

…into pure lightning.

—-