A familiar presence broke him from his thoughts as he moved to the edge of his ship and whispered, "So... you are still there." With that, his mind entered another plane of existance. A place where his mind was free to roam and search the universe of its treasures of knowledge and to speak with others advanced enough to reach such a plane.  It was also where 'she' was.

    His form in this plane of existence resembled a massive behemoth. Terrible and frightening to all who dare gaze upon him. The other inside this plane appeared in a small light, in the form of a delicate bird, whose every movement was as smooth as if it were underwater.

    [So... you have come.] The other one said.

    [Yes. I have finally become capable of returning here. And soon, I will begin the end for those who think they can stop me... and for you, my dear. My offer still stands.] He said to the other.

    [Yes. I do remember your offer, but I'm afraid I must decline once more.]

    [Somehow, I am not surprised by your response. Is there was anything that could alter your choice? And if there is, what would that be?]

    [There is. Stop this madness. Let the slaughter end before it truly begins. Let go of the past and the hatreds that bind you to this insanity... only then, would I accept your offer.] She begged.

    A long moment of silence followed. [It is too late for me. I have made my choice.]

    She then replied with resignation, [Then you do realize that if we were to meet, I would have no choice but to kill you.]

    [You do realize that it will not be an easy task.]

    [Yes, I know. I would and I will continue to fight you until my dying breath.] She said steadfast in her choice.

    [Spoken like a true warrior. And I suppose that trying to subject you to my will would do me not good. Am I right?]

    [Yes. If you did so, you would never have me, though you may have my body.] She continued with a voice filled with regret, [It was when we first meet did I realize just how foolish I was before. Even now, I still lament over the mistakes I've made. Never again, Darkon. I will never make those mistakes again.]

    With empathy, Darkon replied softly, [A kindred spirit, if anything else.] Then, with a mental sigh,  [Very well, I shall take my leave. Never forget though, my offer still stands.]

    [And I shall remember it, though I may refuse.]

    With that, the two minds left the plane and their separate ways. As Darkon returned, he reminded himself of his objective concerning her.

She would be spared. No matter what. She was far too important to be simply regard as one of 'them'. One of the humans. To him, she was so much more. That was the reason being that she would be the sole survivor of the human race, should his plans come to fruition.

*****

Back at the Space Knight command center, Commander Jamison had found himself with a guest from the company that owned the Space Knights that had come from out of the blue.

In his office, a woman with unusually long black hair looked over the reports Jamison had compiled for her with her left had. Had her right arm not have been in a cast, she would have used it.

"At the present time, we are preparing to fix the thirty-minute time limit that has been plauging us from the moment we learned of its existance. With this 'upgrade', we are hopeful that this will help Slade fight longer and more effectively. And speaking of which, the files you provided about the Argos proved to be correct."

The woman named Hino looked up from her report. "So, he is one of the Carters?"

"Yes. Ness Carter to be exact. And from the descriptions we received from him, we have been able to confirm that the first Teknoman that attacked was at one time, Fritz Wallace."

"And the one called Saber is Cain Carter, am I right?"

"From what I head from Slade, yes."

Looking back to the report, Hino continued, "And this commander of theirs, Darkon. Do we have any idea who he may be?"

Shaking his head, Jamison answered, "I'm afraid not. Details are sketchy as to what he even looks like."

"Unfortunate..." Hino said before a frown crossed her face, "If I could, I'd give him hell for what he's been doing to all of us."

"You're not the only one. Slade has made his desire for revenge appearent." He paused for a second, almost as if he was about to ask a question about a touchy subject, "If I may ask, why haven't I heard from your leader directly?"

Hino's frown grew deeper as she grumbled, "Take a good guess, Jamison. This war's taken its toll on all of us. She's having a hard enough time staying sober. Let alone staying alive."

"That bad, huh?" Hino nodded. "Does that explain what happened to your arm?"

Looking at the cast over her right arm, Hino said casually, "We got into a fight a while ago. It's a long story I'd rather not get into."

"I see."

"Anyway; from what I saw, it looks like we're about to have a teknoman of our own?"

"Yes. I am allowing Ms. Carter to direct the contruction and procedure of a chamber which will create Teknoman-like fighters, which we hope, will turn the tide."

Hino's eyes narrowed with suspicion, "Have you inquired as to who the first applicant is?"

"I have, but from what I can gather, she's either keeping it to herself, or she has not chosen yet."

"Could it be she's trying to make another warrior for the enemy?"

"I doubt it. In all my years of life, I've grown to know when people are lying and when they are not. And she is not lying."

Hino stood up and placed the report back on his desk, "For your sake, Jamison, I hope you're right. One of my best friends died because of those freaks and I'm not ready to let another one loose on the planet." She turned to leave, "I want daily reports on everything that has to do with little experiment of Ms. Carter's. Make note of every detail... our survival may depend on it."

"It will be done." Jamison said as the doors closed behind her. When he could tell she had left the area of his office, he began to scowl at the thought of the woman who had just left. "I have no idea where you got that unearthly power of yours, Hino. But I won't be some puppet you can control with your tricks. I know when you use that power to weaken the will of other men and bend them to your will. You can try to scare me, Hino. You'll just be wasting your time."

Sitting in his chair, he turned to the window beisde his desk and looked to the moon. "Either way... God help us."

Within the shadows, a snicker escaped the lips of the one hiding within. Everything was just so much fun to it.

*****

Meanwhile in the loading bay...

"Oh really?" Ringo said with surprise. Shara had nodded at his question. "Well, why don't you ask some of the girls here? They know what a great guy I am, and you know it too."

Shara's eyes leveled at his pride, "Oh, I don't know about that. I've seen how nice you were to my brother and how much you 'trusted' him."

Shrugging, Ringo answered, "What can I say? I was a bad boy for being a bit presumptious."

"I'll say, but now I take it you and he are better off now?"

"Yeah. But there's still a few things your brother needs to know."

Shara's eyebrow raised, "Such as?"

"Was your brother ever going out with anyone in school?" Shara shook her head, "I thought so. You see, your brother and I were playing raquet ball the other day and during our game, I found out what a tactless little man he can be."

"Go on."

"You know Star, right? He likes her and she likes him. But, of course, our prince charming isn't exactly making the best effort to let her know how he feels."

With a weak smile, "I see. And you?" Ringo blinked at her question, "I mean, have you ever been in a somewhat similar situation?"

Ringo stopped a second before answering, "Well... there was this one girl. I swear I've seen her before, and I've seen her more than once in my life, but I could never find her. Not even learn her name."

"Why don't you look for her then?"

Ringo tone changed drastically with his response, "Because I'm not going to waste my life looking for a dream that's not going to be a reality."

Shara frowned, "You're that cynical?"

"No. I really want to know about her, but I can't even remember what she looks like or when I met her... I just moved on."

That statement reminded Shara of the bleak situation she was in. "I wish I could move on, but I can't."

Ringo knew he couldn't even begin to understand what Shara was going through. Yet, that didn't stop him from putting his hand on her shoulder and saying, "Shara..." she looked up to him, "If there's anything that I can do... let me know. I want to help."

She smiled sadly, walked up to him, put her arms around him, and began to sob silently. She knew she could trust him. She knew he was sincere. Right now, she needed someone who would be kind enough to help. He was one.

*****

Once Maggie had finally finished the numbers necessary for the conversion process to take place, Mac had been waiting for about half an hour, waiting for the go-ahead. "Ok Mac, were done on this end. How about you?" Maggie cried to mechanic down below.

"Waiting for you, ya slowpoke, I was thinking about taking a nap while you were still working."

"Yeah yeah, real funny. Now get those things in position, we got ourselves some soldiers to make."

"Ok lass. We'll be waiting."

Shara shook her had at the unusual exchanged between them both, thought nothing of it, and went back to 'instructing' the pods on what to do. During the instruction, she went over again the perameters of what would happen.

The transformation process would take at least a week for the test subject, considering the changes they made to the pods. It would stretch their human bodies to the limits of their tolerances, multiply feelings and sensations of every kind. Including pain. Unlike the Argos, the chances of the Teknosystem rejecting you would be much less and you wouldn't end up as a small pile of genetic waste, you'd still be human. But the chance of dying was still there, as was losing your memories and so much more. Hopefully,  you'd still be the same as you went in.

The chamber itself was a rather small affair. Looking like something you would see about in those old stories about that Area 51, Shannon wondered if they would be enough.  But then realized that they didn't need pods to be spherical, just make sure that the person would survive the changing process.


All of a sudden, the pods began to decompose at an alarming rate.

[What's wrong?]

[Life... Gone... No life! Die.]

    [Just hold out a little longer! We need you to live!]

[Hard thing, Master want. Still, we do!]

[Good. Just hold on...]

She ordered several work crews to keep the dissolving teknopods from spilling everywhere and still in their containers. It appeared that the process could still move ahead without any more delays. Everything was set.

Now came the difficult part. She needed someone to choose to be the first Earth made Teknoman.

Jamison was out, he was needed too much here at the Command Center. The Mechanics were out, because they were needed here. The only ones left that were viable were the Ringo, Star, and Tina. There was no time to check the rest of the people here, only one of the Space Knights would do. She couldn't trust just anyone with such power at his or her disposal. They didn't need another Saber, Gunnar, or Darkon.

Once the Space Knights and other personnel had gathered, Mac and Maggie began explaining all the modifications made to the teknopods. The modifications, the upcoming process, and Slade's upgrade. There was a feeling of excitement in the air and Shara hated to ruin the feeling, but it had to be done. She turned to the group and spoke with a dead serious face and tone.

"There is one last thing we need."

A wave of apprehension hit everyone present.

"We need a volunteer to go through this. I have considered several people and I have a recommendation of three people. With your permission, Commander Jamison, it will be one of your command crew."

Jamison nodded, "You may, but you need the permission of those who you choose or they will not go through it". She nodded and looked to Star, Ringo, and Tina. Spoke their names and asked them all to step forward. Doing so, they stood in front of her, like soldiers to a commanding officer.

"You know that once you go into this, there will be no turning back. You need to exert your will over the pods if you want to have the power they can give. If not, you'll end up dead and there will be nothing left or you will be like Ness and myself; without the handicapps that we have.

You'll be a changed human, but still human nonetheless. You will be taking on a huge responsibility, so I will train you myself until I can no longer move."  She paused for a minute and looked at their faces and found a combination of surprise, fear, and reluctance. She continued "I will not force any one of you three to do this. You must make that decision yourself."

An uneasy silence landed upon them all and lasted for only half a minute. Oddly enough, it seemed many times longer.

Until someone spoke up. "I'll do it." The voice belonged to Tina.

All eyes turned to her as she stepped forward. Some with admiration of her courage and others with shock. Being young, no one thought that she would actually sacrifice herself in that way. Her face was still showing the newfound courage and determination that she always seemed to keep hidden underneath a childish demeanor.

Several other people asked her if she was crazy, and a few others asked her if this was something she really wanted to do. She turned to them all and nodded the affirmative to both questions.

Turning back to Shara, she asked, "Can I at least do something before I go through with this?"

Shannon's serious face softened and nodded and then replied "Please do. I would feel better if you had no regrets about this. But you must be fast, we don't have much time."

She thanked Ness' younger sister and ran to her room. After a half an hour later, everyone was ready, only waiting for Tina. She ran back into the loading bay, screaming her presence to be known. While back at her room, everything was organized like it never was, and a note on the bed.

Dear everyone;
    I guess you want to know why I am doing this. It's because I want to do more than what I did before. I want to help more. It may sound stupid, but I felt like I didn't do enough.

So I'm doing this. If I don't make it, I want you to give the other letter I wrote, to the rest of my family. It's so that they won't hate you for doing this to me. If all goes well, then don't worry about a thing.

                                                 Signed;
    Tina Abigale Corman

Back at the loading bay, Slade had returned from the infirmary and was labeled ready by the doctor to go through this. She stood in front of the chamber now made for her and then looked at the modified Pegas and saw Slade standing in front of it. "Hey Slade. You nervous?" she asked her friend, who turned to look at her, slightly startled.

"Uh, yeah, I mean no... I... I don't know." He said with resignation. "Shara says that it'll take about 2 hours for me to go through this. I can't say the same about you though." He ended with a smile.

"Well, I'd never though I'd be getting a week's rest before." Tina said with a short giggle.

The humor left her voice when he asked, "You do know what's going on. Don't you?"

She simply nodded. She knew what could and what could not happen. She didn't want to say it, but that part of it scared her. Despite that, she would continue with her choice.

Walking to the door of the chamber, she stepped through the door and it closed slowly behind her. Slade jumped into the interlock chamber and it closed behind him as it always did.

Slowly, the remains of the teknopods started to flood into both chambers. The liquid was indeed hot, but not scolding. Very soon, the alien substance would fuse with their bodies and minds. Doing so would prove their worth of receiving their latent power.

Back at the control station, Shara took a brief look at both. She smiled slightly at Tina's bravery. It must not have been easy for her to make such a choice. It was to her credit.

Her smile faded when the thoughts of her brother came up. She knew that his cells were degenerating because of the imbalance of emerging early. This, on the other hand, would stop that secret 'fail-safe' that those monsters made. Though the problem was being remedied, that was not the cause of her guilt.

It was because of her lie. A lie of omission. Something she had told no one. Nor would she tell anyone...  She returned her attention back to what was going on.

The process had begun.

End  of Chapter 1

[WH rolls out of the light. Once he comes to a stop, he rubs his head.]

WH: Ow ow ow. Anyway... fun, huh?

The reason why I started writing this was because I was downright unhappy at the fact that Teknoman was canceled. (sniff, sniff) Sadly, there was nothing I could do.

(shrugs) Oh well. There's always fanfiction, and of course, the original Tekkaman Blade episodes, which I have yet to acquire. (Which may take a while since I am broke at the moment. ^^;)

Next, Why does Darkon get more screen time than before? Several reasons. I like spicing up character so that they become more than just some one-dimensional drone. However, I must be careful so as not to make characters so out of character it makes me look like a fool.

[Darkon's head pops out from the side.]

Darkon: Too late for that.

URUSAI! (Japanese: SILENCE!)

Darkon: There you go again. [leaves]

Animates... OI!

Getting back to the important stuff; Darkon's little scriptural quote comes from Proverbs 16:32. Which I believe is that if we can learn to control ourselves, we can get a lot more out of life than just trying to sate our wants. I'm not saying that I have accomplished such a thing... but I am trying.

[Insert the obligatory, request/rant/desire/beg/prostration/threat/want/implore/demand for C&C here.]

Next, let's not forget my wonderful pre-readers who were so kind as to help me fix this thing up and the Disclaimers that any and all characters, places, things, and what not that belong to their respective owners belong to them and not me. I'm not smart enough to think of that many things that would make such a profit.

However, the word Teknos is a word I made up myself and anything that will be affiliated with it that is my own creation belongs to me and me alone. As details become more and more abundant, I will point out what is what is another's creation and my own.

Finally; just for me; I've left these little bits and pieces here and there for the sole purpose of making you readers (however few), think. For example; who was that who was listening in on Jamison and Hino? Who was Darkon speaking to? What is the lie which Shara cannot, nor will she tell? Who was Shara's benefactor? Find out later! Now...

[slumps to the ground.]

...I need sleep...

[With a grumble, Darkon walks out and carries a dead tired WH out.]


'Man who walks in front of car, gets tired. Man who stands behind car, get exhausted.'

-Warhammer (ICQ#: 72406436)

http://www.geocities.com/teknos.geo/

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