The Mahari towered over Porter's body, its shadow covering the White Storm completely as it blocked out the sun. Fluids dripped off its exposed muscles, a combination of different biological and artificial oils without enough skin to keep the liquids contained. It did not hesitate in raising its arm, clenching its fingers into a fist and driving it down towards Porter as he lay on the ground.

Porter's battlesuit began to hum, vibrating on the ground as electricity coursed through it. Before the Mahari struck the ground, the White Storm split in five different directions, blue afterimages fading into little bolts of electricity that scattered away on the ground. The whole thing happened in less than a second, occurring so quickly that those who blinked missed it entirely and assumed the worst as the monster's hand broke straight through the ground.

The air behind the Mahari warped and twisted for a moment before the five images of the White Storm appeared, flying together to form the complete battlesuit. It crackled with electrical energy before pointing its sword down at the creature. A bolt of lightning shot off the tip of the weapon, smashing into the Mahari's back before fading away.

Another fulmination leaped off the end of Porter's blade, smashing into the Mahari and causing the flesh and muscles in a small circle on its back to rip apart, skin bubbling from the intense heat. The monster felt no pain though, and swung its fists around with unnatural speed. Porter was gone again though, his warmachine vanishing in spectacular fashion once again.

Ochenkov placed his hand on his chin and his Goliath emulated the behaviour. "You don't have to do that you know," Ardwen said, shaking his head at his senior. "You don't need to show me you're thinking."

"You know what happen?"

"No, I don't get what's going on at all. All I know is Porter is winning."

"Channeling," Ochenkov responded, his voice showing hints of surprise at Porter's skill and...at something else. "Has to relax first for channel. Lie down."

"He's channeling his chi? I could've guessed that Ochenkov!" Ardwen threw up his hands in frustration convinced he had been given the worst possible team to work with by Saint Ishiyama. "What about the weird disappearing."

But Ochenkov only shrugged, also confused by what was going on. "Is Goliath, not Porter." That was all he said about it, regardless of any further prying Ardwen tried to do. The barbarian simply shook his head and continued to stare at the fight with a newfound curiosity.

* * * * *

Porter could feel the world around him, feel every heartbeat of every person, feel the pulse in everyone's veins, feel the life that coursed through every plant. He could sense the sinister presence of the Jahari, their chi horribly blackened and twisted. But he didn't know where he was in all of this. He just knew that he was.

The White Storm appeared once more, this time in front of the Mahari, and unleashed more lightning, twin bolts slamming into the monster's face, sending it reeling for a moment from nothing but the force. It couldn't react to the pain as it had no way to sense it was injured. All it could do was try to fight, and it clumsily swung up at Porter as he hovered in the air, its vision distorted by the chi attacks.

But Porter was just outside the beast's reach, factoring in its inability to quickly move its feet. The behemoth stumbled forwards, staggering and trying to catch its balance as its tremendous upper weight propelled it forth. Porter took the opening without hesitation, dashing downwards towards the creature's back, grabbing his sword stuck in the cannon while swinging his remaining blade at it from the other side. He managed to lodge both his weapons in the bony structure of the gun before forcing them both together, severing the weapon entirely.

A stream of oil shot up from the new hole Porter had created, mixed with the orange blood of the Jahari. It sprayed the White Storm's chest and face before dying down, coating Porter's front with ichor. His cameras went blind momentarily, surprising Porter more than anything. He lost focus on the chi around him, realizing he had been relying too heavily on his vision. Then he felt the powerful grip of the Mahari on his arm and knew he had been caught.

The White Storm flew through the air, carried by the Mahari as it slammed the warmachine down into the ground in front of it, the impact rocketing through the cockpit once more, charring Porter from his seat and causing him to bite his lip. He sat back up in his chair, rubbing his forehead as he felt the trickle of blood begin to slide down his chin. The taste of iron sat on the tip of his tongue as he prodded the wound.

Sensors began to reactivate, indicating minimal structural damage and zero critical failures. That was good. The cameras were back online, much of the oil evaporating from the heat the White Storm was generating with the amount of electrical current running through it. But it was not a good sight appearing on the viewscreens in front of Porter.

The Mahari had the White Storm pinned down, holding it to the ground with each of its hands. Porter kicked his Goliath's legs around to no avail as they flopped about. He couldn't kick himself up, nor could he knock the monster away. The creature's remaining cannon swivelled to aim at Porter, the hive mind no longer concerned with crushing Porter between its fingers.

As Porter lay on the ground, he felt tremors through the earth as another sinkhole opened up near him, just beside where the Mahari stood. It seemed another wave was ready to burst through onto the Earth and Porter would not be around to protect his friends from it anymore. He shut his eyes, accepting of his fate and ready to return to the limbo of light and dark.

"Fancy meeting you here." Porter's eyes shot open at the voice on his communication network, and he sat up, not realizing he was no longer trapped by the Mahari. His focus snapped to the Goliath standing in front of him, holding its hand out to Porter. Along its arm was the barrel of a massive cannon, one that appeared to have been stripped off a tank. In its other hand it held a long axe, the handle nearly the length of the battlesuit. Its armor contained no symbols or sigils markings its affiliation, and Porter's computer systems could not identify it either. But it did show a match to the owner of the voice.

"Grimsley?" Porter shakily stood up, after-effects from overusing his chi already creeping in. "Is that you?"

"Of course! I think I'm two for two on saving you now." Grimsley gestured to the Mahari, which had been knocked aside from a combination axe swing and bullet to the chest. It was still very alive, but just momentarily stunned. It was already beginning to pick itself up off the ground. Within Grimsley's cockpit, a muffled Ronald attempted to chip in his two cents, but the young man spun around and tightened the cloth around the elder's mouth, keeping him quiet. It was the only way he could concentrate.

"But where did you...how did you...a Goliath?" Porter shook his head, trying to remove the fuzziness from his brain from his rapidly growing fatigue.

Grimsley pointed to the new hole in the Earth ,where an Artisan Goliath was duelling with a pair of Bahari, its whip-like sword zipping through the air. "My master and I came here following the Jahari underground. There was one in particular we were tracking but we lost it down there in the tunnels and ended up here. Took us some time getting here though." Porter didn't respond, simply standing there in stupefaction. "As for the Goliath, a friend of mine made it using my old tank parts." There was some other sound over the intercom Porter couldn't make out, like someone talking through a blanket.

"Well...thank you I guess. I owe you my life again."

"Don't worry about it, this is war after all." Grimsley placed his hand on Porter's shoulder in camaraderie. "Now, my master is calling to me again so I must return to him. You can finish this thing right?"

The Mahari let out a bellow and began to approach the two once more, swinging its arms wildly to the sides with each step. It fired a worm towards the pair and they each leaped back, letting it fly between them. It approached Grimsley's master but detonated in the air before reaching the Artisan, cut to pieces by a flick from his sword.

"Yes, I can deal with it." Porter gripped his blades tightly and nodded to Grimsley, watching the teen hurry away to rejoin the Artisan. His master? Porter thought.With Grimsley from the Enian Federation and his partner an Artisan, they would have had to have met after the alliance was declared. But how could Grimsley be piloting a Goliath so well in such a short time? That would be impossible unless...unless he was some sort of prodigy. Porter gulped, thinking through the hellish training he had had to endure from Shotuku in order to get to this level.

The Mahari's attack drew Porter out of his mind as he did a little jump to avoid its punch, deftly landing on the monster's arm. While the creature wasn't significantly larger than Porter, the White Storm could still find footing at either end of the monster's arm. Porter quickly drove his blades down, slicing through muscles and metal before quickly pulling out and kicking off, separating himself from the behemoth once more. He didn't want to get himself stuck in its thick body again.

But how did he go about beating this creature? It couldn't feel pain, couldn't understand the injuries he inflicted, and it he couldn't hit it deep enough to cause any grievous damage. At best, he might be able to cut its other cannon off, but that wouldn't prevent it from ripping him in half with its hands. He needed a plan and he needed it fast. The longer the fight went on, the tougher things got for Porter, and he already felt his movements were a fraction of a second slower as he tired. He couldn't afford to burn out all his chi on just one beast.

"Porter," Ardwen cut in over the intercom, "you'll need to use the microburst technique from class." The tactician had already seen through the monster's weakness and, knowing the ineptitude of his classmates when it came to studying, had decided he needed to intervene and help out.

"Got it, the microburst technique." Porter back-flipped away from another punch by the Mahari as he answered, making sure to force it to walk to get close to him. He could continuously buy himself time so long as he kept a distance, but he certainly wasn't going to win this way.

There was a silence on the communication network for a bit as Ardwen sat in his cockpit and watched Porter. "You have no idea what the microburst technique is do you."

"Not a clue."

* * * * *

General Goulet danced through combat, his effortless motions translating into carnage around him as Bahari bodies burst open from slashes, their bodies flying as the impact of Goulet's attacks struck them. Next to him stood his new apprentice, Grimsley, who was anything but graceful as he cleaved straight through Bahari bodies, blasting away those who drew too close with his cannon. Their conflicting styles created a dichotomy of destruction in the centre of a swarm of Bahari, quickly forcing the enemy to reroute around them.

Sigmeund landed between the two, his lance then impaling the ground next to him. He left it there as he casually stretched, safe from harm as the twin fighters repelled all approaching enemies. "So this is the new recruit?" Sigmeund said slyly, trying to provoke Goulet with his words to get a reaction. "You have the strangest tastes sometimes you know."

"It is not a matter of taste," Goulet replied coolly, his demeanour unshaken by Sigmeund. "I don't have methods like you do. I simply seek out information and then spread it. Who am I to control people's perceptions or opinions? Let them decide what to believe."

"Well, if you say it works, then it works, but I prefer a much more direct approach. You can't just show people the truth Goulet, you have to feed it to them, open their mouths and force them to swallow it. It is the only way. Showing it implies they can see at all. How do you teach a blind man to read? You must take his hand and put it on the page, and you must convert the page for him. If you just leave a book in front of him, he will never learn."

"And yet, here we both stand." Goulet ducked, letting a severed Bahari head fly at Sigmeund, who caught it with ease. The general examined the head for a moment, smiling in his cockpit at his old friend's antics, before tossing it away. "You made an interesting choice yourself you know." Goulet gestured towards Porter as the youth continued to dodge the Mahari.

"He's interesting, very unique. Lots of potential there Goulet, and I barely have to do anything. It is almost entirely put in place for me already. It shows you how corrupted this world has become when a simple boy can trip over its evil tendrils without trying."

"You know who his brother is don't you?"

"That's what makes it even better doesn't it? He is a perfect candidate, ready to take the step towards a new world, a true world."

"You're always such a visionary aren't you?" Goulet flicked out his sword, letting it wrap around a Bahari. He tossed the monster into another cluster of creatures, toppling them all. "Yes Grimsley, stay focused." The general had to flip between different channels as he kept his discussion with Goulet private and encrypted. "What will you do with him after this then?" Goulet continued, switching back to Sigmeund.

"I won't have to do anything. The seeds are planted and I only recently watered them. Let it grow inside him and fester. Slowly he will grow to better understand the world he lives in, and he too will hate it. Then I will speak to him."

"Better make sure he doesn't die then," Goulet snorted.

"Don't worry, old friend, have faith in my choices. He has something new, something different we have never experimented with before."

"That is?"

"Friends."

A/N: Grimsley has reunited with our favourite cast, but what dark secrets has he brought with him in the form of Goulet?