Beyond the Grave
Beyond the Grave, or Grave for short, is the name Dr. Tokioka gave to Brandon Heat after being killed by Harry MacDowel. Due to his condition of being dead, he has to keep a fresh supply of blood flowing through his body somehow; periodically, the current blood in his body has to be flushed out, and replaced with fresh blood. There's not a whole lot to be said about him; if you want to know about his backstory, go check out the Brandon Heat page.
The game starts with Grave, adorned in some kind of cowboy outfit, and Dr. Tokioka sitting in the doctor's lab, when a knock comes on the door. Mika stumbles through, with Grave's coffin, and Grave knows exactly what to do; he grabs the coffin, draws his guns Cerberus from it, then slings it around his back. After the doctor tells Grave where some of Millennion's thugs can be found, Grave heads out into the night, to the nightclub Dr. Tokioka suggested. Grave accosts the thug, but he escapes, and Grave chases the man through the nightclub, killing the minions in his way. After climbing to the top of the nightclub, Grave peers down onto the streets below, and finds the thug running out the club's back door. Grave jumps from the roof, langing on a car below, and fires on the people trying to keep him from his target. At the end o the battle, Grave stops the man.
Dr. Tokioka learns of a warehouse where Millennion is developing new weapons, making this Grave's next target. Grave once again goes at night, to the warehouse. Mika stays back with Dr. Tokioka, while Grave does his thing.
Dr. Tokioka next learns of a yacht party for Millennion's top members; Harry will probably be there. Brandon fights his way through Chinatown, to the docks where he boards the yacht by force. After turning the ballroom into a mess, Grave is greeted by his former friend, Harry MacDowel, and the other four top men. Bob Poundmax takes the honor of fighting Grave first; he summons a small attack team to back him up against Grave. After Grave easily puts Bob own, he steps outside to see the others flying away in a helicopter. Grave attempts to chase the helicopter, but Bob returns, as some kind of mutant. A giant mass of fat, Bob needs a helicopter propellar on his back to suspend him. After fighting this mutant Bob, Grave returns to Dr. Tokioka's lab.
Dr. Tokioka is intrigued by Bob's mutation, but has traced Millennion activity to the subway. However, before Grave can go, his blood supply needs to be refreshened. While in the blood replacement chamber, a Millennion strike force breaks into the lab, kills Dr. Tokioka, and takes Mika hostage. Once the blood in his body is refreshed, Grave goes after her, findin she's been taken to he subway he was intended to go to, anyway. After making his way through the station, fighting Millennion forces, Grave makes his way to the actual subway train as it prepares to leave. Grave fights through the train, and finds Balladbird Lee in the control room, holding Mika hostage. After remarking about Grave's old-fashioned loyalty, Lee throws Mika out the train window, just as the train derails. Grave finds himself in a subway train junkyard, and Lee has already mutated; Mika was caught and saved by Bunji. After Grave defeats Lee, Mika is returned to him, and they return to Dr. Tokioka's lab.
Grave now decides to attack the Millennion HQ head-on. After being detoured by an attack, Grave finds himself in the sewers. Maneuvering the sewers, he eventually makes his way to the Millennion HQ, and fights his way to the top. Waiting for him at the top is Bear Walken, in small dojo. Bear destroys his dojo and transforms to fight Grave, who easily defeats Bear. But, Bear has a scond form which he transforms into, and puts up more of a fight. After battling long and hard, Grave finally defeats Bear.
However, the building shakes under Grave's feet as explosions can be heard from below. The building collapses, and Bunji Kugashira makes a remark to Grave before departing frm the falling building. Grave finds himself in the sewers again, with the ruins of a Church not too far away. Grave enters the Church, and is accosted by Bunji. The two battle each other, Bunji almost identical in technique to Grave. However, Grave manages to win, and Bunji allows him to pass.
Grave goes into the depths of the Church to find a strange door, which opens into a bright light. Grave rides an elevator up, to a place unknown. As he gos up, he reminisces about his past, and remembers he died in an elevator. Once the elevator reaches the top, Grave finds himself high in the sky, attacked by alien creatures on an alien structure. Grave fights his way to the top of the structure, fighting the alien creatures, to where he meets Harry. Attempting to fire upon Harry, Grave's bullet is stopped by an alien object. Harry remarks he didn't kill Big Daddy, but rather changed him to fit the times; a large hand encompases Grave an pulls him into the alien platform. Here, Grave fights Big Daddy, now a mutant like the others. After defeating Big Daddy, Grave fights a very alien creature inside what appears to be its intestines. After defeatin the creature, Grave returns to Harry, who has now accepted his fate.
After Grave finishes Harry, he returns to Dr. Tokioka's lab. The lab has been cleaned out, and Grave and Mika ride off, away from the city.
After Brandon Heat died, Dr. Tokioka revived the corpse and kept it in a state of stasis, until it was time for him to walk again. That time was thirteen years afer Brandon's death. After being re-awakened, Grave suffers memory fragmentation, having died after all. He can't figure out why, but he feels a need to protect Mika. He later remembers he also must stop Harry.
When Grave is first awakened, Dr. Tokioka's mobile lab, set inside a steel-plated semi-truck, is under attack. Having been in stasis for so long, it takes a moment for Grave to awaken. But when he does, he wields the twin guns Cerberus against the Orgmen. As a tank rolls into the scene, Grave grabs the coffin, which shows some kind of attachment to Grave as the skull's eye shimmers in response to Grave's situation. Grave then uses the coffin to remove the tank.
The following day, after being drawn to the cemetary by a faint memory, Grave and Mika are attacked by Millennion hitmen. Grave's protects Mika with his bullet-proof body, and the Orgmen are deployed. Grave eliminates the smaller ones by hand without a problem, and Dr. Tokioka arrives on the scene with Grave's guns as the larger threat appears. Grave uses Cerberus momentarily before having the guns knocked away. It's then revealed the coffin has a jet thruster ability, as the coffin is launched to Grave's aide. Grave once again uses his coffin to eliminate the enemy.
A few days later, Mika takes Grave into town, shopping for clothes as disguises. Mika adorns Grave in an overcoat and boat captain's hat, leaving the price tag on the hat. The two then stop for lunch at an outdoor cafe; o course, Grave can't eat. While Mika attends to some business, Grave overhears Millennion men talking amongst each other about a party to take place later that night. When night falls, Grave goes to the party, where it is revealed to be a trap just for Grave; this trap was orchestrated by Bob, who manipulated the information, and who would be the first of the Big Four to fight Grave. Grave fired upon Bob, and threw him down, but Bob got back up. Bob then transformed into a mutant, called a Superior; his fat mass multiplied as a helicopter propellar grew from his back to suspend him. Bob used his fatty mass as a weapon against Grave, firing rockets from his body and such. Grave managed to use this to his advantage, destroing the rockets before they left Bob's body. And thus, Bob was destroyed.
Dr. Tokioka was intrigued by this development, and knew he had to devise new ammunition for Cerberus. In the meantime, Grave and Mika entered the city again, doing more shopping and investigating about Millennion. Finding a man being bullied by Millennion, Grave ended the bullies actions, only to find himself in a trap. Bunji appeared, with some kind of experimental weapon to fight Grave. After having blocked and dodged Bunji's attacks for a while, Grave finally takes a hit, and finds himself unable to use his arm where the pellet struck him. After taking a shot to the kneecap, Grave also finds himself unable to walk. Before Bunji can put a bullet into Grave's head from point blank range, Mika distracts Bunji, giving Grave time to knock Bunji down. Grave then straddled Bunji, simply striking him in the face. As Grave began to cry, Mika came to his aide, making him stop and leave Bunji.
Grave found his old partners, from his early days in Millennion, and he and Mika stayed with them while Dr. Tokioka set to work. After convincing the two men he was Brandon Heat, they allowed him and Mika to stay in their home, no longer being connected to Millennion. Once Mika was asleep, exhausted from all the action, Grave prepared to go fight Millennion; the two men understood and promised to watch Mika.
Grave drove to the city, making no attempt to hide himself. Coming to the security checkpoint, he was recognized, and the orgmen attack. Meanwhile, the semi-truck which serves as Dr. Tokioka's headquarters is destroyed, and so Grave no longer has a means of circulating fresh blood into himself. His body begins to fall apart like stone.
Harry, being haunted by memories of his old friend Brandon, returns to the old hideout in which the two and their former friends would meet. Grave also returns to this hideout, and talks with Harry. While the two are talking, a number of Millennion's top Sweepers surround the place and intend to kill both Grave and Harry. The two shoot back at the Sweepers, defending each other instead of fighting each other.
A grenade is thrown inside the old building, causing rubble to fall. A large block threatens to fall and crush Harry, but Grave quickly leaps over him, taking the stone to his back. Harry questions Grave's motives, to which Grave tells him that he is still a friend.
Eventually, Grave dies due to a lack of fresh blood, and Harry dies from a gunshot. While the credits of the last episode roll, we see characters from Grave's past (both his childhood gang as well as people from Millennion) giving him words of encouragement.
In Gungrave Overdose, Grave takes on a new role.
What To Know
Characters