Chapter 5:  “Let this be a lesson to you.” (written by Michael Keens/ Exodus)  

Rapid’s feet desperately waved around, trying to come into contact with the 
ground as Crunch lifted the hardened goo upwards.  
“Rapid!” shouted Nate.  

“Babe...” muttered Kaiser concerned, quietly and nervously, before shouting out, 
“Come on! Don’t let that overgrown lizard push you around, blast its butt!”  

“Heh heh heh heh.” laughed Crunch, “Ha hah hah hah hah hah!”  
“I... cannot... retain a firm grip...”  
Her feet managed to touch the floor, and she tried to hold herself back, but 
Crunch was pulling her with the force to generate sparks from her clamped feet, 
and still reel her in.  
The whole line of hardened sludge was risen fully into the air, and held Rapid 
up while the hardened sludge at Crunch’s end, was being sucked back into his gun 
and melted back into ooze.  

“Nate! Do something! Once he gets Rapid in his jaws, she’s done for!” shouted 
Leon.  
“Yeah! She relies on you fer instructions, if she gets hurt, you’re going ta 
pay!” threatened Kaiser.  

“But what?...” panicked Nate.  
“Uggghh, Master Nate.  I cannot see, am I in danger?...” asked Rapid innocently, 
blind to the extreme peril of Crunch positioning her above his wide open mouth.  
“Please forgive me Rapid, but its the only way...” whispered Nate, “Look down, 
and fire your Beam Cannon!”  
“Wha, what?!” spluttered Crunch, but it was too late.  
A couple of explosions followed, one that ripped through the hardened material, 
the other blasting on the croc’s mouth.  
Rapid spun backwards through the air, her gem and screen cracked and her head 
parts bent out of shape.  
As horrible as the result had turned out, it was better than becoming a victim 
to Crunch’s jaws.  
Before her vision became screwed up, Rapid drew out her guns and fired wildly 
until she hit and exploded the Goo Spray gun, sending most of its contents on 
the floor, and leaving a useless shattered container on Crunch’s arm part.  
She then landed hard on the ground, sparks and small waves of electricity 
surrounding her head.  
“Master Nate...  I am having trouble with my vision...” she reported.  
“Ow...  Mah mouth...” groaned Crunch, picking himself up after a lot of damage, 
“I wasn’t s’posed to...”  
His eyes widened as several teeth fell out of his jaw and clattered on the 
floor.  
“Mah teeth!...”  
Rapid’s sight became scrambled every so often, and so she didn’t see the 
charging opponent, fuelled with rage.  
Crunch stopped short of Rapid, and used the momentum to swing his large tail 
round.  
Rapid was catapulted to the side and skidded on the floor upon landing.  
“Ugghhh...” she groaned.  
“I wasn’t meant to see a dentist for a least a month! Do you know how painful it 
is to replace metal teeth, Gal?!” shouted Crunch, already charging once more.  
“Rapid! Dive to the right!”  
“Yes.” she replied, aiming to do so, except a large tail blocked her path and 
batted her in front of Crunch, who rammed her into the forcefield with his hard 
head, shooting a lot of energy through her before she dropped to the floor.  
“You like that, huh?! Well here’s one more for you!” taunted Crunch, having 
become more aggressive after the loss of the majority of his teeth.  
“Jump!” shouted Nate, and Rapid picked herself up, and launched herself up as 
the tail swung by, and into the barrier, conducting the energy and blasting 
Crunch with as much force as he had put into the attack.  
“Beam Cannon!”  
“... Yes, Mast-  Aaargh!!!”  
The beam was fired, and both GenoGears received damage from it, with her 
head-gem cracked, the energy of the blast was leaking out and affecting Rapid 
with the same force of the attack that was hitting Crunch.  
While she fell back, smoking from her whole body, the combined energy of the 
laser and the energy field had shaken up Crunch, and caused his tail to burst 
off.  
“Master Nate...  I cannot stand...  Perhaps we should select the option to 
forfeit?...” suggested Rapid.  
“Rapid, reach out to your left...” said Nate, with total faith in his friend.  
“Mah teeth, mah gun, an’ now mah tail?! I’m gonna make you pay!” shouted Crunch, 
clenching his fist, still with the spiked gauntlet attached and charging 
forward.  
“Now Rapid!”  
“The situation has changed...”  
“Wha What?!”  
One of the broken glass pieces of the Goo Squirter was rounded and still held a 
good amount of the sticky liquid, it was hurled and crashed on Crunch’s feet, 
the effects of being affected by the air had caused the soft liquid to begin 
hardening and finished doing so before Crunch reached Rapid, and soon caused him 
to trip up.  
“You think this’ll stop me? I’ve waded an’ swam through the stuff to train 
myself!” grinned Crunch, uprighting himself and then lifting a foot to crush the 
hardened sludge with one stomp.  
“An’ this ends your happy little tale...” grinned the gator with a dark 
toothless smile.  
“And you have overlooked... the end of your happy little tail...” groaned Rapid, 
before throwing the large metal appendage with one strong swing of her left 
hand, Crunch caught it, but fell because of the weight, giving Rapid one final 
chance.  
She drew her two guns, and fired, not a second of silence passing between shots, 
the force coupled with her weakened state, pushed her backwards ever so slowly 
because of the recoil, and Rapid eventually had to stop to prevent herself from 
touching another barrier.  
“Did I... succeed?...” questioned Rapid weakly.  
“No way Darlin’, I’m ready to-  Sleep now...”  
The onslaught of bullets finally took their toll on Crunch, steam hissing 
through the many holes, and the huge opponent had finally fallen.  

“She did it...” spoke Leon slowly and happily.  
“Yeah Yeah!” cheered Kaiser, “I knew she had it in her! No wonder she’s perfect 
fer me.”  

A roar of cheers filled up the stadium, and Nate smiled at the support and 
praise, before leaping out of the GenoMaster platform, and into the field upon 
the barrier’s shutdown.  
“Master Nate...  Did I live up to your expectations?...” asked Rapid, reaching 
out for Nate as her sight had failed her.  
“Oh Rapid...” smiled Nate, wiping a tear from his eye, “You’ve far exceeded 
them, but we’ve got to take it easy in the future, that last battle was murder 
to your systems.”  
“And now we’d like to award you the GenoPart of your choice.” said one of the 
commentators, now in the field with two assistants, holding the two parts on 
separate posh cushions.  
“The claws.” answered Nate, having forgotten about the prize and concentrated on 
his GenoGear’s well being.  
“And Nate Maxwell chooses the Long Claws, and Nate, you’ll be happy to know that 
the last battle has moved Rapid into the next level.  Who knows, maybe we’ll see 
you soon for the tag team tournaments.”  
“Yeah, who knows?...” replied Nate.  

Several hours later, and Rapid had recovered, in one of the local GenoGarages, 
small established centres where mechanics and fellow GenoMasters offered each 
other services like attaching equipment to GenoGears, building new parts for 
them and fixing them, for a small fee, currently the team of mechanics that 
worked here were offering their full services for the tournament combatant 
GenoGears.  
The mechanics helped out many people but most GenoMasters preferred to learn how 
to fix their robots themselves.  
Nate paid to use an expensive treatment for robots in the form of a strange gel 
that fixed small cracks in parts like Rapid’s screen and gem, and the dents that 
had formed on her body were taken care of by an injection of nanobytes, tiny 
machines that fixed inside damages and restored the shape of GenoGears’ limbs, 
it was a well known process in the world.  
Nate had used his grandfather’s card to cover these things, if only he could 
have seen him and Rapid in action...  
Her ammo was replaced and as for her energy from using so much firepower, Rapid 
simply had to rest to regain it.  
GenoGears could store a set amount of weapon energy inside them, once it was 
gone, then energy-based weapons could not be used until the GenoGear was 
recharged.  
“Baby! You rock!” cheered Kaiser.  
“What... are you talking about, I do not understand your comment.” replied Rapid 
slowly.  
“I saw you get mad at the yo-yo guy, I know you’ve got it in you ta get mad an’ 
unleash hell on weaklings.”  
“It is not something to be proud of, Kaiser.”  
“So do you think Rapid will be ready tomorrow?” asked Leon hopeful.  
“Ready for what?” questioned Nate.  
“The tag team tourney’, what else? Kaiser really wants to fight in public, and 
the only way to enter is to have a partner.” said Leon.  
“Yeah, not that I actually need one ta win.” commented Kaiser smugly.  
“Leon, I’d love to help, but I think Rapid’s had enough battling for a while.” 
Nate answered.  
“Please Nate? Besides, you know Kaiser, she’ll barely have to lift a finger.” 
pleaded Leon.  
“Yeah Pretty Lady, I’ll protect you.” said Kaiser with a sly look in his eyes.  
“Rapid?” asked Nate.  
“I suppose it would be feasible for me to battle tomorrow, provided Kaiser 
assists me.  Besides, I might even be able to test out my new weapon.”  
“Put it on Nate.” called Leon.  
He did so, on her right hand, and input a slot card into Rapid’s M Chip.  
Cards came with new weapons, and had to slotted into the M Chip for the GenoGear 
to use, these also allowed the power and skill of the weapon to increase over 
time through experience, they could be replaced but were necessary in order to 
use the weapon they were linked to.  
The more a GenoGear used a weapon, the better and stronger they would get with 
it.  
Rapid already had three out of three weapon slots in use, her two handgun arms 
and her Beam Cannon, after one was taken out, this new card maxed out her 
current M Chip attack abilities.  
She waved the new wrist device and arm a little, before three long silver claws 
shot out to a reasonable length.  
“This will lower my handgun use to only one gun, but I believe I could wield 
this without too much trouble.” noted Rapid.  
“Of course you can, that’s the beauty of Basic Class GenoGears, they have no 
specific weaknesses, and they can equip any weapon provided it fits.” explained 
Nate proudly.  
“May I experiment with them tonight?” asked Rapid innocently.  
“You don’t have to ask my permission for this sort of thing Rapid, you’re your 
own GenoGear, you should try to think more for yourself like you did in the 
tournament.”  
“Or you could ditch him altogether an’ battle with me, Kaiser style.” offered 
Kaiser.  
“No thank you Kaiser, I apologise but I would prefer to stay at my master’s 
side.”  
“Hmmmph! he’s got you trained like a puppy...” mumbled Kaiser.  
“So where shall we go to train Rapid?” asked Leon, “There won’t be many 
GenoMasters willing to spar with her now that she’s a champ.”  
“Ooh! Ooh! I’ll do it!” yelled Kaiser.  
“I thought you didn’t want to help us.” frowned Leon.  
“I Don’t.  But I’ll do it fer Rapid.”  
“Better be careful Kaiser.” smiled Nate, “She’s quite a handful now.”  
“Don’t worry.  I can handle her...” he grinned slyly.  

The night passed quickly for the group with all the action that occurred, and 
the next day, crowds cheered once more as a tag team tournament was in action.  
“And for the final bout of Round One, we’ve got a treat, as defending champions 
Adelaide and Vernon with their GenoGears Fantis and Wurm battle Leon and Nate, 
with their GenoGears Kaiser and, recent winner of the solo tournament, Rapid.  
Let the match begin!”  
The arena was the same size as a normal Battle Cube but slightly altered, two 
sides were adjacent to each other connected to larger GenoMaster consoles to 
account for two competitors, on the remaining sides were small additional room 
attached to the arena and not blocked off by the forcefield in which the 
inactive partner sat in until tagged to switch.  
The opponents were a dark haired man in a smart red suit and a blonde male in 
many Arabic-like robes, their GenoGears were a mantis and a large wurm with 
several ringed teeth.  
“Kaiser, I want Rapid to go first, she can test the opponent’s limits, and tag 
whenever she needs to.  Understand?” briefed Leon.  
“But I-  Alright, but only cos its Rapid...” grumbled Kaiser.  
Rapid stepped forward and her claws shot out to their outward position, her 
opponent Fantis, a Nature Class green mantis-type with unique claws on her hands 
and feet, she drew a couple of Blade Class weaponry:  Steel fans that slid into 
their outward positions, showing that they were made up of several sharp blades 
connected together.  
“My greatest fans...” she hissed, while Rapid remained silent, not really into 
opening taunts or puns, but she sometimes surprised Nate with her growing 
individuality and dialogue shining through in battles.  
“Let the match begin!”  
The opponent was quick, and shot to the side as Rapid swung her claws down, the 
training with Kaiser had really paid off, and he didn’t seem to mind too much 
when she’d scratched his body with successful hits.  
The mantis spun to the right, withdrew her weapons, and clung to the forcefield 
without damaging herself, her feet and hand parts had some sort of defense 
against field energy when initiated, but an ability like that could mean she had 
switched defense or strength for that technique.  
“Say your prayers.” she taunted, letting go first with her hands, drawing her 
fan blades, and diving down on Rapid, she blocked one of them with her claws, 
but the second blade cut across her chest plate and sent her falling back.  
“Amateur, you’re a total beginner when it comes to claws!” Fantis put down 
Rapid.  
“That is correct.” she noted as Fantis came running up for another attack, “But 
I am a master with this.”  
With that she drew one of her handguns and took a precise shot, hitting Fantis’s 
hand and sending her left blade flying into the forcefield, and conducting the 
energy, it’d be reckless to try and withdraw it before the end of the match, so 
Fantis was down a weapon.  
“One weapon is all it takes for me to come out on top.” stated Fantis.  
Rapid’s claw shot back out to block another swipe, she aimed at Fantis’s head 
and fired, but she had ducked the shot and knocked the handgun away, also ending 
up touching one of the walls and glowing with energy.  
“That’s for my blade.” scowled Fantis.  
“And this?” questioned Rapid, drawing her second handgun and blasting the bug 
lady backwards, just because she was limited to one handgun at a time didn’t 
mean she couldn’t use either one of the two in her holsters.  
She hit the barrier with her back and became zapped by its power, before quickly 
withdrawing her blade, turning over and crawling onto the wall to prevent 
damage, Rapid put her gun away and rolled towards the other one which had been 
moved away from the wall barrier due to the feedback when Fantis hit it, but a 
blade fan came spinning fast, and slammed into Rapid’s back, cutting into it and 
causing her to fall.  
“Tag me! Tag me!” shouted Kaiser, “I’ll show her a thing or two!”  
“I can... do this...  To win a battle of this nature, it is wise for both 
teammates to do their share...” she replied, pulling out the blade and 
retrieving her gun quickly.  
“You’re stronger than I imagined...  Doesn’t mean you’re better than me though.” 
spoke the opponent.  
She then went to get her second weapon as Rapid had done, still stuck in the 
barrier, but upon grabbing it, and taking the energy feedback of the barrier, 
she found that the blade was wedged in further than she’d thought, and every 
second that passed, she became more and more damaged.  
“Now’s your chance Rapid! Go all out!” shouted Nate, and one quick Beam Cannon 
shot blasted the mantis and her weapon off the wall.  
Rapid stood in a confident fighting stance while the mantis desperately scuttled 
back to its partner rather than fight anymore.  
“I give, okay! Wurm! Take over!” she screamed.  
The second opponent didn’t have a personality, it roared occasionally and made a 
lot of squishy slimy sounds instead.  
It was built like a wide monstrous snake, with no eyes, but a circular mouth 
with several rows of teeth lined all the way down it.  
It was purple in colour, and had several silver rings around its long body.  
“Rapid, watch out, whatever you do, don’t let it swallow you, it can do a lot of 
damage that way.” warned Nate.  
“I understand.”  
With a screeching roar, the wurm dived at Rapid, who slid out of its path as it 
crashed into the arena and tunnelled underground.  
A rumbling could be heard, followed by an explosive trail of soil, rising up 
where the monster was burrowing, Rapid ran and stepped around it, until it 
cornered her between it and two corners of the arena.  
Before Nate could utter a command, the wurm rose up from the ground, and came 
down on Rapid, both of them disappearing underground.  
“Rapid...”  
The wurm rose up in the centre of the field, with Rapid on the brink of being 
swallowed, she held onto the walls of Wurm’s mouth, and could see directly down 
its throat.  
Wurm crunched on Rapid a little with its highest teeth, trying to make her more 
compact, so that she would let go and be devoured, but she unleashed the only 
weapon that didn’t require her to let go, and blasted a laser down Wurm’s 
throat.  
The enemy lashed out in pain, and practically spat Rapid into the forcefield, 
where she picked herself up, crawled over to and tagged Kaiser to finish up.  
Kaiser smiled, and leapt out to face the abomination.  
“Oh yeah, party time!”  
As Kaiser reached for his sword, Wurm buried itself underground once more, and 
dug up directly under Kaiser, who quickly rolled aside, with experience of the 
opponent’s tactics after watching Rapid battle it.  
The wurm screamed and rose up, in an attempt to come down on Kaiser and swallow 
him with one swoop.  
“No you idiot! Not like that!” shouted its GenoMaster loudly, but it was too 
late.  
As the wurm shot down towards Kaiser, he stood still, drew and raised his sword, 
and held it in front of him after turning it slightly so that the sharp end was 
between he and the opponent.  
Wurm realised too late what was happening, and hit the sword’s edge, the 
momentum forcing it through, and the blade tearing the wurm in half in a 
vertical slice.  
“No!!!” yelled its GenoMaster, as the forcefield was deactivated, he searched 
both halves of his GenoGear, and luckily, found its M Chip intact.  
“And Kaiser finishes this match rather quickly, he and Rapid have beaten their 
two, or should I say three opponents, and go through to the next round.”  

Soon enough, the next match was set in motion, against an oriental looking man 
in smart robes and a man wearing a long brown coat and hat to conceal himself.  
“Rapid, you’re a little banged up by the ugly twins, allow me to get the ball 
rolling.” suggested Kaiser.  
“Affirmative, but tag with me if things get too tough.” nodded Rapid.  
“Baby, put your feet up, cos it’ll be a cold day in hell before that happens.”  
“And now Kaiser and Rapid, take on two skilful opponents, brought together by 
this tournament and working well together, Hade and Divider.” announced the 
commentator.  
The first opponent, Divider, was dressed up in gold, red and yellow samurai 
armour, it wore a silver cone-shaped hat and wielded a long katana.  
At first, the battle was repetitive, with the two opponents battling with swords 
and blocking every attack.  
“Damn...  He’s blocking every attack, I’ve never faced such a skilful 
opponent...” muttered Kaiser.  
Divider pushed Kaiser to his limits, and he began to question his skills, this 
opponent was a newly trained GenoGear, wasn’t he?...  
“I can’t believe I’m saying this...  But I might tire of this before he does...”  
He stared down the opponent, noting its movements, “He holds his sword with both 
hands, and that could be his fatal mistake.”  
Kaiser shifted the balance of the sword and held it in one hand, Divider stared 
up at him while their swords shook against each other, before Kaiser punched him 
in the face, causing him to tumble backwards.  
Kaiser leapt into the air and brought his sword down on Divider, who tried to 
leap up, but Kaiser swung his sword and landed, catching one of Divider’s arms 
shortly afterwards and tossing it to the opponent.  
Divider glared at Kaiser, before running at him with his sword in one hand, 
Kaiser leapt back to be in a position to block, except Divider then jumped back 
a large distance, having lured Kaiser away, so that he could reach his partner 
safely to tag out, acquiring his arm in the process.  
The second opponent stepped forward, a black head, frame and limbs, with blood 
red joints and glowing eyes, giving him the look of ninja-type GenoGear.  
“You are powerful, and very confident in your abilities, it is because of it 
that you shall fall today.” spoke Hade mysteriously.  
Kaiser lifted the sword with one hand, and reached out with the other to taunt 
Hade, while he simply gave a mysterious stare.  
Kaiser acted first, firing a stream of laser bullets from the swordless hand, 
Hade nimbly dodged it, and dashed forward at an alarming speed, Kaiser grinned, 
and brought the sword down, but Hade had vanished, and Kaiser had missed 
completely.  
Kaiser quickly and desperately searched the arena with his eyes, before he 
noticed a small amount of dust appearing from off the floor.  
Kaiser dropped the sword and fired with two of his wrist guns, except Hade, 
invisible to all, used the commotion and excess dust from the shots to sneak 
behind Kaiser, grab hold of him, and use one of his specialty attacks.  
Hade reappeared from his cloaking manoeuvre, and several spikes extended out of 
his body and remained jutting out of it, causing no harm to Hade, but a lot to 
Kaiser.  
“Aaargh!!!” he yelled, dropping to the floor.  
“They all fall to a close range Body Spike.” stated Hade, before Kaiser leapt 
up, grabbed Hade’s arm, and performed a judo flip, throwing Hade over his 
shoulder.  
He hit the floor on his back before rolling forward, leaping to his feet and 
then back a couple of steps to retreat and prepare another attack while facing 
Kaiser.  
Kaiser watched the opponent carefully, while breathing a lot, the spikes had 
damaged him more than he was letting on.  
“He survived the Shadow Spike technique?” questioned Hade’s GenoMaster in 
disbelief.  
Hade’s eyes narrowed into small slits, and he glared at Kaiser.  
“Kaiser.  You have taken a lot of damage, I suggest you retreat and allow me 
to-”  
“Tag out...  No way!” shouted Kaiser, enraged that for the first time someone 
had the edge over him.  
Kaiser picked up his sword and charged at Hade, who did the same, minus the 
sword, Kaiser swung at a horizontal angle, but Hade ducked and stepped around 
Kaiser to grab him again from behind.  
“You don’t know when to quit.  Let this be a lesson to you.”  
Everything froze for a moment in Nate and Leon’s minds as the spikes protruded 
out fast and tore into Kaiser in many places.  
“No...” he groaned, sparks, steam and waves of electric escaping from his back 
and head, Hade retracted the spikes, and walked away slowly as Kaiser dropped to 
his knees, and then slammed his face down on the arena floor...  
“Kaiser...” said Rapid sadly.  
A roar of cheers went up for the ninja and samurai, the barriers shut down, and 
Rapid approached Kaiser and lifted up his frame and supported it while she 
checked him over.  
“He is unconscious, we should fix him immediately.”  
“Don’t give it a second thought.” said Leon, picking up his GenoGear while Rapid 
collected his sword, the group departed back to the local GenoGarage.  
This marked a specific occasion for the group, this was the first time that 
Kaiser had been unable to defeat an opponent, surely this would change his 
attitude towards battling, and perhaps for the better.  
All that Leon and Nate knew, was that they’d have to train harder, to mould 
their GenoGears into clear winners, perhaps one day, Kaiser and Rapid would team 
up once more, and take the victory of a tag team tournament.  

End  

Chapter 4
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