Finally free from the crushing weight, Piledriver stood up and dusted herself down. “Thanks” she said. Dylan said nothing and after a few moments of seeing her confused look realised he was staring at her. “Is something wrong?” she asked. “It is you. I had to be sure,” he replied. “What’s me?” “You don’t recognise me?” “No” said Piledriver confused, “but I don’t remember anything other than from the past couple of months. Not even my name.” She paused slightly before adding “I take it we have met? Do you know who I am?” “Interesting,” he replied. Admittedly the comment was neither helpful nor informative and he regretted saying something that stupid as soon as it left his lips. “What sort of answer is that?” she snapped “One that reflects a situation I think we both share.” She raised an eyebrow. Again, he realised he was speaking in riddles once more, so tried to clarify his statement. “Actually I have no idea who you are. In fact, apart from the last two years I too have no memory of my past. However when I saw you on the news a few weeks ago, it triggered something in my mind and I’ve been looking for you ever since. Kind of ironic that when I don’t go looking for you, I find you!” “Maybe it’s fate,” she suggested. “So I gather we have met” She seemed excited. “Yes two years ago” explained Dylan. “The memory fragment I got was from just before I was found in a field in England. We were fighting in the sky and I got the feeling that you were trying to kill me. However, after you sent me crashing to the ground instead of finishing the job, you left me for dead!” “I’m sorry, Union, I suppose but I can’t remember. Deep down I cannot believe I would do such a thing” she said, the wavering in her voice indicating she was disturbed by the revelation. He guessed as much. He also realised that in her calling him by his code name he’d not properly introduced himself. “Call me Dylan” “Natsuki, although that’s a name someone else gave me.” “Funny, Dylan is a name I chose. As I said we share a great deal in common, including no memory of our old lives. I also think we are pawns in a bigger ‘game’.” He paused for moment thinking. “One thing that I do find interesting is that since you ‘reappeared’ , two months ago you said, as well as your memory you also seem to have lost some of your combat skills.” “What do you mean?” queried Natsuki “Two years ago when we fought I recall you were far deadlier and I get the feeling you would not have made the same mistakes as you did today.” “I’m not sure if I should be relieved or offended by that.” “Sorry, I meant no slight, merely an observation that whatever took your memory also affected the way you fight. “ It was now, the Dylan finally decided to reveal why he was so interested in her. The reason he had dedicated a lot of time trying to find her since he heard of the new hero in New Tokyo with no memory and recognised her outfit. “Now since I finally tracked you down I have a proposition.” He grimaced on the inside since it sounded like a pick up line. “What sort of proposition?” “Maybe working together we can find out who stole our memories or even if there are any others like us. I’m sure you want answers and so far on my own I have not found any.” Piledriver appeared to think for a few moments before replying. At first there was silence and then this was broken by a strange cracking noise. “Yeah, I want…actually I need answer-” Her sentence was cut short by a loud bang and a moment later Dylan was covered in shards of ice. “Time to table this,” she said. Though he had his back to Powerslide, he guessed the villain had somehow broken out of his ice cocoon. Before he had time to react he felt Piledriver’s strong arms push him. Where he had just been standing Dylan noticed a huge sword blade had come crashing down. Though he was not in the mood for a rematch it was obvious to him that Powerslide thought differently. Then he considered that Powerslide was not ‘thinking’ at all, since most criminals would have scarpered if they were outnumbered. “Look out” warned Piledriver, breaking his thought train. It was a good job she had shouted for the huge blade was going in all directions. Obviously, he was trying to hit them but it appeared that the villain could not make up his mind who to hit and was trying to get them both at the same time. The resulting sword swings were completely random and unfocussed, akin to someone trying to swap a wasp in panic, and that gave him an idea. “Keep him busy for a few seconds,” Dylan shouted She did not reply but obeyed the request, or seemed to as she started pounding her fists into the ground. Though the shockwaves were small she did seemed to be keeping him occupied and what she was doing appeared to cause Powerslide some balance issues because Dylan noticed him staggering around like he was drunk. Satisfied that Natsuki had done as asked, Dylan once more called forth his weather controlling skills and generated a breeze in order to levitate himself off the ground and once there he used his hand gestures to create a storm in the skies above. Now he was going to end it. A moment later there was a flash and a bolt of lightning dropped from the heavens and raced towards the ground where the only thing in its path was Powerslide. As the electricity danced around his body the villain windmilled his arms wildly and then suddenly stopped moving altogether. Figuring he was safe he allowed himself to return to the ground and Piledriver stopped her ground punching. Slowly he made his way over to the armoured “statue”. He was hoping he had overloaded the armour and shut it down as opposed to accidentally killing the occupant as that had not been his intention. Erring on the side of caution Dylan stopped when he was just out of range of the sword and then when confident Powerslide was indeed out of commission he moved closer until he was face to face with the criminal. At that moment Powerslide suddenly raised his head and grinned through the helmet glass. “Thanks for the recharge, I needed that!” Natsuki watched helplessly as the criminal batted Union with the massive blade. Sheer luck had meant that the weather Alpha had been hit with the side of the weapon but she could tell that Powerslide was about to correct that mistake a take a proper swing with the edge of the blade. There was no time to think, only act so she leapt upwards. As the sword came around heading for its target, she slammed her fists into the ground. The shockwave sent both Powerslide and Union flying. Though she had hit her ally she felt she had undoubtedly saved his life for the blast had put significant distance between the pair. Powerslide, one more back on his feet now seemed to run towards the building nearest Union. This was definitely a change in tactics and Natsuki could not work out what Powerslide was doing until he leapt into the air. The slashing blade caused cracks in the masonry. “Look out” she cried, but her warning was too late for the entire frontage started coming down right in the area where Union was trying to stand up. She now felt helpless and stared in shock as Union became engulfed in tons of masonry. Before she lost sight of him in the dust cloud, Natsuki noticed Dylan making some hand gestures like he was trying to use his Alpha ability. There was a brief surge of air. Then there was nothing. Natsuki was now alone once more with Powerslide. Again, he did not choose to make his exit which was unexpected. She was now left with the choice to rescue Union if he was still alive, take on Powerslide or there was the last option, simply run. The latter was not really anything she gave serious thought to as she was no coward. Similarly though she wanted very much to discover Union’s fate, a rescue attempt was out of the question since she could not watch her back. That only left her with one choice and that was to fight. However knowing that Powerslide had already bested her once due to her inexperience meant it took a hell of a lot of inner strength and courage to stand and face him. This time she was going to have to fight smarter or else fail herself and Union. Bracing herself, she waited for the attack As if on cue Powerslide charged towards her and then there was a blur of something large and white. A van? It came crashing down from above and sent her opponent flying. She traced the flight path backwards and sighted a figure in blue at the origin. It was Meteor, New Tokyo’s local armoured hero. “Hey you, popsicle with the big knife. You want to trash my town then let’s dance!” he mocked. Whether it was the insult or the challenge Meteor got a response and Powerslide immediately stopped his attack on her. That was a great relief for immediately the armoured villain turned to face the new challenger and lost interest in her. Natsuki was so relieved. Having made up her mind to go toe to toe with Powerslide her heart had been pounding so hard that she thought it was going to burst out of her chest. Now she could calm herself down for someone else had taken that responsibility from her, which left her with one important job, learning Union’s fate under the rubble.