A/N: When Team Core Tech goes missing, it's up to Alpha and the gang to find out where they went. But with strange new cores showing up at the fighting rings, they might be over there heads on this one.

So here we go. Strike Squad origins story! Safest to say that it's at the end of season 3.

Enjoy!

"Tell me Commander. How is my little search coming along?"

The two stood there in her office. Papers scattered across her desk as she leaned against it, tapping her fingers against the top. Trey stood at attention in front of her, stomach in knots. He always felt that way whenever it was just him and her, knowing that one bad move or report would be the end of him.

"We still haven't found Jeredy yet," Trey said, immediately noticing her gaze narrow, "But with his son still looking for him, there's a good chance that we'll be able to use him. The last report from the lowlands tells that Chase Suno is close to finding him. It will only be a matter of time before we close in on him."

"Perfect," she purred, "It's about time you showed some progress... How is my other search going? From the sound of it we'll need five of them."

He stiffened again, looking down at the assorted papers in his hands. Most of them were files on soldiers who were in training at the moment, but at the bottom there were a few civilians that caught his attention in his search.

"Well... We have a few qualified soldiers here, but it might be a good idea to search outside of-"

"Commander," she interrupted, voice laced with a serious tone, "We are not outsourcing for this! I don't care how much you think you need to! I refuse to get any civilians involved in this!"

"Ma'am please," Trey said, "According to the reports of Chase Suno's group, we'll have a higher success rate if we find those who specify to the differences of each team member. It's hard to train troops for something like this anyway, given what little we know about monsuno as is."

She turned to him, a sneer on her lips. He gulped, and cleared his throat.

"I... What I meant to say, was that we need to use the information that we have on Chase Suno's group to create the ultimate team. They are just kids after all. And you know what they say: fight fire with fire."

She continued to glare at him, arms crossed. She started drumming her fingers against her arm.

"Do you even 'ave a plan on how you'll do this?" she asked, "You realize once they join S.T.O.R.M., they will never be allowed to leave."

That was a cold hard fact. The secrets of monsuno that were too much for the public, and she would be damned to have those secrets be undone by a bunch of children. Especially ones like Chase Suno.

"I already have selected out a few choice candidates that will be able to handle it," Trey said, "I'm positive that they will be able to go through the training and become a great asset to us-"

There was a knock at the door. Trey turned around, seeing a soldier opening it up. He saluted.

"Ma'am! New report on Chase Suno!" he said, "It seems that his friends were spotted in one of the jungle regions. Jon Ace has gone to apprehend him on your orders."

She raised a brow, frowning deeply.

"... I didn't order Jon Ace. To go. Anywhere," she said slowly. The soldier stiffened. Trey knew what that look meant. She was either going to punish them both or she was going to make Jon pay. But with their luck, it would be both.

"W-Well. He just went there," the soldier stammered, "S-Should we track him-"

"OF COURSE YOU SHOULD TRACK HIM!"

The soldier hurried out of the room as soon as Charlemagne roared. The metal doors slammed behind them, leaving Trey with her again. He started to panic again as she started pacing around.

"Of course Jon Ace would be the one to betray me," she hissed, "I should've known he would. He never was very trustworthy..."

She sighed, sitting back in her chair and laced her fingers together in front of her. She tapped her foot rapidly before looking up to Trey.

"... Alright Commander," she said, "You may proceed with your search for candidates. But know this. If this fails, Jon won't be the only one in trouble."

He saluted, excusing himself out of the room. As soon as the doors were closed, he let out a sigh. Immediately he steeled himself, bringing up the files of civilians from the bottom of the pile. The names at the top of each of them.

HLP

Tango stretched her arms up, letting out a sigh when some of her bones cracked a little. She dropped them back to her lap with another sigh, looking out towards the ocean as the night sky loomed overhead. She could still hear the rest of them babbling as the last of the monsuno energy shipment was delivered into the core tech lab.

They all made a bet on who would be able to haul the most between Bravo and X-Ray, which left the other three standing around to cheer. The two were surprisingly neck and neck for a while until Bravo threw out his back (he really needed to stop overdoing it). By that point all but a few containers were in the warehouse, which was fine with her. That just meant more time to relax and look out to the scenery.

She looked over, seeing Bravo sitting there as he tried not to move too much.

"You really should go back inside the cloud hopper," she said. He laughed.

"And miss seeing the ocean again? No way!" he said, "Haven't seen waves this calm since the summer of the big storm. Makes me miss the simple life."

Tango raised a brow, guessing it was the pain meds that were making him drone on. Usually he was more tense, but he probably got rid of most of that during his little competition with X-Ray.

"Hey! Guys!" Kilo called out, "Orders from Trey! We got another mission!"

Tango and Bravo exchanged looks. She helped him up, the two going up into the cloud hopper.

They went over to the other three, who were standing by the screen for communication. It looked like Alpha was already talking to the lieutenant, who had a rather bored expression.

"-and make sure that you apprehend anyone that's suspicious," Trey said, "And try not to make a scene. The last thing we need is another 'Spin Go!' incident where everyone gets away."

"Sure thing!" Alpha saluted, the communication line going dead. He sighed, then turned to the rest of them, "Alright guys! Looks like we gotta head to the next city over for the underground investigations!"

"I thought Team Core Tech was on their way for that mission?" X-Ray said, pausing to think for a moment, "But then again, they tend to slack off a lot..."

"I'm sure they went for burgers or something as soon as their delivery was done," Kilo snickered. They each laughed, remembering the last time they went with Team Core Tech on a mission, which resulted with them almost destroying the local burger shop.

"Well. We're not going to do much standing here," Alpha said, going to the head of the ship, "C'mon guys, strap in!"

They all followed suit, hearing the engines hum to life and take off. Tango glanced out the window, watching the shores get farther away.

"So what's this investigation that they got going?" Kilo asked, leaning back in his seat. X-Ray pulled the file up on his screen.

"Looks like an underground fighting ring," he said, "mainly Eklipse. Since he's been apprehended though, along with Grandma Future, it's not clear who's still organizing them."

"Are you sure they're not just small fights?" Bravo asked. The teen with glasses, shook his head.

"Nope. Looks too professional. Big name criminals have been reported there. The file says that there was going to be another undercover mission with Team Core Tech leading," X-Ray said, then frowned, "No wonder Trey wants us to go. With Suno's crew in command they're bound to mess up from the start."

"They don't screw up that bad!" Tango defended. The three looked at her with curious expressions. Her cheeks heated up, turning away when they all gave her that knowing look.

"I-I mean. They did help us during the Mechanopolis mission..."

The other three made small noises of protest. Not that they could deny it. If it weren't for Team Core Tech on that mission, they would be in the hands of Eklipse being turned into experiments.

"Anyway," Alpha said, getting their attention as he steered the ship, "We have the location. So we'll do it stealth style. Bravo and Tango, you two stay with the ship in case Team Core Tech calls. Me, Kilo, and X-Ray will scope out the place. No engagement under any circumstances."

They all nodded. It was silent after that. Tango looked back out the window, already seeing their destination approaching. She stared further, faintly seeing the horizon against the darkened sky.

The ship landed without any trouble. They made sure to land it in one of the less occupied areas near a construction site. Alpha stood up, looking out the window before heading straight out the door without another word. Tango let out a sigh, leaning back into her seat.

"I guess we just wait right?" Bravo said, "Wanna brawl?"

She scoffed, "With your back thrown out? No way. The last thing I need is your pain on my conscious. Though it would be your fault."

Bravo laughed, then stood up. Tango raised a brow as he started stretching and cracking his back.

"Did you really think something like lifting a few containers would really be too much for me?" he asked, "I just got tired and figured the 'winner' could have the privilege of doing rest of the work."

Tango giggled. It looked like Bravo was spending too much time with Dax to come up with an excuse like that. She watched as he went over to X-Ray's seat, picking up the tablet from it. He held it up for the girl to see.

"Besides. I meant brawling like this," he said, turning it on. She smiled, cracking her knuckles. At least they could pass the time in a fun way.

HLP

Alpha cringed as his elbow brushed against one of the rusty pipes, continuing along through the vents. After surveying the area, they found that the fighting ring was taking place in one of the warehouses. Of course, that just meant there were two options for entry: go through the front or find another way in.

For this, they decided to go with the latter.

Which meant they were all currently going through the vents. It wasn't too difficult, and they ended up in the unoccupied second floor. The problem was that there was hardly a floor left for them to walk on. It did show them the fighting ring, which was their aim anyway.

Cheers erupted below them, the first floor having a large dugout for the fights to take place as onlookers watched from above. Alpha made small motions to them to follow him, if only because they would have to be careful of walking on the rafters.

Two red monsuno were locked in a fierce battle, one of them finally throwing the other back into sparks. More cheers erupted as the man in the pit stepped forward to call his monsuno back. The victor laughed bombastically, calling his own back.

"Another win for the great Kaito!" a woman shouted on the first floor, standing in front of a board with tally marks on it. Immediately people started to shuffle towards her for more bets.

"So what do you think?" Kilo asked, "We pull back now? It's clear by the Eklipse cores that this is illegal."

"But we don't know who's in charge," Alpha said, watching as the muscly man named 'Kaito' whooped at the crowd, "And I doubt that guy down there has the brains to put up an operation like this. If anything, he's probably just the front man."

He turned to X-Ray, who was getting a better look through a pair of binoculars.

"I see a bunch of gang members. And a few big names from the S.T.O.R.M. black book," he said, then looked further around the ring, "And a few random nobodies. Doesn't even look like they're here to battle or bet."

Alpha nodded, looking back down. If they wanted to, they could call it in now, or they could try and apprehend one of the big names down there and question them instead. Anyone in S.T.O.R.M.'s black book was at least worth trying to get a hold of. And with the power they had in the monsuno world, they would know who was putting these fights together. Maybe if they were lucky, they would catch the one they needed.

"... Alright. I think I got it," he said, "X-Ray go watch the exit. Since you're the smallest you'll be able to crawl along the support beams more easily."

The teen gulped, shuddering a bit.

"Kilo. Go back outside and wait for X-Ray's signal. As soon as one of the bigger named people leave, we'll apprehend them. We can't cause a commotion and scare everyone off, otherwise we'll never get to the bottom of this."

The two nodded, and started to slowly make their way into position. Alpha huffed under his breath, still remembering what happened at the Spin Go! Tournament.

He sat back, folding his arms as another fighter came up, getting jeers from the crowd. It was a rather meek looking man who was carrying a red core. Kaito grinned, holding his own up as the woman started to signal everyone.

"Ready?" she shouted, "three rounds! Best fighter wins!"

The two pulled their arms back. She took the whistle around her neck, blowing it fiercely. The two fighters immediately jumped into action.

"Launch!"

The cores collided, two red monsuno bursting forward. Kaito's was some sort of creature with multiple blades sticking out while the other was a rather ragged looking lizard. Everyone erupted into cheers as Kaito's got a cheap hit in immediately. Alpha put a hand to his chin in thought. It was curious, if only because he recognized Kaito's monsuno as one from Grandma Future's men.

"Demon Strike!"

This didn't make any sense. Why would the fighting rings start up again? Sure they looked like simple street crimes right now, but with Grandma Future in custody, all of the monsuno fighters were scared off.

"Shock Flame!"

"Spikelash, Claw blades!"

Red sparks flashed below. Alpha leaned back into the shadows a little in case anyone bothered to look up. He continued to ponder on how these people were using Eklipse cores, especially with Klipse also held by S.T.O.R.M.. He couldn't be distributing cores. This had suspicious written all over it. Hopefully who ever they caught would be able to tell them something.

"Spikelash, finish it off!"

The large of the monsuno let out a roar as it brought it's bladed limbs down. The other monsuno whined, and fell back as it's body turned into sparks. Everyone started to cheer immediately. The woman made a signal that Kaito was the winner.

"Second round! Eight minutes to take out your opponent!" she shouted. Kaito cracked his neck stepping further into the ring.

"Hold on. What're they doing?" X-Ray said in the communicator. Alpha jumped, forgetting about the device in his ear. He didn't respond, instead watching as the lanky man timidly walked further into the large arena. The woman held her hand up, preparing her whistle.

As soon as it went off, Kaito charged forward with a roar. He plowed right through the man without even taking a breath. All the man could do was yelp as he was tossed aside.

"Round two knockout!" the woman shouted, the crowd cheering even more as the smaller man laid sprawled out.

"It looks like they're doing more then just monsuno fights here," Alpha said, watching as everyone collected their bets. Kaito started to whoop the crowd again. He spotted one of the big named criminals start to leave.

"Kilo, X-Ray, get ready! I spot a three star leaving" he ordered. In their books, they ranked capture priority of criminals on a star scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the most dangerous. Typically that was reserved for people like Klipse and Dr. Tallis who could destroy entire cities with ease.

X-Ray saw who he was talking about, and started crawling further onto one of the beams. It creaked, and Alpha sucked in a breath. He looked down, seeing everyone taking their winnings. At least they were efficiently distracted down there-

"I'll go next!"

Someone leapt into the arena, getting everyone's attention. Kaito raised a brow at the tanned girl in orange and black who stepped up with a grin.

"You might wanna go home kid. This is for the big leagues," he laughed, "Besides, I still have to wait for my core to recharge. Unless you wanna go straight to the user round!"

She hopped a few times, enthusiasm shining in her light blue eyes.

"Sure thing man. I can take you on!" she shouted, punching the air a few times. Kaito looked up to the ref, who was caught off guard for a moment.

"Uh- sure. Taking bets now!"

Immediately everyone poured their piles onto Kaito again. The large muscular man cracked his neck, punching his fists together.

"Alright then, kiddo. Let's see you back up your words!" he said. Alpha winced, already knowing that girl was in over her head.

'I should know,' he thought, remembering all the fights he got in while training for S.T.O.R.M.. 'Too many to count...'

The whistle was blown, and Kaito when charging ahead again. As soon as he got close however, the girl did a cartwheel to the side, steading herself with three quick steps backwards. Kaito turned back around, grinning widely.

"Let's see how long you last kid!" he said, bringing his fist up for a roundhouse. It collide loudly. Everyone was silent as the teen stood there, both arms held up against his fist in a block.

She didn't give him time to react, immediately taking his forearm in both hands and twisting it around. His body automatically flew back as his joints locked, slamming to the ground with a gasp.

The crowd let out small sounds of shock as she quickly stepped back again, still hopping up and down as Kaito groaned.

"C'mon man! Let's go!" she said, smile still plastered on her lips. He grunted as he got back up.

"Caught me off guard. Haven't had an opponent like you in a while," he huffed, then brought his fists up again, "Guess I'll have to take you seriously!"

The two started to circle around each other slowly, their stances changing. Alpha found himself drawn into the fighting. He wasn't the one who specialized in hand to hand combat (that was Bravo), but this still made him excited as he watched. Something about the raw power that a person could harness was interesting to see in fights.

'It's not all about strength though,' Alpha grinned to himself, realizing what she was doing. Fighting, as he had come to learn, was more about strength. Especially after getting properly trained, it becomes more about assessing the enemy. Understanding and analyzing the necessities to take them down.

That was his main role he had as Chase's rival after all.

Suddenly, Kaito started throwing quick jabs, knowing not to put his whole body in each swing this time. She dodged every blow, keeping her fists close as he forced her backwards. Everyone started leaning closer as they edged to the end of the arena. Kaito grinned, throwing a large punch when they were only a foot away from the wall.

"Gotcha kid!"

His fist flew forward, shaking dust into the air as the wall shook. He grinned, but stopped when he saw that he only hit the wall. His eyes trailed down, seeing the teen bent backwards. She looked up with a grin.

Before he could react, she kicked up with both feet straight into his jaw. He fell backwards again.

The crowd was quiet, waiting for the champion to get up. The girl shook the dust from her short, light blue hair. Finally, Kaito let out a gasp, cradling his face with one hand as he looked up with a glare.

"C'mon! Let's go-I can go all night!" she started rambling, hitting the air some more.

Kaito snapped his jaw back into place (Alpha shuddered at the noise), and stood up with a huff. He snarled, and held up his core, now fully charged.

"How about we settle this way?" he said, "I'll gladly give you this round. But it's double or nothing on this next one! Unless you're scared to take on a monsuno!"

"Nope! Not at all!" she said, holding up a core. Alpha saw a flash of orange.

"Hold on guys," he said, "Forge Resistance are the only ones with orange cores right?"

"Yeah. The machine-hybrid monsuno," X-Ray said.

"But no one else should have them," Kilo joined in, "Reports show there are only five in the resistance, including Tallis."

Kaito signaled the ref, who blinked a few times before blowing her whistle.

"Uh- Second Round! Monsuno round!"

The two went back their separate ends of the ring. She was still hopping back and forth on each foot, though her expression was more serious now. The rest of the crowd were now shuffling their bets around, now putting some on the newcomer (though a good chunk was still on the champion.

"Alright then kiddo, let's go!" he said, holding up the red core from before.

If someone was also getting a hold of Forge Cores, then it looked like this operation did need back up. Alpha grinned to himself at the thought of being able to take both organizations on and bring them in.

(He could rub it in Chase's smug face when they get back!)

He leaned closer to the edge, watching as the two fighters pulled their arms back. The ref brought the whistle close for the signal.

HLP

"Yeah! Another win!" Bravo said, throwing his arms up. Tango laughed.

"You mean your second win," she said, leaning back. The two of them had been waiting patiently for word from the others, just in case they needed back up, but so far everything had been quiet. Not even anything from Cloud Carrier I, "I guess we gotta do a tiebreaker round-"

The communication line suddenly started going off. The two of them looked over towards the screen, seeing the red button blinking. They exchanged looks before going over.

Tango pressed the button, watching the screen come alive with static. The two waited for an image to show up, but nothing appeared. She raised a brow, twisting some of the knobs in hopes that it was just an error.

"Look," Bravo said. An image was slowly coming into focus. They watched, waiting as a voice came through the static.

"... Th... A... Anyone..."

Tango gasped, recognizing the voice. She started to hurry at trying to get the signal clearer. Eventually, the static cleared enough for them to see someone.

"Bren? Can you hear me?" Tango said, static still making the image fuzzy.

"Hello? Is anyone out there?" Bren said, voice going in and out, "There's..."

More static getting in the way. Tango tapped at the keys some more, trying to steady the signal. "Bren? Hello?"

"Yeah geek can you hear us yet?" Bravo added, getting a slap to the chest. Tango leered at him, before hearing some muffled shouts come from the screen.

The image got more obscured. But they both could make out some sort of explosion in the background, along with a roaring noise.

"Bren? What's happening?" Tango asked, frantically pushing at the buttons.

"...He... Anyone...?... There's a..."

His voice was disjointed, coming in and out of the static. But they couldn't make any sense of it.

"Monsuno... They're... Oph..."

Eventually, the static died, the signal being lost. The two looked to each other, wondering what that last message was supposed to mean. But in the pit of her stomach, Tango knew that it couldn't be good.

A/N: I'll be better at trying to update for this (hopefully, let's cross our fingers)

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