In the depths of the night, when even monsters would sink into sleep, massive shadows proceeded beneath the dim moonlight illuminating their path. Their destination was a fortresslike building: Guillé Prison, the largest in all of the Kingdom of Ogdenn.
While the prisoners were fast asleep, a sudden impact tore through Guillé Prison. Watt had been snoring away and sleeping like a log, but the moment he felt the vibration of the impact, he immediately leaped up and pressed his ear to the floor to gauge the situation. He was following the habit that had been ingrained into him.
“Aaaaaah,” Watt yawned. “They can’t even let me get a little shut-eye around here? From the shaking, it sounds like there’s something heavy stomping around all over the place. Probably means we’ve got someone launchin’ a raid on the prison with Mechsteels.”
Watt had an unspeakably bad feeling. Guillé Prison was known for being one of the most tightly guarded prisons in all of Ogdenn—there was no way that anyone trying to launch an attack on it could be any sort of decent bunch. The other part that had Watt worried was the fact that this was right after he’d been captured. There was only one answer he could come to from the situation.
“Well, now, this puts me in a bind. I’d love to get a move on as soon as possible, but...”
Watt was being held in a solitary cell—said to be the most strictly guarded section in the entire prison. It would be simply impossible to try and make his escape unarmed with nothing to rely upon. Just when he was considering a number of different ways he might escape, the wall in front of him disappeared with a deafening roar, almost as if to say he’d worried for naught.
On the other side of the gaping hole, Watt was met with a pale beam of moonlight and an enormous face peering inside. He could never mistake the face of his partner, now staring fixedly at him.
“Hey, now, what the hell’s my Lord Gryphon doing here?!” Watt demanded. “Wait, that means it’s you two, isn’t it?! Anna, Meddié, you dumb knuckleheads!”
Lord Gryphon should’ve still been with Socom Co. after it had been hauled to the capital. If anyone was to have brought it out, it was only natural to assume that it was none other than the two girls.
“Caro, you’re tellin’ me you couldn’t stop them?!” Watt went on. “I left ’em with you exactly so this wouldn’t happen!”
Watt had made sure to be captured alone, partially to keep the girls hidden, but even leaving them behind, he’d figured that they wouldn’t do anything reckless under Carome’s care. And yet here they were, showing up and smashing things the very same day he was captured.
While Watt was there clutching his head, Lord Gryphon let its strength do the talking and continued to break through the walls. Before he knew it, Lord Gryphon’s whole upper body was inside. The armor across its chest opened up only to reveal the very two girls Watt had expected.
“Hiya, master! Hanging in there okay?”
“We came here to help you, father!”
“You damn tomboys are gonna be the death of me!” Watt groaned.
The girls’ tone was so overjoyed, however, that Watt couldn’t help but notice his temper subside. The sermon that he’d intended to slam on the girls lost its aim and wandered through the air before finally escaping his lips in the form of a sigh.
There was hardly time to celebrate their reunion, however. An alarm rang out throughout Guillé Prison, only for Fortress Bisons to suddenly appear all around.
“Uh-oh! Guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”
As the kingdom’s largest prison, the firepower it was equipped with was just as large in scale to match. It was only natural, then, that they weren’t about to let a prison break simply unfold before their eyes.
“You treacherous rat!” shouted a voice from one of the Fortress Bisons. “Not only have you committed treason against the royal family, but now you’re attempting to destroy the prison in your breakout! Sympathy’s too good for the likes of you! We’ll execute you right here and now!”
“Figured you’d say that,” Watt said. “Hey, Meddié, I’ll pilot him from here! Gryphon’s too hard for you to handle.”
He tried to leap up into Lord Gryphon’s cockpit, only for Anna to stop him in a calm tone. “It’s all right, father. Needless to say, we didn’t come here alone. We brought along a friend we knew we could count on.”
“A friend?” Watt asked back. “Wait, don’t tell me, she’s—!”
As they were speaking, the Fortress Bisons rushed forward to hold down Lord Gryphon, now stopped in place, only for a single Mechsteel to suddenly leap into the fray.
“Helping him break out, are you?! Don’t bother defending yourself! Get in our way and we’ll eliminate you on the spot!”
Seemingly unfazed by the intruder’s sudden appearance, the Fortress Bisons charged forward undeterred. The new Mechsteel that now faced them brandished the broadsword in its hands with ease. Stepping forward as if dancing, the Mechsteel channeled its momentum into its blade. The Fortress Bison tried to block the attack, only to be sliced cleanly in half, shield and all. There was no stopping the intruder. In the blink of an eye, the entire squadron of Fortress Bisons had been reduced to nothing more than scrap.
The Mechsteel finally stopped, standing in the middle of the destruction. Seeing the figure illuminated beneath the moonlight, Watt couldn’t help but gasp.
“Hey, what the hell?! You’re telling me there’s another Lord Gryphon here?!” Watt paused. “No, this one looks a little different than mine. Ah, so this must be the enhanced model!”
Following in the footsteps of the original, the mech boasted a further refined design. It was all around larger than Watt’s own Lord Gryphon, and he could tell right away that improvements had been made to its power.