ah nice!
ah nice!
Woo! Finally got those fillers out! No chapter though.
- Filler -Spoiler!“One cup of coffee, please. Large, no cream and sugar necessary.”
“One cup, coming right up. Wait, are you sure about that, little girl?”
“Totally,” exclaimed a cheery Arethusa, whose tanned face peeked over from behind a glass and wood counter. The two staring at each other for a brief moment, the cashier looked at her with skepticism, slowly punching in buttons of the cash register. Lifting his eyebrows, as if he said “Okay” in his head, he retreated for a coffee machine, hidden under a bean covered wall behind him, slid the machine under a particular flavor and poured beans into an opening above the machine. On a touch of a red button, the machine screamed to life. Beans tried to flee for freedom, banging on the coffee machines black translucent cage. Their cries for help over powered the conversations that filled the room. Sadly, no one seemed to mind. Not one before looked towards their direction. Not even Arethusa, who bounced from side to side, waiting patiently for her caffeinated beverage.
After three minutes the noise stopped and the man began to work his magic. When he returned to the polished, rounded, pasty displaying counter from where he resided by, held in his hand, a steamy brown cup dressed with a sage green photonic heat sleeve. Arethusa took the cup with a bow of gratitude. Thanking the man with a large smile, she spun on one heel, where she would then journey to the nearest vacant table. Conveniently for her, one could be found not too far away. On her approach, she hopped on top a wooden chair and slammed her cup on the table. Drops of dark liquid flew from the white plastic lid and splashed onto the walnut table top, which was then soaked up by a gray backpack she then threw on the table. Lifting up at first like a creature jumping into a hot bath, it relaxed and collapsed soon after, thanks to the large gaping hole made in the middle of the bag. Looming over it, Arethusa stared into the empty hole with a sigh. She closed her eyes. Her hand patted around for her cup. When her fingers finally touched the brown surface of the cup, the sleeve dropped down, protecting her bare fingers from the heat it contained within.
Without looking, she took her first sip. A sip she would soon regret, for when the white shield touched her lips, the coffee beans made their attack. Rushing in like a pack of barbarians riding in on demonic horses. They made cries of battles as they clashed with her taste buds. Her eyelids shot open in pain. Clubs bashed at her tongue. Horses trampled on her throat. Arethusa gagged, she coughed, trying to repel the beans, but they fought back. As they flooded in, the coffee beans threw rocks of burning black stone into her mouth before the catapult retreated. They bounced, they sang; hitting her uvula with enough strength to make her fall onto her knees. Her face burned red, embarrassed by the fact that the coffee had done so much in so little time.
Her nails dug into the wood. Eyes narrowed in determination. She would not lose. Not to something like coffee. In an effort to combat the rocks, Arethusa took another quick chug; in hopes of crushing the rebellion by drowning them to death. The coffee fought on, they threw in more of their rocks with their weapons held high in the red sky. More of them stormed in, their horses leaving large trails of smoke behind them. However, there were now too many of them to let the rocks settle in place; too many horses to find proper footing. They slipped, sunk and tumbled. Their mares collapsed with them. Finishing them off, Arethusa closed the entrance gate from which they breached, closing off their only escape. With only one place left to go, the intruders fell down an endless pit of doom, crushed by molten stone and unstoppable muscle. Into a dark place, where anything that falls in can only sing their songs of prayer till the grim reaper stopped by for his visit. Arethusa had won the battle. Catching her breath, a hand on her throat, the other gripping the flat edge of the table, she rose up onto her feet, coughing, surrounded by several concerned people.
“Are you alright, dearie?” an elderly lady asked, slapping her back multiple times.
“I’m alright,” Arethusa coughed. “Just feeling the hair grow on my chest is all.”
“Now you know better than to drink your coffee black, young miss,” scolded a man in the background.
The lady spun around with a mean glare. “Are you saying this young girl can’t enjoy what she wants, whenever she wants?”
“I’m just saying some drinks are best drunk by particular people,” said the man who now backed away from an angry woman. She yelled at him, people butted in, beliefs and ideals were thrown around. More people gathered, attracted by the chaos. In an effort to find peace and quiet, Arethusa crawled out from under the legs of the group and out a revolving doorway. Unknowingly to Arethusa, her father had entered the same time she escaped, left confused as to what was going on while strolling in. Looking behind his shoulder, confirming his successful attempt at evading Yvonna, Yoshi waltzed past the crowd of angry people and after the gleaming counter of cakes and bread.
Nearing the counter, he greeted the cashier, who greeted him in kind. “Strange day today, huh” Yoshi remarked with a subtle flick of his head. “One cup of coffee, please. Large, no cream and sugar necessary.”
“You seem a bit peppy today, Mr. Blue. Something good hap-wait…” trailed the cashier, his face pondering Yoshi’s.
“Something wrong?” asked Yoshi. Choosing to ignore the man who stared at him with peering eyes, Yoshi looked down to his pocket, stuck a hand into it and withdrew the amount of meseta needed for the beverage.
“No,” slowly said the cashier. “Just an unexpected sense of Déjà vu.” Grimacing once he realized how awkward the situation had gotten, the cashier twisted to complete the order. After a few seconds, he returned, handing Yoshi an identical cup of coffee. Lifting the cup in a sort of toast, Yoshi strolled for the exit, taking a sip as he moved past a much larger crowd.
“Ew, coffee grinds,” he said in disgust.
Frowning for a second, lifting his eyebrows after experiencing the unique after taste, Yoshi took another sip and bolted out a still rotating door. Exiting the building, the chill air blanketed his face. Now outside, he froze in place and suddenly grew concerned about something. He looked around. His brows close to each other, wondering if he should go back in for a doughnut. Lifting a hand to his chin, he stared at the passing clouds above and watched them slowly scroll over skyscraper rooftops. Out in the distance, Arethusa did the same. Only instead of looking up in the sky, she instead peeped at her father from around a corner, underneath a much taller woman who so happened to be doing the same thing.
“So, stalking dad these days, I see?” Arethusa commented, amused by the woman above her. The woman jumped in fright, entered a combat stance, before dropping it upon realizing who spoke to her. “How’s it going, Marean?” Arethusa beamed.
“I’m not stalking him. I just happen to be at the wrong place at the right time,” Marean denied.
“I see. Well are you going to talk to him or not?”
“No, I’m not going to talk to him. Are you crazy?”
“But you want to, right?”
“Y-no,” said Marean with a laugh.
“Huh, how odd,” said Arethusa as she returned to peeping around the corner. “I had a gut feeling you did.”
“You shouldn’t be a bumbling idiot like your father, Marean. Using your head is very important.”
“Arethusa,” she replied with a raised finger, “and that’s what mom said to me too, but I feel that relying purely on logic will get me nowhere in life, and a lack of adventure. Which gives me a weird feeling since she’s... before I say anything else, what’s your opinion of her anyways?”
“Opinion of who?”
“Tuhina… well, I guess she never married. So it would still make her Kadam instead of Xol. I wonder what that makes me then.” Arethusa asked herself before she was given a quick reply.
“Unfavorable to say the least,” Marean scowled.
“Oh? Why is that?”
“You would think an animal psychologist would be harmless and incapable of stopping anyone from doing a job, but I’ve had so many close encounters thanks to her. Plus, I find her to be rather... I just find her unfavorable okay?”
“Heh, may explain why she liked dad then. He’s good with animals too.”
“As much as it gets him into trouble,” Marean groaned.
As they stared, Yoshi turned his head to their direction. Frightened, Arethusa and Marean both quickly hid behind the building.
“Think he spotted us?” Arethusa asked with both arms hugging the wall.
“I don’t see why you would need to hid,” commented Marean, who did the same.
“Heh, let’s just say I have some mixed feelings about the whole situation.”
“Okay?”
“Marean, does dad drink coffee to escape his problems. How does he deal with all of this? Knowing that you killed a man with your own two hands. Watching friends died in front-”
“I think you’re a bit too young to be asking these kinds of things,” Marean interrupted. Feeling uneasy, she tried to smile but really wanted to frown.
“Marean, I-I did something wrong. People are gone because of me. I-I watch my best friend…he tried to help me escape-I didn’t know what to do. Wolfy von sniffsalot.” Tears slid across a pale face. Her back slid down the wall. Sitting on the floor, Arethusa wept, causing Marean to panic, unsure what to do in a situation like this. Normally, she would have walked away, avoiding problems, people and children. This being one the few rare times she has ever dealt with children, she wanted the problem to go away but didn’t know how to approach. She didn’t want to leave her friend’s child behind but she didn’t want to approach Yoshi either.
“This isn’t funny, Ma-Arethusa. You shouldn’t-”
“How do you deal with it?” Arethusa cried, looking up to the newmen with soggy eyes, seeking answers.
One hand gripped one side of each shoulder. Bending down on her knees, Marean looked at Arethusa warmly, with softness in her eyes and weakly said, “Look this isn’t the place to talk about these things. Let’s get back to my ship and… we’ll talk about it. Does that sound good?”
Arethusa nodded. Both hands planted on the ground, she herself off the floor and clung to Marean. “What about dad?” she suddenly said, looking back out into the street.
“Dad, can wait. This requires a woman’s touch,” Marean proudly boasted. “Not something he can help you with right now.” At first, Arethusa fought back, tugging in the opposite direction, wishing to lead the two closer to her father. In the end, it was Marean who won the tug of war and the two soon disappeared into the alleyway.
-
“Hello, Velarium residence speaking,” Leanna said in a sweet voice.
“Leanna, I need your help,” a shaky voice implored.
“Oh? And who is this I am speaking to?” Leanna asked, her lips cracking a smile while curling a redundant photonic phone cord around her finger.
“I know you looked at the caller ID, Leanna. Look, I need help, comforting a child, alright?”
“Oh, what is this? My granddaughter has finally come to me for parenting advice? Oh dreams do come true. So, tell me. Who’s the child?”
“Yoshi’s daughter, Ma-Arethusa. I need help giving her advice for coping with death.”
“Oh, so she finally gave herself a name. Fancy that. Well, the easiest thing you can do is to simply kill her. Easy to do, easy to clean up, and nobody will care in the end. Well, Arks won’t at least and you would never need to inform the parents.”
“WHAT? I’m not going to kill the daughter of my only friend. Are you insane?”
“She is not his daughter, dear. She is an abomination. Surely yo-“
“I should have known better than to come to you for help, you-you heartless bitch.”
A loud scratching sound was made, followed by a repeating low beeping tone. A shaken smile bounced stealthily towards a wall, regaining her composure, Leanna turned to Kazamir, who held his cup just below his lip, stiffly staring back at the regal dressed newmen. Using one hand, the dewmen lifted a saucer to rest his cup on it, cleared his throat and said,
“A pleasant call, I presume?”
“As pleasant as I can ever hope for. All was not lost though. Given how rare she ever calls me, it has given me a fascinating insight of how my mother felt when I spoke to her in a similar fashion. However, we were mad for different reasons you see. My granddaughter has never forgiven me for allowing her mother to die. Letting her suffer the way she did. Mad at me for allowing my own daughter to live life as she pleased and pay the price for it.”
Kazamir lifted his brow for a short time. After an awkward sip of his tea, he circled his cup in the air and replied, “Wouldn’t a mother take care of her own in times of need?”
“Sadly, nobody is perfect and we can only do what we can to right our wrongs,” Leanna replied coolly before retreating into another room.
-
Marean stormed into the living room, fuming with anger. Speed walking near a panel on the wall, she paused right next to it, bash it with her fist and glided around a sofa. Where Arethusa sat in a slump, cradling a cup of coffee in her hands, staring at her grief filled reflection. Sounds of strings, flutes and a lady engulfed the room, allowing an aura of sophistication to form over its usual simplistic, relaxed and cozy one. As violins passionately sang their high notes, masking Marean as she sat on the cushion next to her but still became aware of her presence, Arethusa wonder what her parent’s choice of song would have been. Shifting her head sideways with a fake smile, Arethusa continued to stare into her cup in thought.
“Arethusa,” Marean softly said. “How about you stay with me for a while?”
“So we can peep at dad together?” Arethusa coughed and giggled.
“No, you…So I can teach you how to fend for yourself. Live life like I do, and for a time, your father did too.”
- Filler -Spoiler!“What an annoying mission,” Yvonna complained. In a sharp left turn, she breezed through the white apartment hallway. Without stopping, she turned sharply to the right, her gaze stuck on a yellow chip. She flipped it once, then twice and sighed. Tossing it behind her, a hand caught the chip and moved up alongside her. Shuffling transparent chips in hand, focused on each and every one of them was Yoshi who simply said, “Uh huh,” before stopping in front of his door.
“Well, we better get inside before something ridiculous happens.”
“Like what?” asked Yoshi, a blue chip held in front of his eyes.
Out of nowhere, a gloved hand gripped Yvonna’s shoulder and said “Hey there, pretty lady. Got time to spare?”
“Unhand me, you bag of filth,” shouted Yvonna, punching the human to the floor. As she did, Yoshi immediately shoved the chip between his arm and watch Yvonna walk into their room. Startled Yoshi peeked inside and shouted,
“Yvonna, you don’t go around punching people.”
“I punched you and you didn’t seem to mind.”
Yoshi paused for a bit. Quickly thinking for a bit, he lifted both forearms in the air, keeping the chips tucked in-between them and replied, “Two entirely different reasons.” Making sure the man wouldn’t get up to storm inside, Yoshi spun around to say, “Sorry about that, she’s-“
“I think I’m in love,” interrupted the dazed man, his hand rubbing a red face. His head jerked toward Yoshi’s. Scrabbling to his feet, he desperately got off the floor, crashed into the wall and grabbed Yoshi by the shoulders. “Tell me the rumors aren’t true.”
“What?” cried Yoshi. “What rumors?”
“That you two are…you know…a thing.”
“What?” Yoshi cried again. “No. What makes you think that?”
“You aren’t?” the man said with a sigh of relief.
Repulsed, pushing the man off of him, Yoshi’s sighed a deep sigh and leaned backwards. Once his head moved into the room, Yoshi then shouted, “Hey, Yvonna.”
“Yes?” she asked from the other room.
“Are we going out?”
“No, I got everything I need for the moment.”
Pulling himself back into the hallway, Yoshi smirked and said, “See? Well, not the answer I expected but you get the point.”
The man pulled Yoshi forward. With shuddering breath, he desperately said, “You got to introduce me to her.”
Yoshi shoved him away. “Look man, I’m not going to introduce you to her. If you want to make a move, fine by me, but I’m warning you now. She bites. And by bite, I mean she will shoot you, in the foot, or somewhere around it.”
The man twitched, giving Yoshi a crazy look. Pushing Yoshi against the wall, he made a mad dash to get inside. This angered Yoshi, who aggressively grabbed the man by the collar and threw him back outside. His other fist squeezed into a ball, quivering above the fallen man. Slowly twisting his head, trying to contain his voice, Yoshi said to the man, “Don’t ever try that again.”
The man sat up, about to make a second vain attempt. Barely launching off the floor, a blue blade hovered above the man’s gulping throat. Panicked eyes traced the double blade, up a black sleeve, until both he and Yoshi both stared at Arron, who stiffly loomed over the man with a cold expression, his icy gaze piercing into the man’s mind. “I suggest you never try that again.” Scared and defeated, the man took off in the other direction, leaving an impressed Yoshi to applaud Arron, the chips dropping as a result.
“Arron,” Yoshi said in a friendly tone of voice, picking up the fallen chips. “What brings you here?”
“Kerri kept bugging me to spend some time with you guys. Seeing as she won’t give me a choice, I reluctantly agreed so she would finally shut up.” Arron then raised his arms in a presenting manner. “So, here I am.”
“I’m glad thing you did too, I was afraid things were going to get messy.”
“Yeah, Stamato told me about the number of people you’ve killed. I don’t know how someone can stay so relaxed around you and I definitely don’t understand how you haven’t snapped either.”
Yoshi nervously laughed. Not expecting the response he received. “Yeah well, not everyone becomes a homicidal maniac after leaving a mercenary group.”
“Anyways,” Arron uncomfortably waved off to the floor. “It seems some Newmens hired the man to retrieve out team mate. Know anything about it?”
Yoshi leaned against the wall with both arms crossed. Frowning, Yoshi responded, “As far as I know, her brother may be trying to bring her back to the Melchior. I never really thought about how I would handle the situation though. But hey, if you know about my track record, it may explain why he hasn’t attempted to do it himself.” Even though Yoshi smiled, he truly felt disturbed deep down inside. Being reminded of his past, it always caused his insides to knot when reminded of the people who died. However, as he surfed through the waves of memories, he felt a bit hollow inside, remembering the targets his group had killed as nothing more than bleeding objects. As if they were never people at all.
“Well then consider it a group project.” Arron replied with the best smile he could muster, pulling Yoshi back into reality, shaking his head to regain his thoughts. Focusing on the coat donning human, it was still hard for Yoshi to tell if he smiled or not. “So are you going to serve your guest dinner or not?”
- Filler -Spoiler!Within a white room laid three white couches, each bent in an L shape. Placed in the corners of the room, all of them were various in length, but each displayed identical plush red cushions and were all attached to the wall. All white frames seamlessly transitioning from reflective plastic surfaces into glowing wall. In-between these couches and a sofa, two white tables, low, almost hugging the floor, with contrasting red lines etched into the legs and table top edges. Every so often, when an Arks operative enters this room, they will find that this room changes from time to time, mostly to the preference of the pilot, sometimes due to specifications, other times on a request. Last time Yoshi was in this room, Arks themed everything decorated it. From gray and blue wall banners, to large solid blocks for tables, to the same benches found in the gateway lobby. Since the camp ship’s previous pilot has retired however, the new theme came with a new pilot. One Yoshi wouldn’t know for very long since this camp ship is just a temp after a few faults were found in his squad’s current vessel.
Since Arks members would relax, wait, or prep in this room as they wait for their destination to arrive, as a room that sits in-between the warp gate room and the loading dock, Yoshi would normally take naps in this room. The length of his naps, however, depends on which cruiser the campship docks at. Some ships would only allow Arks members to warp into the gate room, some allow them to enter via an elevator into this room and some would require one to climb down a ladder to enter the campship. While Yoshi hates the ladder method, some ships retained this method to preserve tradition. Teaching its members patience and building character. One such ship being the Protoporos, where classes are restricted to few combinations, is issued orders in a particular fashion, and where even Arks operative are restricted to certain clothing. Though despite the limitations, the ship’s operatives usually display high amounts of morale in all situations and huge success rates.
Gently placing a tablet down on a table, which displayed the ship on its headlines, Yoshi tended to his new weapon. A talis, gifted to him by someone he knew, in the shape of a large card, black and red in color, decorated by a gold boarder. Next to it, an open note that said,
Dear Old Man,
Hitting skulls with blunt objects is cool and all but you may want to try out this neat scalpel sharp card thing I found.
Best of luck,
Chicken Nuggets.
Yoshi placed a hand on the card and slid it off the table. While gliding off the table, it felt strange to him, as if the card never touched the table at all. Flicking it between his fingers, Yoshi’s attention floated away from the card and onto an elevator ramp that slowly lowered into the room. Coming to a classy stop, Yvonna, Arron and Stamato all stepped into the room, each greeting him in their own way. For Yvonna, a fist bump, for Stamato, a secret hand shake they worked on earlier and finally for Arron, a click of his passing double saber. Watching the elevator leave the room, Yoshi turned to Yvonna, who sat next to him, listening as she continued her conversation with Stamato.
“I don’t see why the Ace can roam freely whenever he or she pleases. I feel this Ace should be doing more missions like the rest of us.”
“Logically, the Ace would be allowed to freely wonder in case of an emergency. This way the Ace and others of high performance can arrive and quell any situation as soon as possible. However, even the best are not allowed access to certain vessels.”
“Such as?”
“Well, one such ship would have been the Mandrake before its recent destruction, which had a shoot on sight policy for any Arks personnel spotted.”
“Interesting that they would approve that kind of policy when would we have to eventually defend it as well,” Yoshi remarked with interest.
“It is stated that any Arks operative would have likely been a darker attempting to steal its secrets. Thus, the Mandrake had a few squads unique only to its cruiser. Such squads would be the Velite and Hastati Squads. However, the details of these groups remain unknown.”
“Interesting stuff to know,” Yoshi commented.
Losing interesting in the rest of what Stamato had to say, Yoshi lifted from his seat and aimed for a half cylindrical door at the end of the room. Stopping in front of it, he watched its creaseless white wall split open, revealed a warp pad inside, stepped onto it and watched the doors move back into place, spitting at the other end and finally closing behind him. In the other room, a giant warp gate, baring a resemblance to that of a large round pool. Beyond it, large windows that allowed the occupants to look out into space, a bank, a shop, a medical center and a mission console. Though there was another console on the left wall, Yoshi had never used it before. Looking out through one of the many windows, he jumped to a sudden voice behind him.
“And I thought I was the loner,” said Arron who just walked in afterwards. “You arrived earlier than we did. Do you know anything about the mission that we don’t?”
“Nothing really helpful,” said Yoshi as he turned to meet Arron. “I was told by James to stay on my toes. Said he believe that we may run into an unexpected surprise. And not the good kind.”
“I see. I’ll run it by Stamato, see if he can find anything strange on the planet.” Arron stepped back into the warp pad. Just as the doors were about to close, he place had on one of the doors and said a sincere voice, “And thanks…for the help. You really save a life. I hope you know that.” Removing his hand as if it was hot metal, the door closed leaving a lone cowboy to gaze out into the sea of stars once more.
Last edited by yoshiblue; Oct 7, 2015 at 10:05 PM.
- Are They True Replicas? -Spoiler!
“I am pleased to inform you that your son is alive and well. While stripped from the vessel you two have worked hard to revive, he has found himself in a new circle of people to surround himself with. Each of them he can call a friend. Though, I wonder. Would this have made you happy? To see him moved on, and watch him smile again? Would this have made you sad? Knowing that he may be too busy to spend time with you, beyond your protecting arms? I say this for a reason. I say this because I fear for his future, that there may be sinister intentions lurking about in the darkness, on a hunch that someone may have deliberately created this squad for a reason. If you can hear me, know this. Accompanying him is a CAST that can prevent him from casting techniques, a newmen whose people show no remorse or respect for the other races, and a human who has been accused of killing a diga Force. Rest assured, though. I will continue to watch over him in your stead. But to be honest, there is little I can do in my current state.”
-
Anxiety had filled the air once the camp ship had arrived at their destination. The time for squad Zelatus’s first mission on the volcanic planet below drew near. Huddled together by a large window, in front of the Arks Bank console, two people discussed various topics involving striking techniques of the ancient past while they waited for Yvonna’s green light, an imaginative light that would signal their jump through the warp pool and down to the planet of Amduscia, home of the dragon kin.
Filtering through the green floating islands below, the reflection of a red cross allowed Yoshi a change of conversation. A few days ago, Yoshi learned more about Arron’s previous squad and their unfortunate end. Though most died in the battle with their clones, Yoshi discovered that one of their pilots did survive and clung for dear life, ignored by medical teams. Seeing how all operatives are valued more than green pilots, he was placed last under their priorities. Angered, Yoshi bribed a nurse, one that had seen several of these operations, and had the pilot’s operation done early. Concern gripped at Yoshi chest and doubt swam in his mind. He blinked, pulling himself out of his lake of worries, and regrettably grinded his teeth together. “Stats, how’s the pilot doing?” Yoshi asked, staring out the window with fingers barely holding his chin.
“He is alive and well, Enigma. Thanks to your intervention and investment, the operation was a success and the life of the pilot has been preserved. However, it appears that their encounter with the clones, that day in the darker den, has rendered him a mute, or a person who can not speak.”
“Thank you, Stats. I know what a mute is.” Yoshi interrupted. Saddened and a little embarrassed, Yoshi circled his hand and said, “Er, sorry. Continue.”
“Thank you. I am informed that he will be brought in for questioning sometime in the future and that Arron has petitioned for his discharge, so he may live a life free from the pains of service.”
“That’s great. Very nice, hopefully things will go well after all of this is over.”
Stamato mimicked Yoshi by turning around. Looking out the window as well, he then asked, “Enigma, may I ask you a question?”
“Sure, what’s on your mind?” Yoshi replied, happy in tone but still bugged by something.
“It appears that you are uneasy with our mission on Amduscia. Looking through your service records, I have noticed that you rarely venture to this planet. Care to explain?”
Yoshi glanced at Stamato with a thoughtful look. Nodding his head a few times, he stared out at the floating islands outside and calmly said, “A force once told me that our very presence endangered the lives of the dragon kin. As a Force, our techniques have the potential to prevent their cycle of rebirth if not used carefully. That said, I’ll admit that I’m a little scared. Scared of what I could do and what may happen.”
“Enlightening,” Stamato pleasantly remarked. “Rest assured, Enigma. There are no known records of any Forces preventing any cycles of rebirth. Your actions will not have any lasting consequences on the dragon kin. However with that said, I have noticed that you never travel here, even as a Ranger.”
Yoshi chuckled quietly in a cupped hand. Removing his hand from his mouth, Yoshi pointed an eyebrow in his metallic friend’s direction and quietly said, smirking, “One can never be too careful.” He then patted Stamato’s black pauldron and wheeled around, in time for the doors of the warp pad’s opening. Now a gap between two walls, Yvonna, followed by Arron, briskly entered the room. An aura of pride reflected off of her skin. As they came around, Yoshi said, “Commander” and greeted them with a wave of his hand. “We’re all set to go whenever you’re ready.”
“Good,” Yvonna smiled. She lifted a finger and moved it in an informative way.
“Remember, this is only a light patrol mission. Keep the Darkers and dragon kin from crossing areas A1 through A4. The rest of the landscape will be covered by other teams.” Looking over the face of each of her team mates, Yvonna then asked, “Any questions?”
“Yes,” Stamato replied. “Will we be grouping with anyone else for this mission?”
“Should something unexpected come up, we may. But for now, let’s just focus on getting there first.” Everyone nodded in approval. Satisfied, Yvonna headed for the medical console, giving plenty of empty space for Arron’s arm to grasp at Yoshi and tug Yoshi’s shoulder near his own.
“I don’t know what you did,” Arron whispered, his eyes caught on Yvonna’s backside, “but those leadership pep talks are really helping.”
“Hey, I can’t take all the credit,” Yoshi whispered back. “I got some help from Aiko, Elm and James as well. Really nice to see everything go so well.”
“And let’s hope it stays that way,” Arron finished, pushing away towards the warp pool where Stamato and Yvonna waited.
Regrouping, they clumped together around the edges of the pool and formed a half circle. Everyone prepared for the jump, fidgeting forward. Leaning back, Yvonna silently giggled, her head held behind the group. Arron frowned. Stamato shook his head. Knowing that Yoshi still waited for a signal of any kind, Yvonna moved behind him and pushed the cowboy into the blue warp pool. In a crystalized splash, Yoshi soon found himself plummeting through the atmosphere, danced around islands of dancing dragons, swerved through steep canyons, brushed against red hot lava waterfalls, until he fell to the floor as a blue blur, landing with a padded thud knee first on the floor and a fist planted up in front. After getting a good view of the area, Yoshi immediately jolted upright, patted his chest reassuringly and closed his eyes, giving off a sigh of relief. Soon his hand slid around for a card like talis, cloaked by the sound of crashing objects. With one hand on a weapon, the other hand reached upwards and readjusted his hat as three blue meteors crashed around him.
“Time for another adventure,” he whispered under his breath.
“Hello,” a female voice said in an unpleasant and unenthusiastic tone of voice. “This is Mable, your navigator for this mission. In case your brain is slow on the uptake, your job is to protect labeled areas on your map. So easy, a Rappy could do it. So don’t muck it up, alright, thank you. Also, there is a Beize in the area. May be a good idea to check it out, or not. Your call or mistake.”
“Right,” confirmed Yoshi, who then twisted around to confirm with Yvonna. “Did you get that?”
“Yeah,” Yvonna replied. “And confirmed; Darkers are in the area. I want each of you on a part of the map for extra coverage. I’ll stay in A4, Arron will take A3, Yoshi on A2, and Stamato at A1.”
“In case the Baize situation gets out of hand, may I suggest we set up cover for passing Arks,” said Stamato, a photonic map held in front of him.
“Good idea,” Yvonna agreed. “Each of us will set up the prototype ramps as makeshift shelters. The ones we would normally use to cross over large bodies of water. Hopefully it will be wide enough to give several groups and ourselves the shelter needed to hide under.”
“Heading for A2, then,” said Yoshi. Having nothing more to say, he and Stamato started their jog toward the northern ends of the map. With the photon panel still kept up for guidance, Statmato lead the way, multitasking at the same time. A small gray tube now in hand, Stamato focused on Yoshi and asked mid jog, “Enigma, is it strange that Yvonna now spends more time with Arron than she does with you?”
Yoshi smirked. Thanks to the change of events, Yoshi finally had more time for relaxation and recreation. Something he was glad to have. “Too soon for me to make a comment on that, Stats.” Yoshi moved in closer. Huddling near Stamato, Yoshi continued in a very low voice, “Besides, you never know if the commander is listening to us right now. Also, why do you need a physical map when you can see it in your vision hud thing?”
Stamato twitched forward. “Ah, good point.”
In a few minutes, they reached area A2. Yoshi broke off and took his spot in the area, chucked a gray capsule of him own on the floor and waved at Stamato as he continued further north. Fading out of sight, Yoshi focused his attention on the capsule, which had a pole sticking out of it. On that pole, four leaf like objects formed from a mercury like liquid substance. Entertained by what he was witnessing and curious, Yoshi crouched down for a closer look. Almost tempted to poke it, the leaves shot up like a piston, turning into propellers. It spun twice and formed a platform. Like a flower seeking the sunlight, it continued its climb, hungry for light and sheltered Yoshi from the blue sky in the process, wide enough to cover a small group of people. After reaching a certain height, the platform rapidly expanded north and south. As if It sensed the presence of other platforms. In a few second, Yoshi noticed shiny silver objects unfold from both directions until each one overlapped the other, parallel with unique connections, a fine line of air kept the two apart. It didn’t take long for clamps from underneath the lower end to bite into the edges of the upper platform, solidifying them as one whole structure.
Yoshi wore a smile big enough on his face. Feeling accomplished, Yoshi lifted a finger over his ear and said, “Shelter complete on my end, how’s everything on everyone else’s?”
“The bridge has successfully made it connection, Enigma. I am now keeping a look out for Darkers,” Stamato ringed in.
“The shade is nice but it really isn’t doing much to keep the heat away, I’ll let you know when something comes up,” Arron followed after.
“No problems on my end,” finished Yvonna. “I’m going to make a pass to ensure that there weren’t any obstacles in the way.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to handle it, commander?” Stamato asked. “With my vision, I can see th-”
“It’s alright, Stamato. I can handle it.”
In response, Yoshi smile compressed into a smirk and shook his head. His fingers dropping, Yoshi sleepily scanned the barren land of molten rock and lava. Even though he did it just as a precaution, he honestly didn’t believe anything would bother to show up in his portion of the area. His shoulders drooped. He yawned. A neck cracked out of boredom. Peeking at the sky for a brief moment, Yoshi retreated under the shelter, tempted to sit against it. He almost did until he touched the metal bridge and figured out how much of a bad idea it was. Hot as a frying pan, Yoshi flinched, rubbing his protected fingers by instinct. Scrunching his face together, Yoshi silently complained to himself. Then suddenly, an idea came to mind. He smacked his forehead to the thought of it. He remembered that he was a Force, one that could simply cool the area. Lifting both hands, a spray of freezing Barta shot out. Misty, periwinkle in color, the black and red rock slowly became a bed of solid ice, engulfing the metal pole embedded in the remarkably just as solid floor. Proud of his idea at first, he soon frowned again when the ice began to melt in the heat. Frustrated, Yoshi snapped his fingers in defeat and spun sharply on his heel, glaring at the red wall menacingly, a glare that would melt into one of confusion. What Yoshi had expected was only a volcanic wall, but what he saw was a man in a black coat limping towards him.
“Help me,” the man weakly pleaded, an arm reaching out for the baffled cowboy.
“Arron?” Yoshi asked under his breath. Yoshi stepped forward. He wanted to help his teammate and make sure he was alright, but a voice inside scream no.
The man tripped onto Yoshi, gripping Yoshi’s shoulders in desperation. “Please, you have to help me. There’s something wrong with me. I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I know. I know. The things I’ve done. All the people i’ve killed. I can’t get it out of my head.”
Yoshi, lifting Arron by the armpits, gave the man a serious look and said, “Alright, nice and easy. Slow down and tell me what’s going on?”
“I can’t stop it!” Arron cried. “I can’t control my actions. Please help me!”
Taking a good look at the coat touting man, Yoshi realized that while his attire appeared to be the same as when they beamed down on the planet, he noticed various tears all over his over coat. Arron also wore a different but similar colored shirt. His left pant leg was ripped in half, and his exposed flash bared many cuts and bruises. Hoping Arron could support himself, Yoshi let go of his shoulders so that he could better help him with Resta. As soon as light began to emit from Yoshi’s hands however, the man began to pull at his hair. Arron curled into a ball and sobbed on his knees.
“Stay back,” Arron shouted. “It’s happening again. No, please no. Not again.” Taking two odd steps backwards, a red and black misty aura emitted from Arron’s body. His breathing grew shallow and rapid. The moment the man collapsed on his knees, Yoshi took action. Without hesitation, Yoshi leaped behind the fallen fighter, placed both hands around his head, and snapped Arron’s neck. As he back away, a loud scream was heard from a distance. Yoshi stepped backward, his eyes wide open and locked on the fallen human.
“That felt good,” Yoshi thought to himself, breath heavy, his hands constantly folding and unfolding, letting the feelings drain out of his system. Yoshi then bite his lip. He feared that killing people, as he did in the past, may have become an enjoyable feeling. Hearing the sounds of rushing footsteps, Yoshi rotated in response, meeting Yvonna who pounded at his chest.
“Yoshi, you bastard. Why did you do that?”
“Relax, Yvonna. It wasn’t Arron,” Yoshi pleasantly replied, forcing back a smile.
“Liar,” She screamed.
“What’s going on?” asked Arron, who just entered the area a moment later. “I heard a scream.” Approaching the two, he froze upon spotting his lifeless clone lying dead on the floor. Yvonna, at the sight of Arron, then hid behind Yoshi, a rifle peeked over his shoulder. “Mind telling me what’s going on here?” Arron demanded with a hint of fear in his voice.
Yoshi sighed. After taking a deep breath, the cowboy responded, “Your clone appeared and I took care of it. You know, before it went berserk on me and everything.”
“And what a shame too,” the clone butted in. “I was really hoping that you would use your abilities against me. Arron knows what they are. Ha ha ha. Ah, maybe some other time then.” The lone laughed again, his voice muffled by the hot soft floor under him. As the clone did, he faded away in red mist, his twisted smile reaching for Yoshi.
Yoshi shoulders shivered, Yvonna’s grip tightened, Arron bared clenched teeth. There they sat, both in fear and awe, watching the body leave no trace of its existence behind. Not even a drop of blood. Once gone, Yoshi kicked around, sweeping his foot over the floor to ensure there were no surprises or hidden traps.
“See, a clone.”
“Oh yeah,” Mable jumped in. “I forgot to mention that. There were a few clones lurking about in the area. But it seems you took care of them already. Oh well.”
“Oh well?” cried Yvonna. “Did you honestly want us to die those imposters?”
“Oh, I don’t know. It not like they travel with red auras or something. Oh wait, they do. I guess you’re either a blind fool or i’ve been hired to babysit children.” Mable sassed back. “I don’t have time for this.”
Before Yvonna could respond, Yoshi squeezed her cheeks together and said, “Commander, relax. She isn’t worth the energy. If we need any information, we can simply ask for a scan from Stats or ask someone passing by.”
“I hope she gets fired,” Yvonna pouted.
“So let me get this straight, a clone of me appeared and you just killed him just like that?” said Arron, suspiciously staring at Yoshi with great aura of contempt.
“I guess,” Yoshi shrugged. “He started to freak out and I simply snapped his neck while he did.”
“Just snapped my neck?”
“Look, he gave off a red aura, one similar to HUnar’s, okay?”
“You fought HUnar?”
“Yes and it wasn’t a glorious battle, trust me.”
“I refuse to believe my clone went down with a simple snap of the neck. Look at you, you’re a twig.”
“Look man, just because I’m a Force, doesn’t mean I slack off in the physical strength department. All I did was jump behind the dude and snapped his neck. No fancy struggles, no epic battles to the death, just one and done, the end.”
“Bullshit.”
“Enough,” Yvonna intervened. On the verge of breaking down, both arms held between the two men. “Enough. Just go back to your posts and report anything that appears. That means any signs of clones, Yoshi. Arron, back the way you came, now.” She said, tugging at Arron’s arm. The two men continued to stare each other down for the next few seconds before finally going their separate ways. While walking away, Yoshi was greeted by the late Stamato, a sword in one hand, who asked,
“Is something the matter, Enigma? I heard reports of clones and came to ensure you were alright.”
“Yeah,” said Yoshi slowly, unsure if Stamato was the real one or not. “The one we meet was already taken care of. Did you see anything?”
“Well, as it happens, I fought three of them on the way here and came here to make sure the forth did not get away. Seeing as the forth is no more, I will return to my post.”
Before Stamato walked away, Yoshi asked, “Hey Stats, what where your proficiencies again? You know, your combat techniques?”
Making a gesture of joy, Stamato merrily replied, “Ah, I am programed in several variations of hand to hand combat, sword techniques, partisan techniques, wire lance techniques, dagger techniques, dual blade techniques, katana techniques, knu-”
“Heh-heh, alright, alright, you’re the real deal.” Yoshi cheerfully smiled.
“I do not find that amusing,” complained Stamato.
“Just making sure is all. But really, I wanted to ask you something too. Is it possible for clones to infiltrate our ranks?”
“An interesting question to ask, Enigma,” Stamato answered with a tilt of his head. Imitating a human lost in thought, the dark CAST stabbed his sword swiftly into the floor and said in an informative tone, “While reports have stated that clones are always in a rampaging status, research has shown that they are nearly identical to the person they appear as. However, I would assume one would find it difficult to have a clone infiltrate ARKs for several reasons. While it is true that clones are identical to the original specimen, ideally this would not include their personal quirks and memories. Thus, for a clone to successfully remain inconspicuous, they would have to not only act like the person they look like; but know their friends, family, and occupational rules and whereabouts as well as the rules of the ship they live on and their personal limitations. As you may have realized, this can be a very convoluted and risky operation, involving months of reconnaissance and research before attempting any form of espionage. While I do wish to continue this conversation, I would believe it would be wise to return to our duties for now. Stay safe, my friend. Maybe we could resume this conversation after the mission.”
“You too, and sounds good,” Yoshi replied, trying to soak in all the information he was just given.
- Interesting Time to Have A Reunion -Spoiler!Under a high noon sun did Yoshi sit in a colorful chair, broken, in pain, yet he smiled. His black eye closed and welcomed rays of sunlight rotating above, despite the large black and white umbrella’s attempts in shading him from the sun. Yoshi didn’t mind though. What sits in place, buried, glued into the earth by manmade materials, can only do so much after all. Without looking, the teal haired man, blue hues vibrantly glowing off his head and his hat stripped from its normal spot, lifted a cup of soda and went for a sip. His just as blue lips drew cold soda. A rare occasion for Yoshi; for he never puts ice into his drinks, save for the occasional iced coffees on odd days. Nostalgic, Yoshi thought to himself. At peace was the next thought, nodding with a blissful smile. Satisfied, he placed the cup back down on the white table it rested on, carefully avoiding the sling that wrapped around his other arm as he fell backwards.
Across from him, on the other side of the rounded table, fingers flinched, flickered and combined. Yearning to reach out but felt afraid; scared to ask. Fill with fear of inflicting unnecessary pain. Red hairs covered the fingers, grew on the back of a hand and flourished on a bare arm which rested on the slightly cool table. The man across Yoshi was none other than Reinhardt, his company for the day after dragging him out of a collapsed cave and off of Lillipa on the B-02 airship he rode in on. Eyebrows dropped, questioning the man in front of him, wondering what sort of revelation the cowboy had. He definitely found enlightenment from something, but unsure as to what it was or where it came from. The red head of a newmen grew tired of waiting. He wanted answers. Answers already given, but he knew better. The signs of a white lie never went away. The newmen sought truth, clear understanding; especially from the person whom he sees more as a brother than just some space cowboy.
Reinhardt leaned forward, his eyes focused on the man across him, his forehead wrinkled in proof of his seriousness. “You mind running why you were in a remote cave, in the middle of nowhere, by me again?” he asked in a low tone, in hopes that his silent whispering would give Yoshi a false sense of security.
“I told you already,” Yoshi responded, “I fell down a canyon and met up with an old friend. We decided to chat for a while and said our goodbyes. Then the cave collapsed, I was trapped, fought Persona and that’s when you found me.” After circling his drink around a few times, Yoshi smiled and took another quick sip from his white dew covered cup. Tones of red grew around his hands as he squeezed, then faded away upon placing it back down. “If you need proof, just ask Mable our navigator.”
“Mable was out for a lunch break, in the middle of your mission,” Reinhardt harshly whispered. “While that has severe issues within itself, you still haven’t told me who this old friend was. Heck, I don’t even know why you were alone in the first place.”
“Well, when you find yourself plummeting down a canyon after some rude tackle antics, it tends to work out that way. And I’m pretty sure someone called for a search team. At I hope Yvonna called for one.”
“Someone by the name of that I think, yeah,” Reinhardt replied, his chin held over his right shoulder, raking his mind over the sudden call. “A bit happy to speak to me at that too, I might add,” said Reinhart. A roll of his eye later, he whispered, “Sometimes I think mother pays people to treat me this way,” and sighed. His arm folded near his chest and sunk his head into them until his sunshade appeared to become his eyes. Showing his obvious disinterest in Yvonna, Yoshi’s took this as his chance to push the subject elsewhere.
Yoshi slid his cup forward across the table and leaned forward. “She a Melchiorian Nemwen you know,” he said in a low voice. “Though, she wants to stay away from her family for personal reason. A bit strange to hear I know, but her family has some sort of universal issue. I wanted to ask you why, since you’re a Melchiorian Newmen yourself.”
Reinhardt coiled deeper into his arms, his face scrunched together with discomfort. Before answering, the newmen paused, mindful of his selection of potential words. His finger lifted in a hook, dropped twice and lifted once more before he resorted to saying, “I don’t feel like talking about it.”
In response, Yoshi jutted backwards victoriously in his seat. His head flung over the head rest, far enough that only a sly smirk could be seen on the horizon of his face. “It’s alright,” Yoshi happily said, “you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. Maybe I’ll ask Marean sometime later.”
Reinhardt forced back a laugh. “Have you tried asking the witch, Leanna, first?”
“I did. Told me it was just something she wanted to fix. Said it involved me but I don’t know what I have to do. Or why it concerns me.”
“You, fixing our issues? She must be loony if she thinks a lone man can change the lives of an entire population on the genetic scale.”
“Genetic scale? Sounds a tad extreme when you put it that way,” said Yoshi as he flung forward in his seat. “Now that has me worried. Like, donating my brain worried.”
“I doubt it,” Reinhardt replied, “You would most likely be giving people your DNA, hopefully in a still living afterwards way. Rumors has it that the genes pools of several families are growing unstable and need a new strand from a Force strong human. Now I know what you’re going to ask, and I’m surprised as well, but I have a hunch; that they are doing this on purpose. Letting us suffer to see if they will get what they want under extreme circumstances. Otherwise I’m sure they would be asking humans for donations in cargo ship worth.”
“Meaning?”
“They’re hoping for crazy mutations,” the newmen hastily replied. Reinhardt’s ear twitched. Hand lightly slammed on the table. His head leaned to the right, towards a skyscraper. Returning his gazed back onto Yoshi, the newmen warmly smiled and sat up. “Close call. Well, I guess you should be returning home now, Yoshi. As for me, I should head back to work. See some other time, okay?” he waved. “And Yoshi,”
“Yeah?” Yoshi asked with a crooked eyebrow.
“For all that is holy, stop going to Lillipa. Every time you go there, something ridiculous happens. And by ridiculous, I mean stupid. Alright, okay, see you around.”
Left behind sitting in his chair, alone and wondering, Yoshi questioned why his friend left so abruptly. His brown eyes passed over the chairs, around store windows, to the restaurant and back, Yoshi’s eyes narrowed. Half frightened, half curious. Staring back at him were equally brown eyes. Yoshi froze, not to the small person in front of him, but to the presence behind him. Where did they come from, he whispered in his head, his lips pressed against the white and red straw. The two began to do a series of hand signs to each other. Their eyes locked onto each other. With careful examination and extreme focus, Yoshi ducked forward, narrowly avoiding the wet willy that nearly rammed into his ear.
“Dang it, Arethusa. I told you to keep him busy,” Marean cried from behind Yoshi, her hand rubbing the saliva off on the unamused man’s hair.
“Hey, I did what I could. What did your want me to do, restrain him with strips of earth or something?”
Yoshi choked on his drink. His hand patted on his chest rapidly. “Diga?” he wheezed, “like earth tech and stuff?” His daughter nodded. Yoshi pounded on his chest. His airways now reopened, Yoshi cleared his throat and said, “Fascinating stuff. So how did you find me anyways?”
“Your arm really,” Arethusa smile, hopping off her chair. “Mom taught me how to seek out the darkness in various ways.” She picked at his arm. Carefully revealing the purple skin under his bandage, her other arm warped around her back, searching for something in her bag. “Seems you got hurt by something bad. I’ve been told that the Darkers are working on new ways to hurt people. I guess this is one of them. I wouldn’t worry about it though. It’s not a very good one.”
“How is not being able to use Resta on anyone not a very good effect?” Yoshi cried, then flinched as his daughter touched his wounds.
“Have you tried washing it away with water?” she replied with a bottle of water in hand, which she tipped, pouring cool clear water over his arm. Yoshi watched in amazement as the purple pigment of his skin melted away. Now clear of any dark influence, Yoshi casted Resta with his free arm and felt the pain lifted away under a holy light.
“Your daughter is pretty smart, Yoshi. You should be proud,” said Marean, who now circled around the table for a chair of her own. Unsatisfied with the conditions of the chairs, the newmen of green hair walked away, grabbing one from a nearby table and planted it next to Yoshi. Its backrest facing the table, her arms resting on the backrest with her chin on top, Marean continued with a smirk, “And she deserves a reward. So if you would be so kind as to treat us to lunch, that would be very much appreciated.”
“Burned though all your savings I take it?” Yoshi asked, followed by a hearty laugh.
Offended, the newmen punched Yoshi in the arm. “Hey, she’s a growing girl and a demanding one at that. Be glad I’m taking care of her for you, Mr. Dad.”
“Well sorry for being such a very undemanding person. Maybe I’ll prepare you by asking for the room next time,” Yoshi retaliated, wide eyed and diving for a now sloppy sip. Marean slammed on the table and looked away, frowning at a giggling Arethusa. Yoshi frowned as well. Having run out of soda, Yoshi reach into his pocket, pulled out a holographic black card, pointing the card, yellow strip parallel to his arm, and said, “Here, buy whatever you want. All I ask is for another soda.”
Marean’s hand snatched it out of his hand and twisted for a better look. “Huh, they changed the designs of the cards. Funny.” Like a tightly wounded spring, Marean then sprung out of the chair and made way for a building covered in blown up foods. As she walked away, Marean waved the card in the air and shouted, “Don’t worry, I’ll try not to break the bank.”
“She seems happy, I guess,” Yoshi remarked, his hand on his chin, rubbing it thoughtfully. “Think she’s still mad at me for leaving?”
Arethusa smirked and replied, “Maybe a little bit,” before hopping off her chain again and slipping around to Yoshi’s side. “You saw mom, didn’t you?”
“How do you know?”
“Who else could have saved you from Persona?”
“My own two fists, Pain and Mercy,” Yoshi joked, uttering a weak laugh. “She didn’t carry any water on her, but the visit was nice.”
“You didn’t freak out and call her a monster?”
Yoshi subtly jumped in his chair and grinded his teeth under the thought of how easily Tuhina could have been killed him had she became violent. With eyebrows squeezed together, Yoshi slowly said to Arethusa, “Nah, I would never call her that. Though I will admit, things could have been bad if she wasn’t herself.”
“But your gut feelings said otherwise, right?”
“Heh, you bet,” Yoshi smiled again. He placed his hand on his daughter head and ruffled her hair. “So, ready to move back in?”
“Sorry, dad,” Arethusa said in a tone of sorrow, “but I can’t. It’s too dangerous for me to live with you anymore.”
“Nonsense, I’ll just protect you from all the bad guys. Besides, I’ve been a horrible father and I think it’s time I start acting like a good one for once. Something I should have been from the very beginning.”
“Dad,” Arethusa scolded. Yoshi gawked, scared of leaving his only daughter with Marean. He wanted to change for the better; thoughts of how bad of a father had raced through his mind. However, something stopped him from protesting. In Arethusa’s eyes was a look, a sort of glare; an impression that Tuhina would have gave him when she was at her most serious. Breaking eye contact, Arethusa took her father’s hand and tenderly patted it. “I’m staying with Marean, where Arks can’t find me.” As Yoshi listened, he noticed tears fell on his hand as she continued, “But thanks… for the offer.” In a short pause, she removed her own hands from Yoshi’s and looked up to him. “You’ll make sure mom has enough money to afford her medicine, won’t you? She really needs it.”
“I know,” said Yoshi with warmth in his voice. “Don’t worry; I’ll make sure she gets it.” No longer wishing to see his daughter cry any longer, Yoshi gave her a wink and a thumbs up. Bowing forward, Yoshi then kissed his daughter’s forehead, spurring her to leap into his chest for a heartfelt hug.
- Filler -Spoiler!
A voice’s screams echoed in the darkness. Faint, words unclear and muffled, but a voice was there. Yoshi knew he was conscious, that he wasn’t going crazy. But he couldn’t prove it either. In his struggle to get up, a weight pressed down against his chest, his arms shook weakly. Yoshi felt helpless, despite. He had to do something, the person cried for a reason. It was female, screaming, with concern in her voice. In a second attempt, Yoshi continued in his efforts, compelled to help the person in need. He couldn’t. Every part of his body felt numb. It took a great amount of willpower to even open his eyes. They didn’t open right away. His lids slid open, slowly, allowing only a sliver of light to pass through his pupils. His sight restore, he first looked down, figuring out what kept him down. To his amazement, nothing did, but he saw something red. In the blurriness of his vision, he made out a red liquid that glistened over several lumps. Soon pain began to surge into his body. His vision faded in and out. Darkness crawled to grasp hold of him once more. Struggling to remain awake, Yoshi managed to roll his head sideways. In the process, he noticed two fuzzy figures standing near him for a second, one in a white coat, and the other in black, until his vision faded again.
A few short seconds later, Yoshi felt a hand patted at his face. His lids shot back open. Light came into view once more. In front of him, a tanned face weakly smiled at him. She spoke words at him but he couldn’t make out what she said. It all seemed so foreign, so odd, but he knew he had to respond, he had to say something. So he did, but what came out weren’t the words like he had hoped he would say. Instead they were low groans and moans. He could hear the woman respond with a quick choking laugh, a laugh that would bring warmth to his heart. With his eyes kept on her, he watched as the woman leaned away, an object in held firmly in her hand and inject something strange into him. To his amazement, though he couldn’t feel much, he now couldn’t feel a thing. Then, in an instant, feeling came back to him. Starting from his head, he could feel a tingling sensation run from towards is neck, through his shoulders, and down the rest of his body.
“Don’t move,” the woman commanded. “I still haven’t mended the wound.”
Yoshi rolled his head over again, searching for the red fluid he saw before. “A white coat huh,” Yoshi asked, grimly recognizing the blood on his hands. “I though you said that was just a stereotype for scientist. You don’t need a coat to look intelligent to me, you know.” Yoshi joked.
“Please don’t laugh. Now is not the time for jokes.”
“Don’t worry about me. I was just pretending to take a nap. I could have handled him easily.”
“Big talk, coming from the man who just took half a sword into the abdomen.”
“Surely you can say larger words than that.”
“If you weren’t as seriously injured as you are now, I would have hit you, gruesomely, brutally and atrociously. Now if you don’t want to see me mindlessly rip out your intestines, I advise you stay quiet.”
“Point taken,” Yoshi reluctantly replied. “So, shouldn’t I be asleep through all of this?”
“Had this have been a proper medical room, yes. And before you ask, yes I’m not qualified to be your surgeon.”
“Though I guess that would make this the second time you’ve saved me.”
“No, just your first, sadly. Whoever saved you the first time did a really lousy job. Look at the scars they left on your body. To think, that the dangers and complications of surgery has been reduced to a commoner’s daily procedure, and because of what, the availability of Resta and Anti?”
“Wouldn’t concern me that much if you’re the one doing it. Though I have to admit, I am amazed that I can’t feel a thing right now. It’s a pretty interesting experience.”
“Well, after you try to save the lives of several people, you find yourself learning a few new skills and will carry some,” She said with a bit of strain in her voice as she pulled at something in his chest, “if not many, things on you. I think you should learn how to do this as well.”
Yoshi immediately lifted his head. “Tuhina, do you realize how long it takes one person to become qualified to do things like this?”
“And say our daughter, her name is Arethusa by the way, gets hurt? What would you prefer to do? Sit there in panic, feeling helpless.”
“That would require me to learn medicine in several fields, and interesting name.”
“Well, I guess you better start studying. Also, I think you will find the name’s meaning to be quite enjoyable; which reminds me.” Tuhina exclaimed, her gloves thrown aside and twisting around. It didn’t take long for her to spin back around, an object held in hand. Gazing at it Yoshi realized she had drawn a clear cylinder out of her bag. She squeezed it. As she did, a tube popped into the air and the moment it reached the peak of its climb, Tuhina caught the tube, twirled it between her fingers and flicked off the cap. Translucent, made of plastic in the shape of a cup, it pelted Yoshi’s face, causing his to jerk on impact. Though stiff and still unable to move, partly thanks to the drugs Tuhina injected into him, Yoshi blew the lid off of his face and sputtered various noises of fright. Just in view, sparkling in the limited specs of light, the sight of a silver needle made him freak out, which in turn caused Tuhina to laugh.
“Oh please, don’t tell me that the great Bitol Xol is still scare of some little needles.”
“Of course I’d be scared,” Yoshi cried, his eyes rapidly shifting between her face and the needle. “With all the disease, germs; let alone the poisons one can inject into a person.”
“Bitol, only a fool could get into such a situation,” Tuhina replied, placing various tools back into the sagging fabric bag. Its green hues could barely be seen thanks to the few sun rays that poke at them from above.
“Hey, you never know. You’d be surprised to hear the things i’ve heard.”
Tuhina, crawled up by Yoshi’s side. Her face troubled by Yoshi’s words. “Why are you so defensive now? You use to never let someone have the first punch.”
“I’d rather engage knowing I have options,” Yoshi said pleasantly.
“You would give them the chance to kill you first?”
“Would you rather me kill someone without knowing first why?”
“But that was what you were trained for. What you, Reinhardt and Kazamir were trained to do. Even Arks does it, and most of them don’t even question it,” Tuhina said in a lecturing manner. She then sat up right. Reached out with both her arms, two hands firmly gripped Yoshi’s sides and carefully pulling him off of his back. Now resting on a dark and dusty orange rock, Tuhina rested her head on Yoshi’s shoulder and placed her hands his. “What happened to the proud, arrogant man I fell in love with?”
Yoshi looked away, his eyes closed tight with sadness. An ice cube slipped through his throat. Turning back, he rested his head on hers and replied, “He died that day, leaving his shell behind, to ensure that his beloved made it into heaven peacefully. What happened to the always sleepy, smiling woman I use to love?”
“She sent her shell to reunite with his, so that they may be united on both heaven and earth.”
There was a pause, Tuhina leaned heavily on him and snorted, “Dork.”
“Hey,” Yoshi exclaimed before wincing in pain thanks to his sudden movement.
“You spent a lot of time to thinking about this, haven’t you?”
“Yeah, I guess I have.”
“And I bet you still carry that ring in your pocket too?”
“How did you know?”
“For the longest time, I thought you were always just happy to see me. Until you proposed to me that is.” She said while hugging his arm. “It’s a shame things will never be the way we want it to be.”
“It’s never too late,” Yoshi replied reassuringly.
“Bitol, look at me. I’m just a-“
“Just the woman I love brought back in an unorthodox method, that’s all. Nothing to worry about.”
“I’m a Darker, Bitol. I can’t live like you or Arethusa do. Not without endangering everyone around me.”
“Honey dew, I’ve always lived that way. We’ve always lived that way.”
“Don’t you honey dew, me,” Tuhina pouted, pushing herself away from Yoshi and skip further away. In a short distance from the injured man, she clumsily spun around and stared at him with upmost seriousness. “I’m a monster. I have urges to kill, I have murdered dozens of people by now and the only things keeping me sane are these syringes. Don’t you understand? I can never go back,” she cried.
Even though he felt jolts of pain run through his body, urging him to stop moving, Yoshi pressed off the rock and onto his feet, his unslung arms supporting him. Standing up straight, Yoshi began to limp forward until he could wrap his arm around the teary face woman. “Did I scream at the sight of you? Did I yell at the top of my lungs and call you a monster? No. Honey dew, we can still make this work. Strange family or not, there’s still hope. Just you wait. Soon the war will end and we’ll be living in that beach side house you always wanted. Just the two of us on that warm sunny porch, with our daughter playing in those soft warm sands by the sea shore,” said Yoshi, grinning, his arm sweeping the cave like it was the shore’s horizon. “We’ll make it work, trust me.”
Tuhina weakly returned the grin, instead she focused more on placing an arm under his shoulder, supporting him. Keeping Yoshi up, escorted Yoshi back on the rock he rested against. “You should really stop moving. I’m good but not that good. Though the wounds may be closed up for now, they are only healing at a natural but slow pace. Also, I have taken the liberty of calling Reinhardt to pick you up. I know he can’t deny a call of emergency if it’s from you.” Yoshi opened his mouth but Tuhina slapped a finger on his lips. “When you get back, I want you to go see a doctor immediately. Oh and before I forget,” She said, her hands in her pockets, digging until they found a yellow piece of paper, “keep this on you. You can thank me by gathering the materials on that list and sending it to the location on the back, okay.”
As Yoshi flipped the paper around, Tuhina pecked him on the cheek and vanished into a dark cave, borrowed inside the canyon.
I am the slowest reader you'll ever find. I finally caught up-ish! HAHA, took me months! Now I can finally work on that image from like July... (I feel accomplished.) It's really good mate! The reading is pretty fast and it doesn't have any long pauses. Kudos!
Thanks for the read. No worries about reading speeds though. For a time, I was tempted to use 5 min+ songs for slow readings. Though I was never sure how well that would really go.
Spoiler!Sorry for the lack of a chapter. Life has sucked the hours away from my writing time and I also have to redo the dialogue anyways. If you have "Don't you know that tricks are for kids," as a comeback line, you know something needs to be trashed.
On another note, I still have yet to mention the rest of the B line. I still don't have flesh out concepts for the rest of them. Though they range from flack cannons, to aquatic combat vehicles, to portable command centers and cargo ships. Another idea was to have a large transport ship capable of holding a good number of dudes with an advance warp drive. One that would allow you to warp straight from the hanger and immediately down on the planet's surface. A bit extreme but its there on the back burner of ideas. Extreme as in, its still experimental and are still given the green light to try it out despite the fact that everything could go horribly wrong.
- Filler -Spoiler!It wasn’t common for Yoshi “he who just wings it” blue to stop by the briefing room. He never had a need for it, save for those few times Yvonna commanded him into it. Now was not one of those times though, but Yoshi feel like making a trip. Just for the sake of it. Traveling through the waterfall corridor leading to the red room, the space cowboy did not realize the surprise that waited inside.
A pressurized door opening the moment his gray boot drew near, Yoshi soon found he had walked into a room full of people. Seems the red room was used by multiple parties these days, Yoshi thought to himself. A nice change of pace from a time he visited earlier. Though worried about how many people filled the briefing room, he marched onwards, strategizing, making plans on how he would work his way past a crowd. Heading towards a gray door on his left, he strolled past a waterfall pillar, through a few packs of people, jumped behind an empty counter and finally paused in front of the metal wall with his hand raised, intending to punch in some codes. To his surprise, the door automatically opened before for he could even move another muscle. Yoshi blinked, his eyebrows scrunched together. This must be a new system, different. Has the increased traffic caused this? Or is the briefing room under renovation? Oh well, Yoshi shrugged as he entered into an elevator. Without realizing it, the door closed behind him, revealing a dark gray card slot on its backside. Yoshi looked around. Same old elevator, much like the ones found in the lobby; white, blue ringed floor, probably a glass tube to look out of.
He regained focus. His attention snapped onto the green lights that flowed on each side of a thin gap, an obvious sign of where the card would go. With card in hand, Yoshi slid his access card through the slow pulses and felt his stomach instantly lift in his belly. In a few seconds, the disoriented man found himself in an almost empty room. Almost empty due to two figures standing on the other side, their bodies huddled together, looming over wide holo-panel. Though Yoshi found relief in the fact that this room remained quiet and peaceful, he realized that the briefing room’s slightly alien appearance. Dull, simple, shaped like a campship; the entrance was more or less a giant gray rectangle, made less so by a gray giant circle in the back. Only instead of housing a giant warp pool back there, it instead revealed several step like seats and a round protrusion in the center; where mission details would be shared, map displays and faces are shown. On the walls, the consoles also seen in a campship, only instead of having a medical console by the entrance; an airship console took its place. Where, any member of the team could request different guns, equipment and ship model. Likewise, the partner console had been replaced by an operator and navigator console. Like the airship console, any member of the team could request different operators, replacement navigators and switch the roles in which they filled. The windows remained at least, offering a nice view of the city below. Yoshi ignored them however and instead took steps forward.
“James, Kerri, what’s going on?” Yoshi greeted the two with arms wide open, his hat lifted and a welcoming smile for the both of them to see.
Yoshi’s two friends twisted around with expressions of surprise. James simply waved. Kerri on the other hand made a complete 180, accepting Yoshi’s greeting. “Ah, Yoshi, a surprise to see you here,” exclaimed James. “Kerri and I were just looking at the specs of the B-01 space craft. Rumor has it that they plan to scrap the design and release a new model.”
“Any idea why?” Yoshi quickly asked while he moved between the two of them, aiming to get a better look at the transparent screen they crowded around.
“Guess the designers realized that we simply didn’t have a need for bombers,” James replied with uncertainty in his voice. “Guess it went against our philosophy. You know; speed, precision, efficiency.”
“For the most part, armor vehicles have been phased out of service for a while now. Not many ships still use them and if they do, it’s by units that request for them or continue to solely operate around them.” Kerri added, now in the original hunching position Yoshi found her in. “They still have museums for them. Holo-imitations of course, but they exist if you ever wanted took take a peek at them. May charge you extra if you wanted an inside scoop though.”
James glanced towards Yoshi, with a smile. “Though Kerri had a feeling that the real ones are tucked away in a safe location, for inspiration, improvements and to retain a sense of how anyone even built anything in the past.”
“Alright,” Yoshi chuckled, “so what happened to them?”
As Yoshi eye’s flicked over the many words that blinked on the screen, James gaze glued on the screen, “Well, ever since Arks revolutionized the way they operate, they just found the need for tanks, combat cars and everything else to be too costly, cumbersome, a waste of time and a misuse of materials that could have been used in more ‘important’ projects.” James explained, his hands shifting between several gestures. “Now a days, kids are just sent directly to their destination with amazing speed, get in, do their damage and get out before anyone even realizes what happened. Kerri, on the other hand, has other reasons for why she cares about the new B-01.” James bent backwards and stared over towards Kerri, who did the same but with an unamused face. Eyes half closed and a frown that made James try his hardest not to laugh.
“Well, if you remember what I said to you before,” Kerri said to Yoshi, “I want to look for people and if I’m going to find people, I’ll need a reliable aircraft. The B-03 moves way too fast for me and I may end up missing my target. The B-01, as it is, would potentially kill everything I want to save. Not something I want to do. But I hear that the new B-01s will come with a tank mode. Which may just be what I need to make a good read of the area.”
“Sounds useful. How come we never had them before?” asked Yoshi with earnest curiosity.
“Easy, CASTs,” James responded, making Yoshi head snap in the opposite direction. “Armored up, shock absorbent, my father once told me that some new models were originally made to replace our armored vehicles with the ability to use any type of gun we could throw at them. The CASTs however didn’t take kindly to it the thought and held strikes. Not wanting to be looked upon by future generations as mere war machines, they fought for their rights to freely choose their own destinies. Then the Caseal movements began and well, I don’t really want to get into that. But that’s why they look so different, before you ask.”
Kerri shrugged with a half-baked smile. “Eh, the old vehicles would have been disasters anyways. Think of the tunnels for example. Not only do you have to find the space to get them in, but you also have to find the space to get them back out and figure out where they reappear at. Then you have the environmental hazards. Spike wearing down your tracks, bombs constantly going off everywhere, sand getting in between the cracks, narrow pathways to maneuver between and need I mention the Sparzyles that magically drop out of nowhere? But this is different.”
“Yeah,” James interrupted, chuckling at his own thoughts. “Just think of it, your team is pinned down by a Ragne, you got wounded, your force is doing his or her best to keep the guy alive, you’re running low on ammo and your cover is slowly being eaten away.” James then held his hand flat in the air and made a sweeping motion. “Then suddenly, a B-01 comes swooping in from the sky, engages its tank mode and crushes the head of that son of a bitch, giving your team the room they need to get inside while the B-01 blows apart anything dumb enough to stick around,” he finished, a fist firmly planted into his palm.
“That’s the thing though,” Kerri butted back in. “We don’t know the specs of the air craft. Will the guns be automated? Will they be manned? Would we need to assign a full crew in it or are the field soldiers expected to climb on in and gun the enemy down for us? Would there even be enough room for an extract? Can we engage the tank tracks in midflight or do we have to ease it gently onto the ground first? Can the B-01 get out of lava and water should we fall into it? Would the pilots be protected from the elements? You know, those kinds of questions.”
“Would be an interesting vehicle none the less though,” said Yoshi, his eyebrows raised, showing his approval.
“Now the question is what we do with all the unused explosives,” James quietly muttered to himself.
Yoshi laughed. Doing his best to speak his mind, Yoshi replied, “Could just always chuck them all at Falz. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”
After Yoshi finished, the three of them silently chuckled to themselves. James then grabbed Yoshi by his shoulders. “So, you flew a T-57 before, what do you think the B-01 will look like?”
Yoshi looked up at the ceiling, imagining and comparing images that flouted in his head. “Well, if it’s anything like the T-57, it’s going to remain armored. The wheel things will be stored below the hold’s floorings because that’s where the table and extra stuff was stored. Storage compartments will either hold ammo, first aid or be replaced by devices that will allow you to man the turrets. Speaking of turrets, the cannon may be mounted on top. I can’t tell you what it would look like though. The T-57 doesn’t have a tail like the newer models do. So it would have been really effective shooting from behind the spacecraft. Engine wise, the T-57 had two entire ports lining the side of the shuttle for landing purposes, which made it look like a fat T in the distance. A sleek, angled T but a T none the less. Anyways, I’m going to assume the ports will be angle even more so you won’t burn the stuff and things off.”
“So you do know your way around that ship. They should put you into one of those things the day they come out.”
“Would be a new and interesting experience,” Yoshi nervously replied. “Though I wouldn’t like the pilot treatment.”
“Those be some fighting words your spouting there, boy,” James said in amusement, lightly punching his teammate in the shoulder afterwards.
Last edited by yoshiblue; Nov 17, 2014 at 01:42 PM.
- A Kink In The Wind -Spoiler!“This is Yvonna, go ahead.”
“The telepipe is blown; we’re going to have to insert you manually via drop ship. Notify your team and prep them for launch,” A male voice said in an informative tone.
“Got it, heading to the lower deck.”
“Before you go, keep in mind that the area is hazardous. Make sure your team is protected from the environment. Also, whatever took out your pipe wasn’t Darker in nature. So tread with caution, Rio out.”
Dark sinister clouds swirled underneath a reflective silver surface. Shimmers of orange lava flashed inside a sea of electric black and red. Over the atmosphere of Amduscia, an Arks campship hung above a large volcanic portion of the planet, a bay door opened on the right side of two prepared for a shuttle’s departure. Through one of the camp ship’s large side windows, a female newmen of black hair walked towards a green console and soon turned around with a black helmet in hand, one like a motorcyclist’s helmet. In one spin, she raised it over her head spurring Arron to follow after. In one fluid motion, she placed the helmet over her head and a black armored suit, modern, lightly plated, appeared on her body. Photonic triangles scattered from neck to toe at amazing speeds, forming this suit. While this happened, Arron spun around with a helmet of his own in hand. Though unlike Yvonna, Arron’s looked more metal like, similar in appearance to that of a knight’s. Following Yvonna’s example, Arron put on his helmet and a suit of armor faded into existence under his long coat. Now glimmering in the sunlight, ebony armor, complemented by thin metallic blue trimming, clattered while moving towards his commander’s side.
“Everyone ready? Good,” said Yvonna before anyone could answer. No one complained however. Instead, everyone simply turned around and collectively headed into the other room so that they could take the elevator shaft down into the airship bays below. While they did, Yvonna grabbed Yoshi by his collar and said, “Sorry Yoshi, you’re going to remain here.”
“How come?” Yoshi asked, frowning in unhappiness, but before Yvonna could answer, Arron swept by, rapidly rapping at his blindingly reflective plated helmet.
“Should have invested in some environmental gear like I suggested,” Yvonna finally shrugged. “Don’t worry about it though. We’ll let you know when you can come down.” Shortly after, roaming around Stamato, her hand wondering onto his asymmetrical armored up pauldron and gave it a shake. “Make sure that thing is active when we reach the floor,” Yvonna commanded. The cast nodded in response.
Despite being told to stay behind, Yoshi followed the team in so that he could at least see them off and Elm, who greeted them in person at the rear of a B-02. Along with James, who had just walked out of the ship beside Elm’s. Approaching Yoshi’s side, Yoshi waved at his teammates as the B-02’s dark gray doors closed. Pressurized doors sealing, Arron said in a communication channel,
“See you planet side.”
The B-02 raised off the floor, spun around and slowly crawled out of the camp ship. Once outside, the bay doors closed, leaving Yoshi and James in an empty pocket of the ship, rays of sunlight poking through the transparent flooring above. “Seems everyone is using the color black for the squad’s official color.” James remarked, trying to break the silence. “You would think for a team of jealousy, you guys would use the color green of all things, heh heh.”
“Eh, I’m not one for wearing black. Though, it does make me wonder what people would think my role would be, being the odd one of the four and all,” asked Yoshi with arms crossed, chuckling to the thought of people seeing him as the commander and a flustered Yvonna demanding respect from them.
“With you reading that medical book from time to time, I would say people think you would be their combat medic. You can fill in as that role, right?”
Yoshi grimaced and tilted his head away from James. “Resta, sure,” Yoshi responded. “I can’t promise anyone that I know what I’m doing, should I actually have to work on someone’s injuries,” he finished, his hand circling in his pool of doubt.
James laughed a hearty laugh. “Well, now is a better time to prepare if anything. So go maintain your gear, clean your weapons or continue reading up while I go in for a scouting run.” Though James said this, he gestured into his dropship with his head facing the blinking lights in his ship. Without looking, James then patted Yoshi’s shoulder and said, his hand rummaging inside his helmet,
“See you later.”
Down on the planet, Elm’s B-02 soared low, the fumes under the bottom hull of his vessel urging him to hug closer the floor. On a mini map Yvonna eyed, she watched the space craft approach on an opening and got up. A hand pounded on a green button. A ramp began its decent, the tip of the metal lightly bounced off the molten floor. Pebble sized chunks of black rock scattered in the air. Without slowing down for anything, the B-02 flew over the canyon opening and three figures leaped out of the ship, sliding down its black wall. With a leg forward and one knee bent back; rifles aimed down and a hand held onto a backside; black smoke trailed behind them until they rolled onto the floor below them. Kneeling in place, forming a T around Yvonna, the trio scanned the area for hostiles. Thin lines scrolled down their visors as they switch through the different vision modes. Stamato searched for the most efficient way in which he could look past the gas. Arron and Yvonna, however, searched for the most comfortable mode to look through period.
Constantly changing modes, Arron inched closer to his newmen commander. “Just so you know, this is the first time I’ve ever used this.”
“Then why didn’t you pick the same model I suggested?” Yvonna complained.
“I figured plated armor would look cool with a long coat.”
“Remind me to smack your head after this mission is over.”
“Your fault for giving me a choice.”
“Make that an order. Rio, anything on the map.”
“I’ll let you know when James finds anything,” Rio quickly replied.
Arron and Yvonna looked towards each other and shrugged. Arron wiggled his head, hinting how displeased he was with the ever so helpful information Rio supplied them with. Yvonna then lifted a hand and gestured forward. Stamato nodded and taking the charge, crouching with his launcher leveled. Moving over hills, hopping down slopes, crawling over ledges, the trio moved across the barren wasteland of rock and fresh lava rivers. After they had cover what felt like half the map of their intended landing area, the three reached the broken remains of their telepipe. Black scorches painted the floor and scarred the orange bits of metal that survived the encounter.
“Yvonna here, we found our broken pipe. Seems someone or something was hoping to get the jump on us.”
“Signs of explosives, nothing darker detected,” Stamato added. “If I didn’t know any better, I say these marks were caused by a powerful Force.”
“Right,” James responded over their communication, “I’ll keep an eye out for any rogue Arks in the area. Keep a careful eye out there and let me know when you want another one set into place. I’ll get Rio to inform the other group.”
“Other group?” asked Arron.
“Yeah, seems some additions were made to the squad. Said our numbers were too small. You guys haven’t spoken to them yet?”
“No, we weren’t made aware of any additions made to our team,” said Yvonna. “Stats, what do you got on them?”
“Four newmens, all from the Melchior, different families: all specializing in something very particular. However, what they specialize in eludes me. Seems I am not allowed to gather any more information on them,” Stamato replied with a tiny holo-panel above his triangular eye. “They also refuse to link up with our communications. However, it seems they are trying to establish a one way line.”
Yvonna paced around in a circle. “If they don’t want to corporate, maybe it would be best to keep them off our channels. Let the others guide them around. Newmens of my kind don’t treat foreigners too kindly. Chances are that they got their own navigators and operators too.”
“Keeping them off our channels, commander,” Stamato confirmed.
“James, have there been any signs of darker activity in this remote area?” asked Yvonna as she now peeked around a corner.
“I think I may have seen a Ragne in the area, a Vol Dragon too. Don’t worry too much about finding another area to set up a pipe in, though. I’ll handle that for now.”
After closing his channel, James spun around in his seat, smiling to a man standing behind him. “Rio told me that they were quite angry when they found out you weren’t on that camp ship. It’s a good thing one of my old buddies warned me before hand.”
“About what?” Yoshi asked with concern in his voice.
“I know a few Diga people. Been telling me that some of the younger hunters have been jumping the gun and getting themselves into parties. Some find it hard not to kill those newmen because of it, but these are experienced Arks. They know how to handle themselves. You however are a different story. I don’t need you killing them just because they shot first. Wouldn’t look good for me, or for you, or anyone else.”
“So what I am to do, then?”
“You’re going to request becoming a pilot,” James replied, shoving several page like panels into Yoshi’s chest. “And lucky for you, they want you in one of those prototype B-01s.”
“Isn’t our squad a bit small for four pilots?”
“Nonsense, you’ll be co-piloting with Kerri. She’s the one who suggested it. I already have a replacement operative on hand in case you agree with this.”
“Didn’t think Kerri would want me to be her co-pilot,” Yoshi replied, filtering through the panels.
“Seems you have something she wants. Besides, even if they try to limit your effectiveness as a force, my friend tells me that your Diga techniques are only as strong as your spirit. Er, so I’m told anyways,” James said as he began pressing at several buttons. Slowing the air craft down, James then activated the undercarriage turret and said, “Elm spotted some Dagan Aclis in the area. We’re going pull some hit and runs before they are to grow in numbers.”
“Couldn’t you just open the hatch door and let me fling some techs?” Yoshi asked, halfway through the door.
“The point of you being here is to make sure you remain hidden. I don’t like the smell of those newmens.”
“Right. I’ll stick to the turret controls then.”
“Atta boy,” James cheered. He then twisted around, and yelled, “Hey, it may fry the circuits but try making the floor transparent like. May give you a better view of what you’re shooting at.”
“Got it,” Yoshi replied. “I’ll try not to overdo it.”
Setting himself down on a one of the benches, Yoshi opened up a panel in the air and picked at it until the floor under him revealed the planet’s volcanic core below. Starting from his foot and up into the hold’s wall, Yoshi watched as Elm’s B-02 sped forward from underneath. “Making the first pass,” Yoshi heard Elm say. “Right, I got you covered,” James responded. Yoshi spun the turret forward and lifted his hand. A tiny radical popped up in the air with small circles aligning with the turret until a red arrow turned green. Once green, Yoshi adjusted his aim south so that he could better lead his shots. Just as soon as his targets appeared, the Degans fired off bolts of red lights at the lead ship. Most of them missed, a few of them bounced, Yoshi opened fired. Just as fast as they appeared Yoshi cleared most of the Degan Aclis and watched as more of the appeared.
“Doing alright?” James asked with worry.
“Just a scratch, nothing to worry yourself with,” Elm replied. “Coming around for the second pass, watch yourself.”
The Degans fired again, only instead of launching their red bolts of death at just Elm, they shot at James as well. Red objects whizzing by, Yoshi watched one of them clip the turret.
“Turret was hit but still functional,” Yoshi yelled at James.
“Good, now take them out.”
Yoshi fired again. The Degans fought back. More bolts whizzing by, Yoshi’s vision went into static for a moment as the bottom of the hull took a pounding.
“Don’t you have anything bigger?” Yoshi shouted. “Something more explosive?”
“They didn’t think would need larger guns. We have rockets but their usage requires next to no movement.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Yoshi cried. “If I’m getting in one of these things, I’m going to rearm them. I don’t care what they say.”
“We’re going to make another pass, focus.”
Elm flew by once more. Swiftly hugging the floor this time, Yoshi watched as the degans landed a hit on one of Elm’s engines. Black smoke blocked his view.
“Elm’s been hit, looks like the engine burned out trying to compensate though,” Yoshi shouted.
“Elm, get yourself near Yvonna’s team and repair your ship. We’ll handle the rest,” said James.
“Sorry about that,” said a static covered Elm.
“Don’t sweat it, other teams have arrived.”
“Zelatus squad, what’s the situation of the area?” A male voice soon cut in.
“Degan Aclis are trying to prevent air support. Ragne activity is starting to increase as well. Watch yourself.”
“Status on the Kartargots?” the male voice asked.
“Haven’t fired a beam at us yet. They are more focused on the dragon kin for the time being.”
“Right, dropping a telepipe near your location. Try to keep the area clear for me.”
“I’ll do what I can,” James replied before switching the channels. “Yoshi, more degans to our six.”
“I see them,” Yoshi confirmed.
“Hit them hard.”
“Yoshi,” Stamato called out of nowhere. “Your presence is required. Yvonna is starting to become mentally unstable and she refuses to approach her fellow newmens for help.”
Yoshi’s eyes flicked around in thought. Snapping upwards Yoshi and shouted to James, “Are we making a pass near Elm anytime soon?”
“Once Spice squad sets up shop, this area is theirs. We’ll regroup with Elm soon after. Why?” asked James.
“Yvonna.”
“Ah,” Yoshi heard James say faintly over the roaring of the engine.
- Filler -Spoiler!There comes a time where you stand at your doorway and look into your vacant room, its plain gray walls lifeless and yearning, the grey checkered floor barren of life and soul, the balcony outside just an empty box screaming for something to fall into it, wondering what you want to do with it. From there one would begin to space out thinking about how it would flow within their daily lives. How should I shape it? I should I mold it? What if I don’t like it? Can I replace everything if it gets destroyed? Questions ever flowing in a sea of splashing day dream and wonder. Or maybe that’s just the person falling asleep while standing up. Never the less, a person stands at his door way, staring into his room.
This person is none other than Yoshi. With his trusty coffee mug in hand and his foot tapping on a partner machine stand, the half dress human dozed in and out of the reality that is his cold, empty and barely lit room. Having just received a lecture about sprucing up his living quarters, he found it, in his somewhat lazy self, the will power for moving his unconventional bed forward. His red eyes always asked him to lay back down for more rest, the worn down man rested his mug on the partner machine podium, his chest dropped alongside it. Heavy lids closed shut, sounds of the outside world drowned in muffled silence and the lights dimmed into darkness.
Floating in between the realm of reality and dreams, a hand caught him be the arm and pulled him back. Yoshi stumbled, frighten, trying not to fall until he crashed into the chest of someone else. The sleep seeking man lobbed his head over, meeting face to face with Tuhina. A face that made Yoshi shift his head to his other shoulder. Tuhina looked unhappy. He already wished he remained asleep. Sighing to himself, Yoshi start off with,
“Couldn’t you use the door like a normal person?”
“Yes, but getting around like this is so much easier. That’s not why I am here though. Where is she?” Tuhina sternly demanded.
“Where is who?” Yoshi asked, his belly resting on the podium again.
“Don’t play dumb with me, Bitol. Where is our daughter?”
“I don’t know,” Yoshi lied, his eyes rolling away.
Tuhina pulled him backwards and held him close with flames emitting from her eyes, “You call yourself a father? Resting here while she’s out in the world, hungry and freezing.” The angered mother pushed Yoshi to the floor. “You make me sick.” She said, through reclining lips, as Yoshi placed a hand on his head, rubbing the area that collided with the floor. Looking behind his back, he saw Tuhina pointing at the door and shout, “Outside now. I don’t give a damn how tired you are, you’re going to find her.”
Yoshi sighed and pushed off the floor. Staring back at the tanned woman, Yoshi said with a serious face, “If I knew where to start, I would have found her already. Finding her is like finding a needle in a haystack without any form of guidance.” Right afterwards, Yoshi smacked the air, hurling a holo-panel towards Tuhina. On it, a row of face, operatives listed deceased or MIA. “She’s labeled as dead,” he continued. “I can’t use Arks to find her. And if anyone does find her, you know what will happen to her.”
Tuhina scrolled through the list and bite her lip. Yoshi could feel her heart sink as she pounded the panel into oblivion, its transparent surface scattering into a thousand particles. She then slumped against the wall and said, “Forty children. Forty children, abandoned. All of them, just tossed aside.”
“The list is wrong though, honey dew. Our little girl is still alive,” Yoshi said in a comforting tone, his hands on both of Tuhina’s shoulders, ducking forward to smile at his teary eyed companion. Locking his eyes with hers, Yoshi quickly reach around and pulled out an oversized card. “See?” Yoshi continued. “She even sent me this.”
Tuhina swiped the talis out of Yoshi’s hand. Flipped it around and looked up with shock. “Elder gave this to her. Elder is still using her to track you,” she said, marching away from Yoshi so that she could open a portal and chuck the card away.
“Hey, what the heck was that for?” Yoshi cried, a hand reaching out for the discarded card.
“It’s for your own safety, Bitol. It’s also our clue. Wherever she is, the Darkers will be close by, or should be at least,” Tuhina replied, marching back. Tuhina grabbed Yoshi’s arm once again and dragged him towards the doorway. “Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?”
“Window shopping,” Tuhina swiftly answered, causing Yoshi to scream internally with much loathing. “If I slacked off like you do, nothing would get done.”
“Slacked off? I spent the entire day getting an entire city out of a cruiser.”
“Not good enough.”
“Not good enough? Look here you… mmm. Do you know how hard it is too keep chaos under a leash, let alone preventing yourself from killing every single gosh dang scum bag that you’re forced to save? There was a dumbass that broke through the escort line and tried to run off with smuggled goods. Yeah, way to go buddy, you sure did get away from those spaceships. Bet you didn’t think some vessels are made to take a pounding. Congratulations, you crashed into one of our rescue shuttles. Now we had to clean up your wreckage. Nice work. Good show. Bet you’re proud of yourself. Seriously, I… why are you smiling?”
“Oh don’t mind me. Just keep venting.”
“What?”
“Arethusa did say you’ve been quite the reserved person. You even held back a naughty word. Pats for you,” Tuhina said while playfully patting his back. “While that’s nice and all, you shouldn’t really keep everything contained within you. It’s bad for your health.”
“I don’t need to vent to stay healthy.”
Tuhina grabbed Yoshi’s head on placed it against hers. “Shh, do you hear that? Voices are saying to shut up and follow me, we’re going places,” Tuhina smiled, a portal of darkness opening up ahead of her.
“If you insist,” said Yoshi as he threw Tuhina over his shoulders.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
“Going places, of course.”
“Put me down, right now.” Tuhina pounded at Yoshi’s back. “H-hey, watch the hands. People will see us.” Blushing, she frantically squirmed around. “This isn’t funny, Bitol.”
“Oh, but it is, honey dew,” laughed Yoshi as the two moved through the dark hazy portal. The moment the two disappeared, Yvonna stomped out her bedroom door screaming,
“For fuck sakes, Yoshi, can’t you see people are trying to sleep?”
However, she found herself talking to a wall, for no one answered. Frantically looking about his empty room, Yvonna said in anger and confusion, “Where the hell did he run off to this time?”
- Filler -Spoiler!“Give me a reason why I shouldn’t shot you in the face right now.”
“Give me a reason why I shouldn’t slit your throat.”
Sitting on opposite ends of a glass top coffee table, Marean and her husband Reinhardt stared at each other with gazes of hatred and remorse. Of the two, Reinhardt leaned forward, on hand on his gun, the other on his left leg, never moving. Marean, like Reinhardt, also kept a hand on her weapon, a short blade attached to her pink belt, the other circling the rim of a coffee mug. The two newmens continuing their stare down, from behind the sofa Reinhardt sat on drifted a teal head of hair, surfing by like a shark in water. Just as they were about to make a move, Arethusa popped out from around the corner and shouted,
“How’s it going guys?”
The two newmens froze in place, staring at her with faces of shock and anger.
“Marean?” Reinhardt said in awe.
“Arethusa,” the girl corrected him.
“Right, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with Yoshi? He’s worried sick about you.”
“As it so happens, she is living under my care,” Marean butted in, sipping her coffee with a smirk of victory. “Arethusa, would you be so kind as to serve our guest a cup of coffee?”
“A glass of water is fine,” Reinhardt interjected.
“Right away,” said Arethusa in bouncy manner before skipping her way to the kitchen.
Once gone, Reinhardt reattached his look of seriousness and said, “She should be living with Yoshi.”
“She’s not safe with Yoshi. You know that, dear.”
“Don’t you dare call me that again,” Reinhardt grunted. “I bet you just keep her around so you can sleep well at night.”
“Would you rather drown yourself in alcohol for the rest of your life, Reinhardt? Huh? Do you know what it feels like to be and feel like a normal person for once? I bet you do. You surrounded yourself with all of these newmens and forces; you wouldn’t even experience these problems.”
“I am far stronger than that, Marean and probably far stronger than you as well.”
“So I’m told,” said Marean before taking another sip. “I don’t see why you still hold a grudge over me. Yoshi forgave me, why can’t you?”
Reinhardt slammed two hands on the coffee table, hard enough to create a crack in the glass. “Yoshi didn’t lose people, people he grew up with, to the woman sitting before me. Yoshi had nothing to lose in his line of duty.”
“All of you knew the risks of mercenary work. They chose their fate.and Yoshi did have something to lose. Otherwise he would still be the annoying kid he was before.”
“Easy for you, she who had killed anyone even remotely close to her, to say. You’re no better than your grandmother.”
“Don’t you ever, ever, compare me to my grandmother, you chair hugging piece of shit,” Marean said, slamming her coffee cup on the table. “If I were my grandmother, Arethusa would have already been dead.”
“And that makes you any better of a person? Securing your own little world with some additional affection points from Yoshi? Because that makes everything you’ve done in the past all better?”
“Oh, because killing people for an official paycheck is oh so much more noble and holy. Go off yourself you-”
The door on Marean’s left flew open; Arethusa barged in, a cup of water in one hand and a tray held horizontally in the other. Her movement faster than the door closing behind her, Arethusa zoomed through the living room, approached the coffee table, shouting, “I brought cookies!”
She then slammed the tray of cookies onto the table, gently placed Reinhardt’s cup of water down, and fiercely snagged a pastry and stuffed it into her watery mouth.
Chewing quickly, Arethusa made noises of approval and looked at Reinhardt with a smile. Reinhardt, not wanted to reveal his anger to the girl, gritted his teeth, slowly reaching for the glass of water. Taking a large swig, he carefully placed it back down and got up.
“Marean should be thanking you more often. You don’t know how big a favor you’re doing for her. Also, before I go, our friend Yoshi wanted me to give this to you,” Reinhardt said, placing a Sange on the table.
After that, he was gone.
“He didn’t grab a cookie,” Arethusa whisper to herself. “I worked my butt off making those cookies!”
Laughing behind her, Marean replied, “Don’t worry about it. We’ll finish them together. In the meantime, let’s go over how we’re going to break into that research facility you’ve been eyeing.”
Tis the seasons for colds.
Edit: Damn, I really dropped the ball on these typos.
- Filler -Spoiler!“This isn’t right. This isn’t right at all,” complained Yoshi one morning while walking through a dark and light grey, cyan lit, narrow corridor. “This isn’t how these things work. You can’t just transfer someone without any prior training,” he scowled, his fists balled in irritation. A hand appeared in front of him and handed him an orange and black helmet. The black paint sprayed on by an outside source. Once he took it, thanking the person next to him, he lifted it over his head and put it on. As his glasses were overlapped by a poorly lit blue visor, he stumbled forward, as it knocked off his silver frames. Balancing on one foot, his glasses clutched against his chest, he continued, “And do we really need more pilots? We’re a small enough crew as is.”
“I don’t know, I thought it would be fun,” responded Yvonna, who readjusted the height of her own visor. Attached to a helmet similar to Yoshi's. “Besides, you flew ships before. This should be a piece of cake.” With a comforting smile written on her face, she looked to the much more serious Yoshi and giggled.
“That’s like making me pilot of a whole damn cruiser just because I knew how to fly a shuttle. Or making me the President of Ur just because I acted like one in theater,” Yoshi replied, his head shaking in the opposite direction.
“You were theater?” Yvonna asked as she skipped in front of him.
“No,” said Yoshi flatly.
“You done yet, drama queen?” a voice asked out of nowhere. “Hurry up and get acquainted with the new B-01. Simulation starts in five.”
“Good to know they at least have us training with the fake stuff first,” Yoshi smiled.
“Who said they were fake?” the voice responded over a radio. “We’re sending you straight into the planet Vorpal; the first ones to get there today.”
“Joy,” Yoshi groaned, his smile quickly dissolved into a frown while Yvonna sympathetically patted his shoulder.
“Look on the bright side; you’re the reason people like the ace get a nice and comfortable touchdown when they reach the planet; where everything is nice and safe, and the enemies are nowhere in sight.”
“So what teams will be going down with us then?”
“No one,” the voice said quickly. “You’ll be going in alone alongside your fellow pilots. Those telepipes don’t lay themselves you know.”
“What?” cried Kerri immediately afterwards on the same channel. “That’s not right. My parents told me that tanks are never deployed without infantry support.”
“Well guess what, missy; your parent didn’t fight alongside any tanks. No one has. So I’d keep the outdated tactics in the past,” the voice sassed.
“Why you…”
“Relax, Kerri,” Yoshi butted in. “Let’s just focus on making this work.”
Soon the human and newmen looked up, their shadows grew as they approached a large metal door. One that opened the moment their footsteps drew near it. Behind the slow large doors, a camp ship rested on a large platform on the other side of a ramp. Ships of two kinds were flown into the backside of the vessel. The first two were James’s and Kerri’s B-02 models. Flown parallel and entered in synchronous harmony. On the side of Kerri’s drop ship, several white marks could be seen, listing the number of kills she’s made in her ship. Following after them, a single B-01, Yoshi’s rested on an elevated platform nearby. Compared to the B-02s, the B-01 looked bulky. Block like. Large solid jet engines protruded from the sides of the vessel. Much larger than the B-02’s, they needed to be large so that the B-01 could lift off the ground and out of any planet’s gravity.
Walking around, towards the angled front of their new ship, the two examined the massive gun attached onto it. Large, mounted on a ball joint base in the front of the vessel; in a way, the cockpit looked as though it was pushed aside for the extra space. Simply because the outside looked just like a B-02 with a connon on the side. Yoshi lifted an eyebrow and crossed his arms. Yvonna didn’t know what to make of it and scratched her head. They both glanced at each other and shrugged. With nothing else to be said, they moved towards the back and opened it up. Inside proved to be similar to a normal B-02; dark gray benches, dark grey walls, faint cyan ceiling lights. Once they entered into the cockpit however, everything became amazingly different. The room had three seats: one for the gunner, the other for the pilot or driver, and the last one for an extra person. A seat Yoshi didn’t know what its original purpose was until he saw a panel that looked similar to the turret he had on in the T-57. Only instead of it being installed in the rear of the ship, this turret was installed in the front, its guns more compacted and folded under a thick metal roofing. Lucky for that person, Yoshi thought to himself, the turret had a rotatable base. Something the main cannon lacked.
“Well, time to get acquainted then,” Yoshi sighed, his body shifting over the pilot’s seat. The turret reminded him of Lilliman. Patching up what felt like an empty hole in his body, Yoshi whispered under his breathe, “Now let’s see here- manual. Where’s the manual?”
Yoshi accessed a few panels, opened a few cabinets, looked under his dashboard; nothing. Only the specs, radar, empty logs and conditions of the ship. He then poked around underneath his chair. Anxiously patting around, something papery could be felt brushing against his hand. Aha, he thought to himself, grabbing it with a so much force, the edge of the book crumpled and collapsed between his gloved fingers. The booklet now raised into the light, he frowned, discovering that it was only a mere repair guide. He tossed it aside and continued his search around the cockpit. So focused was he that a violent jump was made when the engines suddenly roared to life. Yoshi patted his chest in confusion and perplexion. The ship seemed to have started its self. Huh, Yoshi said to himself, looking over his right shoulder, at Yvonna, wondering if she was the one who started it. To his surprise however, Yvonna was too busy reading the gunner’s manual; readjusting the sights with one hand while she held the paper manual with the other.
“Alright,” said Yoshi, his hands on the joystick of the ship. He looked around and pulled up off the shimmering silver floor. In the air, words scrolled across his visor.
“Hello, Bitol,” the scrolling words said to him. “Give me a second while I reconfigure the ship to that of a T-57. This shouldn’t take long. Do note that this vessel will lack the co-pilot function. So remember, no naps.”
“Alright,” Yoshi said again, holding back a nervous chuckle.
“Alright, you’re set to go. Cabin pressure is good, gun is primed and ready for firing, turret firing modes redone for better cooling, engines recalibrated, power transfer reworked and is still flowing throughout the ship normally. You shouldn’t see a jet blow for a good while. Also, think of this as an upgraded T-57 with a large gun strapped onto it. Minus the extra comfy chairs. The vision isn’t as great, but that’s what holo-panels are for. And remember, stay safe~”
Yoshi smiled and pushed the throttle forward, easily moving the ship into the campship's garage and landing the B-01 on its shaded floors as gently as he would the T-57.
“Would you look at that,” said James in utter amazement. “He just got into that thing and is already flying it like a pro. I’m telling you Kerri, I was right in suggesting that he be in one of those things.”
“He just moved the ship a few inches, relax pops,” Kerri replied. After an uttered sigh, Kerri continued, “We’ll that makes everyone then. Let get this over with.”
As though the other pilots agreed, the campship lifted off and headed into space. Fluidly breaking through the blue shielding so smoothly, Yoshi couldn’t feel the campship’s shift upwards into space and its jolts away from the cruisers. The stars moving, the ship now out and about; comfortably sitting within, the pilots started to get organized.
“Yoshi,” James shouted. “How much do you know about flying with a team?”
Yoshi's eyes grew wide in fear. He awkwardly replied, afraid of being mocked, “Can’t say I know much.
“Right, keeping it simple then. Yoshi, you’re with me. From now on, you’ll be known as A2. I’ll be A1. Kerri and the other pilot will be B1 and two respectively. I’ll be letting you know what’s going on, you confirm the changes. Simple enough, right?”
“Right,” Yoshi confirmed.
The camp ship shook.
“Doors are opening, engaging engines, A1 taking lead,” said James, his ship launching out of the large vessel they sat in, oranges glows blurring Yoshi's window.
“Engaging engines,” Yoshi followed, flipping on the engines, the ship powering up just as fast as the B-02 in front of him. In the next few seconds, Yoshi pushed his ship out of the campship, making sure his ship kept some distance away from James.
“A2, follow on my left. Not too close, standard speeds.”
“Following on your left… standard speeds?” Yoshi’s voice trailed off.
Yvonna tapped a panel on her left and whispered, “It’s on the panel right here, I think.”
“Oh,” Yoshi whispered back. “Thanks.” His ship now readjusted, Yoshi looked up and shouted, “A2 cleared and following.
“Right, heading to LZ 1 and am making my decent into the planet’s atmosphere. B1, you’re clear to launch.”
Watching from behind, Yoshi saw James gradually dip his nose downwards, facing Vopal but not directly at first. Though what Yoshi though at first would have took a while to do, he soon found his ship moving through the ocean planet’s thermosphere. Seems the engines were much more powerful than Yoshi had first though. Or standard speeds had increased over the years. Eyes darted onto his gauges, making sure he wasn’t going too fast. A hand waved in the air, opening a window to his right wing. Nothing had changed, save for the burning of their noses, for James still had the lead, a sight that made Yoshi lean back in relief.
James tilted his ship more horizontally now. “Ease up, I’m entering the troposphere. A1 bleeding speeds to setting 2.”
Yoshi took a quick glance at his panels and readjusted accordingly. “Confirmed, A2 switching to setting 2.”
“A1, moving left,” said James, sharply banking to his left, around a colorful oversized water fountain.
“A2, moving left,” mimicked Yoshi. “Shouldn’t we be flying low?”
“Only when the Degans arrive. Make sure to keep an eye out for them; especially for any Breeahdas. If you thought the Degan Aclis were something then, wait till you see the dancing of a nearby Breeahda. Then things really start getting crazy. A1, moving right.”
“Right, moving with your right,” said Yoshi, their ships moving over a field of shell flowers, large bulbous pink plants that give off puffs of poison to any nearby creatures.
“Never heard of Breeahdas being spotted on any of the coasts.”
“They’ll be here. Trust me,” responded James. “We’re approaching our first destination; A1 hugging the ground and bleeding speeds to setting 3.”
“Right, hugging the ground; switching to setting 3.”
“Increase your distance between us, I’m going to drop the pipe, you make sure it lands correctly.”
The two ships moved at a slow pace, casually gliding in the air like kites in the wind. Doing as he was told, Yoshi doubled the distance between him and James. Gaining more space between them, a large clearing could be seen in the distance below him. In the next few seconds, Yoshi watched as a small orange cylinder drop down from underneath James’s gray ship. Yoshi payed close attention to its landing. Once on the floor, the tube popped open and became a usual telepipe; a series of green lines floating upwards, a circle fading every fifth wave. At the sight of a successful drop, Yoshi shouted,
“Telepipe active. Nice work.”
Expecting a cheerful response, only silence answered. Yoshi waited. Still nothing, only static; then the voice from earlier spoke to him.
“A1 and A2, you have new orders. Saber team is pin down by a Ragne and need assistance. A2, you are to enter tank mode and keep those rookies alive.”
“Confirmed,” James replied. “Heading towards the new coordinates; A2 follow my lead.”
“Following,” said Yoshi, his arm punched by a cheering Yvonna.
“Finally, I get to see some action.”
Yoshi grimaced and twisted his head alongside a hiss. “I wouldn’t get too happy, commander. Things could get messy.”
“It’s better than sitting around doing nothing,” pouted Yvonna, her arms knotted in her boredom.
“Ragne spotted, A1. Breaking to scout the area. I’ll let you know when I spot something else. Good luck, Yoshi.”
“Right, A2 engaging tank mode.” Yoshi then glanced over at Yvonna. “Know what to do, I hope?”
“Land the thing, put the break on and let me handle the rest. I’ll let you know when we need to move.”
“Got it,” Yoshi replied. “A2 to saber team, consider this your lucky day. Your divine retribution has arrived. Now sit tight while the storm comes around to zap those bugs.”
The B-01 increased in speed. Four Arks operatives were seen hugging a side of a mineral covered rock. On the other side, a Ragne, it mandibles shooting red disks that chipped away at their cover.
Yoshi shifted with the sweeping motion of his ship. “Think we should land on its head?”
“I think we should take the safer approach, Yoshi”
“Right, the safe approach it is.”
Yoshi flick as a few orange switches, ones labeled for his convenience. The switches changed green in color. A window opened up, displaying the unfolding of the tank’s tracks from its hull. The ground increased in size. Fully unfolded, Yoshi witnessed the bouncing of the sand blowing wheels. With a hand kept on a lever to his right, Yoshi pulled on the break.
“Alright, we’re good to go. Fire when ready.” said Yoshi as he smiled over at Yvonna.
“Almost got it,” Yvonna whispered. Her hand twisted a knob three times before she was satisfied. “Firing,” she shouted.
Yoshi looked outside. A blue bolt launched at high speeds, the ship rocking backwards gently. In a few seconds, Yoshi witnessed the shattering of a Ragne’s leg and shouted, “Leg blown, go smack it up saber team.”
Four figures bolted out from being the rock, their weapons readied, and began their assault. Before long, the Ragne had died shortly after a second attempt. Everyone cheered and moved on. Yoshi and Yvonna fist bumped each other.
“Nice shooting.”
“Thanks.”
“A2, new objective,” a voice shouted. “C squad is having problems clearing their landing zone. Regroup with A1and help them out. Coordinates will be updated on your visor.”
Last edited by yoshiblue; Dec 2, 2014 at 02:18 PM.
- Filler -Spoiler!“Bitol here, use this,” said Tuhina one morning to a half-naked Yoshi, her being walking suddenly out of a portal, one which disappeared as soon as it had formed.
Yoshi, who freaked out, arm’s flailing, sputtered a string of nonsensical words and shouted in retaliation, “Would you please stop doing that?”
Unfortunately for Yoshi, Tuhina didn’t care. Instead she pushed forward, burying an Amun Ra into his chest; an Egyptian themed weapon in the shape of a halberd, with the axe bit made up of three different, yet just as sharp, feather like photon blades. “That’s not important right now,” Tuhina said authoritively. “What is important is that you take this.” Her eyes then sharply shifted upwards. “And would you get rid of the hat?”
“What? Why?” cried Yoshi, his hands now clutching his brown ten gallon hat.
“Because it looks stupid on you in this day and age.”
Yoshi instinctively placed on his hat and replied, “Then why did you buy it for me?”
“I was trying to find something you would like?” cried Tuhina, her hands desperately waving in the air.
Yoshi furrowed his brows. It reminded him of another gift she gave him once. “Like the hover bike that blew up on me?” he asked, his hands moving away from him in imitation of an explosion.
Tuhina frowned and poked at his chest. “Bitol, for the last time, that was not a bomb. That was the nos.”
Arms were thrown up in the air. “Who puts nos on a glorified moped?” Yoshi complained, his arms dropping just as quickly.
“And when was the last time you got me something, huh?”
“How about that one time I gave you a whole paid trip at the spa.”
With a finger still on his chest, Tuhina began to drill into it and replied, “That doesn’t count; I had a coupon for that day.”
“You were talking about it for a whole week. I thought you were hinting that I get you a day at a spa.”
“I was hinting for you to come with me.” Tuhina shook around in what looked like contained inner rage. In reality, she didn’t have much time left. Keeping her eyes on Yoshi, she grabbed the rod, tapped it on Yoshi’s forehead and quickly said, “Look, I would love to talk but I have to go. Just take the thing- it will do you some good, okay? You better stay safe.”
After that, she disappeared. Through a much quicker version of the Darker’s teleporting, seen as nothing more than a suddenly blur emitting a shade of faint red. Yoshi wondered if it was even possible to improve darker techniques. Then again, he makes use of unorthodox Diga techniques. Who would use slabs of earth as body armor or weapons these days, he asked himself. While he continued to stand there, against the wall, a hand on his chin, Yoshi jumped in his skin when a door opened sometime mid-ponder. Yvonna rushed out in a hurried pace. Dressed up, ready for a formal meeting, Yvonna glanced at Yoshi and said in a hurried pace, a finger on the back of her heel,
“Yoshi, going out to take care of something, be back soon.”
Yoshi, a hand still kept on his chin, only smiled and asked in response, “You sure you don’t want me to accompany you?”
“You’re presence would only make the situation more tense, don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”
Yoshi smile melted into a cold gaze. “Okay, are you positive you don’t need me to come with you?” Yoshi asked.
“Don’t worry about me. I have someone else filling in for you. A hybrid newmen diga user, who is rumored to have been Arron’s mentor,” replied Yvonna, her body halfway out the door.
Hearing this, Yoshi dashed after the newmen and asked with concern, “Wait, I thought she died? How is she still alive?”
“I don’t know, ask James. He’s the one who told me about her. All I know is that she works as a priest now. That’s all I know,” shouted Yvonna, her faint words echoing down the hallway. “Bye.”
Left alone against a silver door frame, Yoshi flopped back into his room like a well-oiled hinge of a door. The words taking care of something and still alive bounced around in his mind. Still alive… the words reminded him of his mentor; who had trained him and then Arron in the past. Yoshi remembered the day she had to leave after joining Arks. Sometimes Yoshi felt she was the reason he thought of joining in the first place. Other times he felt it was Tuhina’s brother who compelled him to join; the person who gave him his first gunslash. While the reason of why he joined tugged, it wasn’t tugging at him hard enough. The words ‘taking care of something’ did. They made him feel like he was forgetting something deep inside. Then it hit him. Yoshi rushed for the wall. He started to make a call, a call that was quickly picked up. After what seemed like a muffled hello, Yoshi said in a pleasant voice,
“How’s it going? I’ve been meaning to ask you, are you still tight on cash?”
Marean’s voice replied, some words were filled with anger, the rest with an inside voice.
“Heh, have you ever thought about becoming a pilot? Ok, hold on, hear me out first. Tanks, big guns, all of us together in arms reach; stable income…”
Marean screamed at him again.
As she did, Yoshi whiped out a holopanel with someone identification on it and replied, “Don’t worry about it, I got it covered. You would just need to dye your hair black.”
Marean replied quietly this time. Yoshi leaned against the wall and wore a victorious smug.
“Listen, it’s going to be awesome. Blasting away bad guys, all terrain transportation, unbreakable armor; what’s the worst that could happen? ”
_______An explosion went off. Fire flared over an angular window. A large shadow passed over. Chaos reined everywhere, yet through it all; everyone inside a small room did their best and remained composed. Focused.
“Back, back, back, back,” shouted Yoshi, his eyes glued on a viewport.
“Shit, damn it, shit,” synchronously yelled Marean, who looked backwards for some odd reason.
Yvonna yelled, at the same time as a finger pull on a trigger, “Firing,” setting off a loud bang. The words recharging appeared on her protruding hud. The B-01 rocked backwards for a moment and continued moving.
“Successful hit, first Wolgahda missed us,” confirmed Arethusa, who sat on the ship’s turret, spinning leftwards. Her head engulfed by the smooth metal roof she stood in. “Second Wolgahda is making another leap,” she informed the crew, her body spinning rightwards.
“Forward, Marisa, forward. Make sure you don’t drive into the water,” Yoshi yelled.
A hand swatted Yoshi’s arm in response. “I know what to do, Yoshi,” attacked Marean. “You want to drive this thing instead?”
“I could drive, but I figured this would be more fun for you.”
“More fun? More fun!? You’re crazy if you think the thought of being crushed by two sumo dudes is considered fun.”
The background came to a stop. A flash was seen. The tank rocked again.
“Could be worse,” said Yoshi as the background rotated through his viewport.
“Don’t you jinx us, Yoshi. I’d rather it not get any worse.”
“Relax, we’ll be fine,” Yoshi replied, patting Marean’s shoulder and giving it a rub.
“We’ll be fine,” mocked Marean. “My ass we will.”
“You could run them over you know,” Yoshi whispered in her ear. “Just think of the crunching darker noises.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” replied Marean, who smirked over the satisfying sounds of crushed incest carapace and the shrill cries of her enemies. “That just sounds gross.”
“It is gross,” Yvonna butted in, her hands placed over her ears.
Taking on the guise of her grandmother, Marean roams under the name of Marisa Kinja, a disguise Marean doesn’t even now her grandmother used. While similar in appearance, the only difference between her usual look and her new undercover look is that she now has black hair. A contrast to Arethusa’s now blue hair as Yoshiblue’s daughter now goes by the name of Inanna, the partner machine of Marisa. Though the difference has been small, no one has batted an eyelash for any form of recognition. Everyone wore black themed clothing. Taking the role that had once been Yoshi’s, Marean drives the tank while Yoshi now acts as the mechanic and radio man; taking care of outside communication so that his team could focus on their roles. Without a chair to call his own, Yoshi stands by his daughter, Arethusa, as she mans the turret -the third seat in-between and behind the first two seats- while Yvonna retains her role as the gunner, controller of the main cannon.
“Yoshi, what’s the status of your situation?” asked Aiko over the crew’s communication channel.
“Dandy, we’ll have this area cleared for the survey in no time,” Yoshi replied in a reassuring manner, his back against the other side of the cockpit’s walls.
“Good, we need you back as soon as possible.”
“Awesome,” Yoshi replied, taking steps back into the cockpit, Yoshi then said, “You heard the lady, lets wrap this up and go home.”
The B-01 one moved forward. While it did the Wolgahda made its leap, its chest blown away by the cannon mid jump. Alternating the tracks, the B-01 swiftly spun around, keeping up with the second Wolgahda. Before Yvonna fired, Yoshi took a panel off the wall and began to mess with the vessel’s inner workings.
“Firing,” shouted Yvonna.
The ship rocked. Yoshi work his magic, shouting afterwards, “Ready”
“That was fast,” exclaimed Yvonna before she fired another shot in awe. Since she didn’t say she was firing the gun again, Yoshi feel onto his back, thanking himself in his mind for choosing to wear his helmet. The process repeated four more times until the Wolgahda died. Its giant body vaporized, vanishing into black and red smoke. Sticking around to ensure nothing else remained; Yoshi and Marean switch positions, so that Yoshi could fly them back home. Meanwhile, Arethusa lowered herself from up above, after which the turret transformed into a normal seat once it had touched warm metal floor.
“So what the heck did you do to make the gun fire faster?” Yvonna asked, her hands rapidly poking at a floating screen.
“It came to me in a dream really. I just got rid of the rear and side shielding so that all the excess energy would rush back to the gun. You know, whenever it recharges. The pros being that gun fires every two seconds instead of every thirty, while the cons are that if we get hit, it’s going to hurt. Maybe by a lot,” Yoshi replied, his head pressed against his headrest, hoping to remove the thought of how the B-01 would have look had it been handled by the Wolgahdas.
“It’s going to be fun, he says. It’s going to be awesome, he says. We almost died, Yoshi. And you have the gull to increase that possibility?” complained Marean as she violently shook Yoshi’s head.
“Relax, we had it in the bag.”
“You didn’t even warn me,” she screamed.
“You didn’t complain when I was fixing your ship mid run.”
“We weren’t running for our lives.”
“Yes we were, the ‘generator’ broke down and I managed to fix it.”
“Okay, Mr. Fix It, how did that save our lives?”
“Would you two stop?” Yvonna scowled.
Yoshi opened up a small panel and flung it up in the air.
“Take a look at that. That’s our pay and the benefits don’t stop there.”
Marean caught the panel with disbelief written on her face. Arethusa scrunched alongside Marean so that she could stare at the small panel as well. When both eyes look upon the data, a strange restrained chuckled broke out. It then evolved into a full blown laugh. Arethusa looked at Marean in confusion, unsure of why she was laughing like she was.
“I don’t get it. What am I looking at,” Arethusa asked.
“You’re looking at three times the amount of money you make with just working with Klotho in one day,” Yoshi answered.
“That’s good right?” Arethusa asked.
“Yep,” Yoshi replied. “And because we had such a successful mission, dinner will be on me.”
- Filler -Spoiler!“Unhand me, monster!” a squirming newmen yelled at the top of his lungs. His body lifted into the air by a hand around his neck. Despite for freedom, he instinctively tried to remove the oversize hand with both of his own. Much to his dismay, it was then that he realized how helpless he really was to the figure holding him. After an uttered sigh, the figure tightened its grip.
“Let us not waste any of our precious time here. I have a deal to strike with your team, oh leader of Arks largest inquisition team,” the humanoid figured calmly said. Its words, while distorted in sound, were clearly heard by the people around him.
“I have no time for words with the likes of you, Darker” the newmen rebelled. He twisted his head to the side and barked, “Marcie.”
The sounds of cracking knuckles rippled in the air. A female newmen of purple hair moved out of a line of three, a hand wrapped around a balled other. Stepping forward with a heavy foot, the newmen glared at the humanoid and said in a gruff tone,
“I’d put him down if I were you.”
Amused by her unimpressive threat, the humanoid uttered a light chuckle, flicked his head and replied, “Tuhina?”
Summoned from the darkness, a tan skinned human woman stepped out into the moon light. Her eyes glowed with the same intensity of the bloody moon above. A gust of wind blew against her new gray coat. Black vines with red tips sprouted out of the ground and surrounded her. Impatient for what she felt were unneeded introductions, the newmen leaped for the humanoid. Tuhina knocked her aside with a vine; its movements followed and matched the human’s matted arms. Following up with a dash, Tuhina engaged the three newmens while the humanoid continued his conversation with their leader.
“As I was saying,” the humanoid said, a hint of irritation in his voice, “I need you to call off your hunt on one particular person. I care not for the rest of his kind.”
The newmen laughed bravely and spat, “What’s so special about this person?”
“Nothing worth noting, I assure you,” the humanoid replied. “I only need your people to keep a man named Yoshiblue alive. Do I make myself clear?” asked the humanoid, his grip tightening around the man’s neck.
“Ha, good joke. Why not just kill me now and save yourself the trouble?”
“Oh sure, I can kill you now. But what would be the point in that?” replied the humanoid. “I’m sure you’ll mention something about a replacement yadda yadda yadda, but would he or she command the same amount of respect as you do? Have you thought about the amount of people that would be lead to their deaths because of your actions? And who said I was going to kill you?”
The newmen laugh nervously, but retained his confident smile.
“I’d rather keep you alive. So let me ask you something. Do you think you can watch helplessly as I corrupt your mother right in front of you? Consume your father? Your child? All I ask if that your spare one person. That’s all. Do yourself a kind favor and not have to make me focus my assaults on any particular ships.”
The newmen looked down. His limbs sagged. His legs dangled in defeat.
“Agreed,” the newmen finally said.
Upon the newmens words, the humanoid released his chokehold on the person and stepped back. It then looked up and said, in a commanding tone,
“Tuhina. We’re leaving.”
Doing as commanded, Tuhina dropped what she was doing and casually strolled toward the humanoid’s side, leaving two newmens to reel by themselves in pain, one in far too much in pain to even get back up. Upon reaching the figure’s side, it turned around and led the two in the opposite direction, a portal opening as they walked.
“So weak in willpower, those newmens,” said the humanoid in a pleasant manner. “What have you learned in your fight?” the humanoid now asked with seriousness, keeping a stiff neck forward in a dark corridor.
“The purple hair newmen are a force to be reckoned with without their weapons. They hold an incredible amount of inner strength and can smash boulders with their bare hands if needed. Orange hair newmens seem to be able to prevent the usage of technique in a limited area. I killed the white haired one early in the battle and could not gather any information on him,” replied Tuhina.
“Ah yes the ‘though unique and strong in power, they are still forces in the end’ revelation. An effective one two punch, I might add. Interesting specimens, are they created on the same ship?”
“Yes.”
“And it’s location?”
“To be discovered,” Tuhina lied.
“Splendid.”
Still in the process of fully checking this out, but I have to say I have never before seen a project that integrates music with key moments in the reading. That is a really, really cool idea. I think a big part of what makes film and video gaming so powerful is music, and its effect on mood and atmosphere. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.
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