Halcyon (Chapter 13): Back Then and Here Now

[Xaeris]

Welcome, one and all, to a new thread. On the very off chance that you’re new, this thread will contain many, many chapters of one arc of a whole series. I would definitely start here (http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=139275) at the very latest, if not further back.

To the rest of you, I’ve made a small change regarding the title. I suck at titles. I don’t know why I bother, but I do. Anyway. I’d still like to call the overarching story “Renaissance,” but that was a stupid name for the leg of the story I gave it to. I will come up with something else at a later date.

Chapter 1: The Most Interesting Beast in Gurhal

“That lousy jerk.”
Given how many times this probably gets said in any given day, it’s really not that unreasonable for that to be the line we enter on. It has been one week since all that dreadful business in Dezolis occurred, and from the looks of it, we’ve returned to conventional civilization. The woman who referred to an unnamed lousy jerk seats herself atop a white cardboard box in the middle of a wide open room with similar boxes strewn about.
”I’m helping him move in, and he just takes off ‘cause ‘he had a prior engagement.” The air quotes are made by a pair of slender fingers topped by a pair of long, lovingly painted red fingernails. Their owner is a tall woman, maybe just a couple inches under six feet, who has invested similar efforts in the rest of her appearance. The curls of her black hair gleam with a lustrous sheen, and her heart shaped face has had a light amount of makeup artfully applied to it. So really, it’s odd that she’s doing physical labor.
”Tch, see if I ever offer to do anything nice for him ever again,” she says. After that short breather, she stands up off the box, turns around and pulls open the top. The black lycra taut over her legs stretches a bit as she bends over to dig her hands around in the box. Looking around the room, it appears to be a spacious loft. Two of the walls, the ones opposite the door in the corner, are made of glass, giving a lovely view of the city down below and the cars whizzing about at eye level.
”Geez, he has no furniture at all. Is he going to sleep in a bag on the floor?” she asks as she hefts some electrical devices out of the box. The other boxes contain similar devices and tools, all of which the human woman takes out and sets them up as best she can without any desks or tables to put them on. It’s a half hour job by the end of which she is mildly sweating and seated by one of the larger empty boxes.
”Least he had the sense to bring a TV. And it’s not like I’m on the clock, so…break time!” A small, holographic wheel appears by her hand, and she taps the middle to turn on the TV in front of her. “Let’s see, Hal’s new talk show is debuting now…” So, she punches in 5 and the screen changes to said channel immediately.
”Shoot, looks like I missed the comedy segment already…”
****
”Hurry, hurry!” Elsewhere, up on the Guardian’s Colony, two newmen women are racing from the spaceport and down the main stairway in Clyez City. The one yelling for expediency is the shorter one. A rude douchebag would say that she has the body of a twelve year old boy. A kinder person would say she has a charmingly petite build. “I’m glad they gave you a room, Al-tama!” she says as they run, “we’d never make it back to Neudaiz in time!”
Coming down to the first floor of Clyez, they bound over from the foot of the walkway and over to the cluster of Guardians’ barracks where the bigger woman fumbles with the keypad. “We’re already a little late, ya know!”
”That’s okay, we can still catch most of it!” the smaller girl says as the door opens. A short burst down the hallway and Alice is fumbling with another keypad. That door opens as well and lets the girls into a standard Guardian’s apartment, with not the slightest decoration set up.
”TV’s near the bed, Keiko” Alice says, leading the very short way across the room. “Imma get into something clean. That dimmagolus got a load of sand in my clothes.”
”Kay,” Keiko says as she digs her thumb into her brown hiking boots to take them off and leave them beside the door. Remembering whatever experience she’s had in the past few hours, Keiko tosses her short, pale blue hair to shake a negligible amount of sand loose before she brings up a control dial for the TV. “Boo, commercials. Well, it’s okay if we only missed the first segment I guess…”
Keiko swings her legs, much of which are bare since all she has for bottoms is an olive green fuji fiji skirt, onto the bed and lies down. “You like it in the barracks so far, Al-tama?” she yells for her voice to carry into the closet at the foot of the bed.
”It’s pretty small, but I’m not here that much, so it’s okay,” Alice yells back.
”That’s good. I’m happy they were able to get you set up so fast, even if you had recommendations from two aegii,” Keiko says, lowering her voice a bit.
Keiko sits up, as an extended black screen tips her off to the fact that commercials are over. “Hurry, it’s starting! Hal’s finally bringing out her mystery guest!”
Alice runs out from her closet half dressed. Well, she’s in decent company, so it’d be of no consequence even the naughty bits weren’t covered. All she’s managed to put on in the short amount of time she’s been in the closet is a fresh pair of sweatpants, leaving her upper body clad in nothing but a sports bra. Looking at her, Alice is very out of place among newman kind, the most obvious anomalous attribute being that she’s well over five feet tall. Almost as oddly though, a lifetime of farm work has sculpted an athletic figure out of a broad frame.
“Scoot,” she says while walking over to the bed. Keiko rolls over to the side, leaving Alice some room to sit on. As she sets herself down, she bracers herself by putting her arms behind her and leaning back, causing her arms to bring to display the fruits of all that hard labor.
*****
In a television station on Parum, on a set deluged in white, a purple haired woman in a white mini skirt and tank top sits at a desk, while waving to a camera. The set is like any talk show’s, with a place for the host, the desk, a plush leather chair for the guest and additional chairs that no one ever sits in and are purely just there for atmosphere.
”Welcome back to my premiere!” she says with a painfully vapid giggle, “I’m your host, Hal! Now, I know there’s been a lot of buzz over who my very first guest would be,” she says, putting her head forward and resting her chin on her hands, “I hear Voloyal’s even taking bets! So, I’m really happy that I can finally introduce him!”
Hal stands up and looks to her right, presumably where the entry onto the set is. It’s hard to tell, seeing as the entire thing is so slathered in white, it’s hard to distinguish edges. “My first guest ever has been known to make hearts flutter with just his smile! When he bets his life, danger folds! Please welcome, the slayer of hearts, the Guardians’ Fourth Aegis, Johann Launcher!”
To the sound of thundering applause, prompted in great part by the lit ‘Applause’ sign, and a short musical number, a beast of rich chocolate skin walks onto the set with his hands in the pockets of his flowing black coat. It’s a beautifully tailored piece of work; it sits on the beast’s athletic frame with nary a crease or a fold in its form. Even after he and Hal exchange kisses on the cheek and he sits down, the coat looks like a solid sheet of black over his body.
”Welcome! I am so happy to have you!” Hal says as the noise dies down and she takes a seat as well.
”I’m glad to do you the honor,” Johann says as he reclines in the chair. He’s grown some hair since Dezolis, no doubt thanks to Lumilass…or perhaps his father. Either way, he’s now sporting a head full of dreadlocks, with a thin, narrow pair of ears that scrape the sides like horns. With a smirk, he asks, “slayer of hearts? Isn’t that a little unfair?”
*****
”That ass!” the woman back in the loft screams, standing up when she sees Johann on the TV. “He guest stars on Hal’s talk show and doesn’t even get me a ticket?! Oh, he is so freaking dead when he comes back.”
*****
In Alice’s room, Keiko and Alice are hopping up and down on the bed with their hands clung together. “Wow, this is so cool! Jo-sei’s on TV!” Keiko says.
*****
”Oh ho ho, is it really unfair? You do have quite a reputation you know,” Hal says, with the support of a laughing audience. “What would you call it?”
”Ha, well, all right, the thing that should be understood about me,” Johann says while adjusting the white cravat on his collar, “I’ve had the pleasure of sharing these twenty six years with fascinating, intelligent, and powerful women.” The audience giggles and Johann chuckles along with them, but waves his hand, “no, no, let me finish! I have to admit, I’ve come to rather enjoy the company of our fairer sex.”
*****
”Tch, bullcap,” the lady in the loft says as she digs a spoon into a cup of yogurt. “They’ll eat that right up, too.”
*****
”Aww, good recovery!” Hal says. “So, how are you liking Rozenom?”
”Well, I’ve barely been here two days, so it’s hard to say right now. Though I do love the loft I’ll be living in.” Johann sits forward in his seat, towards Hal, and with his hands gestured in the air, says, “I think the thing I’ll like most about Rozenom is the contemporary vibe I receive from the city. You can’t look out a window in the city and not feel that you’re surrounded by a fast paced environment of progress.”
”And you’ll be adding to that environment, won’t you? At your new job I mean. Why don’t you tell us about that?”
”Johann sits back and says, “I’ve acquired a research position at Landale University in their Casthetics department.” Stopping to briefly face the camera and audience, he adds, “that’s medicine for casts.”
”Hee, going to have to teach a class or two?” Hal asks with a grin.
”Light, I hope not,” Johann replies with a slight groan.
”But, that brings us to the subject of why you came to visit!” Hal says with an outstretched hand, “you’ve adopted a charity, haven’t you?”
”Ah yes, I was recently approached to be a spokesperson for ‘Reboot.’ It’s a charity devoted to the awareness and cure development of Instant Crash Syndrome.” He stops for a moment and lets his gaze wander to the ceiling for a moment as he gathers his next few words and then goes on, “naturally, I was quite excited for the opportunity, having a caseal for a mother.”
*****
”Him? Excited?” Keiko says, now seated again. “I just can’t see it, but he’s definitely happy about it.
*****
”What people often misunderstand about ICS is that it’s not something that’s a necessary result of time, that is, there’s no reason a cast has to suffer from ICS, even if their ‘wiring’ is old. It is a pathology, like any other, with a specific etiology to be discovered and treated.”
”And you’d definitely say that this hits home for you, yeah?” Hal asks. Pausing, she then adds, “please don’t take this the wrong way-“
”Then I suggest you don’t say it the wrong way,” Johann says with a chuckle.
”Ha ha...did you ever find it strange growing up, adopted by a cast?”
Johann blinks once, and then a second time, holding the second blink a little longer before opening his eyes and smiling serenely.
*****
”Oh, oh, did you see that? That’s Jo-sei’s ‘I want to smack you’ look!” Keiko says, pointing at the screen when Johann does the second blink.
*****
”Well, with no frame of reference, I certainly wouldn’t have had the opportunity to find it odd,” Johann says. “But regardless of that, my mummy is as much a mother to me as any ‘normal’ mother is to her child. You see, a mother isn’t merely the woman that gives you life…a mother is the woman who gives you a life.
And for an instant, the entire Gurhal system was drowned in a simultaneous, “aww….”
”Well, at any rate, it’s a fantastic cause, and I’m happy to assist them,” he says, helping himself to some of the water on the table.
”You must feel just as strongly towards people who think ICS is fine the way it is then?”
Johann sets down his water bottle, and for the first time that night, adopts a serious facial expression by narrowing his eyes and flaring his nostrils. “People like the Illuminus? Hmph, if we’re using the term ‘people’ in the loosest sense possible, then I suppose I do. A message to any Illuminus members and their sympathizers who are watching. Newmen, beasts and casts may not be able to boast having been created by a divine hand, but we will not apologize for our existence. If you would dispute our right to live in Gurhal, then I say to you…we will pursue you.”
He leans forward in his chair to fixate his eye contact with the camera and continues, “we will find you. And we will defeat you. This is not merely a desire or a fervent hope of mine. This is insoluble, foregone fact.”
After a moment of stunned silence, the studio fills with rocking applause that’s just a few decibels shy of sending ripples through the floor. During it, Johann takes another swig of the water bottle on the table. After the whole minute it takes for the cheering to subside, Hal poses a question to Johann. “We?” she asks with a knowing smile.
”Hmm, yes. I’ve rejoined the Guardians in a formal capacity.” And again, the cheering moves the floor. “If any prospective Guardians in the audience is thinking about using the fortetecher template, then please, for the love of bloody Light…learn something besides Dambarta. I’m getting sick of hearing Zoe’s and Duece’s bitching.”
”Hee hee, just one more thing before we break for commercial, Johann!”
”Hmm, yes?”
Hal gestures her hand to a screen behind Johann, which the camera focuses on. What appears on the screen is a picture of himself walking on what appears to be the streets of Ohtoku with Alice, Keiko and the lady in the loft, much to his surprise. “And just who are these ladies you’ve been seen with recently?” Hal asks.
Johann chuckles, quite nervously at that, and turns his eyes away from the picture in which they all look quite happy. “W-wait, let’s not suggest anything indecent on my part…”
”You already said you enjoy women’s company! Could it be…that you enjoy it a little too much?”
”Okay, let’s examine this picture carefully,” Johann says, springing up in his seat to turn himself back at the picture.
”Let’s!”
”Obviously, the small newman there is Keiko Seisha of the Sixth Cycle. It’s perfectly natural for her to be in my presence as I am her Guard.”
*****
”It’s natural for me to be in his presence?! You jerk, you’re my Guard, you’re my property, I own you!” Keiko yells, flailing her fists at the TV.
*****
”The other newman is Alice Archelle, a woman I met while vacationing on Moatoob.” He pauses to let out a bemused chuckle and continues, “she’s was of irreplaceable assistance to me during my time there, and as such, I felt it necessary to return the favor as she was touring Neudaiz.”
*****
”Hee hee, my life sure has gotten more exciting since I met Hahn,” Alice says, “Hahn’s such a nice guy.” Beside her, Keiko raises an eyebrow as if to say, ‘where the heck have you been the last eighty chapters?’
*****
”Okay, okay,” Hal giggles, “so who’s the human?”
”…I…that…she’s…just some girl I know,” he says, doing his best to hide his face from the camera. “You know what? I think it’s time to go.” With that, Johann puts his hand on the nanotransformer on his left wrist and pulls from it, like a magician pulling a sword from his throat, a wand with a crescent shaped head. “Fkee!” The wand bursts and a shimmering tube of light opens up in front of Johann. He jumps into the Ryuker and ‘fkees’ successfully.
”Hee hee…well, thank you for tuning in everyone! Tomorrow’s guest is the man whose sparkles double as stellar constellations, Kenjutsu Hokori! I hope to see you!”
*****
A little later, in the green room behind the set, Johann is leaning against a wall with a cigarette in his mouth. He’s loosened his cravat somewhat and is cooling down when Hal comes to the back and sees him there.
”Ah, Dr. Launcher, thank you so much again!” she says, running up to him.
”Sure,” he replies, barely attempting to make eye contact as he does so.
She tilts her head at him as he continues to smoke, and with a light sigh, says, “you’d make a great actor.” Seeing his green eyes slide over to her, she goes on, “you’re funny and witty when you have to be, but there’s something eating at you right now, isn’t there?”
”I killed someone a week ago,” Johann says bluntly, “I wasn’t happy about it.” Technically, he wasn’t the one who killed her, but eh, who’s keeping track?
”Oh, I’m sorry…”
”Well…that’s not the entire reason. At any rate, it will pass. I wish you good luck with your show Hal,” he says.
”Thanks so much!”
”You have such a talent for fostering a loquaciousness in people. If you don’t mind, I’d love to drink in it some more,” he says, slipping an arm around the back of her waist and placing his chin right next to her forehead. “We should go out for some air.”
”S-sure,” Hal says with a stupefied blush.
~~~~~~
Annnnnd we’re back. If Johann had theme music, it would be the background music in Dos Equis commercials.

[McLaughlin]

No stabby, but it was interesting nonetheless. Good stuff.

[Libram]

I thought I already posted in here.

Tag this mofo so I can see it better next time I pop in Fanworks.

[Magus_84]

So, what "design increase" does Hahn get if he manages Hal x Gwen x Alice?

And this is probably one of the smoothest "meet the cast" recaps I've yet seen. Good job. I look forward to the next update, as always.

Also, Hahn would hate my Newman. Dambarta's my first 31+ tech. >_>

[Xaeris]

If he manages that, he gets the video camera accessory from Hal, which quadruples all meseta drops. Very handy for farming material money, seeing as shops sell him exanite and paural.

I was thinking of how I could to a reintroduction episode and the idea of a talk show specifically appealed to me since it'd give Johann a credible excuse to exposit about him. Glad to see it went just as planned.

[Xaeris]

Chapter 2: Angst Repellant

The next morning, which is always such a great starting point for a chapter, Johann stirs into the world of the waking from underneath a sheet. Even though all he had to sleep on in his loft was a mattress plopped right down on the floor, he rises with a hearty yawn. Seated on the mattress, in nothing but a pair of boxers, he takes a minute to look around the room. He sees a space, though modestly sized, that is completely his own. It is filled with his possessions, and ensorcelled with his essence. He takes a deep breath in the splendor of what is his inviolable space-
”Oh, you’re up. What kind of fruit do you like in your pancakes?” Well, it was cool while it lasted. Johann whips his head over to the far end of the room where the cooking implements are set up and sees a certain raven haired human woman whipping a bowl of batter. Like Johann, she’s also in sleepwear, with a large tank top covering up whatever’s she’s got on down below.
”…Bacon,” Johann says before he gets out of bed. He keeps both eyes on her even as he extricates himself from his covers and walks over. Those eyes stay on her even though they’d be better used in stepping over the devices and machinery laid out on the floor. He walks up to her, and since her back is turned, he stands there and watches her stir the pancake batter. “Gwendolyn.”
The woman turns her head over her shoulder and smiles down at Johann, who smiles back with a twitching eye. After a whole minute of silence, the beast throws up his hands and shakes his head. “All right, I’ll ask,” he says, “what the bloody hell are you doing here? Actually, scratch that, tell me how you even got in, first.”
”Silly, did you forget already? I’m a rogue. I picked the lock,” she says.
”You picked the lock,” Johann says, now struggling to keep both of his eyes from twitching. “I’m sure in your twisted little fantasy world, that sounds sweet and romantic, but here in reality, that’s messed up.” At that, Gwendolyn merely cups a hand underneath Johann’s chin and pushes up his cheeks, prompting an annoyed grunt from the beast. Chuckling, she lets go and gets back to work on breakfast. “Ugh. And why are you here?”
”You start work tomorrow, right?” she asks. Johann nods, as his tongue is occupied pulling a morning cigarette into place. “And look at this place, you have absolutely no furniture. And I know you’ll never go out and get any if it’s left up to you, so with your day off, we are getting some stuff to make this place livable!”
”I decline,” he says as he turns away.
”Hey, c’mon!” Gwen says, bounding in front of him. “We’re not going to be marching all over the world anymore, together all the time, so I just want to spend the day together before you go back to work,” she says with a pout.
”Tch…” Johann digs a hand into his dreadlocks and grimaces before saying, “a stalker breaks into my home, and now I’m going to go shopping with her. Only in this damn life of mine.”
”Hee, great! You can go brush your teeth or something; won’t be ready for a while longer,” she says. Johann lets his eyes linger a little longer, though likely more out of lechery than wariness now. After he’s done, he turns to walk away, but Gwen calls to him once more. “Oh, hey, Johann?”
”Yes?”
”I’ve always wondered; does the carpet match the curtains?” she asks with a knowing smirk.
Johann sneers, and keeps on walking.

*****

Up on Clyez, a blue haired newman girl is hopping over the turnstiles that exit from Neudaiz at the spaceport. The piece of buttered toast hanging from her mouth highlights the frantic look in her eyes quite well as she races across the floor. It’s odd that she’s chosen to carry her food with her teeth, seeing as she has nothing in her hands, but eh, whatever. As she dashes through, many Guardians offer a passing wave as she speeds by.
On the fifth floor, she jumps through the elevator doors the moment they open up a crack and shoves what’s left of her breakfast into her mouth. She lets out a short huff and walks further out onto the floor. “Yes, right on time!” she says, holding her palms up into the air.
”Well, of course you’re not late. You have Sundays off.” Hearing that, Keiko winces and holds up her hands in front of her face, almost ready to weep. But, she chooses to settle for a sigh and turns her eyes upwards towards the woman who’s coming to greet her.
”Oh, you got the same skirt! I guess I’m still hip with the young crowd,” the woman says, waving her hand over her fuji fiji skirt. Keiko stares, noting how much better the woman’s skirt sits on her wide hips and how taut the garter is around her thigh. Keiko drops her head and sighs.
”Hi Stacy,” Keiko says, sounding somewhat ragged.
”Hey, cheer up. It’s actually a good thing you came,” Stacy says while pushing up her glasses on the bridge of her nose. “You can help me with something.”
”Huh? Oh, sure, okay. What do you want me to do?” Keiko asks.
Stacy whips around on her heel, whipping a mass of red hair into Keiko’s face. As the newman is scrambling to push it away, Stacy calls, “Lumia! Come here!” Keiko is just getting the last few strands out of her face when a short redheaded girl jogs up to them from the back of the room.
”Yes, Aegis Caroll?”
Stacy bends over slightly as Lumia approaches her side and places a hand on her back. “This is Aegis Seisha,” Stacy says, nodding in Keiko’s direction, “she is going to do me a favor and take you to a battlefield.”
”R-really?” Lumia asks, “you think I’m ready?”
”What? No, of course not,” Stacy says, “I just want you to get to know the feeling of adrenaline pumping before you start Guardians’ training.”
”I guess I don’t mind, but why can’t you do it?” Keiko asks.
Stacy covers up her mouth with the back of her hand to suppress a bit of laughter before saying, “I’m busy with something else right now. You don’t need to do anything extravagant. Helping out a bit with the purification in the Linear Line should work fine.” Nudging Lumia over towards Keiko, Stacy steps back and bows over at the two with a finger on her chin. “You two remind me so much of myself when I was your ages. Greedily pursuing the strength to make an impact on the world in the midst of blossoming into a woman. Oh, the turmoil, the angst…”
Keiko tugs on Lumia’s wrist and nudges her head for the elevator. “Let’s go, she’ll go on like that for hours if we let her.”

*****

Early afternoon in Rozenom, Johann and Gwendolyn are lying on a bed. With all their clothes on. In the middle of a store. Context; killing sauciness one detail at a time. It’s a queen sized mattress, so there’s some breathing room to be had between the two of them while they stare up through the skylight in the store.
”I have a mattress already, you know,” Johann says.
”Yeah, a twin size. Cut the cord. Besides, where the heck would I sleep when I stay over?” Gwen says. She rolls over to prop herself up on her elbow and turn herself at Johann. “I like this one.”
”Fine,” Johann says.
”Ugh, what is up with you? I’ve been trying to get under your skin all day, but you’re acting all gloomy!” Gwen jumps when Johann shows her a tired and beaten expression. “You’re still sad about Feng Jie, aren’t you?” Getting no response from Johann but a muted murmur, she presses further and asks, “did you love her?”
”No,” he says, “that’s actually the problem.” Having finally managed to pull a word out of him, Gwen sets herself back onto the bed and stares up at the skylight along with Johann, who continues. “Before she died, she told me that she’d have lived her life over and over again just to relive our few months together.” He shuts his eyes, as saying the words brings him back to the moment they were said by Feng Jie. After a sigh, he says, “and I couldn’t return a fraction of the sentiment. It borders on psychopathic.”
”You were overwhelmed,” Gwen offers.
Johann shakes his head and says, “no, she told me she loved me and I felt nothing. Why would anyone love me, of all people? I just don’t bloody understand.”
”Hee hee…”
”And what the hell are you laughing at?” Johann asks, pushing himself up to see Gwendolyn chuckling.
”Sorry, sorry, I don’t mean to laugh. It’s just that…you’re a nicer person than I thought.” She props herself back up and to Johann’s snarling face, says, “Johann, if you were really a psychopath, you wouldn’t think there was anything wrong at all with the way you feel. Or don’t feel.”
”But-“
”No buts. I promise, you’re not an unlovable little troll just because you can’t make yourself feel a certain way.”
For a while longer, they lie there without exchanging another word. Eventually, Johann sits up and swings his legs over the side of the bed. Just before he pushes off, he quietly says, “thank you.”
”Hmm? I didn’t hear you,” Gwen says with a smirk.
”You are absolutely insufferable,” Johann says. “Come, let’s pay for this bed set and leave. Where are we going after this?”
”Ho ho ho, ‘we’? I’m wearing you down, Dr. Launcher!”
”Feh…”

*****

Back in Clyez, Keiko and Lumia are outside the ramp that slopes gently into the Linear Line station. Keiko steps forward casually, but for every five steps she takes, Lumia takes one hesitantly. Eventually, Keiko turns around and notices that Lumia has barely moved.
”Are you scared?” Keiko asks, jogging back to her.
”No, I’m not, I’m just-“
”Then let’s go!” Keiko says, moving around behind her and pushing her into the unsafe passage. It’s very clear when they’ve left the safety of the city’s barriers in that the light dims due to the broken fixtures and the debris along the floor begins to accumulate as they walk further down.
”Don’t worry, the SEEDs here are pretty weak,” Keiko says. And to support that statement, some pannons emerge from piles of rubble strewn about the chamber they’re in. Watching them waddle about the room for a few moments, Keiko puts a palm at the side of her head and says, “I’m…not sure what Stacy expects me to do.”
”Uhm, well, Aegis Caroll got me into Guardians’ basic training, but I don’t start until Tuesday. I…guess she just wanted me to see some SEEDs first?”
”Oh. …You see them, right?”
”Yeah?”
”Great.” Keiko pulls out one pistol from her nano and aims it into the room. With a flat expression on her face, she fires Rising Prism and traces a path along the floor with it, more or less following the pannons. The floor glows white for a moment before erupting in a violent fountain of scathing white light which melts the pannons into goop.
”W-wow!” Lumia exclaims as she walks further into the room to get a closer look at the enemies’ remains. “That was amazing! I should have been watching more closely…”
”N-no, that wasn’t really anything special,” Keiko says while furiously waving a hand in front of her face, “at least not compared to the others…”
”But the others aren’t only two years older than me! I feel like I’m so far behind…”
”Don’t think of it like that!” Keiko says, perhaps a bit louder than she really intended, “the only person you should compare yourself to is the you of yesterday!”
”Uh…wow,” Lumia says, taken aback by that passionate outburst, “I guess you really mean that, huh Aegis Seisha?”
Keiko lets out a sigh that causes her to bow over as she puts her palms over her bust. She mutters, “it’s all that keeps me going sometimes…” After a moment of awkward silence, Keiko shakes her head and says, “ah, anyway, you don’t need to call me Aegis Seisha. Stacy and Jo-sei…erm, Aegis Launcher, are really the only ones who care about that. Just call me Keiko.”
”Keiko, got it,” Lumia says with a nod.
”I don’t know what Stacy’s got planned for you, but you’re gonna need all the help you can get,” Keiko says as she takes Lumia’s wrist. She clicks her nano together with hers and in that action, trades partner card information. “Definitely call if you need help, okay?”
”I will, thank you!”
”Hee hee, I finally traded cards with someone my age!” Keiko says, barely able to keep herself from giggling. “Okay, I’ll show you some bigger SEEDs, let’s go!”

~~~~~
IB “WTF X, nothing happened this chapter!”

[Magus_84]

“WTF X, nothing happened this chapter!”

Had to. >_>

Seems like Keiko gets to babysit Lumia. Poor thing. And Hahn really must be upset...he actually thanked someone.

He was incorrect about the pancakes, though. Everyone knows bacon's actually a vegetable, not a fruit.

The internet says so: http://store.dieselsweeties.com/products/bacon-is-a-vegetable-shirt

This is one of those "character development" chapters that I'd always get bored writing, and you'd always say were difficult for you to write, but you always stuck with them. And that's why your characters are far, far better developed.

As far as those go, I liked this one.

Now...Sage is 151. I don't think in our shared history, I've ever had a character higher-leveled than you. Something about that's disturbing. If you can stand to, come back some time.

WE ARE SRSLY MESSING WITH THE UNIVERSAL BALANCE HERE, K? >_>

[Keiko_Seisha]

Now...Sage is 151. I don't think in our shared history, I've ever had a character higher-leveled than you. Something about that's disturbing. If you can stand to, come back some time.

WE ARE SRSLY MESSING WITH THE UNIVERSAL BALANCE HERE, K? >_>

It's true, it hasn't been since before AotI and maybe right after the release of AotI that Keiko has been higher level.

Also, did you break this topic already or did you forget to rename the topic title?

[Xaeris]

Well, perhaps I'll come right the universe later. Perhaps. No promises. And yeah, I borked the topic. Guess I'll have to take that up with site management. Le sigh.

[Magus_84]

X, you alive?

[Xaeris]

Yes. Funny you should ask just as I get done with a chapter.

You’ve all been very patient with me. As a display of gratitude, I will throw a smidgen of **** at the fan this chapter. A tiny smidgen, but it’ll splatter quite well, I promise.

Chapter 3: The Fan, She is Broken

Before it went kablooie, Rozenom displayed the fruits of a massive, unified effort of engineering. The entire city as it stood was erected all at once, and as such, was uniform in design. Every block was a perfect square carved out of the whole, every street ran either parallel or perpendicular to one another, and there was not a single structure that did not have a duplicate somewhere in the city.
The city had a claustrophobic feeling about it; only in a few places could a person feel they were truly “outside.” Anywhere else, there was always a hallway of some kind to ferry you from building to building. It was like being in a gigantic shopping mall, complete with multiple levels to scale. Sunlight only came through the gaps in the layered stacks, creating a thickening dimness in the city as you descended levels.
In the upper levels, Johann is walking through one of those halls en route to his first day of work. Following behind him, is a white haired human that is just barely keeping up with his pace as she is busy taking in the clustered scenery of Rozenom. Every few seconds, she has to jog up to his back before lingering behind to let her eyes wander.
”Hahn, this place is really something!” Alice says.
”I suppose it is quite a sight if it’s your first time,” Johann says, keeping his eyes ahead of him.
”Hey, aren’t ya just a lil’ nervous?” Alice asks, jogging up to his side for the hundredth time that morning.
”I don’t get nervous,” Johann says, “especially not for something as mundane as a day of work. He turns his head to Alice walking at his side and winces slightly when he sees her sugary sweet smile in response to his bravado. “Ugh. At any rate…how are you enjoying being a Guardian?”
”It’s great!” Alice says, stopping to pump her fists. “But I’m really surprised. Keiko’s real busy! I barely see her.”
”That’s to be expected,” Johann replies, letting his eyes follow a caseal that walks by him in the opposite direction. Before his lips start to curve into a lecherous smirk, he catches himself and returns his attention to Alice. “Remember when I told you about full blooded and dilute blooded newmen?”
Alice nods, and Johann nods as well. As they walk up a ramp to a higher level of Rozenom, Johann continues, “full blooded newmen accrue valence at a much higher rate than the rest of us. Though she’s only sixteen now, I imagine in another year or so, she and I will be about even in radiance.” He pauses to grumble an obscenity or two and shove a cigarette in mouth to pacify himself. “The downside is that the higher a body’s valence, the more photons it requires to sustain it. Most of us don’t live long enough for this to become an issue, but the level of valence that Seishas can reach requires an enormous amount of photons to sustain.”
”Is she going to die?!” Alice yells as she jumps in front of Johann and grips him by the shoulders.
”What? No. You met her mother, didn’t you?” At a laser fence, Johann bends over to look a retina scanner in the eye and gain entry to yet a higher level. “No, you see, Neudaiz is much richer in ambient photons than the other two planets and Colony. So, once she gains that much valence, she won’t be able to leave Neudaiz. Knowing her, she wants to see as much of Gurhal as she can before that happens.”
”Aww…the poor thing…”
”Hmph, well, she wouldn’t want you feeling sorry for her. …All right, we’re here.” The sun shines brightly upon the highest layer of Rozenom, which Johann and Alice have walked out onto. “One could get lost here very easily,” Johann says as he looks on the vast and neat expanse of green turf. “All right, I believe my building is in this direction…”

*****

On fifth floor Colony, Keiko and Lumia are just now stepping out of the elevator. As they walk out, Lumia lags behind as she is wiping her legs down with a look of twisted disgust on her face. Giggling, Keiko turns around and says, “ah, sorry for not warning you about the Vitaces. They get kinda grabby.”
”I can still feel it on me…” Lumia moans.
”Hello there you two!” Stacy says from across the floor, “I hope your second day out was a good one?” The girls nod as their senior comes down the overlook to walks towards them. “Lumia, I talked Aegis Fairchild into giving you some weapon instruction. She’s waiting for you in training room 3.”
”R-right! Thank you Aegis Caroll!” With that, Lumia bows and runs off in the direction Stacy come from, still wiping the back of her hand across her legs.
”You…’talked’ Zoe into it?” Keiko asks while turning a glance sideways towards Stacy.
”Well, there might have been some coercion involved,” Stacy says with a furtive grin.
”What’s your interest in Lumi-chan anyway?” Keiko asks. “You’re going to a lot of trouble for one recruit.”
”Hmm…let’s just say this recruit is special.” Adjusting her glasses on the bridge of her nose, she goes on, “and get Johann up here some time. I need to get him in on this too.”
”Sure…” There’s a short pause as the trailing end of Keiko’s thought works its way to her mouth. “Um, Stacy-“ And that thought is interrupted when Stacy pinches Keiko’s cheeks and tugs at them with a flat expression her face. “Aegis Caroll, Aegis Caroll!”
”Yes, dear?” Stacy asks innocently.
”If you’re in such a teaching mood, would you mind teaching me how to cast Megistar?”
”Oh? Why the sudden interest?” Stacy asks as she shifts her weight onto one leg.
Keiko puts a finger on her chin and looks up at the ceiling while she considers her response. The whole answer would essentially require a recap of the events of Dezolis, something she is not quite willing to do. So, she looks for a way to condense her answer and eventually settles on, “I want to be able to keep up with Jo-sei.”
”…Wait. Johann used Megistar?” Stacy asks with a raised eyebrow. Keiko nods, and Stacy slaps her palm against her forehead. “Ugh, that moron. I told him that Megistar should be a last resort after his nanoblast. I bet he didn’t nanoblast?” Keiko shakes her head. “No, of course he didn’t, that would be smart…”
”Uh, so, will you teach me?” Keiko asks.
”Well…all right. I have a feeling we have some very difficult battles on the horizon,” Stacy says. “It’ll be important for all of us to be at our best. Come back tomorrow and we’ll get started.”
”Yes, thank you!”

*****

Back in Rozenom, Johann enters a lab room. Before taking another step inside, he takes stock of the room. It’s as stereotypical a lab as they come; the room is a sterile white, there are table stations throughout the room and there are several mechanical devices set up in the various corners of the hexagon shaped room.
”Seems they have everything I need…excellent,” he says.
”Nice to meet ya boss!”
”The hell?” Johann looks to his side to see a newman man, several inches shorter than he, greeting him with an outstretched hand. Rolling with it, Johann holds out his own hand and shakes the smaller man’s hand. “Er, nice to meet you as well…?”
”I’m Simon, one of your advisees,” the man says. He’s a small guy, with a narrow frame; clearly, he’s never seen a day of battle in his life, instead having had time to gel his blond hair to perfection.
”Oh. They gave me graduate students. That’s…that’s lovely,” Johann says. “Ffff…anyway, you said advisees, as in plural?”
”Right. Elly’s on a mat run. She should be back any minute.”
”Just two? I suppose that’s manageable,” Johann says. He pulls out a stool from one of the stations with his foot and has himself a seat. “I’m assuming you’re competent?”
”Oh sure! You got the best two doctoral candidates in Landale at your service!”
”Simon, is he here yet?” a woman’s voice calls from just outside the door. Johann and Simon look towards the door to see a human carrying a moderately large box in both hands. As she steps into the room, she trips, dropping her box. Lucky for her, Johann is over there in a flash to catch her in mid fall by putting his arm around her waist. With his other arm, Johann catches the box and holds it while the woman regains her balance.
”Are you all right?” Johann asks.
”I-I’m fine!” the brunette stammers as she jumps out of Johann’s arm and steps a comfortable distance away. As she starts calming down, she rubs her arm and turns her head to the box that Johann is carrying. “Thank you Aegis Launcher.”
Johann raises an eyebrow as he says, “Aegis?”
”Oh, Doctor! I meant Dr. Launcher…”
”Of course you did,” he says. Looking her over, Johann doesn’t see anything that piques his interest. She has a slim frame with the curves of a loaf of bread. And in contrast to his own impeccable fashion sense, she looks as if she let herself be dressed by blind monkeys with clashing colors, socks of different length and sleeves that aren’t even symmetrical. “…Elly, is it?”
”Yes,” she says.
”Elyham then?”
”Um, yes, but-“
”Elyham will do fine. All right Simon, Elyham; now that we have formalities out of the way, let’s get right down to work.” After setting the box onto the station, Johann turns back around towards the door and calls, “Alice. Come in please.”
Alice pokes her head in from the side of the door’s frame and only comes in at Johann’s insistence. “How do y’all do?” she says.
”Would you please take off your shirt Alice?” Johann asks nonchalantly. Seeing Alice’s flustered medley of stammering and stuttering, he adds, “I assure you, it’s medically relevant.”
”If that’s the case, then we have some examination gowns-“ Simon starts, before getting stealthily punched in the gut by Johann.
Though she pouts, filling her cheeks with air, Alice complies and lifts her blouse over her head, leaving her with nothing but her black bra up top. “Oh my, how risqué,” Johann says.
”Gwen picked it out for me,” she says as she folds her arms over herself while veering away from eye contact.
”Mm. Anyway.” Johann digs a finger into her exposed belly button and the skin on her waist peels back to reveal a softly glowing light inside. “Alice here, is a stateria. Seeing this, you should have no doubts what I’m telling you is true.”
”Whoa, I didn’t even know there were stateria that looked human! Awesome find, boss!” Simon says before walking up for closer examination. “You going to present this to the uni-“
Again, Simon is interrupted by a strike from Johann, this time to the back of his head. “First off, she is not a ‘this.’ Second, no, I’m not presenting anyone. There’s no need for anyone not in this room to know about this. They’d want just poke and prod her all day like some kind of lab rat.”
”What exactly did you have in mind, Aegis Launcher?” Elly asks. A short pause and a raised eyebrow follow after which Elly corrects herself, “er, Dr. Launcher.”
Johann grabs his wrist around his back and starts to pace around the lab station they’re all standing by. ”As you can see, Alice is a unique stateria. I’d like to find out why.”He nudges his head towards the stool he was sitting in and says, “have a seat, Alice.”
”Oh, thank ya Hahn.”
”We should be able to cap our experimentation to a reasonable amount of time as not to intrude on her life,” he says. “Honestly, I would be happier if it were just me, but this isn’t all bad. I was going to start today with some basic diagnostics, but since you two are here, you can do that boring grunt work for me. Get to it.”
”No sweat boss!”
”Oh, and my condolences to you two,” Johann says as he starts walking away to set up his office, “having to work for me, and all.”

*****

Oh, you didn’t think that was the **** did you? Please, no, that was weak. This right here, this will blow minds. At Yohmei Corporation’s main headquarters on Neudaiz is where we’re going to call for a mop. In a lavish office, built with lacquered wood, and lined with finely woven cloth, an aged human sits at the desk in the middle of the room. He’s dressed appropriately for his job, wearing pressed slacks and a buttoned shirt underneath a purple overcoat, though his hair is a bushy mess that extends down to his waist.
At the moment, he’s thumbing through a binder of his company’s quarterly earnings with a grin on his face much too wide for the work he’s doing. Even odder, he looks annoyed when he’s interrupted by the intercom on his desk. ”Sir, there’s a woman here to see you. She insists that it’s urgent. Shall I call security-“
”Send her in,” he says.
”Ah…certainly, sir.” After a minute, the doors to his office open and Gwendolyn strides in with a look on her face that could raise the hairs off the dead.
The CEO barely looks up from his binder and simply says, “your face will freeze that way.” After a few moments of silence, he sighs and looks up, “I’m sure you didn’t come all this way just to see if you could glare a hole in me.”
”No. I’ve come to ask a question of you, boy,” she says, seating herself in the plush chair in front of the desk.
”Oh really? I wonder, what knowledge does a mere business man like myself have to offer to the Profound Darkness…” he says, returning his eyes to his quarterly reports.

~~~~~~

Nah, I’m just screwing with you. There’s a little more to go. Gwen holds her stare, but allows herself to recline into her chair. She asks, “what’s your endgame in all of this?”
”Is that all you came to ask? Darkness, you should know by now. I’m in this for the lulz,” the CEO says.
”I don’t believe that for one minute, but seeing as this little mortal shell is lacking in omniscience…”
”Oh, don’t say it like that,” the CEO says with a toothy grin, “being mortal has been fun, hasn’t it?”
Gwen’s eyes drift to the side, and only return once she’s ready to sidestep the question, asking instead, “even if you are in all of this ‘for the lulz,’ you should understand what Howzer is planning. You really don’t intend to do anything?”
The CEO sets his binder down and leans back in his chair. Looking inside the binder, there’s a skin mag opened up to a page with a beast woman hidden inside. “I am just history’s witness now. If the world is to be destroyed, then let it be destroyed,” he says.
”Tch, if only you’d been this apathetic back at ‘that’ time,” Gwen says with a sneer.
”Heh, well, sorry. What can I say? I was young. I gave a damn.” Finishing that thought, he shuts his eyes for a moment, and then spins in his chair. Hopping on a new train of thought, he says, “but this is funny. You actually care. I wonder why that is.”
”Ugh, I don’t know why I came here. Talking to you is perpetually frustrating,” Gwen says as she shoots up out of her seat and makes for the door.
”I don’t suppose it could be that you’ve made some attachments to this world? Perhaps…you’ve come to like a certain cocky, douchehat son of mine?” the CEO says with a wry smirk.
Gwen is at the door when the CEO asks that question, so she pauses and places her palm against the heavy wood. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she says, whispering into the door, “there’s no fate for me but to hate. Hate does not love, boy.”
”Oo, nice lyrics, going to start an emo band?” the CEO asks as he picks his binder back up.
”Tch…one more question. If you are merely history’s witness, and history would have you die…what would you do?” she asks.
”I said it already, didn’t I Darkness?” He spins his chair around again and this time, ends up facing away from the door. “I’m in this for the lulz.”

~~~~~~~

Man, what a boring chapter.

[Magus_84]

”Of course you did,” he says. Looking her over, Johann doesn’t see anything that piques his interest. She has a slim frame with the curves of a loaf of bread. And in contrast to his own impeccable fashion sense, she looks as if she let herself be dressed by blind monkeys with clashing colors, socks of different length and sleeves that aren’t even symmetrical. “…Elly, is it?”

So, better fashion sense than the Elly we know and Merc lusts for. Good to know. >_>

Guess I just have good timing. Now, one slight problem. My copies of all your old stuff (including Successor) were on my old HD that did a bit of dying recently. I haven't been able to recover files off of that yet.

This brings me to two (kinda three and change) questions:

1. Do you have copies of your older stuff? If so, could you e-mail them to me?

2. Was PD "sealed" after the events of Successor, or just driven back from the brink? It kinda jumped to *spoilers* and *cameo* and *events leading up into a side-story with more spoilers*, and PD wasn't mentioned further. Then it went into the retcon/retelling stuff, and ended with you starting this without covering the intervening time.

Of course, with such a basic, elemental entity, it'd be kinda hard to completely get rid of her.

I'm sure you'll get to the background of all this, but I know it won't be soon enough to stop me from being impatient. >_>

Needless to say, I want more. Good job with this "boring" one.

[Xaeris]

Nope. If you lost them, then I suppose there's no record of them anywhere on the Internet. Makes me a little sad...but also a little relieved seeing as seeing my writing products from over three years ago would probably depress me.

As for what happened at that time...it's a secret.

[Magus_84]

*starts googling "HD recovery"*

<_<

And yeah, I figured it's a secret until otherwise revealed. Besides, you give yourself far too little credit. The main two runs on Gamefaqs were what got me started writing.

I suck, but that doesn't mean that what inspired me to start sucks. Far from it.

[Libram]

Wait, Alice changed races? Since when?

Wait, I think I figured it out already. Nevermind.

[Xaeris]

Yeah, I had some trouble with that sentence. In the end, I figured that Gurhal probably uses "human" as a catch all word for humanoids as well as the specific race, like we use "man" to mean people in general.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Nope. If you lost them, then I suppose there's no record of them anywhere on the Internet. Makes me a little sad...but also a little relieved seeing as seeing my writing products from over three years ago would probably depress me.

As for what happened at that time...it's a secret.

I have them still. Glorious, no?

[Xaeris]

No you don't. /jedi mind trick

[Magus_84]

You missed.

...you did end up Jedi'ing the thread into reading the correct title, though.

Also: ITT, Keiko is awesome. That is all.

[Xaeris]

I hope everyone’s 4th was lovely. I hear you guys have the second Thanks Festa. I may be making an appearance.

Chapter 4: Rally the Wall

”Father, this lesson seems wholly impractical.”
”Heh…Johann, a battle is as much psychological warfare as it is physical. The ability to strike fear into the heart of your enemy is just as important as the ability to thrust your rapier in it. Entire wars have been won carried on the back of appearance.”
”Yes, I understand that all of that, father. But this is…”
”No buts! Now, give me twenty reps of Sensational Entry! The key is to find a theme song that suits you and imagine it’s your background music as you enter.”
”Ugh…”
Well, however long ago that conversation took place, it is now the present day on fifth floor colony. There, most of the Aegis Wall stands assembled at the middle of the floor. Though the five people are standing in a perfect line, side by side, none of them are holding a particularly tense stance. A blonde human in the middle of the row looks to gazing into a far off land through the ceiling. A beast man at the far end is busy shooting off simple mails from his nanotransformer, smiling and nodding as he does so. For whatever serious and official business they’ve been gathered for, the only one among them whose demeanor is befitting of the situation is the purple framed caseal’s; she stands at attention, arms at her sides and head held high.
”Keiko,” Stacy says, turning her head down to Keiko who is standing right next to her, “did Johann mail you saying he was going to be late?” she asks.
”Ah, no…” Keiko says. “I haven’t gotten any mail from him today.”
”I know I sent out the mail to him along with everyone else,” Stacy says as she picks her gaze back up. While pushing her glasses back up onto her nose, she winces and says, “ugh, he’s going to be late. Ugh, that guy has some nerve, not being punctual to meet with the Headmaster.”
”He might still make it,” Keiko says, getting up on her tippy toes to get her face back into Stacy’s view.
”How? Look, here comes Headmaster Nav now!” Stacy says, thrusting out her palm with a hiss wrapped in a huff.
From the far end of the room, a cast emerges from the elevator and comes down the ramp. To the ear listening for it, a creaking sound can be heard coming from his joints with each step. Yet, to the eye, he moves fluidly and gracefully, even though he’s hobbled over when he comes to a stop in front of the line. ”Hrm…looks like everyone’s here,” the headmaster says.
”Huh?” Stacy says, looking down the line. She sees a shimmering tear of light beside Zoe, a sight that causes her to groan. Through the Ryuker, Johann walks at a relaxed pace with one hand in his pocket and the other draped against his side, holding down his coat. “Oh look at me, I’m Johann! I’m too good to walk!” Stacy says in a mock baritone.
”Nailed it,” Johann thinks. He looks to Stacy and shows her a smirk, to which she replies with a sneer. “Completely worth the majimra.”
”All right headmaster, what’s so important that you need all six of us in one place?” the larger beast in the group asks as he closes up his texting materials.
”Ho ho, Aegis Vinland, you should know that the sight of all of you at once is cause by itself!” Nav says with a stroke of his gnarly white beard. “There’s more important business than that though. Our intelligence has been revealing that the Illuminus is a much larger and much more organized group than we originally anticipated.”
”So it’s a particularly large barrel of idiots. I see no problem here,” Johann says.
Swiveling his head towards Johann, the headmaster says, “you should know not to underestimate the opponent’s capability based on how deplorable you find them, Aegis Launcher.”
”Tch…”
”As I was saying, it seems the Illuminus has access to a decent amount of personnel. More alarming than that though, is that they’re also equipped with a high level of equipment. Much of it is better than what our own guardians have access to.”
”Well if synthesis boards didn’t cost a small college fund, our guardians might be able to equip themselves better,” Stacy says. “Hint hint,” she adds, looking over to Johann with a hand on her hip.
Johann bares his teeth (though in the opposite direction from Stacy, seeing as he’s not stupid), and lights a smoke while he says, “I’m sure the headmaster didn’t call us here to discuss economic policy.”
”There’s also a more pressing matter,” the headmaster says, “we received a threat this morning.” He gestures his hand over to a wall, to which everyone turns. Static creeps over the wall, consuming the area whole before it snaps into a clear image. That image is of one human man standing in front of several other figures obscured by darkness.
”President, Headmaster. I hope this video finds you well,” the one visible man says, in a gravelly voice that makes everyone’s stomachs rumble. “To anyone else watching, my name is Karl Freidrich Hauser. I am the sub commander of the Illuminus.” By now, everyone’s normally cavalier attitude has been tossed out the window, and they now watch, each of them fixated on the ugly scar that crosses the bridge of Hauser’s nose.
”We are on the precipice of a glorious new era: an era that we shall plunge all of Gurhal into! Living is an act that is an affront to the Darkness! We, the Illuminus, shall redeem Gurhal of this sin, of this impurity called life! Moatoob will be devoured in a sea of writhing shadows. Neudaiz’s waters will run black with the anguish of destroyed faith. A pall of ruin will descend upon Parum. And the Guardian’s Colony…shall fall!”
”I want that coat,” Johann says, tilting his head at the roomy looking robe that Hauser is wearing.
”Do not allow the success you’ve enjoyed against the SEED forms to put you at ease. From here, they shall only become stronger! More than strong enough to crush the fools that have taken up with your banner. And as for your precious ‘Aegis Wall’…”
The aegii all either frown or narrow their eyes at hearing Hauser’s mocking contempt for them. “It will crumble, at the hands of these devas!” he says, gesturing his hand towards the shadow figures behind him. “All you have on your side is time, and it quickly turns.” The video cuts out, leaving static up on the wall.
”Those sound like fighting words,” the large beast says. “I say we give them what they want!”
”I agree with Deuce,” the blonde says, “that video was nothing but one big taunt.”
”Curious…” Johann says. Having heard a word that sounds like a preface to one of his genius ideas, everyone turns to Johann, waiting for him to continue. “The Illuminus bloated its ranks by advertising itself as a human fundamentalist group. Yet, in this video, they state their aims as wiping out civilization in general.”
”So? Crazy is crazy,” Deuce says.
”So, if we ‘accidentally’ leak this video, the Illuminus would likely lose many of its members,” Johann says. Before such a novel idea can be properly complimented, the section of wall beneath the static begins to short. Then, after a short flurry of sparks, the distinct scent of burnt plastic fills the air. “No, of course it self-destructed. That would have been much too easy…” Johann mutters.
”Clearly, we are not dealing with amateurs,” the purple caseal says. “Though it was a good thought, Dr. Launcher.”
Johann raises an eyebrow and asks, “since when do you call me Dr. Launcher, Cecilia?”
”…Oh,” Cecilia says as she swivels her head down towards Johann. “My apologies, Aegis Launcher.”
”That’s not really what I was getting at…feh, nevermind.”
”That’s all the information we have for now,” the headmaster says. “We’ll most definitely be keeping you all posted. I’ll leave you to dismiss them when you wish, Aegis-Commander.” With that, Headmaster Nav turns around and heads back the way he came, leaving the six aegii to talk amongst themselves.
”Well, all right, I just have one more thing to add to the headmaster’s agenda,” Stacy says as she steps out of line and to the front. “GRM, Yohmei and Tenora sent us prototypes of their new weapons. We need to test them and decide how we want to incorporate them into the combat templates.
”Okay, so what have we got?” Deuce asks.
Stacy turns her wrist upside down and dumps a large box onto the ground from her nanotransformer. She kneels and removes the lid, revealing an array of neatly arranged weapons. Everyone walks up to the box, some more enthusiastically than others, and has a look inside.
”Oh hey, what’s this?” Deuce says as he picks a slicer up out of the box.
”That’s a hiken. It’s something my father came up with. He was complaining that he couldn’t figure out how to work a Charge special into it, whatever that means,” Johann says.
”Oo, this looks fun!” Keiko says as she pulls an Elsral from the box. Her first instinct is to hold the two cucumber shaped objects in both hands and close to her face as she tries to figure out how to work them. The resulting pose makes Johann snicker uncontrollably. “What?” she asks.
”Oh…nothing.” He snickers a little more and looks away to the blonde, who’s also handling a slicer. Having yet to fill his perving quota for the day, he takes a moment to look her over. Unfortunately for him, her black and grey storia leggings obscure his favorite body parts in a baggy cover. And having seen a lifetime’s worth of flip flops on a certain someone else, the blonde’s open toed sandals aren’t doing anything for him. So, he settles for the boobage and sets his eyes on the tight, sleeveless white top that describes itself quite well with “Boy Beater” written across the front.
”…Johnny?” she asks, finally notcing that he’s staring.
”I like your shirt, Zoe,” Johann says with a smirk, “reminds me of the first time we met.”
”I’m glad it was as good for your as it was for me,” she says flatly.
”Heh…”
”Yeah, I knew I recognized that thing!” Deuce yells. Having, unwittingly, attracted everyone’s attention, he points to the Elsral that Keiko is still fiddling with. “I went to Moatoob with Laia and Lou a little while ago and we ran into an Illuminus chica. You’d have split her in half, breeder.”
”Good looking out, arse bandit,” Johann says with a nod.
”Right, so yeah, she had that exact same thing our little bambina’s got. She had it floating above her shoulders and it was shooting on its own. Weird ass weapon.” On that advice, Keiko puts one of Elsral’s turrets on her shoulder, only to have it fall off and hit the ground.
”Wait…” Johann says, “how does the Illuminus get prototype weapons before we do?”
”That’s actually a really good question,” Zoe says. “That’s made by GRM, right?” Keiko holds up one of the turrets and indeed, GRM is stamped on it. “When I went up to Hive Laia, I ran into some suspicious GRM equipment. …Well, Hyuga said it was suspicious anyway.”
”He would know…” Johann mutters.
”Some time ago, I accompanied Laia and Maya on an unauthorized infiltration,” Cecilia says, “we were recalled prematurely, but we did encounter some suspect experiments being carried out by GRM.”
”Curiouser, and curiouser…” Johann says. “It seems there’s some link between GRM and Illuminus. …Well, as much as I’d care to sit here and foreshadow with all of you, I had to take my lunch break to make this meeting. I should head back.”
No later than he finishes that sentence, Keiko has run up to him to capture him in a hug. “Okay, bye Jo-sei!”
”What are you touching me so familiarly for?” Johann asks as he looks down at the newman girl’s head. He smirks and puts one arm around her back in return. “Oh, what’s this? You’ve grown a little.”
”Really, I did? Do you think I’m five feet yet?!” Keiko asks as she pulls away.
”Eh? No, that’s not what I meant,” he says. Keiko furrows her brow and Johann twitches a finger towards her chest. “I’d estimate eight millimeters. Though I could give you a more accurate measurement if I were to squeeze-“
”Kyaaa!!!” Keiko yells as she pitches one of Elsral’s turrets at Johann. Even at such close range, Johann manages to sidestep it. He then turns around and flees as throws the second one. “You’re a worthless person, Jo-sei! You’re an enemy of all pure women!”
”Those two have such a close relationship…” Stacy says with a smile as she watches them run off the floor.

~~~~~

So, for the timeline conscious: at this point of the story, Story chapter 8 is set to happen in a few days.

[Magus_84]

”That’s a hiken. It’s something my father came up with. He was complaining that he couldn’t figure out how to work a Charge special into it, whatever that means,” Johann says.

So instead, he created pre-nerf Chikki? Though...when you think about it, Photon Arts are basically Charge-type specials with a deferred payment option payable in installments.

Get your 250% Attack mod increase now, pay for it at the cube.

I wanna see Cecilia's particular brand of hax. Which, with Chapter 8 coming up soon, surely won't be long.

And Thanks Festa's not bad. Great exp, good drops. Somewhat difficult. Mainly due to the massive walls of Grants that'll be fired at you. Funny that I can block every hit of a point-blank Bil De's spinpunch, but I get owned by roofie-orbs...anyway. I digress. >_>

Problem is, the server's being screwy. Tons of lag, Error 60, disconnections, etc. Hopefully they'll get it fixed when they get back to work.

Oh yeah. And a certain secksy red Cast may be trying PSU in a bit. I'll let you know more if I can actually talk him into it.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Curious... Why does the topic say Magus was the last person to post, yet I don't see a post by him here??

Oh well...


I hear you guys have the second Thanks Festa. I may be making an appearance.

That'd be neat, I've been gettin on here and there but haven't felt like joining random group in Uni02, and haven't seen anyone on that I really know.

Oh, and Keiko upgraded her Rikauteri to a Nasuyoteri. ...With um, about 20mil of the Seisha funds, oh well, it was worth it.

[Libram]

PSO-World kidnapped Magus's post and held it captive until Keiko posted.

Either that or Magus's edit counted as a new post.

[Magus_84]

Possibly relevant to the interests of the author:

The destroyer is manifest.

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x49/Magus84_photos/psu20090709_202358_001.jpg

[Xaeris]

Merc is playing, Keiko and Sage have outleveled me, Sega is updating…guys, this can only mean one thing. The end days have come, the Rapture has happened and we’ve all been left behind. God damn.

Man, this chapter ended up being something completely different than what I initially imagined, but I’m quite happy with it. I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you all enjoy reading it.

Chapter 5: An Effortless Discourse

It’s whatever passes for early morning on the Guardians’ Colony. Only the most essential of businesses have already opened their doors and only the most industrious of people have risen from their beds. One of those hard working people is a blue headed newman girl that’s darting around Clyez City. Even though there’s barely anyone around to see her, she takes cover behind benches, trash cans and potted plants every several yards she runs. Eventually, she runs into a door and dashes through the empty lobby.
”Whew, no one’s awake…” Keiko says as she sets herself down on the bench in the locker room. Fidgeting a little, she pushes her boots off as she holds onto the bench for support. “I’ll be in and out before anyone sees me!” Once she has her shoes off, she stands back up and twists the dial on her nanotransformer. Her skirt is replaced by a pair of plain, grey shorts and her top gives way to a white T-shirt. After that, she turns her wrist upside down and dumps out a pair of sneakers.
”Ugh, there aren’t enough hours in the day for my life,” she says as she pulls on her second sneaker with a groan.
”What are you sneaking around for?” a voice asks. Keiko jumps and falls forward off the bench. Scrambling up onto her knees, using the bench for support, she sees Zoe looking at her with her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed.
The newman grimaces and throws her arms over her chest as she yells from the ground, “what are you doing here?!”
Zoe raises an eyebrow while she puts her hands behind her neck to tie in a scrunchie. “What am I doing in a gym?” she asks. As she ties up her golden blond hair, the curves of her biceps leap until she’s done and lets her arms down. “This is a trick question, right?”
Keiko just grimaces more fiercely and clutches her arms harder against herself as Zoe changes into her own workout gear. “What has you so defensive, anyway?” she asks while she adjusts a light blue tank top over her breasts.
”I am not being defensive!” Keiko says, “I’m…I’m just cold!”
””…Oh. I get it,” Zoe says. She dumps her heels into her nanotransformer and gets up. “You’re embarrassed. I must be the last person you wanted to see in a locker room,” she says, cradling her smirk on two fingers.
”That’s not…” Keiko says before she trails off and bows her head in defeat.
As Keiko is mentally berating herself, Zoe throws a towel over her shoulder and heads for the door. ”Well, don’t worry about that,” she says, “in a gym, everyone is focused on improving their flaws. No one with any business here has time to pay attention to yours.” At the door, Zoe stops and turns her head over her shoulder to ask, “what are you doing here, anyway?”
”Stacy sent me here,” Keiko says as she walks up to Zoe while bringing up a file on her nano. Just as she gets there, a small holographic screen appears on top of Keiko’s wrist, which she holds up at Zoe. On the screen, most prominently, is a banner reading, ‘Stacy’s Megastar Megistar Conditioning Regimen,’ with a doodle of her head, glasses and all, beside it. “Stacy says she won’t teach me Megistar until I build a good foundation.”
”Oh. Let’s see,” Zoe says as she bends over to have a look. “Mostly aerobics…this is easy stuff. Stacy must be getting soft in middle age.”
Keiko sticks her tongue out briefly and turns for a treadmill, “I’ll start with the mile-“ After a few steps, Keiko feels a tug on her collar, quickly followed by a harsh pulling force. Turning around, she sees that Zoe has her hand dug into the back of Keiko’s shirt. “Hey!”
”It doesn’t matter what you’re doing in here. You always stretch first,” Zoe says with a faraway look in her eyes. With that, she lets go and takes a spot by the wall to sit down at and begin a stretching routine. Keiko pouts, but trots over to join her.
”Hey, Zoe…” Keiko says as she pulls her leg up across her body and against her shoulder, “can I ask you something?”
”You already did, so I guess you can,” Zoe says while seated and reaching over the tips of her toes. “You’re very flexible.”
”Oh, thanks. Ossan says it’s hereditary…um, so…” Keiko pauses while holding her pose to properly think of how to ask her question. After a few moments, she just blurts out, “why don’t you and Jo-sei get along?”
”We get along fine,” she says.
”No you don’t. The temperature in the room drops ten degrees whenever you two say ‘hi’ to each other,” Keiko says.
”Johnny’s the techer. You should talk to him about that.” Looking at Keiko, Zoe sees an unimpressed glare. “…I don’t think you’d understand the issue between me and Johnny.”
”Try me!”

~~~~~

Okay, fine. I guess I should start with the day we met. It must be going on eight years now. That was when Johnny became an aegis. It wasn’t a very special day. The Guardians were much smaller back then, since the biggest trouble we got was a rogue crime wave or maybe a dimmagolus attack. So there we were, the other aegii I mean, on the fifth floor.
Stacy was cheerful. She’s always cheerful. It’s kind of disgusting really. I don’t know how she does it. It’s like she has an eternal post-screwing high going. “Okay everyone, a fortetecher template was just approved as a replacement for Aegis Seisha,” she said…right, you know your dad was the fortetecher aegis before Johnny. Sorry, didn’t mean to bum you out. “He should be on his way, and I wanted us all to be here to give a warm welcome!”
Back then, we didn’t have a protranser template, and of course, Aegis de Colte’s ICS keeps her from going anywhere, so ‘us all’ was just the four of us: Stacy, Deuce, Yui and me. You know how Johnny likes to be fashionably late, so we had some time to kill, even if we didn’t know it.
Yui said, “I wonder what he’s like.” Yui was the guntecher aegis before you, if you didn’t figure that out. Now, I might be biased, but Yui was an attention whoring bitch, and I’m happy she’s dead. There, I said it. She always thought she was so special and demanded everyone pay every second of their lives to her. And she dressed like it too; she was at least half a foot taller than you, but probably wore clothes a size smaller than you wear. Scrawny slut…but I’m ranting.
”He’s probably cute,” Deuce said, “techers always are.” It really should have stopped surprising us a long time ago, but we all took a second to look at Deuce. “Fft, don’t look at me like that,” he said.
I remember always wanting to dress halfway decently to counter Yui’s boobs hanging out of her top. But I’m pretty sure I was wearing my boy beater top that day, so a good chunk of my midriff was hanging out too. Can you believe I had to have that thing specially printed back then? These days, you can buy it in any size because of me. Anyway, I didn’t have anything to add; those days, I didn’t talk very much.
Right about then, Johnny came in through the elevator. He looked about the same as he does now…but I guess I don’t really need to tell you that. Main difference was those ridiculous corn rows he had back then. Now, what I’m about to tell you stays between us girls, got it? No, I’m serious Keiko: if Johnny hears word one of this, I will break you in half.

~~~~~

“Okay, okay, I promise!” Keiko says.
”All right, that’s enough stretching,” Zoe says before standing back. She glances first at the rack of dumbbells, then over at the treadmills. With hands on her hips, she looks down and Keiko and sighs. “I don’t usually waste time on the treadmill…but since you’re here…”

~~~~~

When Johnny walked in, it was, easily, the sexiest thing I’d ever seen. Sure, Johnny’s a good looking guy, but more importantly than that, he walked in with a ridiculously confident stride and smile. I mean, he was walking into a completely unfamiliar situation with people he’d never met before, and you’d think he owned the place. …Actually, I think Yohmei has some ownership of Colony…anyway. “Good afternoon. I take it you lot are the aegii?” he said. Oh, and that accent; it’s like an orgasm for your ears. …Oh stop making that face. You’re sixteen. Act like it.
Don’t get me wrong though. I might sound like I’m gushing, but even then I had to sense to hide it. So I just hung back and let the others greet him first. Deuce was pretty enthusiastic. He and Johnny got along really when he was a guardian; I think they both took comfort in having some testosterone to hang out with amidst our little matriarchy. Then, of course, Stacy snuck up behind him and pinched his butt. Perverted old woman.
And then Yui sauntered up to him like Lil’ Miss Thang. Bitch, bitch, bitch. I can’t stress that enough. Don’t let anyone else convince you otherwise. At any rate, I figured she wouldn’t be done chatting him up anytime soon, so I left. I went down to the third floor. As I got there, someone tapped me on the shoulder. And I flipped him over myself onto his ass. Reflex.
”Well, ouch,” Johnny said from the floor.
You might think I blurted out an apology from the way I’m telling this story. No. Sure, I was cursing like crazy in my head, but out loud, I just said, “it’s your fault.”
”Yes, you’re right,” he said after I let go of his arm, “I should have known it wouldn’t be free to lay hands on such a beautifully sculpted piece of art.” I was probably blushing, but I can’t say for sure; I was too busy stomping my heel into his stomach to notice.
”Don’t just say whatever pops into your head!” I yelled. I’m really not sure why our first encounter went the way it did. There’s just something about Johnny that makes you want to hit him.

~~~~~

”Whew…five miles is a really long time,” Keiko says as she kills the speed on her treadmill. As it slows down, she allows herself to collapse onto the handlebars and breathe with relief. “…Wait a minute, you didn’t answer my question! That doesn’t explain why you and Jo-sei don’t get along!”
Zoe brings her treadmill to a gradual halt and stands on the track for several moments after it has stopped. Her eyes haven’t settled anywhere near Keiko, instead staring off into the distance. Eventually, she comes back into focus and turns her head towards the newman girl. “I guess I didn’t,” she says. “Let’s set up for whatever’s next on Stacy’s little list of horrors and then I’ll tell you.”
”Okay!” Keiko says before bringing up the file. “It says sit ups. Hey, can you hold my feet down?”
”…Sure.”

~~~~~~

A few years after our first meeting, Johnny and I got sent out to deal with an onmagoug. Two aegii is pretty overkill for that kind of job, but ever since Light Master Dohgi’s wife got attacked by tengohgs, the Communion takes them very seriously. Well, it turned out to be a little more complicated than we thought. There were a couple dozen tengohgs attacking while we were fighting the onmagoug, so it got pretty hairy. We won anyway, of course.
It was a very good mood. We were on a pretty high plateau in Kego and the mist was rolling in along with a rising sun. The field was still pretty warm from all the fireballs onmagoug was throwing…and all the ones Johnny was throwing back. ‘Just hit the stupid thing with a barta technic,’ I said. ‘Hell no, ice is the jobber element,’ he said…ugh. At any rate, we were just lying back and enjoying the breeze when something occurred to me.
”Johnny, you must’ve had a nanoblast ready to go in that mess. Why didn’t you use it?” I asked.
”My nanoblast isn’t like any other. I don’t like to use it,” he said.
So yeah, I was confused. If I had a nanoblast, I’d use it every time it was ready to go. I’m envious of beast women that way. They get to turn into this unstoppable, powerful creature that can kick gaping holes in the enemy line. I asked him, “why not?”
He sat up and stayed quiet for a few moments. Then he told me, “my whole life, as long as I can remember, I’ve been called a genius. A genius of tactics, a genius of teching, a genius of science…but I really hate that word.” Now, to this day, I don’t have a perfect grasp of what he was saying, so I might be telling this to you perfectly. “Genius is a label people use to make themselves feel better. People believe that genius is born with something that they aren’t, something that allows them to soar to heights that are impossible for everyone else.”
I think Johnny’s the only person in Gurhal that could take offense to being called a genius. I didn’t understand what he was saying, so I said, “isn’t that a good thing?”
”It’s not!” he roared. …Okay, calling anything that comes out Johnny’s mouth a ‘roar’ might be a little flattering. Let’s say he barked. “It’s belittling to all the effort I’ve put into my life! I worked hard for everything I have, for everything I am! Anyone could do it!”
Yeah, anyone adopted by the richest man in Gurhal and taught by the greatest techer…but I didn’t say that out loud. I just bit my tongue and asked, “what’s that got to do with nanoblasting?”
”If I use this unique ability, that only I was born with…I would have to admit that I have heaven’s blessing, that I really am a genius. I’ll never do that. I’ll get through this life the same way everyone else does: with my body and wits.”
I’m not a gorgeous person. A little pretty with some makeup I guess, but my face isn’t anything anyone is going to look twice at. I’m not a smart person. I’m pretty learned with the things I have practice with, but I can’t blink at a situation and immediately pull a plan out of my ass. I’m not a driven person. Some people can trace their motivation to single, defining moments in their lives, moments they can look back on and light their fire all over again. I can’t do that. I don’t have endless drive. I don’t have dogged motivation. I get tired. I get lazy. I’m not like you and Johnny. I’m just normal.
So here was this person, with every blessing of Light a person could ask for…opting in to being normal. I’d give anything for just a little bit of his drive, a little bit of his genius…and he throws it away like trash!

~~~~~

”…Tch, I got a little worked up there. I can’t believe I’ve told you all of this. Johnny’s right; that dumb look on your face really is disarming,” Zoe says. Keiko has long since stopped doing sit ups, instead listening to Zoe’s story. “So to answer your question, it’s not that Johnny and I don’t get along. I still care about him. Love him, even. But…that fundamental disconnect between us makes things very strained.”
”Zoe, I’m so sorry, I didn’t-“
”Forget it. That was a long time ago. I’m not really mad about it anymore. I just…wish one of us, at least, could understand the other.” Zoe shuts her eyes and bows her head as she says those words. Pushing a sigh through clenched teeth, she says, “that’s seventy. You’re done with this set.”
”Really? Hee, wow, this is easy!” Keiko says.
”Of course it is. You’re doing them wrong,” Zoe says. She takes her hands off Keiko’s feet and nods her head. “A proper sit up is done without anything holding your feet down.”
”Oh, okay…” Keiko says as she sets her back onto the floor. Several moments pass without anything happening. After several more moments, Keiko pushes herself back up with her elbows and says, “okay, that’s impossible.”
”Oo, Keiko!” Keiko and Zoe look over to the gym’s entrance to Stacy, dressed in lycra and leg warmers, running in. “I’m glad I found you! I gave you the wrong workout program!” Having walked over, Stacy is able to hold up Keiko’s nano bearing arm and swap data with her. “I accidentally gave you the program I used when I was pregnant. That’s the right one.”
Keiko opens the file and Zoe looks over her shoulder. The two of them let their jaws drop when they see the ‘right’ program. “That’s it. I really am going to die before I get my first kiss…” Keiko says, still focused on the list.
”It’s okay Keiko,” Zoe says, “you can do it. You’re the most talented out of all of us.”
”Thanks…but you know Zoe…you should try telling Jo-sei the first part sometime.”
”Huh? What, that he can do it?” Zoe asks.
”Yeah! I believe in Jo-sei no matter what we’re up against! Not because he’s a genius, but because he’s just that kind of stubborn person. I think…I think that’s the side he’d rather people saw.”
”Hmm, I came in late, but…I can say, that’s it’s scary to be loved for something you have no control over, you know?” Stacy says. “Girls like to be complimented on their personalities more than their boobs, don’t you think? It’s sort of the same thing. No matter how much effort he puts in, Johann’s efforts will always be eclipsed by his talents unless he forsakes them entirely. How the hell else do you get a teching beast?”
”I never thought of that,” Zoe says. “Maybe I’ll try that sometime. …Someday.”
”Good!” Stacy chimes, “but it’s not like our pet dog is blameless in this. Push comes to shove, I’d like to think he values his gorgeous allies more than his own pride and would be willing to nanoblast if it gets nasty…but I don’t know. Sometimes I think he’d rather die than nanoblast.”
”No way! Jo-sei told me himself: no matter what it takes, he’ll definitely always come rescue me!” Keiko says. Her arms are folded and she’s beaming proudly as Zoe looks on with a blank expression and Stacy nods with a smile.
”Aww, the story of a princess and her knight. So touching,” Stacy says. “Add twenty counts to your push ups.”
”Stacy…!”

*****

”Ah…ah…ah-choo!”
”Hey boss, you okay? You’ve been sneezing up a storm today.”
”I’m fine.”

~~~~~

Connect the Dots!: Aegis Succession

As you know, an aegis is responsible for the template they give to the Guardians for imbuing recruits with. A person holds the rank of Aegis for as long as their template is in use, even if they have died. So, Aegis de Colte spends so much time crashed as a result of ICS, that she may as well be dead, but is the Fortegunner’s Aegis because her template is still used for them.
An aegis is only succeeded when a superior template becomes available for use. For example, Aegis Seisha (Keiko’s father, in this usage), was the Fortetecher’s Aegis before Johann. He died some number of years before Johann became a guardian, but held the title until Johann came and offered a better template. If you’re curious, Johann’s is better in that, while the TP is a little lower, the increase in MST and HP (yes, fTs once had even less HP) is well worth the trade off.
If you’ll humor a bit of time line bending, the trainwreck template guntechers had in vanilla PSU was Yui’s. Keiko came along and offered the one they have now, in AoI, though of course, Keiko is an active aegis during what is still vanilla AoI.

Hm…it’s not really a secret anymore, so I’ll make a formal list.

Aegis Keiko Seisha 6th Cycle – Guntecher’s Aegis the VIIth
Aegis Elizabeth de Colte – Fortegunner’s Aegis the VIth
Aegis Cecilia Geid – Protranser’s Aegis the Vth
Aegis Johann Sebastian Launcher – Fortetecher’s Aegis the IVth
Aegis Zoe Fairchild – Fighgunner’s Aegis the IIIrd
Aegis Deuce Vinland – Fortefighter’s Aegis the IInd
Aegis Commander Eustace Carroll – Wartecher’s Aegis the Ist

[Magus_84]

I liked this. Some nice insights. Kinda curious about what Hahn's nanoblast will be, but I'm not looking forward to the circumstances that'll force it out of him.

[Keiko_Seisha]

I liked it, no slashy though, so you better make up for that sometime.

I wonder what Aegis the VIIIth and Aegis the IXth will be like when the AotI stuff rolls around and Acrotecher and Acrofighter are added.

[Xaeris]

When the slashy arrives, it will arrive in legion, I assure you. I've already thought up most of the hax, so it's just a matter of getting there. As for Aegii VIII and IX...oh look, a bird! *runs*

[Xaeris]

For the most part, I have this entire plot worked out in my head fairly well. I haven’t needed to make many improvisations. But, it seems like I come up with a new idea for the ending every week. Sometimes it’s happy, sometimes it’s tragic. Sometimes people are dead, sometimes everyone’s alive. Sometimes it’s a good end, sometimes it’s a School Days ending (Gwendolyn is Sekai if you’re wondering). So troublesome. I wonder what I’ll do when I actually get there…

Chapter 6: Scientific “Investigation”

”All right Alice, did Simon and Elyham get you comfortable?”
At the lab at Landale University, Johann is walking through the doors into an examination room. It’s just like one that would be used for a medical examination, complete with the patient seated on the raised leather cushion. Alice, who was slouching, sits straight up as Johann steps into the room and shows him her usual cheer.
”Yeah! Your friends are really nice,” she says. “Simon even got me this here little gown.” Even though it’s a scratchy looking white frock covered in green dots, Alice seems to like it enough to pinch it at the sides and pull up to do a sitting curtsey. “Felt odd sitting here in my underoos,” she says.
”Yes, I owe Simon a punch to the gut...” Johann mutters. He waves that comment off when Alice perks her head and has a seat beside her. “So, I promised you some answers about yourself, yes?” he asks. With both hands gripped on the side of the exam table, Johann leans over to smile at Alice.
”Sure did! Whatcha got for me, doc?” she says. She laughs at her own joke while Johann stares blankly for a moment before forcing some chuckles.
”Ha ha…doc…hilarious…” he says. At the same time though, he thinks, “honestly, this stopped being about attraction a long time ago. Nailing her is a matter of sheer pride at this point.” He sucks in a breath, and says, “so far, I don’t have much of anything we didn’t already know. The diagnostics my monkeys ran-“
Alice swings her leg over to kick his and pouts. “Don’t call them monkeys! They’re your friends!” she says.
”But they are monkeys,” Johann says, his face calm while staring down her mock fuming. She punches him lightly, or what she thinks is lightly, and his face comes alive with agony as his shoulder takes the hit. “Perhaps they aren’t,” he says, exerting himself to keep his voice from cracking.
”Oh no, I didn’t mean to hit you hard!” Alice says.
”No, no, I’m quite all right,” Johann says in spite of his voice which has jumped a couple octaves. “At this point, would it really be so wrong if I just slipped her a roofie and called it a night? No jury would convict me.” After a huff, Johann starts rubbing his shoulder and says, “as I was saying, their diagnostics showed us some of the materials your body is made of. There’s absolutely no doubt that you were made with the very best technology available to the ancient civilization.”
”Uh, so what kinda stuff do I got in me?” Alice asks.
”Well,” Johann says, looking down at the file he’s brought up on his wrist, “to start with, your skeletal system is made out of the same material in svaltuses. There’s really not much room for improvement there, short of lanconium. And even if you put GRM, Yohmei and Tenora together, you wouldn’t be able to synthesize more than a couple kilograms of it. Hardly enough for a whole skeletal structure.”
After looking over briefly to see that she’s following along well enough, he continues, “your muscle fibers and actuators are actually carbon nanotubes.” Not even waiting for a prompt to explain, he plucks a loose hair off Alice’s shoulder and holds it up in the light. “Imagine this is a carbon nanotube. With this, you could carry a car. Now, imagine how many of these would fit in your arm.”
Alice looks at the white hair, then at her arm which she brings around to her front, and does precisely what Johann suggested. When the implication lights a bulb in her head, she jumps in her seat, suddenly and freakishly aware of her own body. “B-but, I’ve never felt-“
”No, you probably wouldn’t feel the upper limits of your strength,” Johann says as he leans back on the table. “Elyham’s some sort of expert with cybernetics, so she had a look at your mind, so to speak. It turns out that you’re limited to 5% of your maximum exertion.”
”Then what’s the point?” Alice asks, her face having drooped a little.
”This is merely speculation…” He pauses for a moment to take out a cigarette. While he’s lighting it though, Alice smacks him on the shoulder again.
”You can’t smoke in a doctor’s office, Hahn,” she says, folding her arms.
Johann makes a sound that’s a cross between a hiss and a growl, but puts his lighter away and shoves the cigarette into his coat pocket. “So then, this is speculation, but I suspect there may be another persona lurking in your program.” Alice gives him a blank stare, which prompts him to rub his palm against his temple. “How to explain this…hmm, well, have you and your mother shared anything electronic?”
”Yeah, we share the farm’s bank account,” she says.
”Okay, good, that makes this easy. Are there any limits on how much you can withdraw?” he asks.
”Ah, let me think…I guess I can’t take out more than 10,000 meseta a week?” she says.
”And does your mother have any limits?” Johann asks, smiling at just how well he’s leading her.
”No, she can do whatever she wants,” she says. After saying that, she puts a finger on her chin for a moment, then points it at Johann. “Ya mean someone’s got another account in me?”
”Yes, I suppose that’s a good way to put it. But as I said, it’s merely speculation.” With that, Johann hops down from the exam table and extends his hand to Alice. “So, let me show you one more thing.” Alice tilts her head, but takes Johann’s hand and hops off the table. “Simon instructed you to turn off your line shield, yes?”
”Yeah, should I turn it back on-“ She doesn’t get to put the inflection on her question as Johann thrusts his fist into her breast, displacing her inquiry with shock. “What was that for?!” Mind you, she’s not actually hurt. In fact, Johann’s sucking on his knuckle now as he basically punched a lump of steel.
”Whoever built you went to a lot of trouble to make you seem human…well, no, that’s not the right word. Let’s say they wanted to make you seem squishy.” Johann stops to shake his hand, now feeling the full backlash of his punch. “So, like squishies, your body is composed primarily of fluid. But instead of water, it’s a dilatant.”
”Um,” she says.
”To put it in simple terms, just think of it as a fluid that acts differently depending on the amount of force pressed on it. Strike hard, and it’s a dense solid. But, if you’re gentle…” Johann holds his palm out and Alice shrinks away from it with a fierce glower on her face. “Don’t worry, I’m a doctor. It’s for science.”
”That’s okay, I think I get it,” she says, not taking her eyes off his hand.
Johann chuckles and says, “at any rate, that’s all I have for you today. Tomorrow, I’ll have Elyham take a deeper look in your cortical mainframe to test my hypothesis.”
”Is it gonna hurt…?” In response, she gets Johann’s arm around her waist and his cheek barely a hair’s width away from hers.
”Alice, I’d never propose anything that would harm you,” he says, making sure his warm breath blows over her ear. She nods mutely and stops only when Johann turns his head to bring his lips to hers. Just as they’re about to kiss though, the exam room door flies open.
”Hey boss, day’s over so me and Elly are headed-“ Seeing Alice blushing and Johann grinding his teeth while looking at the door sideways, Simon jumps and says, “oh shoot, s-sorry! S-see ya tomorrow, boss!” He then dashes out of sight as quick as his short legs will take him, leaving Johann to fume.
”I am going to bury that kid. Alive,” he thinks. Already, Alice has torn herself away and is staring fiercely at the wall while willing her cheeks to be white again. “Oi. Well, like the said, the day’s over. You can get dressed and head out too,” he says.
”Oh, ya know Lynny asked me to come over, so I’ll follow ya home,” she says, now able to turn her head over her shoulder.
”She…what?” Johann asks.
”Yeah, she said she wanted to move some furniture around,” Alice says while she twists the knob on her nanotransformer. Today, it’s a green sundress that melts onto her figure, wrapping it quite tightly, around the thighs in particular. “I’m ready to go!”
”Lovely,” Johann says. Side by side, they head out the lab and no sooner does Johann take a step outdoors does he pluck his cigarette out from his pocket and light it. A short trek through the campus green leads them down into the metallic depths of Rozenom which, as always, is bustling with people. Alice is less fascinated with the scenery on this trip, though she does lag behind a few steps every so once in a while.
”Oh bugger, I just remembered that Eustace wanted to see me about something,” Johann says, stopping dead in his tracks. He runs a hand from his forehead up into his dreadlocks, sighs, and says, “sorry, but you’ll need to go on without me.”
”Aw shoot…maybe I’ll see ya later if it don’t take long?” Alice says.
”Hopefully.”

*****

Up on Colony, in Clyez, one of the training rooms is seeing some use. In it, a small, bewildered looking human girl is getting wailed upon by a beast. The man’s fists pound against her line shield like a jackhammer, with barely enough space in between punches to let the girl feel comfort in taking a calm breath. Miraculously though, the little redhead’s forearms, covered by her shield, have held her stance in spite of the flurry of punches. That is until one last hit slips through the hexes and sends her flying back into a wall, falling over in a crumpled heap.
”Hey, pretty good Lumia! Your evasion held out for thirty punches this time!” the beast says while dusting his palms off.
”Oww…” the girl moans.
”Deuce, you don’t have to strike so seriously!” Keiko yells from the wall. She runs over to Lumia and immediately goes to work with a Resta. “Lumi-chan, don’t go into the light!”
While he pulls out the cuff of his button down shirt that has crumpled up beneath his shield armlet, Deuce has himself a chuckle. “You make your best gains in dangerous situations. If I there’s no danger in failing, she wouldn’t learn anything!”
Keiko just frowns as menacingly as her face will allow and thinks, “is it really okay for aegii to be training a fresh new recruit?”
In the hallway outside, Stacy is leaning against the wall. Hearing the sounds of a line shield being hammered on, she grins. And seeing Johann walking down towards her, she smiles even wider. “There you are.”
”Mina said I’d find you here,” he says. “What do you need?”
”It’s so great that you’re an active guardian again. You actually have to come running when I call you now,” Stacy says.
”Yes, delight in it,” Johann says with a roll of his eyes. “What do you want?”
”Oh, nothing. I just wanted to see how long it’d take you to get up here.”
Johann’s eye twitches, but he manages to retain a smirk on his face. “You know, sometimes I feel sorry for Keiko. The poor girl doesn’t have a single responsible adult in her life.” Eustace just shrugs and grins. “Well, whatever. I’m leaving then.” Johann turns to leave, but slows himself down upon hearing the racket going on inside the training room. “Who’s in there?”
”Deuce is giving a recruit some lessons in the art of defense. And I’ve got Keiko in case she, you know, dies.” Stacy jumps off the wall and claps her hands together and says, “oo, would you like to meet her? It’d be great if you taught her about tactics-“
”No,” he says, walking away.
Eustace shoots a frown at Johann’s back and yells after him, “fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you when you end up doing it anyway!”

*****

When Johann opens the door to his apartment, he drops his jaw, his eyelids and his briefcase upon seeing what he sees. What was a bare, empty dwelling when he left that morning is now an exquisitely decorated and furnished home, complete with the potent scent of potpourri. All of his devices have been set on top of shelves or stuffed in cabinets. With so much floor space consumed, the loft seems smaller. Fuller.
”Hey Lynny, where do you want the bed?” Alice says. Though she is not in sight, Johann assumes that Alice is in the bedroom.
”Ah, put it right…here!” Arriving at the doorway to his bedroom, Johann sees Gwendolyn beckoning Alice over towards where she’s standing. Poking his head inside, he jumps when he sees Alice walking over towards her with a queen sized mattress and frame over her head. “Oh, heya Johann,” Gwen says as she whips around to greet the beast. “Had a good day at work?”
”It was…fine. How did you get in here?” he asks.
”Huh? Haven’t you been paying attention? I’m a rogue, silly. Really Johann, I know you have a lot going on, but keep up.” Despite the fact that there’s no ass to be seen, Johann bites his lower lip and rakes his teeth over it. “So how do you like it? I knew you were never going to decorate, so, I made a little project out of it!” she says, spreading her arms in the splendor of her work.
”I don’t even know why I’m mad,” Johann says as he produces a cigarette from his nano, “it’s my own fault. Clearly, I encouraged this nonsense by continually making concessions like tolerating your existence.”
Gwen jumps over to Johann as he’s lighting his cigarette and slaps it out of his hand, yelling ”hey, hey, hey! Do you smell that? Potpourri isn’t cheap, you know!”
”…Are you seriously telling me that I can’t smoke in my own home?”
”Our home,” Gwen says plainly, as if correcting a first grader on grammar.
”I…you know what? I am too tired. We’ll discuss that another time.” Johann shrugs his shoulders out of his coat and tosses it behind his neck as he turns around for the door. “But, thank you both for helping me move in. It feels more like home, I must admit.”
”Hey Hahn, what are ya gonna do about dinner?” Alice asks. Johann turns a glance towards her to see that she’s bouncing on the mattress modestly, loses himself momentarily picturing how she’d look bouncing in a slightly different position on the bed, and then rolls his eyes.
Much later, three are seated at a table with mostly empty bowls and plates laid out over it. There aren’t any chairs, as the table has no legs and is more like a pretty lacquered slab of wood than an actual table, so everyone is knelt by it instead.
”The table was a nice touch,” Johann says.
”Of course it was,” Gwen says, “my taste is nothing short of glamorous.”
”Wow, who knew Hahn could cook?” Alice says while dabbing some sauce off her chin.
”I know, really!” Gwen says while pointing to some more sauce Alice missed, “you’d think he’d be that kind of guy who doesn’t do girl things.”
”That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. The ability to cook is a requisite of being male. Any man that cannot forge his own baubles of life from a kitchen and nature’s bounty is no man, but a boy who suckles at a woman’s teat.” As lofty as his words are, he’s looking off towards the loft’s window with a glazed look in his eye. After swilling the wine in his glass one more time, he chugs the rest and sets it down. “Well then, it’s late. Thank you for your company Alice. …And you, I guess.”
After Gwen sticks her tongue out, she gets up and says, “I’ll handle the dishes. Thanks for the help Ally!”
”Glad to. See ya tomorrow?”
”For sure!”
And later still, Johann is laid out on a loveseat directly in front of the loft’s window wall. Again, his eyes are lost to the lights of the city below. It’s only when Gwen drops herself on top of him from above that he briefly returns his attention to his immediate surroundings. He grimaces at her and she smiles at him. For a few minutes, neither one says anything as they stare out the window together.
”We’re having fun, aren’t we Johann?” Gwen asks.
”Yeah. We are,” he says.

~~~~~

I wish I could tell you that we’re close to the stabby but…I still have some ground to lay out before I bring the house crashing down.

[Magus_84]

The plot thickens.

I'm interested in seeing what happens with Gwen pretty much living there. Though maybe the fact that I've reread all your old stuff in like a day is skewing my viewpoint a bit.

And besides. All this buildup is what makes the stabbity-slashy so much more interesting when it finally does come up.

Also...do any of the Aegii have a Yellowboze Limiter seal?

[Xaeris]

It’s amazing how much work you can get done when you’ve been suspended from one of your main Internet distractions. Anyway, this chapter amuses me, but it’s a bit of a failure in that it doesn’t really do anything to move the plot. Oh well, I like it, so you’ll just have to cope.

Chapter 7: Part-time Frustration

The sun rises on another peaceful and pours its light in through the window of Johann’s loft. One beam of light smacks him in the eye as he sleeps, waking him with a start. He would probably just settle back into sleep before long were it not for the fact that he immediately notices that he’s not in his bed, but still on the couch. His first instinct is to sit up and look around, but feeling some weight pinning him down, he looks himself over and sees Gwen lying on top of him.
”Oh…bugger, what the hell did I do?” he asks. Looking over the side of the makeshift bed, he sees a pile of clothes, and looking back at himself, finally realizes the chill he’s feeling is a result of being clad in only his boxers. Similarly, the woman on top of him is covered up only by Johann’s arms around her. “I hate myself,” he says, smacking the back of his head on the cushions.

*****

On Colony, where it’s a more decent hour, Keiko is getting ready to treat herself to lunch. The cafeteria she has just walked into is well populated, but not so full that she doesn’t have a reasonable choice of seats. She heads to the back of the room and takes a window seat at an empty circular table. From her nano, she takes out a simple meal of rice, shrimp and steamed vegetables. After arranging the square box in front of her, she takes out a pair of chopsticks.
After she has shoveled a few bites in her mouth, she looks up to see that Zoe has strode past her seat and is now settling in the one next to hers with a tray from the cafeteria. “Nowhere else to sit,” Zoe says with her eyes shut as she pushes her seat in.
Keiko blinks and looks around to see if the room has suddenly filled since she has entered, but no, there are just as many free spots now as there were then. So, she shrugs, smiles, and says, “’kay. How’s your day been Zoe?”
”Irritating,” the blonde replies. She holds the back of her neck with her hand and rubs, grimacing as she says, “some idiots on Neudaiz thought it would be a bright idea to do research on live animals. The animals broke out, so I spent the morning cleaning up. They even had a freaking Zoal Goug.”
”Just the morning? Wow Zoe, if that had been me, I’d probably still be down there!” Keiko says, perhaps having missed the irritation in Zoe’s voice as she cheerily compliments her. “Hey, how are you so strong Zoe? Jo-sei and I had ossan and baa-chan to teach us, but who taught you?”
It takes Zoe a few moments to answer as she has her face stuffed with a cheeseburger, but when she does, she says, “no one really. I ran away from home when I was 14 and signed up for Guardians’ basic training. I guess I just put more into it than most people.” She stops for another bite, and then says, “I don’t have any other abilities to support myself with so it’s convenient that I’m good at the one I have.”
”I wish I got money for missions,” Keiko says.
”You…don’t?” Zoe asks.
Keiko pouts and whips her head away. ”No! Baa-chan let me join the Guardians only on the condition that all my earnings go into a trust fund. So I can’t use any of it! I’m so poor. Why do you think I’m eating cold fish?!” she wails, thrusting her palms at her meal.
”That sounds rough. Ever think about a part time job?” Zoe asks.
”Sure…but between training and missions, I don’t have enough free time. I guess it’s not a big deal since I have an allowance, but…”
”You’d rather have a paycheck.”
”Yeah...”
”Try to cheer up a little. It might seem like there aren’t enough hours in the day now, but you’re still a kid. You’ve got nothing but time,” Zoe says. Even though a smile would help that statement along, Zoe just stares ahead with her usual affectless expression.
”Hee, it’s a little weird to have you trying to cheer me up, Zoe,” Keiko says, pushing her hands underneath her chin.
”Hmph, I might not be on an eternal sugar high like Stacy, but I’m not the doom and gloom ice princess everyone thinks I am,” Zoe says, again neglecting the critical smile. “Keiko, don’t turn your head, but behind you to your right, there are two guys working up the nerve to come talk to us.”
”Reh?” Keiko says. She’s about to turn her head, but Zoe catches her by the chin with two fingers and pulls her back.
”What did I just say?” she asks.
”Fft, what does it matter? They probably want to talk to you anyway,” Keiko mutters, the words sounding somewhat muffled since her cheeks are smudged together.
”Yeah, that’s probably true,” Zoe says while tossing her hair, “but, I don’t want to talk to them. So, I’m going to give you a valuable crash course in running interference. So listen closely.”

*****

”Yeesh, it’s amazing that Zoe and Jo-sei ever managed to say hi to each other considering how complicated they make it…”
Later, Keiko’s gone home to Neudaiz. On the steps leading up into the property of Chez Launcher is where she amuses herself by thinking out loud. She’s been sitting there for quite some time, waiting for something in particular; a something that comes walking along the street this very moment.
”Oh, hey there kiddo.” The CEO, dressed like a man coming home from work, stops by Keiko, who stands up to greet him.
”Ossan! I need to talk to you,” she says.
”Hmmkay,” the man replies. He briefly looks down to the little beast girl he has in tow and nods in the direction of the house. The redhead nods and runs off as directed, waving to Keiko along the way. “If this is about training, I’m already pounding what I know into you as fast as possible. Chill out.”
”No, not that. I want a job,” she says.
”Um, Keiko? You’ve already had to cut bathroom breaks down to every other week the way you’ve got your schedule set up these days,” the man says. “Where on Cor- erm, where on Neudaiz would you find the time?”
”I know, I know! But don’t you have some job somewhere that needs a two hour slot filled? Anything would be fine!” she says with her hands clasped together. On her face is a pleading expression dotted with wide, quivering eyes. It’s a look that makes the CEO grimace just by looking at it.
”Okay.”
”Yeah, I didn’t think so,” Keiko says while dropping her hands and head. “Thanks for hearing me out- what?!”
”Sure, I have a job for your particular needs,” the CEO says. He pauses briefly to smirk, and goes on to say, “yes, this is perfect actually. Meet me at Yohmei’s main shop in Ohtoku this time tomorrow. I’ll send a uniform over to your mom.”
”Yes! Yes, thank you ossan! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you!” By now, Keiko has hopped onto the CEO and thrown her arms around him, forcing him to carry both their weight. After a few moments of this, he leans over and sets her back on the ground, still gushing.
”All right, you’re a little old to be glomping, don’t you think? And hey, don’t get your hopes up about the paycheck. It is minimum wage work, after all.”
”Eeeee!” Keiko yells, running off without having heard a word.
The CEO gently grazes a finger against his forehead and laughs. “Fufufu…this will be entertaining.”

*****

The next day, Keiko steps into Yohmei’s main store. Being, essentially, the boss’ daughter, all the employees give her an exceedingly warm welcome, making her blush. Walking through the sea of waves and sugary greetings, she makes it over to the grinding counter where she sees the CEO waiting.
”Hmm…knew I should have sent an outfit with pads,” he says, looking her over. Keiko just sticks her tongue out and tugs her purple coat over her body. “Anyway, you’re going to be working the grinding counter for the tail end of the 12-6 shift. The woman who normally works it is easing into maternity leave, so this works out well for everyone.”
”Okay, got it. I’ll do my best!”
”I know you will sweetheart,” he says. He leans over and pecks her on the forehead and again says, “I know you will.”
Later, Keiko has gotten settled behind the counter and is shining with all the exuberance of a first day of work. Up to now, everytime someone has come in through the main door, she’d begun to bounce in anticipation, only to sigh when it turned out they just came into use the tools counter. But, patience finally rewards her with her very first customer; a human brunette strutting up to her counter that’s paying more attention to her simple mail than where she’s going.
”Hello, and welcome to Yohmei! How can I help-“
Not even looking up from her texting, the human tosses an ulteri onto the counter. Keiko bites her lower lip, but holds up her smile. “Okay, I just need to go over the disclaimer with you then.”
”Whatever girlie, just grind it up to 10,” the human says while tossing a scattered variety of A grinders at Keiko.
Keiko picks up the chips and, sorting through them, sees that they’re mostly A+5s. She grimaces and raises a finger to get the woman’s attention, but the clickity clack of her simple mail doesn’t cease for even a second. “Uh, miss, I don’t think this is such a great idea-“
”Just do your freaking job! I’m a guardian, see?!” she says, holding up the Guardians’ Tag affixed to her line shield. “I don’t got time for this!”
Keiko sighs and proceeds to open up the photon cage. Since the first grinds are the easiest, she starts with the weakest grinder available, an A+3, and applies the prongs of the chip to the feelers inside the cage’s reactor. The chip dumps its charge successfully and Keiko proceeds to the next, which also goes smoothly. Miraculously, this keeps up for the next six grinds, by which point, Keiko is a shivering wreck while the brunette is still texting away without a care.
”Ah miss? This next grind is probably not a good idea…”
”I said take it to ten! Freaking Light…”
The poor little newman groans and puts the chip into the cage. Almost as soon as the prongs hit the feelers, a web of cracks shoots along the ulteri’s cage. “Oh…miss, I apologize, but this ulteri is destroyed beyond repair.”
Finally, the brunette looks up from her simple mail and sees her ulteri in ruins. Her face scrunches up as she slams her hands on the desk and bows over to get all up in Keiko’s grill. “What the hell is the matter with you?! Do you know how much an ulteri costs?! How could you freaking break it?!”
”S-sorry?”
”Ugh, stupid bitch!” the human screams, stomping out of the building. Keiko whimpers, and in that moment, a tiny bit of her innocence is brutally sodomized.
Outside, the human pulls off a wig, digs pads out of her shirt and wipes makeup off with the back of her palm. “Hee hee, I’d better pace myself. This is too much fun,” the CEO says.

~~~~~

I think I made a mistake in making Zoe human. Given a chance to go back, I would make her a caseal. Her affect and demeanor are much more suited to being a caseal, and it’d make her strength more believable. Plus, it would make perfect sense that Johann’s first love was a caseal, being a momma’s boy and all. Oh well.

Connect the Dots!: Grinding

Grinding is simple, at least, in theory. You take a grinder chip, which resembles a 9V battery, and place it into the photon cage. The cage then mutates slightly from the stress of the added photons and increases its capacity slightly.

Now, the reason it’s difficult in practice, is because grinding is a lot like merging onto a highway. Inside the cage, there are already photons, racing around at the speed of light. To add more photons, the grinder has to slip them into a gap in the stream. If the added photons collide with the photons already there, the latter group gets knocked off its plotted course and smashes against the cage where it’s not designed to be hit.

The better the chip (+1 vs. +10), the less photons it drips per application, lessening the chance of this disastrous collision.

[Magus_84]

You got suspended from Gamefaqs?

And...yeah. This doesn't do much plot-wise. >_>

Still, it's some interesting insights into the characters. And I'm sure Hahn'll have plenty to say about Keiko's day job.

[Xaeris]

I am as surprised as you are.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Poor Keiko, you gotta take it easier on her.

And whaaaaaat? What the heck did you do over at GFAQs?

[Xaeris]

Hey, abuse comes standard with screen time. You knew that when you signed on. What's that? You didn't sign on? You're not accusing me of forging your signature on this legal document, are you?

I reposted a spoiler page at OT. With the new policy on scans (we can't post full pages of copyrighted material anymore), it got modded. What surprised me is I figured that'd be a Warn, especially with my spotless record. But no, they jumped straight to suspension. Must've touched a nerve.

[Libram]

Oh we all know how well behaved the moderation team is there.

[Xaeris]

All righty, today, we have a small break in the lack of stabby. I would have told you about it sooner, but I wanted it to be a surprise. For reasons that will soon be apparent…to some of you, anyway. Remember how last week did zilch for the plot? We're making up for that today.

Chapter 8: Long Lost Cousins

For the past couple of days, life has been uncomplicated in Gurhal. Sure, de ragans haven’t stopped attacking and rogues are still hijacking trains, but all in all, it’s been pretty relaxed for a system that’s waiting on a large scale terrorist attack. This holds especially true in Rozenom, where Johann is in the middle of another day’s honest work in the lab. He’s just now entering the exam room where Alice is waiting as usual in her gown, along with Elyham who is standing beside her.
”I was just finishing up, Dr. Launcher,” Elyham says as she pulls a small wire out from a port beneath Alice’s tongue. She wipes the head off on her light blue blouse, rolls up the wire and places it on the counter opposite the exam table. Tucking her laptop against her tummy with both hands, she turns to Johann who has already got his smoke on. “It’s as you guessed, Dr. Launcher. There’s definitely a partition in Miss Archelle’s operating system.”
”I never do get sick of being told I’m right,” Johann says. He smirks as he sucks in a drag from his cancer stick and nods, prompting Elyham to continue.
”Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to access much pertaining to it,” she says. Letting her eyes droop to the side, she says, “sorry.”
”I expected as much. Tell me what you did find.”
”I’m pretty confident in saying that Alice is a child account,” Elyham says. She pauses, and turns to Alice to say, “no offense.” Alice just nods with a smile, letting Elyham go on. “It seems there’s only one other account, the master one. It’s named ‘Alicia Lovelace,’ if that means anything to you?”
Johann frowns at the slight touch of familiarity he hears in the name. He stands for several moments, cigarette in hand, as he follows the fine thread of thought in his mind to the source. And like a faucet that suddenly becomes unclogged, the memory comes rushing in. “Yes. Yes, it does, actually. I’m just not sure what, yet. Is that everything Elyham?”
”I didn’t make much headway on that front, so I spent a little time on the black box you told us about,” Elyham says.
”And?”
”Well…hmm, it’ll be easier to demonstrate.” Elyham picks up the wire she put away and reconnects it to her laptop. After offering the other end to Alice, she clicks open some programs as Johann walks over to peer over her shoulder. “I’m not sure how deep I’ve managed to penetrate, but I’ve accessed the black box program.”
”It’s a clock,” Johann says. That’s something of an understatement, as there’s a module for measuring time in every single way imaginable up on Elyham’s screen right now. There are calendars, clocks, digital sandglasses, and even a scarily intricate stellar chart. But, essentially, Johann is right. “I sincerely doubt that a reactor with output in the zettawatts was meant to power a glorified pocketwatch.”
”I…don’t know what to tell you, Dr. Launcher,” Elyham says, nibbling on her thumb.
”Change the date,” Johann says.
”Huh?”
”In this program, change the date. Perhaps the error message will tell us something,” Johann says.
”Okay. To when?” Elyham asks, fingers over her keyboard. Johann just sneers and shrugs, letting her take that to mean, ‘does it matter?’ So, Elyham fiddles with every option she has, changing time, date, and even scrambling the stellar chart until she’s ready to hit ‘OK.’ And so she does, to, seemingly, no effect. She and Johann wait for several moments, waiting for the results of the variables they’ve screwed with.
”Save state confirmed. Initiating photon cascade,” a monotone voice says. Johann and Elyham immediately look up from the screen, up at Alice, and see that she’s covering up her mouth with both hands. “I-I didn’t say that!”
”What the…” Johann walks over to Alice with merely a furrowed brow. That expression of mild curiosity quickly turns into one of alarm when Alice begins to glow. Johann runs over, and as he does, he is caught behind a curtain of light that drops around Alice.
”Aegis Launcher!” Elyham cries as the light intensifies.

*****

”This is going to be one of those days.” Elsewhere, light only knows where, Johann stands unharmed. The first thing he does after that bit of whining is look around. The most distinguishing feature of his surroundings is the transparent roof that lends a spectacular view of the stars above. That, combined with the cloistered atmosphere of an urban settlement, prompts Johann to wonder, “am I on Colony?”
He starts walking, but out of the corner of his eye, he sees something that catches his interest. All of the items in his nanotransformer have been laid out on the ground, neatly arranged. “The hell?” he asks, looking at his nano. Seeing that it’s offline, he groans and picks up his briefcase first. He then shoves everything else on the ground inside of it, with the exception of his wand. That, he places inside his coat.
”Was there really a place like this inside Colony?” Johann wonders aloud as he walks. What bothers him as he lets his head turn to take in his surroundings is that his current environment seems much more open than any place on Colony. The ceiling is several hundred feet above his head, and the horizon reaches far out, allowing him to see a bustling city of lights below. “Well, where else could I be?”
Where indeed. He continues walking, ever off put by his unfamiliar surroundings. Eventually, he comes to a more populated, though tiny, area. Seeing the types of people coming through here, he breathes a little easier and thinks, “ah, I must be on Colony. These outfits are Guardians’ uniforms. …A bit archaic though. Eustace must be up to something.”
”That’s enough sightseeing, though it was interesting to see a part of Colony I’ve never been to. There must be a warp I can take to the spaceport somewhere…” Now that he’s relaxed, Johann starts noticing that some of the people walking around this lobby sized space are huddled around a rounded counter. Curious, he walks up to see what’s there. What catches his eye though, is not the human woman in blue with airbag sized funbags that is staffing the counter, but a newman woman in front of it. Specifically, he’s eyeing her choker, and the Pinkal crest it is adorned with.
”That’s…the design on my radiance limiter. Did they sell the copyrights to a jewelry manufacturer…?” he thinks, transfixed.
”Excuse me, but how long to you plan to just stare like that?” the woman asks. Johann jumps, realizing that, with him being a couple inches taller, it looks as if he’s been staring into her creamy white cleavage. And really, if he hadn’t been preoccupied with the choker, that probably would have been the case. Wrapped in a black dress that hugs the curves and leaves a slit up the leg, there’s plenty a good image to meticulously burn into one’s mind.
”Hmm? Oh, apologies,” Johann says, adjusting his eyes to look at the woman’s freckled face. He turns on his heel and steps to leave, but is stopped when the crook of his shoulder is gripped tightly. Tightly enough, that it actually registers on his face as mild surprise.
”What’s this?” the newman asks, “you grope me with your eyes, say ‘apologies’ and just try to walk away?!” she says, shoving her face up into his.
”I don’t know what you want from me,” Johann says with a shrug.
”How about you say you’re sorry?!” she says, putting her hands on her hips. Plenty of room for them there, by the way.
”I…did…say…sorry,” Johann says, carefully going over the past few seconds in his head to make sure his understanding of them is correct. Having dealt with many a hysterical woman in his lifetime, most of them driven hysterical by himself, Johann isn’t panicking yet. Rather, he’s doing his best to make the expression on his face as passive and unassuming as possible, even as the frustration mounts on the woman’s.
”Oh…yeah, you did,” she says, while running a hand through her purple hair and whipping her face away from him. After a moment of silence, Johann rolls his eyes and starts to walk away again, which incenses the girl, again. “Hey, I’m not the bad guy here! You’re the pervert!”
”I might be the bad guy, but seeing as I got an eyeful of boob, I’d say I’m also the winner,” Johann says. It’s an off the cuff comment he tosses over his shoulder, and he’s expecting to walk away, leaving it at that. As he’s walking away though, careful to make sure the drape of his coat is swaying with style, the woman runs up behind him, jumps onto his head and hops in front of him.
”Listen here, you meat head!” she says, thrusting her finger at Johann who’s picking himself up out of the ground, “you did something wrong, and you don’t just get to walk away all dignified!”
”Good light, you are annoying,” Johann says while bracing his neck with an open palm. “Tch, you remind me of someone I know, actually,” he mutters. “Anyway, what the hell is it you want?”
”Argh, newbies like you are the annoying ones!” the woman says, thrusting her slender arms underneath her bust.
”I note you didn’t answer the question,” Johann says, narrowing his face into a frown. “…And who in bloody hell are you calling a newbie?”
”It’s written all over you. You’re obviously some FOnewm fresh out of basic,” the woman says. She turns her body away, thinking to deny Johann the sight of her jumblies, but she doesn’t see the glee light up on Johann’s face when her taut derriere is pointed at him in its place.
”FOnewm? Okay, two things wrong with that. One, I haven’t been Force since…well, forever. And two, I’m a beast, not a newman.” Though his tone maintains its annoyance, Johann tilts his head to get a better look at how the lighting brings out the creases on her rump. “Bloody Maiden. Whoever raised you was clearly a boorish cretin.”
Right there, the mild disdain on the woman’s face flashes into genuine rage. She takes two steps to put her face up in Johann’s and coolly breathes into his face, “you’re going to take that back.”
Johann just sneers and says, “make me.” Within a blink, the two have their wands out. Johann holds his up in front of his face to parry a club to his nose. Thinking that it’s just a newman, he smirks while he holds at bay with one hand. “My, you really do have a nasty temperament.”
”I’ll have you know that I’m a lovely person to people that aren’t jackasses!” the woman yells. After yelling, a flash of blue precedes a torrent of frosty air that slams into Johann. He backs up as ice collects on his body, but only makes it a few steps before he’s encased in an ice block. Lucky for him, it doesn’t take long to thrust his hand out from his prison and shrug off what has accumulated on his shoulders.
”Holy crap, someone’s actually fighting Ayame!” someone at the counter yells.
While scraping some frost off his cravat, Johann looks over his shoulder to see a couple “guardians” looking on with interest. “I guess you’re Ayame?” he asks. He just gets a sour pout in response. “Why don’t I introduce you to your limits?” With that, Johann raises two fingers, pointed at Ayame and lets loose a Zonde at point blank.
”Fft, what’s wrong with me? A shrill voiced girl like this shouldn’t be getting under my skin,” he thinks as he channels his golden stream of lightning. When he sees his Zonde being rebuffed, he redirects his attention and stops casting. He frowns, seeing that a whole torrent of electricity was warded by a single, dainty hand that hasn’t even has its nail polish tarnished.
”See, like I said, newbie! You’d better just hurry up and apologize before you get hurt!”
”Tch…I wasn’t trying to hurt you, so I held back. But, if you can take it…” The Save the Maiden’s crescent shaped photon cage lengthens into its bladed form and Johann slices it around with flicks from his wrist. “Then give me all you have.”

~~~~~

Ooo, it’s on now.

[Magus_84]

I'm going to assume that this bit is a teaser towards the mysteries that seem plot-centric enough to not be revealed until much later. :(

Anyway.


“Bloody Maiden. Whoever raised was clearly a boorish cretin.”

I think there should be a "you" in there. More importantly, lol. >_>

Not sure if this is some sort of interactive recording or what. I'd guess by her reaction and that of the bystanders that it's post-Successor, whenever/whatever it is. She wouldn't be so touchy (or recognized) otherwise.

Of course, this means that now I'm going to spend the remainder of this week trying to figure out where "Alicia Lovelace" was mentioned, as it does sound familiar.

I look forward to more. And by "look forward to", I mean "searching frantically for something to bribe you into writing faster".

*For those who haven't read his older stuff, Ayame's a character from that, like the CEO-that-shall-not-be-named. It was set in the PSO world.

[Xaeris]

Yes, it's going to be a while until I can bring the ceiling crashing down on 100+ chapters of foreshadowing. But, I will offer a small hint: at some point, there will be a CtD on Rollbacks. And it will be my magnum opus of BS.

That being said, go back to the end of the Dezolis arc to scratch that other itch.

[Keiko_Seisha]

For the past couple of days, life has been uncomplicated in Gurhal. Sure, de ragans haven’t stopped attacked and rogues are still hijacking trains,


”I never do get stick of being told I’m right,” Johann says. He smirks as he sucks in a drag from his cancer stick and nods, prompting Elyham to continue.

Just joining Magus in pointing out stuff.

Alicia Lovelace = Lamia Loveless

Also, seems like my PSU account has been cancelled, it's not gone but I think my mother (who was paying for it for me) had it cancelled. Tis sad, but it's not like I was getting on much anyway, plus I'll be playing Aion come the end of next month.

[Xaeris]

I've never claimed proofreading as one of my fortes, but geez, that's pretty bad, even for me. *fixes* And yes, I do have Code ATA going in my head whenever I have Alice on the exam table. Though the story is original, it is nothing if not carried on the arms of references upon references.

I was really interested in Aion for its character creation. Unfortunately, I missed out on open beta, which would have been a prime opportunity to try the CC out as well as see if the gameplay was too grindy for my tastes. Just as well; my current video card probably would have given me a bad first impression.

[Keiko_Seisha]

I've never claimed proofreading as one of my fortes, but geez, that's pretty bad, even for me. *fixes* And yes, I do have Code ATA going in my head whenever I have Alice on the exam table. Though the story is original, it is nothing if not carried on the arms of references upon references.

I was really interested in Aion for its character creation. Unfortunately, I missed out on open beta, which would have been a prime opportunity to try the CC out as well as see if the gameplay was too grindy for my tastes. Just as well; my current video card probably would have given me a bad first impression.

You haven't missed on open beta yet, Western version of the game hasn't had open beta yet, just five closed beta weekends with one more on schedule. It's possible it'll have an open beta before release around September 22nd-ish, but they haven't said anything yet.

I personally find the game pretty enjoyable, the first 20-25 levels don't seem too grindy yet, but I dunno the full level cap is gonna be or how grindy it'll get later.

[Magus_84]

X, you alive?

[Xaeris]

Hello. I am not dead. There will be a chapter this weekend, either tonight or tomorrow.

[Magus_84]

Yaaay!

Thanks for letting me know. Good luck with the writing.

[McLaughlin]

Hip hip, hooray!

Looking forward to it.

[Xaeris]

Chapter 9: Successor Summit

A fight between techers is usually like a game of dodgeball. One person throws a tech, the other dodges and throws another one back. In this case, however, both Johann and Ayame are on full out offense. A foie flying straight at Johann gets doused straight through by a barta. Squinting through the mist, he sees that he hasn’t hit his true target, and starts looking around the area.
”Light damn, she’s fast,” he thinks. The next sign of her he gets is a barta of her own shooting at him from behind. Hearing the familiar crackle of racing ice, Johann doesn’t turn around, but instead raises his wand and calls a gifoie. Like a puddle, the flames spill out from underneath his feet and rise up, denying the stream of ice any entry. Having blocked it, Johann condenses the flames into a ball and directs it to the source of the barta.
”Tch, I’m loathe to admit it, but you’re quite good,” Johann says, slowly turning his head over his shoulder. From there, he sees that he has managed to clip Ayame with that Foie; a very small piece of her black dress is smoldering. He smirks, and turns his head back around, leaving his back exposed as he says, “but it looks like I’m just a little bit better.”
Ayame leans over and pinches where the hem of her dress is burning, putting out the embers. After she’s done that, she sneers and says, “you must be very proud of yourself, with me going easy on you.”
”Oh? But you sounded so upset. Please, don’t spare me your finer efforts,” Johann says. After a second, he frowns and looks down at himself to see his hexes are tingling. At first, they merely rattle in place, but soon they have blanketed his body in a sparkling white light. “Oh sh-“ Grants detonates several of Johann’s hexes, causing him to stagger backwards as he struggles for his bearings.
”You stood up through a Grants?” Ayame asks, waving her finger around. “Good, but you should just say you’re already before you get hurt.”
”Heh,” Johann says as he steadies himself. “If I remember correctly, you attacked me; I’m certainly not saying any apologies to you.” With that, flicks his wand twice and out pops two Nosmegids. They set themselves up, swirling about him, until he directs them towards Ayame. Like banshees, they make an eerie wail as they soar towards her.
”You know some really weird techniques,” Ayame says. Calmly, she raises her free hand and slows the one of the Nosmegid spheres, catching it harmlessly. She tosses it over towards the second and the two collapse on each other. Following up, she casts Grants again.
”Ah, ah, fool me once,” Johann says. He pops a Ramegid over himself, and the gravity well settles the rattling hexes before they detonate, dispersing the white shine that was about to envelop him. His vision returns just in time to see Ayame diving in from above, ready to smack him over his head. Gritting his teeth, he flicks his wrist turn his wand into a rapier. He casts Rabarta, and a tall structure solidifies up from thin air, catching Ayame in the stomach as she flies over it. Having caught her, Johann thrusts, but Ayame rolls off the tower of ice, leaving it to be shattered by the thrust.
Ayame tosses a foie into the broken shards of ice and brews up a thick cover of steam. Johann jumps back, being in the middle, and makes a rapid assessment of his surroundings, quickly discovering that he can’t see worth a damn.
”Now I’m really angry!” Ayame’s voice says.
”I have that effect on women,” Johann says. In response, a megid comes shooting through the mist, giving Johann just barely enough notice to sidestep it. A second one comes from behind, which ducks underneath. And soon after that, he’s dodging megids from all directions in the steam.
”I may not be able to see you, but I can’t imagine it’s easy to aim when you can’t see me either,” Johann says, straining to maintain a casual tone as he’s dodging. He snaps his fingers, and the steam returns to a solid state, filling the air with snowflakes.
”That looks like a pretty clear shot,” Ayame says. Bracing her wand behind herself, she raises her other hand. On her palm, a crackling halo gathers, a sight which piques Johann’s interest.
”Megid? No…it’s more like my Megiverse. But, it’s not just pushing photons away. It’s actually destroying them to create the void!” That’s all the time Johann gets for calm observation, since Ayame fires the halo with a resounding crack of thunder. “Crap, crap, crap! No time for Final Justice, I’ll just have to use a mini Vivace!” Johann lights up the Save the Maiden with a blanket of shimmering white light and thrusts at the projectile. With one hand holding the hilt, the other pushing the butt, Johann just barely manages to hold the halo at bay.
”This was a nice break in my routine, but…”
Johann’s eyes go wide as he feels a hand on his shoulder. Glancing over, he sees Ayame stepping out of a Ryuker. Before he can do anything, Ayame charges a second halo and releases it at point blank range. Unable to defend against it, he loses his defense on the first one as well and they strike simultaneously, enveloping him in a dark cloud.
”Ungh…” Johann staggers out from the cloud with all of his clothes intact, but he’s bleeding profusely from the forehead. “What…what the bloody hell was that?” he asks, speaking above the din of his hexes shattering.
”Huh. Two direct hits and you’re still standing. You’re something else,” Ayame says as she holsters her weapon back down her cleavage. “Well, I guess you’re really determined to not say you’re sorry, so I’ll just drop it.”
”The hell? Who said we were done?” Johann pulls himself up straight and expels a gravelly breath as he forces his senses back into focus. “You think you can strike someone to an inch of their life and then just ‘drop it?”
Ayame just sighs and draws some lightning across her fingertips. Just as she’s about to fire, a third, distant, voice grabs her attention. She winces, and then looks around at the surroundings that have been wrecked by her and Johann’s wanton flinging of technics and techniques. “Shoot, I don’t want to have to explain this to JiEin…” She strides over to the edge of the walkway they’re on and looks down to see how far of a drop it is to the next deck. Finding it acceptable, she turns back to Johann and says, “c’mon, we’re leaving.”
”What?” Johann says, practically spitting. Clarifying for him, she walks over, takes him by the wrist and drags him over to the ledge. He has just barely enough time to grimace before she jumps with him in tow. “You crazy-“
”Oh relax. It goes like this, right?” From her free hand, Ayame releases a Nosmegid above herself and Johann, which slows their fall to a gentle float. After several moments, they come to a gentle landing in the middle of a lower deck of the city. People hurry up or slow their steps accordingly to leave a place for them to touch ground, but otherwise make no ruckus. Crazier things have happened there, after all. “Hmm, I like that technique. I think I’ll save it.”
Johann pays a grief glance above to see what Ayame was in such a rush to get away from, but only sees what looks like a cast wearing a chef’s hat leaning over the edge. Of course, Johann ejects that notion from his brain seeing as that is just silly. Besides, the burning ache eating him up inside insists upon having his attention. He places a hand over his face and kneels. “Argh…”
”Hurry up and run!” Ayame yells, dashing off, still with Johann in tow. He hollers a bit as he’s dragged along, but eventually starts keeping step with her. After a whole five minutes of running, they’ve slowed down to a relaxed walk.
”What are we running away from? Are you some sort of rogue? Don’t implicate me in your activities,” Johann says.
”Don’t say whatever stupid thing pops into your head! I just don’t like paperwork, okay?” she says while folding her arms. Expecting a smartass remark, Ayame looks over her shoulder when it doesn’t come and sees that Johann has dug his face in his palm again. “…That really hurt, didn’t it?”
”Don’t be absurd, I’m fine,” Johann says.
”Oh.” Humoring him, Ayame says nothing else even though she has noticed that Johann’s looking a little pale in the cheeks. “Well, now that we’ve both calmed down, I guess I can say I got a little carried away. Let me make it up to you,” she says.
”How do you intend to do that?” he asks, forcing himself to look at her.
Ayame points to an ice cream store and then starts walking to it. Johann sneers, but follows along. Inside, they’ve gotten a table and each of themselves a bowl. Ayame’s got chocolate fudge and Johann is spooning chocolate and peanut butter.
”That’s disgusting,” Ayame says.
”Excuse me, I’m not criticizing your piss poor taste in ice cream, so I’ll thank you to repay the favor,” Johann says. “Furthermore, the person treating comes off as a fool if they mock the choice of whom they’re treating.”
”Fft, you sure are full of it. I haven’t even heard you say thank you yet!”
”Hmm, yes. Well, thank you.”
”O-oh. Y-you’re welcome,” she says, bowing her face into her bowl. “Hey, are you really okay? I’ve never actually used Demon Roar on a person before.”
”…Whatever sort of odd attack that was, it destroyed most of the photons stored in my body. I’m slowly recovering radiance, but I’m going to feel sickly for the next hour or so.” At any rate, it seems he has recovered enough that color has returned to his cheeks. “Strange as that was though, I’m more interested to know where you learned Ryuker.”
”Uh…I bought a disk…?” Ayame says.
”I see,” he says. “I think…I think I might not be in Raffon anymore. What sort of strange place did Alice’s malfunction send me to? And hell, more important than that, how do I get back?”
”Hey. Hey!” Ayame says, prompting Johann to look up. “Yeesh, you get this deadly serious look on your face when you’re thinking. Like this,” she says, stretching out her eyes sideways. Johann is not so amused by the imitation.
”I make no such face,” he says.
”Do too,” she says, sticking out her tongue. No sooner than she does that, does she suck right back in and cover up her mouth with a hand.
”Oh, who’d have thought there was a girl underneath that icy exterior,” Johann notes with a smirk. Ayame lowers her hand and bites her lower lip, which just makes Johann chuckle some more. “Well, I guess I’m sorry too. I did say something careless without assessing its effect on you.”
”You have a funny way of talking,” she says, rolling her eyes.
”I’m trying to apologize to you, you insipid skank,” he says, letting an eye twitch.
”What did you call me, jerk?! I dare you, say it one more time!” she yells, standing up and leaning over the table.
”Skank! Skank, skank, skank!” Johann says, rising to her challenge. The two bare fangs at each other until Ayame collapses backwards in a fit of giggles. “What’s so funny?” Johann asks.
”Oh, you wouldn’t get it…this is just very familiar to me, that’s all,” she says. “Wow, I haven’t had any human contact like this in ages. You know my name already, but I want to tell you myself. My name is Ayame.”
”I’m Johann. It’s a little odd to say, ‘nice to meet you Ayame’ now, but still: nice to meet you.” Johann sits back in his seat and smiles in spite of himself. “I think I can salvage some nookie out of this. She’s clearly into me and vulnerable, for whatever reason. …Hey, if I’m gonna be stuck here, I’ll damn well make the most of it.”
”Ah, ‘scuse me. I need to use the little girls’ room,” Ayame says. Johann nods and takes full advantage of the opportunity to watch the sway in her hips as she walks off.
”I should really thank Gwendolyn for inoculating me against obnoxiousness,” Johann says. “…Come to think of it, isn’t that wand the same as the one she got in Dezolis?” A thought worthy of further exploration, but unfortunately, Johann’s time in this rare mission is up. His surroundings change back to the examination room in the blink of an eye, as if the past hour were just a glitch in the system.
”Dr. Launcher!” Elyham says.
”…What?” Johann looks around and finds himself standing right where he was when he was whisked away. He shuts his eyes and reopens them with a deep breath. After that settling sigh, a look of fury whisks across his face. “[i]Light dammit, I was going to get laid!!! Why does this damned universe hate me so freaking much?!”
”Dr. Launcher!”
”Yes, yes, I hear you Elyham. …How long was I gone?”
”A minute, I guess.”
”Fff…”
”But nevermind that, there’s a bigger issue!” Elyham says as she steps aside for Alice behind her. On a cursory glance, Alice looks fine, but Johann immediately perceives the change in her posture and general demeanor. Instead of a simple farmgirl with a slouch and a cheery smile, Johann sees an erudite lady with a cold expression.
”You are…”
”Alicia Lovelace. It’s nice to properly meet you, Dr. Launcher.”

~~~~~

I’m kinda worried about what’s going to happen in the latter half of the story. I raise so many questions, it’s like I’m going to have to have a dramatic reveal every chapter in that half.

[Magus_84]

You do, but they're interesting questions.

Champions Online Open Beta "started" today, but there's a problem with the patcher, so I can't play. :(

Good thing, too. I love this game's basic structure from what I've seen so far. If it's pulled off well, it'll be highly addictive. It's an Action MMO-hybrid, with the best character creation EVAR (allegedly).

For reference...just playing around with a sample character builder that shows the powers and "perks", I can recreate nearly every character from either of our fics, with most of their abilities intact.

I've got a TK-shoving/shielding, dual-gun using, Resta'ing, Legeon'ing Sage all ready to go for when I can actually play the damned thing.

And there's costume changes that you can do mid-game, that you can tie different sets of abilities to. It's just straying dangerously close to "too good to be true" territory.

Anyway...I'm posting this WoT on Champions because it's distracting me from asking you the questions I know you won't answer til you get to later chapters.

Needless to say, I want moar. Good luck with further writing, and I hope everything's going ok.

[Libram]

<insert question regarding X's health here>

[Xaeris]

So, I bought a new video card. It arrived and I was happy. When I tried to install it, I discovered that my computer’s power supply was insufficient to carry it and I was sad. Then, I ordered a new power supply. It’s on its way, and it remains to be seen if I’ll be happy or sad.
Talkie heads today.

Chapter 10: Clash of Egos

”Nice to meet you’, my arse,” Johann says. With a lazy, listless sneer, Johann lifts a cigarette up to his lips. Before he speaks another word, he gets a steady grip on it with his teeth. Having done that, he chortles and says, “well, at the very least, thank you for gracing us with your presence Miss-“
”Doctor,” Alicia says, keeping her hands crossed over each other over her legs.
Johann raises an eyebrow, then turns to Elyham who is standing at Alicia’s side and asks, “Bloody Maiden, is that what I sound like?” with his face crunched up in disgust. Elyham nods, though hesitantly at first. “Tch…at any rate, what brings you out here, Dr. Lovelace?”
”You’ve been expressing a great deal of interest in my creation here,” Alicia says, “ I figured it would be practical to satisfy your curiosity before you break something important.” As she speaks, Alicia experiments with moving her limbs. She moves her elbows up and down, twists her forearms, and bends her fingers with no particular rhyme or reason. “So then, ask your questions.”
”I can’t help but feel as if I’m being insulted…” Johann mutters. “Fine then. First, who are you?”
”Oh, is that your first question? What a simple mind you have,” Alicia says. Johann bites down on his cigarette and lets an eye twitch, but says nothing. “Since you know my name already, I guess the answer you’re actually looking for is that I am from what you call the ancient civilization that created the Confinement system among other things.”
”I liked Alice a lot better,” Johann thinks.
”And right now, I’m sure you’re thinking that you were much less threatened by Alice,” Alicia says, letting her arms down. Johann’s eyes widen as his rage attempts to burst out, but he contains himself with a deep breath and just clamps down on his cigarette harder.
”As for my next question,” Johann says, straining to keep his voice steady, “what are you?”
”Such generalized question. Do you know anything of scientific investigation at all?” Alicia asks. Elyham covers up her mouth with one hand to stifle some giggles while Johann struggles to keep his hands at his side and away from Alicia’s neck. “I guess I would say that I am salvation.”
Johann gently rubs his temples, and after adding a second cigarette to his mouth for the sake of his nerves, he expels a deep breath and simply asks, “what?”
”As you know, the ancient civilization was besieged by SEED. We created the Confinement system to deal with them, but that wasn’t the only answer we worked on. You saw many of the anti-SEED projects we were working so feverishly on during our trip to Dezolis, remember?” Alicia says.
”Of course, the giant Relics site. So what you’re saying is that the stateria you built is one such project?”
”Not merely one such project!” Alicia says. Up until now, her facial expression has been stoic, even while insulting Johann. But now, her face has lit up with the same enthusiastic fire that her alter ego often displays. “It was the greatest in scope and ambition of all of them! My genius bore fruit that far exceeds the efforts of the rest of those dullards!”
”Heh,” Johann chuckles.
”What?”
”No, no, I was just beginning to wonder how you and Alice could possibly occupy the same body, but it seems you’re more alike than I thought,” Johann says. “Though now I’m wondering what could possibly be so much better than the Confinement system.”
” Hmph. So then, Dr. Launcher. Let me ask you; if you flip a coin, how many ways are there for it to land?” Alica asks, putting her hands back over her legs.
”I’m sure that’s a trick question, but I’ll oblige you and say two,” Johann says.
”As you suspect, the answer is actually one,” Alicia says. “As a scientist, you should know that there are no random events in this universe. Everything is explainable through observable data. If you measure the forces acting on the coin during its flip, you can predict how many oscillations it will do, and thus, how it will land. And it will land that way every single time underneath the same conditions.”
”A fascinating lesson in determinism, but I don’t see your point,” Johann says.
”You haven’t already forgotten your little excursion, have you?” Alicia asks. “If you know what variables bring about a scenario, and you’re in a position to manipulate variables, you can bring about any scenario you wish, yes?”
”Er, sure, but to create a scenario of any significant scope, you’d need to exercise absolutely precise control over millions of variables,” Johann says.
”Like I said, it’s a work of unrivaled genius,” Alicia says with a toss of her white hair. “As Qin Shi told you, photons are the basis of all matter. Control the building blocks of all phenomenon and you hold the power of fate in your hands.” Alicia has herself a seat on the examination table, clearly impressed with herself judging from the smile on her face. “Of course, no device could manipulate the photons of the entire universe, so instead-“
”Your reactor. That’s why it’s designed for such a ludicrous output. It’s simpler to control the photons you generate, isn’t it?” Johann asks.
”Oh, it seems you’ve turned your brain on. Good, this is convenient,” she says. “Had the Confinement system failed, I would have used the Photon Cascade system to restore Gurhal back to the condition it was in before the attempt, in order to give it a second try.
”Like a rollback!” Elyham exclaims. Johann turns his head over his shoulder towards her and she jumps. “Oh, uh, I play a game online, you see, and we just had a rollback a few days ago. It was really frustrating for everyone.” Realizing that she’s talking a bit too much, she clasps her hand over her mouth and slinks back.
”I was thinking more a save point, but I guess that’s a more apt analogy,” Johann says. “Lousy bastards decided to roll back after I found a Yata Mirror…”
”Huh?” Elyham asks.
”Nothing,” Johann says. “Well, I have plenty of other questions, but they’re really just the details on the mechanics. Elyham, anything you care to add?”
”Me? Oh…yeah, actually!” Elyham clears her throat and asks, “if you created that stateria in during the time of the ancients, then why does it look like a newman?”
”It’s amusing that you’ve asked a more insightful question than your superior,” Alicia says, turning her head to Elyham with a smile.
”Tch, I didn’t ask because I already know where to get a proper answer,” Johann says. “I’m on my way to Yohmei Corporation to ask that very same question.”
”I’ll take back everything I’ve said about you if you can manage to get an answer out of that frustrating man,” Alicia says as she watches Johann adjust his coat as he walks out the door. “I’m returning consciousness to Alice. Please try not to disturb the Photon Cascade system, lest you find yourself in the same strange place.”

*****

On Neudaiz, Johann walks in through the sliding doors of the Yohmei building. Seeing the boss’ son, all the employees greet him as he strides by like a breeze. With barely the most cursory of hellos, he makes his way to the back of the floor and the elevator that leads to the upper floors of the building. After hitting the call button, he has a look behind himself and sees Keiko at the grinding counter.
At first, Johann is confused, seeing Keiko in the company uniform and looking as if years have been shaved off her life. Then, as they make eye contact and she winces, Johann raises a finger in preparation to make some snarky remark. But, the elevator dings and the door opens. Looking back and forth between Keiko and the elevator, Johann grumbles and settles for just shaking his finger with a smirk.
Coming out on the top floor, Johann walks right by the secretary and pushes open the doors to the CEO’s office. “Father!” he says, announcing himself.
The CEO looks up from the no doubt important work that he’s doing on his computer, but not before muttering, “****ing Madagascar.” He then looks up and nods at his son, saying, “heya kiddo. Good of you to visit your dear old dad.”
”Father, over the two decades we’ve known each other, I’ve come to accept the fact that you’re an obfuscating deceiver and weaver of lies,” Johann says as he pulls out the chair in front of the CEO’s desk. “But today, I’m going to have to insist you give me a straight answer. Call it an early birthday present.”
”Tch, how’d I manage to raise a child that speaks so rudely to his own father?” the CEO asks with a chuckle. “Well, we’ll see. What guidance can your father impart onto you today?”
”The first time you met Alice wasn’t when I brought her to the house, was it?” Johann asks.
”…No, it was not. I guess you know about the Photon Cascade system?”
”Yes. Why? Did you use it?”
The CEO chuckles and spins around in his chair, ending up facing away from Johann. “I was going to. Input all the settings and everything. But, in the end, I backed out.”
”What were you trying to do?” Johann asks.
”Nothing much. I just wanted to see what kind of woman she grew up into.”
”What?”
”Forget it,” the CEO says, turning back around to face his son. “I was thinking out loud. Tell me Johann, do you think I’m a good father?”
Of course, the first words to Johann’s mind are some humorous permutation of ‘hell no,’ but seeing the somber, somewhat beaten expression that has come upon his father’s face just now, he relents. He says, “whatever flaws you have as a human being in general, I can’t say too much of anything bad as your job as a father, I guess.”
”Gee, thanks,” the CEO says with a sneer. “It’s just too bad I didn’t get it right the first time.” Seeing Johann’s confused expression, he adds, “that’s all you’re getting out of me for now.”
”What? You basically told me nothing!” Johann says.
”Hey, when I was your age, I had saved civilization three times. You think I had an enigmatic old man to drop me obscure hints throughout my adventure? Hell no, I had to do it myself. Quit your whining,” the CEO says.
”Ugh, goodbye father,” Johann says as he gets up to leave.
”You whippersnappers don’t know how good you have it! Back in my day, we didn’t have any of these fancy schmancy photon arts! You know what moves we had?! We had ‘hit things,’ ‘hit things harder,’ and ‘throw meseta at it while you hit it!”
Johann rolls his eyes as leaves the CEO to his senile yelling. “And another thing! Our item packs were only big enough to carry thirty items! And we liked it! And you couldn’t just walk up to the item store and buy Sols whenever you wanted! You had to take a number and wait!”
Downstairs, Johann emerges from the elevator to see Keiko walking out from behind the grinding counter in her civvies. “Oh, princess, is your shift over? I was going to ask you for a grinding session,” he says.
”Hello Jo-sei,” Keiko says, scrunching up her face as she does so.
”Hmm, rough day?” Johann asks.
”People are jerks!” Keiko says, with her teeth clenched.
”Welcome to retail,” Johann replies. “Heading home?”
”Nuh uh. I’m heading up to Colony to take on some missions,” she says. Perhaps without either even realizing it, they’ve begun to walk out of the building together. “Plus, Stacy’s still teaching me Megistar. I probably won’t get back ‘til late.”
”I see. Well, perhaps you’ll let your humble guard escort you to the Spaceport?” Johann says, offering his arm to Keiko. She rolls her eyes, but sets both her arms on his elbow and walks at his side.
”Very well, it’s only proper that a member of royalty grace her vassal with her presence now and then,” she says, chin up in the air. “How about you? Going back to Parum?”
”Yes. I’ve had a rough day,” Johann says.
”Yeah, it must be so hard for you at your desk job,” Keiko says. “We’re in middle of a war! I don’t know how you can be so lazy with such a clean conscience! You should be asking ossan for extra training!”
”Nobody likes a training arc, Keiko,” he says as they come upon Ohtoku’s spaceport. As they press their Guardians tags against the scanners to raise the gate, he continues, “besides, it wouldn’t make much difference. I don’t know if you realize it or not, but ordinary people don’t gain valence as ludicrously fast as Seishas do.”
”Yeah, that’s true…”
”On that subject though, don’t you think you push yourself a little bit too hard? Lately, it seems like all you do is work,” Johann says as they move through the terminal.
”I have to, I’m the weakest aegis. I need to catch up to everyone else!”
”Well, I’m sure father and auntie know your limits well enough, so I’ll just say one more thing,” he says as he looks over the flight itinerary. “Take a little time to enjoy this world you’re working so hard to protect. Or you might come to hate it. Make a friend or something.”
”Well…I guess you have a point. But I think I already made some friends,” she says as she digs into her nanotransformer. From it, she pulls out a pink wife beater, or in this case, a boy beater and unfolds it in front of Johann. “Zoe gave this to me. She called it a hand me down, but it looks pretty new to me…”
”Well, that, and I don’t think her bust was ever small enough to squeeze into this tiny thing," Johann says. Keiko sticks her tongue out, and Johann sticks his own out right back at her. “Well, Zoe’s never been great with people, but if she’s warming up to you, I’d say you’ve made a very good friend.”
”Yeah…oh, there’s my flight!” Keiko stuffs the shirt back into her nano, and then pauses for a moment while looking at Johann. After a few seconds, she steps up to him and puts her arms around him. Johann raises an eyebrow, but leans over a bit to accommodate her and place one hand on the top of her head.
”What’s all this?” he asks.
”We were together the whole time on Dezolis, and now we’ve barely seen each other the past week. I just missed you a little bit, that’s all,” she says. She lets up and with a wry smile, asks, “admit it, you missed me too!”
”Eh,” Johann says with a shrug, but also with the faintest of smiles hidden in his sneer.
Keiko waves goodbye as she sprints off towards the Colony gate, leaving Johann to wait for his own flight to get in. After she’s gone, the familiar bleep of a simple mail prompts him to have a look at his nano. “Huh, I wonder what the headmaster wants…”
~~~~~

Next time, story chapter 8. If you were hoping to see Cecilia in action…well, sorry.

[Xaeris]

Blah, I broke my title again.

[Keiko_Seisha]

“****ing Madagascar.”

SHUT
DOWN
EVERYTHING

[Magus_84]

Blah, I broke my title again.

It's like the forum is enforcing the chapter numbers being off. It's learning!

Looking forward to the next chapter.

[Magus_84]

X?

You alive?

[Keiko_Seisha]

X has currently become pre-occupied in playing Aion.

I also need to make sure that he got on Zikel, or somewhere else.

[Magus_84]

I'm going to have to start spamming this thread with pics from CO, aren't I?

[Magus_84]

*tumbleweeds*

Damn you Aion, daaamn yoooooouuuuuu!

*shakes fist at the sky dramatically*

[Magus_84]

X has currently become pre-occupied in playing Aion.



I'm assuming this is still the case? If he's actually dead, someone probably won the betting pool. And that's ;___;

[Xaeris]

There shall be a chapter tomorrow night.

[Xaeris]

Okay, I admit, I went a little nuts playing Aion. I’ve more or less regained my senses. I said I’d finish this story, and dammit, that’s what I’ll do.

Chapter 11: Big Damn Heroes

No doubt, our cheeky lead is doing something absolutely fascinating, but we’re going to leave him to that on Parum. Instead, we’ll look in on Moatoob’s spaceport, where Laia is landing right now. The dry, scratchy air of Moatoob greets her with a harsh gust as she walks out into the mesa city of Dagora, and Gurhal’s star beats down on her from above. With a grunt, she puts a hand over her eyes and starts walking along the dusty street that runs along the edge of the plateau she’s on.
It’s a short walk to Gawik’s Pub, where she’s headed, but long enough to leave her out in the bright sun long enough that she needs to squint upon entering the dimly lit bar. Quietly hissing while her eyes adjust, Laia looks warily to her sides. Despite seeing nothing, she jumps forward and whirls around, seeing Headmaster Nav standing right behind the spot where she was.
”Headmaster!” Laia says through grit teeth.
”Excellent reflexes as always, Laia,” the headmaster says, with the typical stroke of his long white beard.
”Tch…you never change headmaster,” she says, relaxing now that she has him in eyesight. “Except this. What’s with calling me out to a seedy bar like this?”
Nav puts his hands behind his back and lets his posture drop into its usual hobble before saying, ”ho ho, well, the fact that your partner for this mission wouldn’t be able to meet you on Colony.” Laia furrows her brow and the headmaster just turns his eyes to the counter, prompting her to turn around and see where they land.
”Headmaster, you must be joking,” she says, seeing a red haired main cloaked in black. As the man turns away from the counter and faces her, she says, “he’s a wanted criminal! Or is he here to turn himself in and give us information?”
Seeing Laia’s posture tighten, the headmaster steps forward to her side and says, “Laia, please! Hear him out before you do anything rash.”
”Thanks headmaster,” Ethan says. First, he does his best to relax his stance, as if trying to present himself as being unthreatening to a rampaging lion. Then, after a deep breath, he says, “I found out where Dr. Tomrain is. I want to get him out, but I figure I’ll need some help. So I contacted the Headmaster.”
”Retrieving Dr. Tomrain has been high on our list of priorities for some time now,” the headmaster says. “It’s imperative we get him back before the Illuminus take whatever it is they want from him and this is a golden opportunity for us to do just that.”
”Hold on a second! How do we even know this isn’t some kind of trap?” Laia asks, flailing a hand out in front of herself.
”I wouldn’t do that!” Ethan says, swinging his own hand out in front of himself.
”Fft, what good is the word of a criminal?” Laia says as she thrusts her arms against her chest and turns her head away. As Ethan watches her dismiss him, he winces and drags a palm down across his face.
”I trust him completely, Laia,” the headmaster says. Both Laia and Ethan turn their attention him, but there’s nothing else for him to say beyond that simple statement for several moments. After a long silence, the headmaster adds, “please remember Laia, Dr. Tomrain’s life is at stake here.”
”Tch…fine,” Laia says, obviously beaten. In an effort to save a little face, she thrusts her finger in Ethan’s face and says, “but if I even think you’re acting suspicious, I’ll kill you, you got that?”
”Laia!” the headmaster says.
”No, it’s okay headmaster,” Ethan says, shaking his head. “That’s fine, I’ll agree to that.”
”If you insist,” Nav says. “You two have your mission: retrieve Dr. Tomrain. I apologize I couldn’t arrange for more assistance, Ethan-“
”It’s okay headmaster! I don’t want to risk any more people than necessary,” Ethan says while rubbing the back of his head. “I didn’t even want to ask for help to start with, really, but like I said, I just can’t do this solo.”
”Likely story. Let’s just get a flyer from the base and get this over with,” Laia says before storming towards the door. Ethan shrugs at the headmaster with grimace and chases after her. Nav just strokes his beard again and watches him head out the door.
”One of those kids needs to check their mail…” he says, glancing towards his nanotransformer.

*****

The cabin of the flyer is a very awkward place to be right now. Laia is piloting, eyes pointed straight ahead at the horizon, and Ethan is in the seat next to her, desperately avoid eye contact. Between the two of them, you could hear pieces of dust bumping into each other. But since he’s already in the lion’s den, Ethan whips his head over at her and ventures some conversation.
”Could you give me a chance to explain something?” he asks. He gets no answer in response; Laia doesn’t even turn her head to acknowledge that she heard something. “I’m not trying to trick you. I really want to rescue Dr. Tomrain.”
”So what if you do, huh?!” Laia snaps. The sound of the pained control stick being strangled by Laia’s fingers grinds through the cabin before she goes onto say, “I’m supposed to just forget that you tried to kill my father?!”
”No, that’s not what I’m saying…” Ethan says, turning his head away. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s just that, you know, I’m trying to make something out of a crummy situation.”
”Tch. And whose fault is it that you’re in that crummy situation?” Laia asks, letting her voice fall back into a languid snarl.
”Not mine,” Ethan says, quite casually at that. “The Illuminus are holding my father hostage, and they’re threatening to kill him if I don’t cooperate. I’m sorry for what I’ve had to do, but, the people to blame here are the Illuminus.” With a haggard breath, Ethan sits back in his chair and lets his eyes follow the horizon as silence retakes the cabin.
After a long minute, Laia speaks up, saying, “you really believe that, huh?”
”I’ve had a lot of time to think about it,” Ethan says.
”…Yeah. We’re coming in for a landing. Hold on,” Laia says, with her eyes out the window.

*****

”All right, we go in through here. Guard here is pretty light since it’s a remote entrance.” The place on Moatoob’s surface that Ethan refers to is a patch of arid desert that would be barely distinguishable from the several hundred square miles of desert around it were it not for the tunnel entrance protruding from the sand. Digging his feet into the sands on his first few steps to get his footing, Ethan walks over to take point. “I’ll go first. You know, just in case.”
”Tch, yeah,” Laia says before she folds her arms and follows after him.
The familiar breeze of cool, stale air greets the two as they enter the Relics. What also greets them as soon as they exit the entry hallway and walk out into the first open room is a firing squad of uniformed agents. Some are kneeling, others are standing, but all are carrying a rifle trained on the doorway.
”Ha ha, brilliantly done Waber!” the red framed cast standing in the middle of the pack says. “You may come over here now.”
Ethan winces as his tongue struggles to form words, but all he can manage to do is whip his head over to Laia with a pained expression on his face. Laia returns his glance with an oddly calm pair of eyes before taking a step forward and saying, “I’m not stupid, Magashi. I’m not sure what I think of Waber, but I am sure that he’s not with you.”
”Laia…” Ethan says, “thanks.”
”Heh, oh well, so much my theater,” Magashi says with his ugly sneer. “Just kill them.”
”Laia, here’s the map!” Ethan says as he tosses her a small capsule. Alongside that, he pulls out a caliburn from his nano and hastily crouches into a battle stance. “You find Dr. Tomrain, and I’ll settle up here!” The Illuminus soldiers fire all at once, unleashing a flooding torrent of green light at Ethan and Laia. That flood harmlessly washes up against Ethan’s caliburn, as it’s caught by the whirling gust of his Tornado Break. After completing two spins, he stops and sticks his sword into the ground to catch his balance while the bullets fizzle away. “I’ll make sure you don’t regret it!”
”Fft, yeah, you’d better see that I don’t,” Laia says before she darts through a gap in the flank and takes off to do her job.
”Well, here goes…” Ethan says as he takes stock of the numbers now lining up a second shot.

*****

The map has led Laia around the Relics fairly well. Having downloaded the capsule’s data into her nano, all she has to do is look down at her arm to see the holographic projection. Before long, she has arrived to an impromptu prison cell with a mere laser fence serving as the bars.
”Dr. Tomrain,” she calls to the old man that’s facing the wall as she starts unlocking the fence. “ Are you all right?”
”Miss Martinez…I’m so sorry you came,” he says as the gate powers down.
”Nevermind that, it was no big deal,” she says. “But we need to go, quick.”
”No, you don’t understand,” he says as he walks beyond the fence’s range. “They forced me to build a terrible weapon. And they’re testing it right here. It’s armed to go off in fifteen minutes.”
”Shoot, then we really need to get Waber and go!” Laia says as she puts a hand up to her ear to raise Ethan on her com link.
The doctor buries his face in his hands and sighs. It’s the sigh of an exhausted, beaten man, stirring pity in whoever hears it. ”It’s no use. There’s no way to get away from the blast radius in time,” he says. “I’m so sorry you and Mr. Waber came here.”
”Don’t gimme that crap!” Laia says. She ducks low and scoops Dr. Tomrain up onto her shoulder. Once she’s got him secure, she takes off running back the way she came. “We’re getting out here, just watch!”

*****

”Whew.” Back to Ethan, he’s standing in the center of a body pile of downed Illuminus agents. Directly in front him, is Magashi, down on his back as well, but still talking. “It’s over Magashi. We’ve got the doctor back, and the Illuminus are definitely going to lose to the Guardians.”
Damaged as badly as he is, Magashi’s guttural voice is further mangled by static bleeding into his words. Still, he can be understood when he says, “ha ha ha…how little you know. What is it do you even think this war is being fought over? Human fundamentalism? Tch…but don’t worry. You’ll understand very soon. And then-“
Like a sword dropped from the sky, a razonde strikes Magashi’s prone body and blows his limbs across the room, much to Ethan’s shock. Immediately, he whips his head around the room to look for the source, yet it’s his ears that guide him to it through the throaty chuckling he hears.
”My, my, I told Hauser that he made those things with entirely too much vanity,” a woman’s voice says from the stairs.
”Helga!” Ethan says before the woman has even stepped out into the light. “What are you doing here?” he asks, despite having a good idea given that he’s got his sword pointed forward.
”Hmm…that’s a good question,” Helga says as she walks up to Ethan with one finger on her chin. Ethan does his best to hold his ground, but he can’t help but back up a few steps as she casually saunters up to a comfortable conversation distance. “Eh, I should really write these things down,” she says with a shrug.
”Tch…”
”Don’t be like that. Since we’re both here, why don’t we play? I can say I was picking up where this defective doll left off,” she says as pulls out her Tiga de Ragan. “Do your best,” she says, pausing to lick her lips, “to excite me!”
”Not good…”

*****

”What the hell is this thing?!”
’This thing’ is a large, bipedal SEED that’s been persistently following Laia and the professor on their attempted flight from the Relics. Whatever corner Laia deftly turns, the SEED just rams right into and barrels along without care for any objects in its way.
”I don’t know…I’ve seen many SEED in my captivity, but this is a new kind…” the doctor says, having a full view from his place hung over on Laia’s back.
”Damn, it’s persistent too!” Turning yet another corner to hop onto a long bridge suspended over the ubiquitous abyss in the Relics, Laia looks over her shoulder to see the SEED slowing down. “Whew, looks like it can’t follow across the bridge.”
Nah, not quite. See, it’s crouching on all fours and angling its head forward. Wisps of dark energy float towards it and quickly enough, a large Megid has formed. The black sphere pulses with a haunting dark glow that catches Laia’s attention even though she’s facing away again.
”Oh Light…” she says. For good reason too; I mean, really, where’s the last place you ever wanted to see an Ob Lily? On a bridge, of course.

*****

Looking in on Ethan, again, he’s not doing so hot. So far, his fight with Helga has been strictly melee: his one caliburn against the two blades of her Tiga De Ragan. Keeping a single blade in check with his large, clumsy weapon would be a task all by itself. Having to parry strikes from both left and right leaves him with nary a moment to stop for a breath, nevermind attack. Still, he does manage to catch a break when Helga attacks with both blades at once, crushing his guard and forcing him to skid backwards several feet.
”Hmm…maybe I should have interrupted before you started fighting Magashi. It looks like that fight took a lot out of you,” Helga says while pouting her lips.
Ethan groans, but gathers up the tatters of his black coat against his waist and picks himself up. Hoisting the caliburn back up to his side, he grimaces when he sees the crack in the photon cage that’s liberally leaking photons. Still, he braces it at his side and nods. “You know, I always did think you were nuts.”
”Not nuts!” Helga says as she leaps into the air, “animated!” She swings one blade down over her head at Ethan’s caliburn and the result is a brilliant green flash. She pushes herself off and thrusts with the other blade, piercing straight through the empty caliburn and straight through to Ethan’s line shield. “Oh, is that all?”
”Shoot…” Ethan hisses as he looks down at the blade poking out from a hex over his chest. He winces and raises his head to see Helga smirking and raising her other sword for another thrust.
”It was fun having you with us Waber, but I guess everything fun has to end eventually,” she says as she’s about to pierce his heart. Before she thrusts though, a scathingly cold wind cuts through where she’s standing, icing her over within the blink of an eye. Just as quickly, she breaks the ice casing by swinging her arm and immediately looks over to where she suspects the source lies. “You…”

*****

[tab]”Not gonna make it!” Laia frantically whispers as she locks her eyes on the other side of the bridge. The SEED fires its megid and like a bullet, it races across the distance Laia has already run and looks sure to hit her. Inches away from contact, however, a white streak flies by over Laia’s shoulder and hits the Megid, popping it like a balloon in a flash of darkness that briefly thrusts the room into shadows. “Huh…you!”
”Hiiii!” Keiko says with a wave from the other side of the bridge.

*****

”You’ve done fine work jobbing for my appearance, Waber. I’ll take it from here,” Johann says as he strolls into the room with a lit cigarette in hand.
~~~~~

I’ll try to get a chapter up sometime this weekend.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Gasp, he's alive.

Not much to comment on since it's mostly just SEGA. But hooray either way.

[Magus_84]

Yay, update!

Sega stuff was made as interesting as possible, given the source material. Looking forward to that next chapter.

[McLaughlin]

He lives!

[Magus_84]

Or maybe not. :(

[Xaeris]

Or maybe he does.

Chapter 12: This is How Bullets Should Work

”Aegis Launcher! What are you doing here?” Ethan asks as he steps backwards for a breather. His caliburn is in horrid shape, still leaking photon sparkles onto the ground, and the line shield on his wrist is now spurting intermittent sparks from suffering so many strikes. As he’s slowly backing up, Johann calmly strides up to meet him at his side.
”For some reasons I can’t fathom, the headmaster considers your life valuable,” Johann says, keeping his eyes on Helga even as he addresses Ethan. He pauses to remove the cigarette in his mouth and douse it in between his fingers. After that, he pays Ethan a sideways glance to take stock of his condition and sneers. “Tch. So, he put out a mail to all aegii to get anyone who was available out here.”
In spite of the rude tone that Johann is taking with him, Ethan has thrown an awkward smile on his face as he rubs the back of his head. ”Oh…well, hey, thanks!”
”No need for that. I’m actually quite happy I came to help,” Johann says as he tosses the used up cigarette away and exchanges it for his Save the Maiden. “I didn’t imagine I’d get the opportunity to properly kill this woman for my trouble.”
”Dr. Launcher, hello!” Helga says, taking her cue to finally enter the conversation. “I’m so happy you could make it!”
Johann narrows one eyelid at her and bares his teeth as her saccharine tone grates his ears. After wincing, he says, “I want you to explain to me exactly what the hell you were doing in Dezolis!”
”Dezolis?” Ethan asks.
”Sidequest,” Johann says, in the language of protagonists.
”Ah, gotcha.”
”Hmm…all right, I’ll tell you, since you asked so nicely” Helga says as she relaxes her stance and puts her weight on one leg. “By now, you’ve guessed what we kidnapped Dr. Tomrain for, right?”
”To make a bomb, I’m sure. I doubt your crude minds could think of anything better to do with such expertise on photons,” Johann says.
”It really is a wonder how Gwendolyn can stand talking to you,” she says. “Anyway, even with Dr. Tomrain, we needed the materials to produce the Sochee. In particular, we needed A-photon reactors.”
”The stateria,” Johann says.
Helga smirks and gestures one upturned palm, still holding a sword, at Johann. ”Exactly! We revived Qin Shi from what was left of her corpse with the SEED virus and set her loose. We figured she’d get us into her vault eventually.” She stops to look up at the ceiling and purse her lips before she goes on, “well, it was a problem that she was going to have her own agenda. I mean, at full strength, she probably would have been able to dismantle the Illuminus herself. Shoot, I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to fight her.”
The look on Johann’s face is that of a person who’s eaten some bad meat. He bows his head ever so slightly, but before he can fall too deep into lament, Helga adds one more thing. “So it’s really convenient that you killed her for us!”
”…Waber,” Johann says, with his face still pointed towards the ground.
”Yeah?”
”Aegis Seisha should have found Laia by now. Go rendez-vous with them and head out of here,” he says in a harsh whisper.
”No way, I can’t just leave you here after you got me outta that tight spot!” Ethan says with a swipe beneath his nose. “Let me give you a hand.”
”You don’t understand. I’m very upset right now,” Johann says, beginning to pick his head up. “As I am, I doubt I’ll be able to be discriminating about what I kill inside of a 500 Rp radius.” With his head back up, it’s plain to see that Johann’s struggling just to see straight given from the way his eyes are trembling.
”Are you sure- ah!” Ethan winces and steps away Johann with that yelp. Clutching his cheek, he looks around for something that bit him for a few seconds before he notices that the cage on the Save the Maiden has become yellow. And again, he receives another static shock. “Geez, okay, okay. I owe ya one Johann!” he says as he stows his broken caliburn and takes off down the way Laia went.
”And here I was hoping to get double teamed,” Helga says as she retakes her footing and secures her grip on her sabers. In response, Johann offers nothing but a sneer. “Well you’re in a bad mood. Are you still butthurt over our last encounter?”
”Let’s begin and end it quickly,” Johann says, still not allowing Helga the satisfaction of his irritation.

*****

”Keiko…what are you doing here?” Laia asks, still not having moved from her spot in the middle of the bridge.
”The Headmaster sent me!” Keiko yells. “Quick, get across!” For good reason; the SEED-Venas is getting back up from its firing posture. Laia glances behind herself and sees that it’s now charging towards her. With an expletive, she heaves the professor securely onto her shoulders and dashes across the several more yards to the end.
”Keep running!” Keiko says and she levels her Rikauteri for another shot. She lets an orange streak fly right over Laia’s shoulder and into the center of the bridge. The bolt sticks in the floor for a moment, like a javelin, and then several cracks shoot through the bridge, and through where the Venas is running. Lucky for Laia, the bridge doesn’t completely give way until she steps onto safe ground by Keiko. “That handles that-“
Nope. The Venas, standing on a piece of falling debris, leaps up, busting the debris to pieces with the recoil and bounds back to ground level, poised to land where Keiko and Laia are standing. Laia hops back to clear the landing range, as does Keiko with her bow aimed up in the air. The reisei-sou she fires impacts with a harmless cloud of cold mist that the Venas quickly emerges from.
”Keiko, we don’t have time to fight this thing! There’s a bomb ready to go off!” Laia says.
”What?! Okay, let’s run then!” In following with that idea, Keiko turns on her heel to head for the hall at the other side of the room, but groans when she sees the Venas landing from the air again, cutting off their path. “This one’s not going to let us go that easy. Keep him safe, I’ll get this thing out of the way!”
Keiko breaks at the knees and steadies herself on the ground as she raises her bow sideways. With a piercing whine, the photon cage draws photons from the air and quickly becomes engorged with chousei-sou’s energy. Doing her best to hold herself steady, she fires off a bolt that plunges the entire area into a soft green light for the split second it takes for the projectile to cross its distance and hit its mark dead in the head.
”Perfect shot!” she says. It was pretty perfect: perfectly ineffective. The Venas just roars, an impressive feat given the lack of a mouth, and charges Keiko with its arm held low and its elbow jutted out like a battering ram. Keiko winces and hops off to the side out of the way. Upon landing, she fires a simple reisei-sou that, again, results in a cloud of cold mist that does squat. “That’s not a normal SEED…”
The Venas stops itself far faster that it should given its impressive size and turns to take a swipe at Keiko with one of its arms. She gets a spare hand onto it and hoists herself up over the swipe while firing her bow with the other hand at its head. And yet again, if the pattern isn’t obvious, it does nothing. Frowning, she pushes herself further up on her arm and over its head while firing another shot for the lulz as she vaults over.
”Ugh…this isn’t working,” she moans. The Venas turns around and charges. This time, Keiko rolls between its legs and quickly fires another reisei-sou. This time though, she fires at the ground, specifically, at the ground the Venas is stomping over. Predictably, the resulting ice slick causes it to take a spill into a nearby wall. Working quickly, Keiko fires jisei-sou at the ceiling directly above the sprawled out monster and drops a load of rubble on it. Then, she fires volley after volley of ensei-sou in a crossbow pattern at the debris, melting it little by little. Each impact produces a tiny splash of molten rock that quickly adds up to form an impromptu cement tomb that the Venas is struggling to break free from.
”All right, let’s go!” Keiko says as she breaks for the door.
Laia follows in after her and they’re off like the wind. “Hey, that was nice work back there,” she says.
”Oh, thanks!” Keiko says with a beaming smile.
”I’m happy for the help, but I wish you had gone to Waber. I had to leave him in a pretty tight jam…”
”Oh, you don’t need to worry about that. I came here with Jo-sei. When we landed and walked inside the Relics, he said he felt an evil radiance and ran ahead. Ooo…that jerk left me behind! Some guard he is!” she says, practically growling by the time she’s finished.
”This is all my fault…” the professor says in a defeated whisper.
”Reh? What’s his problem?” Keiko asks, looking to the man that Laia’s still carrying.
”Don’t mind him, he thinks we’re going to die because of the bomb or something silly like that,” Laia says.
”Ha, that’s silly,” Keiko says. Just about then, they’re coming out of the hall and into another open area. No enemies show up, so it looks like a clear shot into the next hall. But that’s only because they’re not looking up. It’s only when the shadow descends upon Keiko does she think to do so. “Huh…?” Her head turns up just in time to see the Venas’ arm just about to plow into her face.
”Keiko!” Laia cries as the monster’s arm slams into the ground, unearthing a good deal of rubble.
”Ch- this guy is persistent!” Keiko says from behind the Venas. “I almost didn’t get zodial up in time.” Indeed, the burst of yellow photons still hasn’t fled from the site of casting as she’s saying that. The Venas whips around and swipes its arm across the ground and Keiko demonstrates her speed boost again by moving over to its side before it has even ducked low to strike.
”Now what…I was sure that last trick would hold it for a while,” she thinks as she fires a shot just for filler. Trying to come up with a plan, she has a look at her surroundings for something to use. Sadly, there’s nothing in this chamber, not even worthless item crates; just a slab of concrete suspended over the usual abyss found in the Relics “Hmm…never combined three kinds of bullets before. Should be okay.”
One more time, Keiko raises her bow. Before firing, she shuts her eyes for a moment’s concentration. When they snap open, she unleashes a rapid torrent of arrows into the Venas’ chest. Unlike her ordinary bolts though, they explode on contact with severe concussive force, like grenades, knocking the enemy back despite the lack of any noticeable damage. For several seconds, she maintains the fury of her bullet storm, pushing the Venas back to the railing that borders on the abyss. “Come on…” she mutters as beads of sweat begin to run down her forehead. Unable to hold its ground, the Venas tumbles over the rail, allowing Keiko to stop firing.
”Whew…was almost out of PP,” she says, saying nothing of the fact that she’s short of breath and weak in the knees.

*****

Back with Johann, as usual, the fact that he is a fortetecher has eluded him and he is engaged in melee with Helga. Given that she has the advantage in number of blades, Johann is kept occupied by parrying and avoiding slashes from both of them rather than doing much attack. And as he’s doing so, he gives up a step with each blow avoided, so the flow of the battle is clearly against him.
”Come on Launcher! Where did all that rage go?!” Helga says with a pursed grin on her lips.
Johann’s eyes narrow as Helga slashes with both blades at once. He slams the blue length of his rapier into the cross between them and a sheet of ice wraps up all three weapons, leaving Helga’s arms in a vulnerable position since she hasn’t let go. Johann then socks her in the gut with his left hand, doubling her over, revealing the back of her head to the ceiling. The Save the Maiden bursts free of its confinement blanketed in flame and Johann hoists it up and brings it straight back down to kiss the back of Helga’s head with Appasionata. All he gets though, is shadows and wisps as Helga warps away just in time.
”Hmph. Cooler heads prevail,” Johann says as he looks up to see Helga standing a few feet across from him.
”Well, I’m happy to see you’ve gotten stronger since Boisets. It was such a good idea to let you live!” she says as she pulls apart the Tiga de Ragan from its icy confinement like a pair of chopsticks.
”You’re a twisted woman, Neumann,” Johann says, turning his sword bearing side to Helga.
”Oh, I’m twisted?” she asks, pointing at her chin. “Excuse me, but I’m not the one who keeps override devices in the weapons he made for his friends!”
Shock registers in Johann’s eyes for the briefest of seconds before they’ve narrowed again. ”…How did you know that?”
”Oops, I said too much!” Helga says with one hand over her mouth and one leg raised in the air behind her. Johann bares his teeth at her, but it does absolutely nothing to cow her, of course. “Well, come on, show me what else you have up your sleeves! I’d say we have about seven minutes.”
”…?”

~~~~~~

Next time: epic rematch is epic.

[McLaughlin]

Gewd stuff. Glad to have you back!

[Magus_84]

I agree, bullets should work that way.

Good to have you back. I can't wait to see the epic rematch. Hopefully it ends with more stabbity done to Helga and not done by Helga.

[Xaeris]

Chapter 13: Back Then and Here Now

A Relics site is usually a pretty big place. If a bunch of people were dumped inside, the odds of them finding each other should be unlikely. But, through the power of plot and dramatic convenience, it is not only possible for those people to reliably find each other, but for them to find each other exactly when it’s convenient. Case in point, Keiko and Laia are emerging from a hallway just as Ethan is emerging from a different hallway that lets out into the same chamber.
”Waber!” Laia says as she slows to a halt.
”Laia, great!” Ethan says as he looks her over. “Looks like you’re okay. And you even got the professor!” His breathing picks up as he stops running and he puts his hands on his waist as he sucks in those heaping gobs of air. “And Aegis Seisha too.”
Keiko nods and smiles as she says, “looks like mission accomplished!” She gets up on her tippy toes to look over Ethan’s shoulder and purses her lips when she sees nothing. “Jo- um, Aegis Launcher’s not with you?”
”I ran into him a while ago,” he says while turning back the way he came. “He took over my fight and said to come find you guys. Sheesh, that guy’s pushy.”
”Tch, I don’t even why the headmaster bothered to meddle in the first place,” Laia says as she shrugs her shoulders to get a secure grip on the doctor she’s still carrying on her back. “We could have handled this just fine.”
Keiko bites her lower lip briefly to keep from mentioning the moment she arrived on and says instead, “well, better safe than sorry, right? Come on, let’s find Aegis Launcher and get out of here. There’s still that bomb.”
”Oh shoot, I forgot which way I came…” Ethan says.
”No problem! Aegis Launcher is fighting right now, so his radiance will be easy to find. Just follow me,” Keiko says.

******

Indeed he is fighting. Johann, finally having remembered that sixteen year old girls have more HP than he does, has decided to put some distance between himself and Helga. As of the moment, he’s made a medium sized Foie in his spare hand. He clasps his palm into a fist and the fireball is squeezed like putty. Taking one step forward, he throws the Foie like a javelin straight at Helga’s head. She tilts her head a little to the side and it whizzes right by into the wall which it bores through.
”Maybe it’s just how I think, but maybe a beast like you should use something that relies a little less on precision and more on splash damage?” Helga says as she has a look at the hole in the wall behind her.
”Tch” is Johann’s response. Stubborn as he is, he makes another Foie javelin and throws it again. This time, Helga starts moving towards him and merely ducks beneath it on her way over. So, Johann makes another and throws it, aiming for one of her feet. She leaps over just where it would hit her in her stride and brings her blades down on Johann’s head. With an excuse to melee, Johann thrusts his rapier overhead and strikes one of the Tiga de Ragan exactly on its point. Smirking, he flash freezes the weapons together again and makes one more Foie javelin.
”Let’s see you dodge it at this range,” he says as he tugs Helga back to the ground and gets ready to drop the Foie on her head. As he brings his arm down though, Helga uses her other sword to take a swipe at it, forcing him to pull it back. A small spurt of blood fires from his wrist and the technic in its hand disperses as Johann winces in pain.
With that, Helga smacks the ice with the back of her hand and snaps the weapons apart like a wishbone. With a black trail following her sword, she slashes at Johann who wisely jumps back to avoid getting cut in twain. “Satisfied?” she asks.
Johann rotates his wrist to test its functioning after getting cut. It works fine, ignoring the blood that’s staining his favorite coat. “That’s right, those blades bypass the line shield. Can’t afford to trade blows,” he thinks. Johann dashes forward and thrusts at Helga’s foot, which she, of course, pulls away. Instead of pulling back though, Johann calls a Nosdiga from the point in the ground his rapier hit. The snake surges upward from the floor and snaps at Helga who stumbles to back away. Bracing herself with one last step, she jams one sword into the technic’s maw and holds its charge where she stands.
”Heh,” Johann says. With that, the Nosdiga begins to spew Damdiga from its mouth, flooding Helga’s face with a poisonous drool. She pulls her sword away and staggers out of the poison’s effect, clutching her throat. She turns one eye up to the chuckling Johann and snarls as her hair falls out of place over her head.
Feeling pretty good, Johann folds his arms and admires his handiwork. Unfortunately for him though, he takes a split second to blink, and in that second, Helga has disappeared from where she was hobbled over, leaving only a wisp of smoke. Johann raises an eyebrow and starts to look for where she got off to. Lucky for him, he decides to look left first and sees Helga about to slice right through his neck. His face curls up with urgency as casts another Nosdiga to shoot up from the ground to act as a wedge between the two blades that were about to take his head.
With an open shot, Johann thrusts with Shousen Totsuzan-ga, but gets an anticlimactic result when the drilling white rapier meets with Helga’s line shield and does no damage to the hexes. Those hexes, though, then explode in a display of blinding white light and the Regrants sends Helga tumbling backwards on the ground. Johann wastes no time in tossing another Foie at her flailing form, and curses when he succeeds in hitting nothing but smoke.
”You have pretty good reactions,” Helga says from several yards behind Johann.
”I regularly spar with someone who likes to spam that teleportation garbage even more than you do, so it seems I’ve been saved by my previous experience with this,” Johann says. “Tch, seems I have to be thankful for father’s hellish training. Again. Ugh.”
”I don’t get though,” she says as she meanders around her spot.
”She’s buying time for the poison to subside. Well, it’ll give me time to sew up this cut on my wrist. I guess I’ll play along,” he thinks. “Get what?” he asks.
”You’re trying so hard to win, even though you were beaten so badly on Moatoob.”
”Eh? Sure, you beat me in Boisets. But that was then. This is now,” Johann says as he lowers his wand. “You would be stupid to assume that I’m the same today as I was yesterday. To assume I’m the same today as I was three weeks ago is just the height of stupidity.”
”See, that’s exactly what I don’t get,” Helga says as she starts walking forward. “People can’t change nearly as much as they think they can. There’s only so much you can be, after all. We both know how this fight is going to end; we had it once already.”
A black dot appears before Helga and it quickly collapses into a much larger sphere. It grows in pulses, like a heartbeat, and soon, Helga has a giant globe of Megid with an eye at its center. She kicks it off at Johann and he just frowns as it comes at him. Just like last time, he raises one hand to hold its surge and finds himself struggling to do so very fast. He curses and brings up his other hand to assist. This time, he smirks as the Megid begins to shrink while he holds his ground.
Once it’s gone, Johann pops a cigarette and through narrowed eyes, says, “the goal of a life well lived is to strive to be more tomorrow than you were today. Trash that can’t understand something that elementary should just die and quit wasting my oxygen.”
A flash of anger comes over Helga’s face and she warps right in front of Johann. Still with the cigarette in his mouth, Johann raises his rapier and holds it steady as Helga takes wild slashes at him. “You think you’re so damn special, don’t you?! Freaking hell, you piss me off so much!” she yells as each of her strikes causes Johann’s grip on his wand to falter.
”Special is the last thing I want to be,” he says as the cage on the Save the Maiden turns blue. Johann crouches as another swing comes his way. Helga lets out a quizzical grunt, but lets her slash connect against his rapier anyway. He gets sent skidding back at breakneck speed along an ice trail he made behind himself. Now with a vast distance between himself and Helga, Johann stands up and says, “I’m just an ordinary man who makes the most of his body and wits.” With that, he tosses one more Foie javelin at Helga.
”What a load…” she murmurs as she takes a single step backwards to avoid the projectile. It hits the floor, but instead of boring through, it explodes and envelops her in deluge of smoke. She moves quickly to get out of the cloud and just as she steps out, her arm is sharply tugged away from her. “The hell?”
”Checkmate,” Johann says as he lets go of her arm. Helga narrows her eyes as she tries to figure out what just happened, but it quickly becomes apparent as one of her hexes snaps into a hard panel of light, followed by another and another, until she’s trapped in a cage of her own shield.
”Dammit…” she says as the cage comes up around her. “Tch, this is the same thing you used on Penelope, isn’t it? How long do you expect this to hold me?”
”Hold you? I said it already. Ambitionless trash like you,” he says as his trap detonator melts into his free hand, “should just die.” Helga’s eyes go wide and she immediately looks down to see a trap at her feet; just in time to watch it explode.
”…There’s only so much that a person can be?” Johann says as he looks at the giant cloud of smoke. “Bullshit.”
”Jo-sei!” Keiko says. Ah, there’s that power of plot convenience at work. Keiko comes running into the room, followed by Ethan and Laia who are just jogging. “Are you okay?”
”Lovely,” Johann says. He looks up and smiles when he sees Dr. Tomrain on Laia’s back. “Oh, hello professor. It’s been a while.”
”Mr. Launcher, I’m-“
”It’s doctor, now,” Johann says.
”I’m so sorry you all came here to rescue me. This is all just so much of a waste,” Dr. Tomrain says as he buries his face in his hands.
”I’ve called the Landeel, but I’m not sure we can make it out in time,” Ethan says with a grimace.
”There must be less than a minute remaining now…” Dr. Tomrain says.
”Oh, I suppose that’s what she meant when she said we had a few minutes,” Johann says. “Hmm, well, anyway, let’s go. No one make any sudden movements; I haven’t practiced this technic very much.” Before anyone can ask any questions, Johann snaps his fingers and everyone vanishes in a twinkle of light.

*****

That same twinkle of light appears on the bridge of the Landeel and Johann steps calmly out from his. The others tumble violently onto the ground. It goes without saying that everyone, especially the two rogues piloting the Landeel, are horribly confused by what just happened. But, that takes a temporary backseat to the colossal roar of the explosion in the background.
”Let’s see, everyone appears to have all their limbs. No horrible hybrid mutations either. That was a pretty good Hinas, assuming all your organs check out,” Johann says. He looks at his wand and sighs, seeing the multiple cracks running through the ruined cage and discards it into his nano.”
”You’re just full of nifty tricks, Johann,” Ethan says as he gets up. “Thanks for your help.” He offers his hand to Johann who just stares blankly at it until Ethan sighs and retracts it. “Well, still, thanks. And thank you too Tylor!”
”No problem at all…” the tall beast at the head of the bridge says. With his hands on his hips, he looks over his sudden infusion of cargo and just shrugs. “You found what you were looking for?”
”Yup, we got the doctor,” Ethan says.
”But they’ve already learned how to build the Sochee. They’re certain to have started mass production,” Dr. Tomrain says. “It has the capability to kill millions and I built it for them anyway. They said they’d release the SEED virus on Parum if I didn’t, but…”
”You don’t have to talk like that,” Ethan says, “it’s not your fault. The Illuminus is the only thing to blame here, and we’ll fight them right to the end.”
”You’re too kind to me Mr. Waber,” he says. “All of you are. But thank you.”
”Ethan’s right! The Illuminus don’t belong in Gurhal at all,” Keiko says. “We’ll defeat them no matter what it takes and I’ll drag Hauser in front of the graves of everyone who’s died and make him apologize!”
”That’s what you call spirit! But you might not get the chance to drag Hauser around, Keiko, if I get to him first!” Laia says. The three of them pump their fists at once, and then look to Johann who is looking on with a cigarette in his mouth.
”Huh? Oh, erm, sure. We’ll do our best,” he says.
”You’re killing the mood Jo-sei!” Keiko says.
”Oh, and Aegis Seisha?” Ethan says. “I want to say I’m sorry, about what happened in Mizuraki I mean-“
”Oh, forget that!” Keiko says, throwing one hand in the air. “Just a misunderstanding; we’re all on the same side, so I forgive you. Jo-sei forgives you too.” Keiko looks up at Johann who returns a furrowed brow. “Forgive him Jo-sei.”
”Do I have to?”
”This is an imperial order! Obey your princess!”
”Tch…Light help us all at your coronation,” he says. “Very well, if Keiko doesn’t bear you any grudge, then I suppose I have no reason to either.”
”Thanks, both of you,” Ethan says.
”Where are you going to go now, Ethan?” Laia says, with a much softer tone than she’s been addressing him. “If you want back into the Guardians-“
”Not yet. There are some benefits to being a rogue that are helping me out,” he says, “right, Tylor?”
”Yeah, but you’re not one of us. You’ll go back, eventually,” he says.
”Maybe, but until then, I have to ask you guys to fill in.”
”Fill in? I’ve been doing this garbage since before you could tell the sharp end of a sword from your arse, you little-“ Johann manages to say before Keiko pinches his nose.
”No problem!”

~~~~~~

Next time, a history lesson.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Ah-ha.

Also, I'm gonna use a post in your thread to post these since I did it before anyway.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN0C1OVv8Gk


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ttrp93lJ-8


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVXnG1HU360


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyNxw5Xi06U

[Magus_84]

While I'd like to think that "trapped, then trap go boom" is going to be the end of Helga...I should probably play more of story mode to see if she pops back up. >_>

Anyway. I'm looking forward to more. Story mode almost picks up enough to be interesting in-game after the bit we just covered, so I'm sure your take on it will be great, seeing as how you've managed to make even the boring parts good so far.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Belated Merry Xmas, and also X where.

[Magus_84]

Same, on both counts.

Keiko, do you still play PSU?

[Keiko_Seisha]

Same, on both counts.

Keiko, do you still play PSU?

Nopes, I would... But, I haven't felt like they (Sega) have done enough.

I play Aion though, and I have been playin PSP2. (Which has kept me off Aion for a bit)

[Magus_84]

First to post in the topic in 2010, woo.

I may come back to PSU for a bit if we ever get the Supplemental Update, but I dunno.

I assume X has died/been eaten by Aion again?

[Magus_84]

And second post of 2010.

[Magus_84]

Third. :(