X_Launcher
Mar 1, 2003, 09:24 PM
*Hi. After doing a *lot* of reading in a sticky thread, I've gathered that I post fiction here, and if it's good enough, it gets uploaded into the gallery. So, here it is. This is chapter one of, you guessed it, Destiny's Crossing. It's an action/adventure story first and foremost. If want to read some embellishment of battle, you're in the right place. Of course, there's a good plot to provide a reason for all the mayhem. And, the obligatory love sub-plot will rear its ugly head in future chapters. Now, I've typed enough, so, press Start.*
Destiny's Crossing
Chapter 1
The Reckless Dreamer
In a brightly lit lecture hall sit twenty eight aspiring students of some sort. As in any lecture hall, the seats in front are the lowest and elevate towards the back of the room. It can be safely assumed that class hasn't started upon observing the lack of a teacher and the chatting going amongst students. Once a woman walks in from a door perpendicular to the rows of seats, quiet immediately conquers the room. The woman proudly displays her tanned body, wearing only a tight blue pair of denim shorts and a light blue tank top that looks two sizes too small. Walking on her white knee length boots, she gets behind her desk at the front of the room and sits down on the white floating chair that spontaneously forms behind her.
"He?s late."
In the classic fashion of any good hero, the sounds of dashing feet can be heard just a little bit outside the door. As the sounds come to an end, a young man appears in the doorway, hunched over using his knees for support, obviously short of breath. His long, straight, black hair is flipped over his head and obscures the front of his body until he whips his head up. The hair gives way to a lithe, barely built frame clad in black spandex with complementary blue sections. Like all HUmars, his left arm is armored in a gauntlet.
"Sorry!"
The boy gets the syllables out in less than a second, bowing furiously the entire time. The teacher sighs, exasperated and brings her right hand up to her face. She removes the white hair covering the right side of her face, revealing an eye patch. Looking at the boy intently, she states...
"I would ask why you're late, but truth to tell, I really don't care. Sit down, Yuri."
'Yuri', as he's apparently named, blinks, then shakes his head shrugging off the incident. Confirming that all are present, the woman gets up from her seat and walks in front of the desk.
"Today is your final exam; the one that determines whether or not you've actually learned anything these past few months. It's simple really; you'll go through VR Castle Beta and Final-"
Groans abound the room as soon as the words 'VR Castle' leave the teacher's lips. The woman smirks inwardly, continuing as if she heard nothing."-using everything you've learned to get to and defeat the Ruv Dragon. You'll go in pairs."
Instantly, the students, Forces and Rangers, in the room converse among another, pairing themselves up in the best manner possible. Well, all of them except Yuri, who is being avoided, like the plague. Maybe they're afraid the lone HUmar will steal all the rares. In any case, by the time pairing is complete; Yuri is all by his lonesome. The rest of the class leaves for the VR simulators while Yuri lays his head on the table. The teacher looks on, internally debating something.
'According to the rules, he's supposed to go alone...but...'
The teacher walks up the steps to Yuri's desk, and raises her arm to lightly touch his shoulder. Before she can do that however, the hunter hops to his feet, fully recovered from the attack on his self esteem.
"All right, fine! I'll show 'em! I'll show them good!"
Yuri lets out a determined breath of air, runs a hand through his hair and runs for the door. His teacher can only raise an eyebrow and follow him to the testing area.
********
Inside a confined room with dozens of VR capsules, twenty nine kids are either engaged, or are preparing to engage their final exam. Yuri arrives a bit late, but quickly finds a capsule in the back of the dimly lit room. Finding that the data for his exam has already been entered, he slams his right fist into his left palm and opens the glass lid of his capsule. After his opens, the sound of another opening capsule catches his attention and eyes. Seeing his teacher enter a capsule, he simply figures she's occupying herself in VR Spaceship or someplace.
"Well, now or never."
Yuri smirks as he lies down in his tube, almost enjoying the feeling of such tight spaces. The lid closes and his mind is soon whisked away to a place far from reality...
********
"Agh..."
Inside a traditional stone wall castle, the hunter gets a bearing on his surroundings. Getting up from the floor, he picks out his position in the castle, more or less familiar with the place. Spying several suits of armor hung on the walls and racks of weapons, he correctly deduces that he's in the armory. He shifts his weight onto his right leg, puts his hands at his hips and bends his torso to look at the ground.
"Damn...I just had to start at the farthest point from the courtyard...oh well."
Yuri redistributes his weight and begins his trek through the dungeon. But, before he can exit through the door in front of him?
"Yuri." The subject of that sentence turns around to see his teacher teleporting into the armory, just like he did a few seconds ago. He jumps back a bit, but quickly recovers from his surprise. Seeing that Yuri is awaiting an explanation?
"I'll be your support on this test. Anything aside from battle is your responsibility."
Yuri rubs the back of his head, arching his back backwards a bit. He nods with a smile, obviously happy that he won't have to do this alone.
"Uh, thank you Miss Snowlie-"
"You'll fall asleep if you have to call me that throughout this entire deathtrap. While we're on the field, you may call me Blake."
Yuri's wincing eyes show his discomfort with using his teacher?s first name. Trying to get adjusted, he runs into the next room without saying a word. Blake shakes her head amusedly and follows through the automatic steel doors.
The next room isn't a room at all, but a hallway with a red velvet carpet. Chandeliers dot the way forward through the labyrinth. With nothing but an open path, the two break into a jog, moving at a decent clip. During this jog, Yuri gets around to taking out his weapon. He casually removes an orange box, about the size of his pinkie, clipped to his right sleeve. Being squeezed, the box creates a cloud of photons about it and is replaced by Slicer. Holding the Slicer's handle firmly, Yuri smirks, ready to slice something in two.
"So, you picked a Slicer."
"Yeah! This thing's great; I can hit so many things in one go, so it's okay if it's a bit weak."
"..." Blake follows suit with her own orange box and equips her Claymore. If he could, Yuri would probably sweatdrop at the sight of a 5'10 female holding a red blade bigger than she is. But, since he can't, he returns his attention to the path, just in time to notice a fork in the hallway and the ever lovable sound of monsters teleporting in for a fight.
"Okay, Sharks. This'll be no sweat-"
Yuri gets cut off by his own surprise when he actually gets a look at his enemies. Instead the usual Sharks, he's facing the horrid shapes of Vulmers. The overgrown moles roar in content of finding a meal and lurch their way over. Blake narrows her eyes at the creatures, trying to make sense of what's going on.
"Vulmers...why is the simulator set to Ultimate?!"
Blake runs forward and begins to slash away in an effort to slow the beasts. Having only three to deal with, she's holding her own quite well. The Vulmers are grouped together, so she opts for side to side slashes to catch them all in single hits. One would think Yuri would be rather useless in this fight, but the faint blue and red ether hanging in the air around the Vulmers proves otherwise. After having Jellen and Zalure cast on them, the Vulmers look short of breath; well, as short of breath as mutated monsters can look anyway.
Blake is appreciative of the breather as evidenced by her short retreat from attack. But at the same time, she's a little annoyed at the fact that Yuri has no clue what he's dealing with.
"Yuri, no! Get away from here! These things are far beyond your level!" Yuri shakes his head and readies his Slicer.
"No...I'm staying. If this is the test they programmed, then hell, I'm passing it! So they're a little uglier than Sharks; big deal. They're also dumber."
And with that confident boast, the HUmar swings his Slicer from underneath, maintaining a tight grip on it the entire way. A small wave of green photon releases itself from the Slicer and towards the Vulmers. It hits the Vulmer in front, doing practically no damage, but bounces off to hit a second Vulmer...and does no damage. Yuri cusses beneath his breath and considers a new avenue of attack.
"What are you going to-"
Blake is cut off by Yuri?s dash into the enemy mob. Grunting in annoyance, she runs after him, wondering whether to prepare Resta or Reverser. As Yuri runs in close, he swaps his Slicer for a pair of Knives. He dives into the back, and lands in a crouch. As a Vulmer takes a swipe, Yuri guides his momentum to continue his forward course. The Vulmer ends up hitting another Vulmer. That Vulmer retaliates, but misses and hits the third Vulmer. Blake watches in amazement as Yuri's plan works out perfectly and the Vulmers kill one another.
"See? Stupid. You said once that Altered Beasts are blind and rely on smell to catch prey. But, once they were attacked, they simply retaliate against the nearest target." Yuri jogs back over, swapping his Knives for his Slicer again.
"You remembered that? And here I thought all you did was sleep in class."
"..."
********
Close to an hour later, Yuri and Blake have outsmarted a few dozen Vulmers, Govulmers, Melqueeks, Canudes, Mil Lilies, and Hildetorrs. Not bad for an hour's work. Granted, Yuri's had Resta cast on him about fifteen or sixteen times, but all in all, it's been a good run. But, throughout the run, they encounter grave markers of all the fallen students that have taken the exam today. From the looks of it, some people didn?t even get past the entrance. Upon encountering those of some of his classmates, he remarks?
"The hell? What kind of test has a 99% failure rate?!"
********
To get an answer to Yuri's question, the scene switches to a chamber similar to that of the Principal; a long path leading to a standing desk. The only real differences are that there are no aides, the room is dark, and the figure standing behind the bright red desk is dressed in a military uniform. A woman, also dressed in military wear is whisked into the room by the teleport and walks over to the woman.
"Colonel. Phase 1 is nearly complete. Almost all the Jugend students have failed their exam and we?ve already issued the order to the Hunters' Guild to cease the commissioning of new hunters."
"Excellent Lieutenant. I expect nothing less of you. ...You said 'almost'."
"Well, yes...it seems that one pair is still active in the VR Simulator. It's no matter really. The Ruv Dragon will finish them both. When set to Ultimate, even Red Ring Rico herself couldn?t have overcome the dragon."
"Hmm...very well. I leave it in your hands. On another matter, how goes Dr. Catalonia's project."
"He says he'll have a demonstration ready by today."
"Wonderful. This is going better than I dared hope!"
********
Now, Yuri's staring at a boss teleporter. He takes a moment to consider what he's been through to get here; then he considers that the boss of any VR simulation will put him through 10 times that. Swallowing his fear with an audible gulp, Yuri steps into the field, as does Blake. Instantly, they're taken to the courtyard of the castle. It's a sunny day in VR land, and a nice day to be outside, surrounded by four, gray stone walls. The courtyard is filled with annoying obstructions like trees and such.
"Here it comes!"
Blake points up to the sky from which the Ruv Dragon is flying in from. Yuri and Blake run from their spots in order to avoid the shock of the dragon?s landing. Since the programmers were lazy, the Ruv Dragon is essentially a palette swapped Dragon, but bears some new features. The dragon, being much larger than either hunter, is a dull shade of yellow. Instead of two wings, it has four, making for an X formation.
"That Hunter?s License is mine!"
Yuri, drunk on adrenaline, switches to his blue Knives yet again and runs in wildly at the dragon. The dragon obliges by slowly stomping forth at Yuri to meet him. Blake follows, trying to manage her cumbersome Claymore by cradling it in both hands. Once Yuri comes in close, the dragon opens up its mouth and lets loose a stream of purple lightning. It waves its head back and forth, trying to hit the furiously maneuvering Yuri. The hunters dive roll underneath the dragon's attacking arc in typical fashion, and get into position to strike the legs.
Yuri goes into a furious dance, trying to sever the dragon's Achilles? tendon, but is making little progress. The dragon stops its stream and begins its warpath again. Yuri and Blake back flip in order to get away from the stomping feet.
"Yuri, we won't win if we keep up this pitiful rate of damage."
"You're awfully calm about it!"
Yuri looks up to the dragon, noting its eyes. Its eyes are focused on Yuri, just seconds before it lets loose with another electric stream. He easily jumps it, but not before he has an epiphany. Smirking, his Knives give way to his Slicer as he comes to a landing on the side of the dragon's stream. Blake is firing off Gibarta like there's no tomorrow, but is doing nothing to distract the dragon.
"Have to pull this off just right..."
Yuri flings his Slicer's projectile sideways, causing it to attack the dragon from, well, the side. The wave flies just in front of the dragon's eyes, slicing its sensitive irises. The dragon abruptly halts its stream to rear back in pain, pulling its head up. During this time, Yuri scrambles up the dragon's leg, across its body, and clings to the base of a wing, suspended right under the dragon's long neck. His hair swishes back and forth as he gains a fix on his target. Having decided where to strike, Yuri releases his right hand from the dragon's neck and hangs on his left. Gripping his knife tight, he shoves it into the dragon's neck, striking its jugular artery. Apparently, the dragon's blood is under a few tons of pressure seeing as the ensuing shower of blood tears the small wound open into a tear the size of Yuri himself.
"That wasn't so-"
Yuri takes note of the fact that the Ruv Dragon is now plummeting to its side. To be more specific, it's falling to the left, where Blake still is. She's trying to escape the beast's eclipse, but isn't making good time. Knowing she won't make it, Yuri grabs hold of the dragon's neck with both hands and hoists himself up to a stance on it. Not skipping a breath, he leaps from it, aiming himself at his instructor, easily knocking her out of the way. But, he's too slow to get out of the way himself and is crushed under the weight of the falling dragon. Luckily, it's only a VR simulation. Still, Blake, pushing herself off the ground, is somewhat distraught by the dancing sparkles of light that represent Yuri's data.
"If he just hadn't..."
********
Back in reality, a boy awakes rather abruptly inside his capsule. The glass lid slowly opens, allowing him exit. He sighs heavily, running both hands through his hair while shutting his eyes tight. He gets out and slouches, turning his head to the capsule he just came from. Moments later, Blake emerges from her capsule and immediately walks to her pupil.
"It's okay! You succeeded where everyone else failed. Your mistake may have cost you the test, but you'll do great next time!"
Her voice has a forced enthusiasm in it, as if she's never expressed it before in her life. Yuri considers her words and erects his stance, feeling just a little better. He nods and starts his way out of the room. As he makes it out the door with Blake in tow, however, a man in standard military wear shuts the door behind them. Taking note of Blake's presence, the man hands her a note and leaves for other business. Blake, with a quizzical expression on her face, opens up the folded note and reads what ends up being an official notice. As she reads, her face shows escalating signs of anger. Eventually, Yuri has to tap Blake on the shoulder to get her to come back to reality.
"Closed?!! What the hell do they mean, 'closed'?!!"
"Huzzah?"
Blake finishes reading and furiously throws the paper 30 feet away. It's an impressive distance for an unfolded sheet of tree filling to be thrown.
"By order of the military, Jugend is closed. Indefinitely!"
"...I?m sorry, what? How am I gonna take my retest?!"
"...They suggest that any hunters still enrolled should?join the military?!"
Yuri's bottom lip begins to quiver as all of this slowly sinks in. Before Blake can even try to console him, he?s broken into a run to god knows where.
********
Hours later, Blake can be found running around the commercial district of Pioneer 2. The buildings are bunched together in blocks, just like they were back on Coral. She runs, looking ahead the entire time, suggesting that she knows where she's going. After crossing several streets and using an outdoor escalator to reach the upper deck of the city, she arrives at the Hunters' Guild. The place is as it always is; sterile looking white room with a woman at blue attending the front desk. But, today, it comes with an addition of one teenage boy looking out the wide window into a beautiful blue sky.
"Yuri."
Yuri turns his head in time to see Blake walking up from behind and joining him at the window. Acknowledging her presence, he returns his attention to the view.
"Yuri...may I ask you something?"
"...Go ahead."
"You always seemed so distracted in my class...as if you were daydreaming. What did you dream of?"
Yuri's eyes narrow a bit as he considers an answer. He looks to his left, as if to make sure Blake is still there, then looks out the window again.
"I was imagining...life as a Hunter. I know it seems corny, but that's the truth."
"Huh...what about being a Hunter?"
"A lot of things...but mostly, I thought of the adventure."
"The adventure?"
"Yeah...not knowing what'll happen around that next corner...what new monster will pop out of the ground...I get a rush from it in the VR simulator, so I figure it'll be even better in real life!"
"...What if you died?"
"I'd worry about it when it happens. No point in wondering how you?re going to spend money you don't have, right?"
"Give me your hand. I've made a decision."
Yuri pulls back a bit, a bit puzzled by the request, but then holds his right gloved hand out. Blake places her right hand on top of it, and holds it there for a moment. She removes it and leaves behind a small, thin circular disc in Yuri's hand. Upon recognizing the shape, Yuri's lips slowly and uncontrollably curve into an open mouth grin.
"I did some thinking...had I moved out of the way, you would've passed the test that had been tampered with against your favor. Under normal conditions, you should be wearing that Section ID clip right now. It's highly unorthodox, but-"
The white haired newman gets cut off when Yuri grabs both her hands and engages in a little dance with her. Well, if you consider a continuous up and down motion that usually signals needing to go potty a 'dance'. Blake manages to settle him down to a conversational level by pulling down on his hands.
"You're a Hunter now, so no mistakes."
"Right, no-"
As he was saying that, he was about to attach his new clip to the recess in his chest. As he was doing that, he spied a look at just what his section I was. Blake looks at him, waiting to address his concern. Finally acknowledging that his eyes are okay, he holds up the clip and brings up his head.
"It?s pink."
"Yes, that's Pinkal. That's what your name, 'Yuri', turns out."
Yuri brings his ID in front of his face and tries to see if there's anyway he can change his outfit around to match this flamboyant accessory. Of course, he finds none.
"But...pink is a girly color..."
By the time he looks up again, he finds Blake all of two centimeters from his face with a passive expression on her face. The dense little moron can only chuckle nervously as he tries to widen the gap between them.
"It would be a shame for you to suffer serious injury on your first day as a hunter, don't you think?"
Yuri nods his agreement, much to the satisfaction of his former instructor. She turns on her heel and walks out the door, affording Yuri a very advantageous view of certain...assets.
"Hey, Blake, where will you go now?"
"I'm a hunter now. Just like you."
And with that, Blake leaves the room, leaving Yuri all by himself to look out the window and his new ID clip. He stares at the fruity color of it a bit longer before he affixes it onto his chest. Looking down at it, he smiles, remembering what it represents.
"It's not so bad."
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: X_Launcher on 2003-03-01 18:29 ]</font>
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: X_Launcher on 2003-03-01 18:47 ]</font>
Destiny's Crossing
Chapter 1
The Reckless Dreamer
In a brightly lit lecture hall sit twenty eight aspiring students of some sort. As in any lecture hall, the seats in front are the lowest and elevate towards the back of the room. It can be safely assumed that class hasn't started upon observing the lack of a teacher and the chatting going amongst students. Once a woman walks in from a door perpendicular to the rows of seats, quiet immediately conquers the room. The woman proudly displays her tanned body, wearing only a tight blue pair of denim shorts and a light blue tank top that looks two sizes too small. Walking on her white knee length boots, she gets behind her desk at the front of the room and sits down on the white floating chair that spontaneously forms behind her.
"He?s late."
In the classic fashion of any good hero, the sounds of dashing feet can be heard just a little bit outside the door. As the sounds come to an end, a young man appears in the doorway, hunched over using his knees for support, obviously short of breath. His long, straight, black hair is flipped over his head and obscures the front of his body until he whips his head up. The hair gives way to a lithe, barely built frame clad in black spandex with complementary blue sections. Like all HUmars, his left arm is armored in a gauntlet.
"Sorry!"
The boy gets the syllables out in less than a second, bowing furiously the entire time. The teacher sighs, exasperated and brings her right hand up to her face. She removes the white hair covering the right side of her face, revealing an eye patch. Looking at the boy intently, she states...
"I would ask why you're late, but truth to tell, I really don't care. Sit down, Yuri."
'Yuri', as he's apparently named, blinks, then shakes his head shrugging off the incident. Confirming that all are present, the woman gets up from her seat and walks in front of the desk.
"Today is your final exam; the one that determines whether or not you've actually learned anything these past few months. It's simple really; you'll go through VR Castle Beta and Final-"
Groans abound the room as soon as the words 'VR Castle' leave the teacher's lips. The woman smirks inwardly, continuing as if she heard nothing."-using everything you've learned to get to and defeat the Ruv Dragon. You'll go in pairs."
Instantly, the students, Forces and Rangers, in the room converse among another, pairing themselves up in the best manner possible. Well, all of them except Yuri, who is being avoided, like the plague. Maybe they're afraid the lone HUmar will steal all the rares. In any case, by the time pairing is complete; Yuri is all by his lonesome. The rest of the class leaves for the VR simulators while Yuri lays his head on the table. The teacher looks on, internally debating something.
'According to the rules, he's supposed to go alone...but...'
The teacher walks up the steps to Yuri's desk, and raises her arm to lightly touch his shoulder. Before she can do that however, the hunter hops to his feet, fully recovered from the attack on his self esteem.
"All right, fine! I'll show 'em! I'll show them good!"
Yuri lets out a determined breath of air, runs a hand through his hair and runs for the door. His teacher can only raise an eyebrow and follow him to the testing area.
********
Inside a confined room with dozens of VR capsules, twenty nine kids are either engaged, or are preparing to engage their final exam. Yuri arrives a bit late, but quickly finds a capsule in the back of the dimly lit room. Finding that the data for his exam has already been entered, he slams his right fist into his left palm and opens the glass lid of his capsule. After his opens, the sound of another opening capsule catches his attention and eyes. Seeing his teacher enter a capsule, he simply figures she's occupying herself in VR Spaceship or someplace.
"Well, now or never."
Yuri smirks as he lies down in his tube, almost enjoying the feeling of such tight spaces. The lid closes and his mind is soon whisked away to a place far from reality...
********
"Agh..."
Inside a traditional stone wall castle, the hunter gets a bearing on his surroundings. Getting up from the floor, he picks out his position in the castle, more or less familiar with the place. Spying several suits of armor hung on the walls and racks of weapons, he correctly deduces that he's in the armory. He shifts his weight onto his right leg, puts his hands at his hips and bends his torso to look at the ground.
"Damn...I just had to start at the farthest point from the courtyard...oh well."
Yuri redistributes his weight and begins his trek through the dungeon. But, before he can exit through the door in front of him?
"Yuri." The subject of that sentence turns around to see his teacher teleporting into the armory, just like he did a few seconds ago. He jumps back a bit, but quickly recovers from his surprise. Seeing that Yuri is awaiting an explanation?
"I'll be your support on this test. Anything aside from battle is your responsibility."
Yuri rubs the back of his head, arching his back backwards a bit. He nods with a smile, obviously happy that he won't have to do this alone.
"Uh, thank you Miss Snowlie-"
"You'll fall asleep if you have to call me that throughout this entire deathtrap. While we're on the field, you may call me Blake."
Yuri's wincing eyes show his discomfort with using his teacher?s first name. Trying to get adjusted, he runs into the next room without saying a word. Blake shakes her head amusedly and follows through the automatic steel doors.
The next room isn't a room at all, but a hallway with a red velvet carpet. Chandeliers dot the way forward through the labyrinth. With nothing but an open path, the two break into a jog, moving at a decent clip. During this jog, Yuri gets around to taking out his weapon. He casually removes an orange box, about the size of his pinkie, clipped to his right sleeve. Being squeezed, the box creates a cloud of photons about it and is replaced by Slicer. Holding the Slicer's handle firmly, Yuri smirks, ready to slice something in two.
"So, you picked a Slicer."
"Yeah! This thing's great; I can hit so many things in one go, so it's okay if it's a bit weak."
"..." Blake follows suit with her own orange box and equips her Claymore. If he could, Yuri would probably sweatdrop at the sight of a 5'10 female holding a red blade bigger than she is. But, since he can't, he returns his attention to the path, just in time to notice a fork in the hallway and the ever lovable sound of monsters teleporting in for a fight.
"Okay, Sharks. This'll be no sweat-"
Yuri gets cut off by his own surprise when he actually gets a look at his enemies. Instead the usual Sharks, he's facing the horrid shapes of Vulmers. The overgrown moles roar in content of finding a meal and lurch their way over. Blake narrows her eyes at the creatures, trying to make sense of what's going on.
"Vulmers...why is the simulator set to Ultimate?!"
Blake runs forward and begins to slash away in an effort to slow the beasts. Having only three to deal with, she's holding her own quite well. The Vulmers are grouped together, so she opts for side to side slashes to catch them all in single hits. One would think Yuri would be rather useless in this fight, but the faint blue and red ether hanging in the air around the Vulmers proves otherwise. After having Jellen and Zalure cast on them, the Vulmers look short of breath; well, as short of breath as mutated monsters can look anyway.
Blake is appreciative of the breather as evidenced by her short retreat from attack. But at the same time, she's a little annoyed at the fact that Yuri has no clue what he's dealing with.
"Yuri, no! Get away from here! These things are far beyond your level!" Yuri shakes his head and readies his Slicer.
"No...I'm staying. If this is the test they programmed, then hell, I'm passing it! So they're a little uglier than Sharks; big deal. They're also dumber."
And with that confident boast, the HUmar swings his Slicer from underneath, maintaining a tight grip on it the entire way. A small wave of green photon releases itself from the Slicer and towards the Vulmers. It hits the Vulmer in front, doing practically no damage, but bounces off to hit a second Vulmer...and does no damage. Yuri cusses beneath his breath and considers a new avenue of attack.
"What are you going to-"
Blake is cut off by Yuri?s dash into the enemy mob. Grunting in annoyance, she runs after him, wondering whether to prepare Resta or Reverser. As Yuri runs in close, he swaps his Slicer for a pair of Knives. He dives into the back, and lands in a crouch. As a Vulmer takes a swipe, Yuri guides his momentum to continue his forward course. The Vulmer ends up hitting another Vulmer. That Vulmer retaliates, but misses and hits the third Vulmer. Blake watches in amazement as Yuri's plan works out perfectly and the Vulmers kill one another.
"See? Stupid. You said once that Altered Beasts are blind and rely on smell to catch prey. But, once they were attacked, they simply retaliate against the nearest target." Yuri jogs back over, swapping his Knives for his Slicer again.
"You remembered that? And here I thought all you did was sleep in class."
"..."
********
Close to an hour later, Yuri and Blake have outsmarted a few dozen Vulmers, Govulmers, Melqueeks, Canudes, Mil Lilies, and Hildetorrs. Not bad for an hour's work. Granted, Yuri's had Resta cast on him about fifteen or sixteen times, but all in all, it's been a good run. But, throughout the run, they encounter grave markers of all the fallen students that have taken the exam today. From the looks of it, some people didn?t even get past the entrance. Upon encountering those of some of his classmates, he remarks?
"The hell? What kind of test has a 99% failure rate?!"
********
To get an answer to Yuri's question, the scene switches to a chamber similar to that of the Principal; a long path leading to a standing desk. The only real differences are that there are no aides, the room is dark, and the figure standing behind the bright red desk is dressed in a military uniform. A woman, also dressed in military wear is whisked into the room by the teleport and walks over to the woman.
"Colonel. Phase 1 is nearly complete. Almost all the Jugend students have failed their exam and we?ve already issued the order to the Hunters' Guild to cease the commissioning of new hunters."
"Excellent Lieutenant. I expect nothing less of you. ...You said 'almost'."
"Well, yes...it seems that one pair is still active in the VR Simulator. It's no matter really. The Ruv Dragon will finish them both. When set to Ultimate, even Red Ring Rico herself couldn?t have overcome the dragon."
"Hmm...very well. I leave it in your hands. On another matter, how goes Dr. Catalonia's project."
"He says he'll have a demonstration ready by today."
"Wonderful. This is going better than I dared hope!"
********
Now, Yuri's staring at a boss teleporter. He takes a moment to consider what he's been through to get here; then he considers that the boss of any VR simulation will put him through 10 times that. Swallowing his fear with an audible gulp, Yuri steps into the field, as does Blake. Instantly, they're taken to the courtyard of the castle. It's a sunny day in VR land, and a nice day to be outside, surrounded by four, gray stone walls. The courtyard is filled with annoying obstructions like trees and such.
"Here it comes!"
Blake points up to the sky from which the Ruv Dragon is flying in from. Yuri and Blake run from their spots in order to avoid the shock of the dragon?s landing. Since the programmers were lazy, the Ruv Dragon is essentially a palette swapped Dragon, but bears some new features. The dragon, being much larger than either hunter, is a dull shade of yellow. Instead of two wings, it has four, making for an X formation.
"That Hunter?s License is mine!"
Yuri, drunk on adrenaline, switches to his blue Knives yet again and runs in wildly at the dragon. The dragon obliges by slowly stomping forth at Yuri to meet him. Blake follows, trying to manage her cumbersome Claymore by cradling it in both hands. Once Yuri comes in close, the dragon opens up its mouth and lets loose a stream of purple lightning. It waves its head back and forth, trying to hit the furiously maneuvering Yuri. The hunters dive roll underneath the dragon's attacking arc in typical fashion, and get into position to strike the legs.
Yuri goes into a furious dance, trying to sever the dragon's Achilles? tendon, but is making little progress. The dragon stops its stream and begins its warpath again. Yuri and Blake back flip in order to get away from the stomping feet.
"Yuri, we won't win if we keep up this pitiful rate of damage."
"You're awfully calm about it!"
Yuri looks up to the dragon, noting its eyes. Its eyes are focused on Yuri, just seconds before it lets loose with another electric stream. He easily jumps it, but not before he has an epiphany. Smirking, his Knives give way to his Slicer as he comes to a landing on the side of the dragon's stream. Blake is firing off Gibarta like there's no tomorrow, but is doing nothing to distract the dragon.
"Have to pull this off just right..."
Yuri flings his Slicer's projectile sideways, causing it to attack the dragon from, well, the side. The wave flies just in front of the dragon's eyes, slicing its sensitive irises. The dragon abruptly halts its stream to rear back in pain, pulling its head up. During this time, Yuri scrambles up the dragon's leg, across its body, and clings to the base of a wing, suspended right under the dragon's long neck. His hair swishes back and forth as he gains a fix on his target. Having decided where to strike, Yuri releases his right hand from the dragon's neck and hangs on his left. Gripping his knife tight, he shoves it into the dragon's neck, striking its jugular artery. Apparently, the dragon's blood is under a few tons of pressure seeing as the ensuing shower of blood tears the small wound open into a tear the size of Yuri himself.
"That wasn't so-"
Yuri takes note of the fact that the Ruv Dragon is now plummeting to its side. To be more specific, it's falling to the left, where Blake still is. She's trying to escape the beast's eclipse, but isn't making good time. Knowing she won't make it, Yuri grabs hold of the dragon's neck with both hands and hoists himself up to a stance on it. Not skipping a breath, he leaps from it, aiming himself at his instructor, easily knocking her out of the way. But, he's too slow to get out of the way himself and is crushed under the weight of the falling dragon. Luckily, it's only a VR simulation. Still, Blake, pushing herself off the ground, is somewhat distraught by the dancing sparkles of light that represent Yuri's data.
"If he just hadn't..."
********
Back in reality, a boy awakes rather abruptly inside his capsule. The glass lid slowly opens, allowing him exit. He sighs heavily, running both hands through his hair while shutting his eyes tight. He gets out and slouches, turning his head to the capsule he just came from. Moments later, Blake emerges from her capsule and immediately walks to her pupil.
"It's okay! You succeeded where everyone else failed. Your mistake may have cost you the test, but you'll do great next time!"
Her voice has a forced enthusiasm in it, as if she's never expressed it before in her life. Yuri considers her words and erects his stance, feeling just a little better. He nods and starts his way out of the room. As he makes it out the door with Blake in tow, however, a man in standard military wear shuts the door behind them. Taking note of Blake's presence, the man hands her a note and leaves for other business. Blake, with a quizzical expression on her face, opens up the folded note and reads what ends up being an official notice. As she reads, her face shows escalating signs of anger. Eventually, Yuri has to tap Blake on the shoulder to get her to come back to reality.
"Closed?!! What the hell do they mean, 'closed'?!!"
"Huzzah?"
Blake finishes reading and furiously throws the paper 30 feet away. It's an impressive distance for an unfolded sheet of tree filling to be thrown.
"By order of the military, Jugend is closed. Indefinitely!"
"...I?m sorry, what? How am I gonna take my retest?!"
"...They suggest that any hunters still enrolled should?join the military?!"
Yuri's bottom lip begins to quiver as all of this slowly sinks in. Before Blake can even try to console him, he?s broken into a run to god knows where.
********
Hours later, Blake can be found running around the commercial district of Pioneer 2. The buildings are bunched together in blocks, just like they were back on Coral. She runs, looking ahead the entire time, suggesting that she knows where she's going. After crossing several streets and using an outdoor escalator to reach the upper deck of the city, she arrives at the Hunters' Guild. The place is as it always is; sterile looking white room with a woman at blue attending the front desk. But, today, it comes with an addition of one teenage boy looking out the wide window into a beautiful blue sky.
"Yuri."
Yuri turns his head in time to see Blake walking up from behind and joining him at the window. Acknowledging her presence, he returns his attention to the view.
"Yuri...may I ask you something?"
"...Go ahead."
"You always seemed so distracted in my class...as if you were daydreaming. What did you dream of?"
Yuri's eyes narrow a bit as he considers an answer. He looks to his left, as if to make sure Blake is still there, then looks out the window again.
"I was imagining...life as a Hunter. I know it seems corny, but that's the truth."
"Huh...what about being a Hunter?"
"A lot of things...but mostly, I thought of the adventure."
"The adventure?"
"Yeah...not knowing what'll happen around that next corner...what new monster will pop out of the ground...I get a rush from it in the VR simulator, so I figure it'll be even better in real life!"
"...What if you died?"
"I'd worry about it when it happens. No point in wondering how you?re going to spend money you don't have, right?"
"Give me your hand. I've made a decision."
Yuri pulls back a bit, a bit puzzled by the request, but then holds his right gloved hand out. Blake places her right hand on top of it, and holds it there for a moment. She removes it and leaves behind a small, thin circular disc in Yuri's hand. Upon recognizing the shape, Yuri's lips slowly and uncontrollably curve into an open mouth grin.
"I did some thinking...had I moved out of the way, you would've passed the test that had been tampered with against your favor. Under normal conditions, you should be wearing that Section ID clip right now. It's highly unorthodox, but-"
The white haired newman gets cut off when Yuri grabs both her hands and engages in a little dance with her. Well, if you consider a continuous up and down motion that usually signals needing to go potty a 'dance'. Blake manages to settle him down to a conversational level by pulling down on his hands.
"You're a Hunter now, so no mistakes."
"Right, no-"
As he was saying that, he was about to attach his new clip to the recess in his chest. As he was doing that, he spied a look at just what his section I was. Blake looks at him, waiting to address his concern. Finally acknowledging that his eyes are okay, he holds up the clip and brings up his head.
"It?s pink."
"Yes, that's Pinkal. That's what your name, 'Yuri', turns out."
Yuri brings his ID in front of his face and tries to see if there's anyway he can change his outfit around to match this flamboyant accessory. Of course, he finds none.
"But...pink is a girly color..."
By the time he looks up again, he finds Blake all of two centimeters from his face with a passive expression on her face. The dense little moron can only chuckle nervously as he tries to widen the gap between them.
"It would be a shame for you to suffer serious injury on your first day as a hunter, don't you think?"
Yuri nods his agreement, much to the satisfaction of his former instructor. She turns on her heel and walks out the door, affording Yuri a very advantageous view of certain...assets.
"Hey, Blake, where will you go now?"
"I'm a hunter now. Just like you."
And with that, Blake leaves the room, leaving Yuri all by himself to look out the window and his new ID clip. He stares at the fruity color of it a bit longer before he affixes it onto his chest. Looking down at it, he smiles, remembering what it represents.
"It's not so bad."
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: X_Launcher on 2003-03-01 18:29 ]</font>
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: X_Launcher on 2003-03-01 18:47 ]</font>