OK. This is the absolute first fanfic I ever wrote and while in timeline, it predates Shadows of the Past by 15 years, in all acuality, this first chapter was written about 3 months before I ever started on Shadows. It tells the story of how Mike and Lara BlackHawk first met, their first date, and the circumstances that made their relationship as strong as it is.
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a Phantasy Star Online fanfiction
by
M_BlackHawk
Part 1
First Impressions.
The annual gala of the Pioneer 2 Hunter's Guild was as boring an ocasion as it ever was. Michael, the youngest son of the BlackHawk family and already a veteran hunter, was standing at a rail on the observation deck of the large immigrant ship, watching the stars go by. He hated these things with a firey passion. He never liked having to get dressed up in formal attire, much less hang around in this stuffy atmosphere while people made boring speeches and then have to listen to some orchestra play bad elevator music while the older guild members danced waltz after waltz. Yes, Michael Steven BlackHawk was bored as anyone could ever be.
Sipping on a glass of champagne, on the opposite side of the observation deck/reception hall, a relatively new hunter, Rhiannon Lara Mano was almost equally as bored. She had no idea why she had to come to this, since she had only been a hunter for less than a week. While she was training for the arrival at Ragol, these people were taking on quests on the worlds that Pioneer 2 had found on its 7 year journey from their homeworld to Ragol. She was still relatively new to the guild, and knew no one in the organization, so she just stood there at the back wall, and let herself stay bored at the whole matter.
"Just why in the hell does the guild REQUIRE that everyone attend this thing?" Michael thinks to himself as he turns around, still looking halfway out of it. The music in the reception hall about to put him to sleep, he looks around, where the many veteran hunters of the guild are still waltzing away the floor. He then spots a red-haired newman woman standing at the back wall, looking as bored as he was.
"I never knew a party could be so boring," Lara thought out loud, still nursing the same glass he had been for an hour and a half. "If I didn't know better, I'd swear I was about to fall asleep." She tried her best to keep from yawning, the neverending waltzes making her tired. "Do I ever wish I had my partisan," she thought again, "Then, at least I'd feel like a hunter, instead of like a display item." She then looked around the hall, where the veterans were still engaged in their party. Boredly, she looks over at the edge of the observation deck, where she spotted a blonde -haired human man, who looked like he was about to lose his mind from sheer boredom.
The two hunters, Michael Steven BlackHawk and Rhiannon Lara Mano started across the floor of the reception hall/oberservation deck, where they met in the center. He took her hand in his, and they began to move across the dance floor, joining in the waltz. It was as if all the boredom and burden that they were carrying that night just disappeared into thin air, as the two danced, they felt closer and closer to each other. She looked up into his face, not knowing what to expect, but what she saw surprised her. He actually looked like he was enjoying himself. "I wonder what this is I'm feeling," Lara thinks to herself, "Sure, I'm not as bored as I was before, but this guy has my heart racing. Could I be falling in love with him? Sure, Lara. You see a guy across a room, and instantly, you're falling head over heels for him. But, if that is what this feeling is, I like it."
Michael looked down at Lara, smiling, and he saw something in this newman girl that he hadn't seen in any of the others at this party. He saw someone he wanted to know more about. Someone he wanted to see more of. "By the Great Light," he thought to himself, "I think I may be falling for her. Oh what the hell..live in the moment, I guess."
The dance ended and Michael and Lara strode off the floor and to the rail, where they both leaned agaisnt it, looking right into each other's eyes. Lara was too shocked to say a word. Michael wanted to know her, so he was the first to speak.
"You're a pretty good dancer," he said, "Where'd you learn to waltz like that?"
"I don't," Lara replied, "I was just letting myself go with the music and the moment."
"Looks like we're two of a kind then, Miss?" He asked.
"Lara," She answered," Lara Mano. And you are?"
"Michael," he told her, "Michael S. BlackHawk. I've not seen you around the guild. Are you new to the Hunter's guild?"
"Just joined earlier this week. I guess it was because I want to know what it is we're getting into on Ragol when we get there."
Michael nodded. "I understand that. I joined a couple of years ago, just for a way to make some easy cash, what with the lack of jobs around here anyway. Besides, I was trained as a swordsman since I was a kid. Master Zoke taught me."
Lara was shocked. She had heard of the Great Sword, Zoke, but had never heard that he had taken on a student. She nodded, and turned to watch the stars go by. He stepped behind her and rested his hand on hers. The two stared out into space for another hour, just making general small talk, until the reception ended. The two parted ways with a smile and a promise to meet again the next day, in the same place.
Michael's place in the residential district was small, compared to some of the others on his block, but he made do. As he walked in, he was met by the android, Maya, who just happened to be with his family since before he was born. Even though she has become independant, due to upgrades in her internal systems and software, she still stayed with the BlackHawks, because she really knew no other people on Pioneer 2.
"You look like you had a good time," Maya said to her employer as he walked in the door and ditched his coat, "I thought you said this was going to be another boring meeting."
"It started out that way, Maya," Mike answered, "but it got more interesting about halfway through it. I met this girl who just took my breath away. She's a newman, but that really doesn't matter, does it?"
"Not to the heart, I'd guess," Maya replied, "I wouldn't know, being an android, after all."
"Come on, Maya," Michael told her, "After all the upgrades in your AI matrix, self awareness programs and internal operating systems, you still can't say your emotion circuit isn't working."
"Sorry, Mike, but I've really just got no reference to judge by," Maya retorted, "After all, the only emotion I have sensed was being repulsed by the maintenance droid that comes by every week to check the residence's systems. His pick up lines are as cheesy as they come."
"I've heard him asking you out,"BlackHawk thinks out loud, "Well, imagine the opposite of what you feel about the maintenance droid, and you'll have whatt I feel for this girl. Just the mention of her name sends shivers down my spine. Lara Mano. I'm meeting her tomorrow."
"Then I guess you'll be turning in now?"
"Yes, Maya. Go ahead and hook up to the recharging station. I'll see you in the morning."
Lara's place was not as grand as Michael's. A small apartment in the eastern residential district was all that anyone would offer to a newman woman living alone. The place had very little room for a bedroom, bath, and a kitchen, much less anything else. She wondered just how long that the population would keep discrinating against newmans in their practices of selling housing and other necessities. She quickly changed out of her formal into a long T-shirt and put the long gown away in her very small closet space. She then plopped down onto the bed and closed her eyes to sleep. In her dream, she kept seeing the blond haired man she had met earlier. "Michael Steven BlackHawk," she thinks to herself, "Just why is it I can't get you out of my mind?" She dozed off with the image of Michael running through her mind.
Whoever said that love at first sight doesn't exist, had never met Michael BlackHawk and Lara Mano. That Guild Gala had turned out to be a turning point in their lives. Where this road in life will take then, no one knows, but them.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: M_BlackHawk on 2002-10-07 13:38 ]</font>
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