The wait was agonizing. Eric sat uncomfortably in front of the chief's
office. Mai sat beside him, a waterfall of tears falling down her
face.
"*sniff* *sniff* If only I had been with Emiko...she..she could have
needed my help *sob*"
Eric wrapped a strong arm around the petite girl and gave her a small
hug. "Hey, there was nothing you could do, okay? You weren't even
remotely close to the Detrimental when this happened, right?"
"H-Hai...*sniff*" Mai rubbed her nose, trying to accept the fact.
"So there's no reason to feel guilty, right?"
"H-h-hai..*sniff*"
Eric was having a hard time accepting this himself. Unlike Mai, he
could have done something about what happened. It had been a few hours
since the Detrimental docked at the space port for repairs, and the ACD
chiefs were now deciding what to do about this unfortuate turn of
events. Capturing an officer was bad....capturing Emiko was a different
kind of bad.
Mai weaned close to Eric, and hugged his waist. The tall elf gave a
concerned look...perhaps a distraction was in order. Flicking out his
hand, Eric closed his left eye and tenced his fingers slightly. Slowly,
a blue sphere of energy appeared before him. It seemed to catch Mai's
attention.
"How do you do that, Eric-kun?"
"I have no idea, Mai-chan...it's just part of my nature" he grinned
back. Perhaps it was a good time to practice the advanced forms of
energy manipulation he was trying to learn on his spare time. He slowly
flicked his hands outward, watching the ball closely as it wafted away
from his fingers. Dropping his hand to the sides, the sphere of energy
hovered unassisted. Mai became entraced by the blue ball, and didn't
speak a word.
Eric reopened his left eye, and watched the ball intently. Like a
child would play with clay, he began molding the pure energy. It
separated into two spheres...then each ball separated again, until he
has 4 balls arranged in a diamond pattern before Mai. It wasn't
easy..Eric felt like he was giving too much of his attention away to
what the energy was doing. In battle, there would be a high risk
involved in using energy control, for it left his defenses exposed.
There was still a lot of practice to be done before this would be useful
in active combat. One of the spheres morphed into a star shape.
Another turned into a cube. The energy began to rotate around each
other, like in a juggling act.
"Kawaii!" Mai squeeled.
It was time to end this. "Touch them, Mai."
Mai snuck out a hand and pushed on the star. It burst into a cascade
of gold sparks. "Waaaaaiii!" her eyes shimmered with awe. She popped
the other three faster, and watched as they vanished, going back to the
air from which they came. The air of reality settle back onto her. "I
wish sensei could see that...*sniff*" Tears began to well up in here
eyes again.
"Okay, that's it..." Eric stood up, and bursted through the door of the
office. "For crying out loud chief, what's taking so long?!"
At the far end of the oval room, the chief raised one of his thick
eyebrows. A very very short old man, the balding chief wasn't a very
intimidating sight. With bushy white hair, fat mustache and squashed
face, he wasn't much to look at either. "*Ahem*" he began in his
crabby voice, "I was just about to let you in...you need to work on that
patience, Gen-san."
"Dispence with the lecture boss, just tell me what we're going to do
about this?
"The Detrimental is in no condition to go back. And to do so would
just invite another chance for defeat. You and your collegues will
board with the White Shadow, and rendezvous with the Colossus."
Eric recognized the name Colossus, one of the larger vessels in the
fleet. But the other ship he didn't recognize. "What is the White
Shadow?"
The chief's grin almost stretched beyond the confines of his face.
"The White Shadow is equipped with the a modified version of Feelgood's
device. The ACD lab, with the doctors help, have incorperated the the
anti-stealth tech into the ship...but it has also been augmented to
create a stealth field around the ship"
"Geez, they sure work fast down there." It had only been a hour or so
since Feelgood arrived.
"Oh no," the chief assured, "the tech is not perfected by any
means...since Feelgood departed in what I can only assume to be a failed
attempt at rescuing Emiko, we had to work with what he left
behind...most likely the White Shadow would be detected within an 30
minutes of arrival. That will have to be enough. Emiko is an
All-Kind..I don't think I need to tell you what that means...she's got
some of that senshi blood herself...I don't know if that's enough for
Jay, but we can't take chance."
Eric nodded. For once, they were in agreement.
"Now get out of here. There's not a moment to lose."
"Wait."
Eric spun around, so see a man in black before him, clutching onto a
long staff, a dragon head perched on the end. Mai seemed to be hugging
his legs already. "Rekishi?!"
The man rubbed his temples, trying to ebb away a major headache.
"Hai. Take me with you."
Mika mopped around her house a bit. Given a little bit of time before
she would undoubtedly be called to rescue her buddy, she went home to
give herself some initiative. A big helping of tuna fish sat before her
on the kitchen table, surrounded by a containment field. Her stomach
growled. "Meow." she nodded with conviction. "Mika not eat this tuna
until Emiko rescued!" Rapping her paw on the force field, it make a
satisfactory hiss. "Nope, no way, Mika not eat this tuna, even though
Mika very hungry." Her stomach seemed to be forming an alliance with
her nose, as the smell of the cooked tuna wavered by her face. Her eyes
began to water, and a huge wad of saliva was gathering in her mouth.
Her paws grasped the energy field. "but Mika so hungry!!"
A voice responded back. "Containment field can only be deactivated by
one Emiko Kawasaki."
Mika sighed, wondering how to get at her food, but after a moments
worth of thought, she made her way out the door. It was a good thing
the containment field was also a food preserver. Mika hoped that this
rescue won't take too long. She could be quite an animal when she was
hungry.
-----------
Something was getting better. Something. *I'm a conscious? No.*
Alarms rang off inside, her system becoming aware that something that
was intruding in on her body. The blaring of her auto-defence
programming were almost deafening to her sensors. But...but...it
felt...good.
Dracho'xian grew more and more embarressed with himself as he sunk
deeper and deeper into Eva's body. Even with the cover of a blanket, he
felt like he was being exposed to the world as some sort of low class
perv. He made contact with her network of cybernetic nerve bundles.
*What a woman* he thought, in awe of the sheer complexity of her body,
not to mention the beauty of it. It was more complicated than a
organic...there were so many complex connections, it was getting a
little difficult to determing what was what. He reminded himself of
what he was doing. *You're repairing her, you idiot! Don't mess with
something that's not broken!*
He approached a region just below her navel, which was scathed with
from the scortching winds of the sand. *I can patch this up in a jiffy
Eva, don't you worry now, heh heh* He was almost glad she was
unconsious..had she been awake, he probably wouldn't even be able to say
anything in general. He began to integrate part of himself into her
system, smothering her lower abdomen with himself. It was dangerously
close to her sensitive areas, and he didn't want to screw up. But his
eye was being very distracted. The nerve bundles were approaching
quickly. Dracho'xian entered her body, and tripped over the wrong
nerve.
Eva gasped reflexively, a nice red hue forming on her face. "Aaah!"
"OH SHIT!!" Dracho'xian collected himself, and shriveled over her
stomach. All the extensions that were not attached to her yet stopped
what they were doing and retracted to one lump of fluid, one beet red
eye lying on the top.
He could hear Dachend. *Aw Dracho, and I was getting excited too.*
*Shut....UP!* The sword said it with such force that for once Dachend
didn't say a word. The ancient sword didn't move. *I...I...must have
accidentally triggered an vocal nerve...and....and...triggered some
pigment nerves connected to her face....yeah....that's it.* Deep in his
mind he had already convicted himself guilty of some sicko rape charge.
He was sure that if he has an organic heart, it would be beating very
very fast.
The soothing relief had stopped. There was a sudden jump in excitement
level seconds before, and then..nothing. It was something she had never
felt in all the days since her creation.
Dracho'xian let a tendril of himself extend inward of Eva's body.
Probing around, he tried to see if she was aware of him or not. If she
was, he had a lot of explaining to do. The answer was prompt, and very
immediate.
*Who are you?* Her inner sensors interfaced with the new element in
her body. But the new element quickly disappeared.
*Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap.*
Dachend glanced over to Eva...the blanket on top of her looked like it
was shaking in fear. "Well I'll be damned." he muttered.
"Why would you wish this?" Dachend looked in his other direction, to
see a pure as snow angel looking back at him. She was sitting against a
log, sipping on a cup of cocoa. As it was nightfall, a upper atmosphere
storm would not be worth the effort for his ship to come get them. It
would be better to wait till the morning. He only hoped that Huck and
that stranger were off doing something else for the night.
"Shit, I don't mean that literally miss. I'm just sayin' that I've
never seen Dracho so unnerved by a girl. Had this been any other girl,
he'd be in paradise right now."
"This is what he considers paradise?"
"Hell yeah!" Dachend grinned.
Nana kept quiet and continued sipping her drink. She gave him a
worried look.
"What'd I say?" he asked.
She smiled back and tried to change the subject. "So...where is your
sanjiyan?"
Dachend growled. Of all things, she has to bring up this. "Change the
subject."
"Oh goodness, I'm sorry." Nana almost tried to retracted her question,
and cast her eyes down at a sleeping Meiko. "She has your soul. I just
thought that--"
"Just skip it, okay?"
*You know, you could be a little nicer to the lady* Dracho'xian
muttered.
*Oh, are you all done feeling Eva, buddy?* he retorted.
The ancient one grumbled a few insults and returned his thoughts to the
present situation. *okay...she knows something is on her...but knows
little else.* He sighed. *Just finish it already* he told himself.
His eye slithered down to look around at her body. There was only one
place left to fix.....her head. It was seeping fluid, and could cause
brain death. It was not immediately life threatening though, and that
was the excuse he used to attend to it last...when in fact the real
reason was that molding into the head would involve interfacing with the
brain.
*Here we go* In one fluid motion, Dracho'xian jumped up and landed on
her forehead, placing his eye right in the middle where the crack was.
*Who is this?*
*I.......uh..........*
Some internal process interupted *Beginning voice recognition
algorithm*
*Oh shit...*
*Processing current status....external structure strength exceeding
norms at 120%. All major/minor systems repaired......voice pattern
recognition complete...1 matched entry in database*
*Oh shit....*
*.............................* There was a long period of silence, on
both ends. Dracho'xian felt his body drop a few degrees, figureing out
what to do. Should he say something first? Wait it up? Then Eva
spoke. *Dracho'xian?*
He fumbled his words. *H-h-hai...well, see, you're probably
wondering..uh..you know, and that thing with what I..er..in that
area.....that can be explained, because well--*
*--thank you--*
*--since there was a problem and I had to..............* Dracho'xian
heaved a sigh. *y-y-you're w-w-welcome*
Dachend groaned. "Someone wake me when the mush is over."
---------------------
Jay paced the bridge. Huck was taking far too long. Such delays were
not to be tolerated. "Huck" he looked sternly at the face on the
monitor. "Make no mistake, you are not leaving that planet unless Meiko
is with you, _alive_. This for the good of the Empire."
"Yes sir. I ran into a few difficulties with Jiro..he has acquired new
powers of some so--"
"--Jiro is a FOOL!" Jay fumed. "If I was there I would squish him like
the bug that he is!!"
"We will take care of it. Huck out."
Jay sat down on this throne, otherwise known as the captain's chair,
overlooking the bridge. Jinx was doing well in her training. Her
loyalty was his...only control of her power remained.
"Sir! We have a dimensional warp occuring at coordinates 124.45.342!"
"I can see that." It was clearly visible from the large windows of the
bridge that something large was distorting space. "Attacking the core
of the Imperial fleet....hmm...." What emmerged from the break in space
was a huge ship. It was not as big as the Lohengramm, but it was
something to contend with. It looked like a whale, large fins
protruding on each side. "One ship?" Already, the Imperial fleet was
closing for a kill. "Wait a minute." Jay closed his eyes. They were
up to something...but what?
"Sir, they have some kind of beam cannon mounted on the front."
"Get this ship out of the way. God damn annoying main cannons."
The Colossus fired, a beam half a kilometer in diameter shreading into
space, some kind of energy dragon intertwined around it. The beam hit,
and lanced off the shielding, the full force of it's beam destroying two
of the light Imperial cruisers near by. The dragon component shed
through the weakened shielding, and continued it's decent towards the
hull, it's energy scales unhindered by technological shielding. Jay
smirked.
The Imperial mage erected a magical field around the ship. "The dragon
is as good as dead, sir."
"Of course."
The dragon approached..closer..closer. Seconds before impact, it let
out a howl, and emitted a beam from its mouth. Jay gripped his seat.
"Damn." The beam tore across the top of the hull, shreading off the
primary plating from a good chunk of the surface.
"Sir, the ship is retreating!"
"Let it."
"Sir?"
"Fuck 'em. If we head through that dimensional bubble now, we'll be
royally screwed. Genesis can wait...for now." It was bad enough with a
crazy doctors trying to rescue Emiko...fortuately, he was apprehended.
Jay stood up, and walked over to the east side of the bridge, looking
over at the damage the beam had caused. There was a gapping hole along
the length of the hull, like a trow would make in the soil. "What
happened here."
"Sir," an officer replied, "they used a tech/magic/tech beam...once the
magic field was erected, it left us vulnerable for a conventional beam
weapon." He scratched his head. "As far as I know, sir, such swaping
is not possible on such a large scale."
"Hmph." Jay shrugged. It mattered little. This hull damage did little
to the impervious structure of the ship. Now then...there was just a
matter of figuring out why they really came over here....
"OHHH ho ho ho ho!!!!" Yumi let out one of her sophisticated laughs.
"My, wasn't that fun!?"
The White Shadow drifted near beside the damaged hull of the
Lohengramm, cloaked in Feelgood's shielding.
"Are you sure your going to be alright by yourself, onee-chan?"
questioned Eric, concerned.
"Oh ho ho ho! Don't worry, sweet little brother, I'll keep this ship
nice and cozy for your return." The completely robed green haired elf
had her hands placed over Tamiko's temples. The psychic was a little
more worried. "Now don't forget guys," Tamiko said to Eric, Rekishi,
Mika and Mai, "I can only keep this amplified mind defence up for 30
minutes tops, afterwhich we'll all be detectable to their tech and magic
and psychic sensor. So be quick about it, ne?"
"Don't worry Tamiko-chan!" Mai cheerfully replied. "We'll be back in a
jiffy!" The four invaders turned on their stealth outfits and
disappeared from sight.
"Hmph!" Yumi shrugged, looking at Tamiko. "Don't worry dear, even when
your unconsious I can still maintain your subconsious psychic
amplification."
"That's what I'm afraid of!" laughed back the nervous psychic. "Now
get out of here guys!"
Almost absentmindedly, Yumi cast a teleportation spell, sending the
invisible members off into the Lohengramm.
