A/N: When my brother read this fic before I published it, he tried to change 'the dork' to 'the intelligent young man'. I changed it back, for obvious reasons... But he still kind of liked this fic. He got bored with my narrative parts though, hence the chapter title... Anyway, Read and Review. This fic is dedicated to Asterisk78, my loyal supporter and writing buddy, thanks for agreeing to write an Exo-Force fic, just to support me --even though I'm sure you're not that interested in this thing-- your support means the world to me!! (Well, if not the world, the United Federation of Planets... you decide! )
Chapter 1: Beginnings are not Always Interesting Ones
-Brainiac5-
My fingers went clickety-clack, or ticket-tock-ticki, or snik-snikity-snock, or whatever you want to call the typing sound. Anyway, as my fingers pounded out letter after letter into my glorious fanfic, I couldn't help talking to myself, a not uncommon occurance when I write.
"Eep! Nooooo, I don't want to hurt Ryo!" I whined to myself. "But you have to," I replied to myself, thus beginning the ever-famous dialogue between myself and myself. Whoever said I wasn't insane? I sure didn't. "Besides, you know Ryo doesn't stay wounded, maimed and helpless. And this fic's AU. So have fun killing him-- er, almost killing him." I grinned and continued typing, somehow ignoring the obnoxious shrieks of my younger brother running around and proclaiming to the world that he, erm, how shall I put it…
"Ooh, I looooove my eeeeyeees, and my teeth are Shiiiiiiinyyyyyyy!!" the dork warbled, dance-hopping into my bedroom and dramatically pretending to trip over a book and land on the couch in my room. That old couch was nice for practicing guitar, and it had gotten itself out of the way when my mom had bought her new leather couch for Christmas. I found it exceedingly boring to get a couch when you could get books and Hayao Miyazaki animes, but that was just my opinion.
"Hey Brainy," He said, employing my Fanfiction Author nickname imposed upon me by my best friend, on FanFiction and off, Asterisk78. "Watcha' doin'?"
I glanced at him. "Trying to kill Ryo without interruption."
"Ooh! Killing Ryo! Let me see! Is there blood? Guts? Agony?" My brother shoved his face close enough to mine to make my eyes cross trying to focus on him. "Ooh-oohoo-hoo!" He screeched in a half-melodic and wholly obnoxious tone.
"Please stop attempting to be an opera singer and just… I dunno, sit on my bed," I ordered, waving a hand in his direction.
"Okay," He agreed amiably, Hopping up and landing on by bed with a whimp that threatened to collapse the bed. Or, at least it sounded like he would collapse the bed… With a grin, he bounced up and down, continuing to babble. "I like waffles. Do you like waffles? Huh? Do ya? Do ya? Do ya?"
"Yes. I like waffles," I replied, once again typing and only half-listening.
"Ooh, goodie! 'Cause so do I! I like waffles!" the Lego maniac exclaimed, putting a strange emphasis on 'waffles'. I seemed to recognize it from a Teen Titans episode… Cyborg had made the comment to Raven, If I remembered correctly. "You like Waffles, Don'cha Raven?!" My brother crowed, this time quoting the exact line, dancing back across my room and hopping over to the computer my sister used, also stationed in my bedroom.
The infamous 'Toonum-Berry-Crunch-Man' ('Toon' for short) flicked on the monitor and proceeded to blast P.O.D.'s 'The Messenjah' at an obnoxious level, completely drowning out the Japanese music I had on to help get my brain juices flowing.
I don't even particularly like P.O.D. Too scream-y, too nasal-y, too…P.O.D.-y. No offense, to any P.O.D. lovers out there. My sis and brother love 'em. I like Satellite, Alive and Youth of the Nation, and possibly Celestial. (I haven't heard it in awhile) But that's about it. Of course, I'm that way with just about every artist there ever was, so I guess that's just life.
Rolling my eyes, I turned one of my famous killer glares on my brother. "Here, turn that off and I'll hit skip and move on to Linkin Park, okay?" I said, quickly hitting skip.
As the riff of 'Numb' began to fill the air, my brother shrugged and stopped trying to be so annoying, seeing I still didn't care any more than I had fifteen minutes ago. "See ya!" He squeaked in a shrill tone, hopping out of my room and running off to annoy my sister.
I grinned, shaking my head. Sure, he might seem annoying, but I get pretty weird too, and his spunk and energy gives me spunk and energy, something I enjoy. Besides, it's hard to let anything annoy me… except maybe the fact that still didn't have an Exo-Force section.
With a sigh, I shrugged and continued to type…
-Ryo-
I was bored. Bored-bored-bored-bored-bored. My life was as lackluster as a trans-ionic fiber undercarriage without electromagnetic functions.
Staring at my computer was in no way making me feel any better. I'd never felt so utterly lifeless --in a not-wanting-to-be-alive way-- before. With a sigh, I closed down the new Battle Machine schematics I'd been trying to concentrate on for over three hours and finally succumbed to the call of the wild, the great unknown…the world-wide web.
After pulling up a search bar, I stared at the screen with dull eyes. Finally, for lack of a better word, and a less random mind, I typed in 'fans'. Sighing at the ridiculousness, I just hit backspace once and typed 'fiction' instead, simply because I felt like it. I hit enter, then realized I'd just searched not for 'fiction', but 'fanfiction'.
Still, I checked out the results half-heartedly. One site in particular seemed interesting, . So of course, seeing as I had nothing else to do, I decided to check it out. When the site had loaded, I decided to search for Exo-Force in the search option.
To my utter shock, stories appeared. All of them were by one member, Brainiac5. Strange. I opened one and nearly smashed the computer after reading it. The story was called 'How Can I Live Without You', or something like that, and it was utter tomfoolery-- it was making fun of me!
How dare she --he--it-- whoever this Brainiac was!! The Mobile Defense Tank had been an awesome machine-- this story completely ruined the memory of her--er, it.
Shaking my head, I tried to remind myself not to think about Battle Machines like that. But seriously, when they're your pet project, your painstakingly conceived and delivered project, it's hard not to think of it as your 'baby'.
With a wry grin, I clicked on another one of the options and nearly choked. What the-- it was called something like, um, 'I Call It Uplink', but I just called it 'Stupid'.
I never throw screwdrivers at people! Sure, I'm a little hyper sometimes, and wait, there was that one incident… but I'm not violent! I'm vehemently pro-peace, solutions are so much easier to come about that way. (Plus, I always lose fights anyway… I spend too much time in front of a computer…)
In addition, I would never sabotage Battle Machines, poor things! How could anyone treat the poor things so coldly, so… eh, where was I going, they aren't sentient creatures. Remind me sooner next time.
With a shake of my head, I clicked on yet another one of these ridiculous tales 'The Contagion Conspiracy, eh…?
-Brainiac5-
I grinned and packed my clothes excitedly. Er, well, shoved a pair of jeans, t-shirt and pajamas into a backpack. Then I shoved in my toothbrush, toothpaste and face wash that I never use on top of that. Then I grimaced and quickly packed the pair of underwear I'd almost forgotten. Can't forget something as important as that, even though my brother vehemently insists you don't need to change it more than once a week. (Can you say 'ew'?! Sheesh. Some ten-year-olds…)
I hopped excitedly, zipped the backpack and then frowned. "Risky! Asterisky! I'm going to visit Asterisky! And have a sleepover!" I crowed, hoisting my backpack to my shoulder and pattering down the stairs. "Can we go now?" I asked excitedly.
"In a little while," My mom replied. "While you're waiting, why don't you unload the dish drainer?"
It was like dumping a bucket of dirty dishwater over my head. I slumped, let my backpack slide onto the couch and slowly walked over to the sink, where I began putting away dishes. How on earth could mom just stand there talking on the phone?! I had a friend to visit, and how was that helping me get there?!
Once we arrived at my good friend Asterisk's house, I hopped out excitedly. "We can write more Shiroi no Kage fics!" I said to myself, waving goodbye dramatically with both arms to mom, backing out of the driveway and then, turning and walking up to the front door I stopped. "We can talk about G.I. Joe, like Stormy, and Snakey, and maybe talk about Exo-Force!" I exclaimed, spinning in a giddy circle.
"What do you know about Exo-Force?" Came a voice from behind me.
I spun around again, trying to decide if I wanted to beat the snot out of whoever had scared me, or cower inside Asterisk's house.
A young man's shadow shaded the doorway, he stood with one hand on his hip, staring at me with a smirk on his face. I studied his face carefully and felt like cowering and beating the snot out of him. I couldn't quite decide which. Then I noticed his purple hair, red headband, pilot suit and blue eyes. I freaked.
"What the-- eek! You- what?! Who are you?!" I finally demanded.
"You're Brainiac Five, right?" He said, cocking an eyebrow and ignoring my question.
"I have confidential information, I didn't even say my name on FanFiction!" I snapped. "How the… my email doesn't have my real name, Asterisk's doesn't, I DIDN'T EVEN SAY WHERE IN THE UNITED STATES I LIVED… Gack!!" I tried to decide if this person was one of those creepy people, or an evil hacker. Maybe both.
I really hoped neither.
"All I had to do was trace your electronic trail. It's not that hard," the dude with purple hair said, shaking his head and trying not to laugh. "Somehow I expected Brainiac Five to look more… brainy."
"So I'm a blond. You got something against hair color?!" I demanded.
"No, not really. You're just more reactionary than I supposed, and from your writing I expected a somewhat more advanced vocabulary, that's all. I'm Ryo, by the way," He said, smiling easily and extending a hand, obviously waiting for me to shake it.
I blinked, staring at him in utter shock. It's fiction! My mind screamed. He isn't real!
It was one of those times when I wished I could have fainted.