As thunder continued to boom in the sky, two travelers in trench coats waded through the rain on the sidewalk. The smaller of the two shuddered at the noise, yet continued to press on with her companion.
The streets they walked on were the first of the cities to be rebuilt after the end of the Crusades. Cobblestone covered the streets, very much like many European cities before the wars, giving it the same archaic and humble look the residential areas of Paris once had.
The taller of the two looked to the houses lining the streets and scanned the addresses. As with the streets, the style of the housing hadn't changed. In fact, if one was old enough, it would look no different than if it were in the twentieth century. The man figured the architects still desired days they were never born to and vainly attempted a reproduction of the pre-Crusades style. Though the rain had made seeing a bit hard, he could still make out the numbers of each individual home.
"Are we almost there?" the girl asked, trying to keep up.
"Just about," the man replied, "the Boy Scout doesn't like moving around a lot, so his address should be the same as it's been for a while."
The girl nodded and increased her pace to keep up with her companion as the rain hit her hood harder. The light from the magic powered street lamps was flickering, much to her dismay, for she did not have the enhanced eyesight of her guide.
"I'm wondering... you don't like him at all, so why are you taking me to him?" she asked as they ran beneath an alcove to where their quarry lived.
"Because," the man said, pulling back his own hood to let his dark brown ponytail hang over his back, "despite the beef we got with each other, he's one of the few people I know that can be trusted."
She said nothing as she followed him up the stairs. The rain was still not letting up and the continuous crack of thunder was putting her ill at ease.
"But, how do you trust him?"
The man smirked when he was about to knock on the door. "Because he hates me."
---
With a sign, Ky Kiske lit another candle in his modestly decorated home. The power had been out for well over an hour and it didn't look like it was coming on any time soon, so he brought out some old candles the previous tenant had kept for such an emergency.
Electrical power
was handled in a manner resembling the old electrical circuits from the
time before Magic was discovered. The only major difference being the
source of the electricity itself. Using electricity from its purest
source, the elements, had provided it as much more efficient than
burning ridiculous amounts of coal,
oil, and so forth. However, not even the advent of magic had prevented the occasional black-out whenever a storm broke out.
Blowing out the match, he slowly eased himself into the chair at his desk and took a brief glance over the reports from the Central IPF office in London. Not taking his eyes off the report, he slowly sipped some tea while skimming over the words.
Putting the cup back on the table gently, his eyes stopped at a report coming from the offices near Tuubingen, Germany. Apparently, there had been an airship, falling through the sky and into the forests south of the city. There appeared to be no survivors to be found and what remained of the airship was being identified to find a match.
He closed his eyes, trying to remember if there were any Zepp craft reported in that area. From past reports, they often gathered in the area near the old U.S.S.R. border, since many of the citizens of Zepp were of Russian descent.
Then again, it could have been air pirates. President Gabriel had informed him, through Potemkin, that it was a common occurrence for Zepp to hunt down such people since their technology was a primary target for looters. It was a little source of information he decided to keep to himself since the Chief of Police would not be happy if he were to discover that Ky had been in contact with the president of Zepp.
A knock on his door brought him out of his reprieve. Standing up, he took on the candle ladles and wondered who would be coming to his house at this time of night, in the middle of a storm no less.
"Hello?" he said through the door.
"Hey, Boy Scout. Open up, it's me," a gruff and boorish voice said on the other side.
Ky frowned and opened the door. "Might I inquire as to why you're here, Sol?"
"No time for small-talk, Jr. We got a problem," Sol grumbled, pushing himself inside past Ky.
Ky stepped in front of Sol, preventing any further movement from the bounty hunter and drawing a scowl from him.
"Not only is your etiquette lacking, Sol, your grammar leaves much to be desired as well," Ky stated boldly, "who is this 'we' you're talking about when I see only you?"
Ky held his ground, despite Sol's deep-throated growl and the vicious grip on his collar. "By 'we', Jr.," he snorted with derision in his tone, "I mean all of us. You, me, and the kid here."
Blinking, Ky looked over Sol's shoulder to see a young woman, covered with a heavy trench coat and hood to hide her face. The shadows on her hood prevented him from seeing the upper portion of her head.
"And you are?" Ky asked curtly as he forcefully removed himself from Sol's grip.
The girl looked to Sol, as though seeking his approval. Ky wondered what it meant as Sol nodded and the girl pulled back her hood to let loose a stream of azure colored hair cascading around her pale face and apparent reddish-bronze eyes.
"Dizzy?" he said in surprise.
The thought-dead Gear/human Hybrid nodded once. There was a bandage around her forehead and various patches of dirt on her cheeks gave the impression of hard times. He now had to admit whatever Sol had to say was worth listening to as he ushered her in and closed the door.
"So..." Ky replied, somewhat humbled at the revelation, "what was this you wanted to speak to me about?"
Sol nodded. "Like I said, a big problem. But first, I need to make a search..."
"Search for what?" Ky asked as he followed Sol into his living room.
"Bugs, hidden cameras, mikes, that sort of thing." He took a quick scan of the room before turning back to Dizzy.
"You hear anything?"
The Gear stepped passed Ky slowly before walking into the living room. Her hand raised and pointed at his grandfather clock. "I can hear one in there," she whispered.
Opening the door, the bounty hunter reached in for a moment, and pulled out what appeared to be a small transceiver and promptly crushed it with his hand.
Sol turned to Dizzy. "Did you find any others?"
The hybrid shook her head. "I would have heard the signals if there were."
Sol smirked, took Ky's hand, and dumped the remains of the hidden hearing device in it. "You're getting sloppy, kid. Justice would have won against you guys if I hadn't kept on finding these things for you."
Frowning back at Sol, Ky grumbled, "Yes, but that doesn't explain who put that there?"
Dizzy spoke up timidly, "The Bureau."
Turning to Dizzy, a single frightening possibility entered his mind. "The Post War Administration Bureau?"
"Yep," Sol muttered as he proceeded to blow out all the candles in the adjacent rooms.
"Sol what's the meaning of this? I don't under..."
"Just sit down and shut the hell up! I said I'd explain it to you, didn't I?" Sol snarled as he blew out the last candle.
Feeling his way through the dark, Ky would have placed himself in his chair had Sol grabbed him by the collar once more and shoved him onto the sofa. He sent a poisonous glare towards Sol as he took Ky's chair, a cigarette, and lighter from his pocket before the Bounty Hunter began.
"Ok... first things first... do you know how long the Bureau has been around?" he said as he placed the 'cancer stick' in his mouth and lit it.
"Roughly a decade, hasn't it?" he said with another disapproving frown at Sol.
"Wrong. They've been around since before the Crusades, only under a different name."
"But..."
"Shut up, I'm not done yet. Eventually, Justice got whacked and every thing's all hunky dory. Or at least, that's what they want people to think. They can start to work on more important things."
"I assume you mean the Robotic versions of me?"
"Good. There may be hope for you after all. Anyway, you and I know for a fact that those Robo Kys we've seen are just a sampling for something larger. Now, because of them, the Jellyfish pirates are most likely dead. She was the only one I found."
Ky held back a gasped and turned to the outline of Dizzy, looking down in shame.
"What happened?"
After a sniff, Dizzy replied quietly. "We were planning to land for some supplies in the city. However, when we entered German airspace, we were suddenly boarded and surrounded by hundreds of those robots."
Ky could tell that she was beginning to cry as she continued, "I tried to stop them... tried to get the others to the escape pods... but before what any of us knew, they had blown the engines and opened fire from other ships. Johnny... he was able to get me to a lifeboat and he was going to find May... but then, the ship blew up... and... and..." she could talk no more as she covered her face with her hands and sobbed.
Turning back to Sol, Ky asked, "but why the Jellyfish pirates?"
Sol shrugged as he took another drag. "Either because the Pirates had some kind of information on them or they resisted. Anyway, I heard the crash and found her there. Spent the last few days healing her wounds and brought her here."
"But why me?"
"I know I can trust you to take care of her, you punk!"
Ky
took a long minute to look at Sol's outline and then back to Dizzy's.
Her sobbing had calmed by now and she was listening in,
waiting for something.
With a sigh, Ky then whispered, "Very well. I'll take care of her for as long as I can. But you know something, Sol?"
"Hm?"
"You assume a lot. I always hated you for that."
Even in the darkness, Ky could tell Sol was smirking. "No, you hated me because I was always right when it came to you."
Ky held back a growl of his own and continued, "So then. What shall be done about the PWAB? And what about Dizzy? If they know she survived, then you could have led them here."
"Maybe. In that case, I need you to go about your business and be prepared to high tail it out of town with her at the first sign of trouble. They don't take any chances and will eliminate you if needs be. And before you deny it, trust me, they have ways. They are a lot more dangerous than you think."
As Sol stood up and headed for the door, Ky followed suit. "And what about you? You planning on hiding from them?"
To his and Dizzy's surprise, Sol started chuckling.
"Kid... I've been around longer than you'll ever know... believe me. These guys may be dangerous, but they're not invincible. I got plans of my own to take care of. In the meantime, be a good boy and baby sit for me."
Ky was about to protest Sol's answer when the door shut and the man left mid the cover of a thunder boom. With a frown, Ky locked the door, resisting the temptation to grab the Thunder Seal and demand a duel. His inability to defeat the bounty hunter be damned, he would continue to fight Sol until he could fight no more.
"You must really hate him," Dizzy said timidly from behind.
Turning around, he noticed her outline sitting against the wall in a curled up position.
"Yes... I do. He's mocked everything I've believed in or stood for. Every time we meet he acts as though I was never there." he said with a frown.
The half gear looked down in concentration, then nodded, coming to a conclusion. "I can see why he trusts you so much."
Ky was surprised to hear such a remark. "Sol?"
She nodded, as though it was common knowledge.
"How do you figure?" he asked.
"Well, you seem so determine to outdo him, something like this seems a step closer to achieving that."
He turned back to the door, wondering if he could ever begin to understand Sol, irritating as the Bounty Hunter was.
The policeman took a deep breath and leaned against the wall. Any more agonizing over Sol's superiority was going to give him a premature heart attack. Besides, he had a guest to attend to. She still looked at him like a child waiting for an adult to clarify.
It was a struggle. They very sight of her brought back images of Justice, herself. Through the metal of her mask, Ky remembered the anger and hatred that empowered her.
It was almost instinct for him to reach for the Thunder Seal whenever the word or even subject of Gears was breached. Every day of his life, he had heard the same thing.
Gears were evil.
Gears were bad.
Gears hate humans.
Gears kill humans.
That was practically a chant the human race cried while the Crusades raged onward. The Gears replaced the Devil and Hell as the most feared thing in the human consciousness. Parents would even warn their children that the Gears would get them if they didn't eat their vegetables, cleaned their room, and so on. The hatred with Gears became an obsession to the human race. He was no exception.
With what little light he had the in the room, he could see her look up to him. He knew she was scared of him still. He didn't want to say it, but he was probably more scared of her than she was of him. He had seen her display her nearly uncontrollable power and the destructive results.
On her side of things, she could probably smell the blood of the countless Gears he had slain in the name of Humanity. Though with the body and mind of a twenty-one year adult, she still had the child-like instinct of a four-year-old child. Scared and frightened of the things beyond her control and without the experience of people his own age.
Noticing that their eyes had locked for more than a minute he turned away and said, "If you'd like, you can use my bed."
She gasped and stood up. "Oh, but I couldn't."
He held up a hand to silence her. "Please. Though unexpected, you are still my guest."
The
lights then flickered on and he blinked upon realizing that underneath
the coat, her uniform from the Pirates was dirty and torn.
With
parts of her body he could see, was muddy and not well kept. It
appeared that the past week had been harder on her than he expected.
Turning to the bathroom, he said, "I'll draw a bath for you. There'll be a change of clothes for you when you're done."
He turned back to her and expected her to protest. However, seeing the look in his eyes silenced her and she nodded once more.
"Mr. Kiske..."
He was stepping into the bathroom when he heard her call him.
"Yes?"
She wiped away the drying tears and smiled a bit. "Thank you."
He wanted to smile back and tell her to think nothing of it. However, the previous years of unintentional hatred for Gears only got a nod out of him. He didn't turn back to her as he stepped inside the bathroom and activated the faucet.
Within seconds, the tub was beginning to
fill and as he leaned over the edge to plug the hole, he noticed his
Lanchester silver cross,
laced with gold, hanging over the water.
It was more than just a symbol of his faith. It represented the life he had chosen. Just glancing at that small item caused his voice to recite an oft-quoted scripture to settle disputes amongst the Holy Order when it was still in existence.
"And I say unto you," he whispered to himself, "the Second Commandment is like unto the First: Thou Shalt Love thy Neighbor as thyself. Do this and thou shalt live."
He sighed internally and asked rhetorically, "And who is my neighbor?"
An answer wasn't needed as he stopped the water flowing, stood up,
and walked out of the bathroom.
End of chapter one
First things first: All things GG belong to Sammy, Daisuke Ishiwatari (strange man, but wouldn't have GG without him), and ARC studios.
Second; Sol Badguy Dig me! Awesome beyond words Solid Snake/Bono from U2/Spike Spiegal. In short, Sol Badguy's Awesome.
Third;
for those wondering if the story's gonna get preachy, no worries. I may
be a lovable zealot, but even I have my limits. And,
if my writing ability's up to snuff, it will always be in context. After all, Ky wouldn't be Ky without his faith.
9/26/04 Edit notes:
In an extremely rare fit of inspiration... if you can call it that, I've decided to change the titles of the chapters after song titles. Semi-related to the story, at best... completely irrelevant at worst. And since my skill as a writer is mediocre, better expect the latter. :p
Next, after reading Zeronova's and Samuraiter's GG fics, which by the way are excellent, I figured that a little more description would have made the story a bit better since the 'show, don't tell' rule can take one only so far.
As per Haitokunohonoo's review, I've cut down on Sol's speeches since it is true that he's not the talkative type. Initially, I wasn't sure about it, but going through another round with the story mode and a few other stories with faithful Sol characterizations proved me wrong.
Zeronova, I got that little mistake you pointed out in the review and adjusted Ky's attitude accordingly.
Next; I realize to my embarrassment that I've forgotten the most important aspect of Ky's character. His obsession with defeating Sol. Reading a few more stories with that made me realize how important that is. And with any luck, and a little help from Providence, I just may be able to pull it off. Miracles happen, ya know. :)
Finally, I now realize that some explanation is needed for the whole 'Dizzy can hear the transmission' deal. There's evidence to suggest that radios are still in use at this time and since they're most likely powered by magic, they should have given off a trace of magic that she would have most likely detected. All those dazed and confused, say 'I' with me. :p