Chapter One: Registration
==Triet Base Surveillance Log==
==Location: East Wing – Alice 04==
==Timestamp: 11:14:08 4122.01.22==
An empty room, walls and floor made out of a sort of metallic stone. In the center, the only distinguishing feature of the area, a large cylinder covered in the same material.
A flashing alarm, indicating that the main cell block door has been opened improperly.
Two guards, pacing the room, searching carefully for something.
They begin speaking.
"Where is he? That kid in red disappeared!"
"He wasn't over there either."
"That's strange. How could we have missed him when the doors were supposed to have sealed?"
"I dunno, maybe there was some kind of cascade failure. You know how finicky this new system Lord Botta installed gets."
"Let's head back, maybe we passed that kid in red somehow on the way here."
The guards leaving. A few moments passing. Then, a new voice, emanating from beneath the cylinder.
"Red, red, red. Does my outfit really stand out that much? Sheesh."
Shortly thereafter, a brown-haired teenager, dressed in red, climbing out from a space below the cylinder seemingly too narrow to permit a body access.
"Now, let's see...I should take a closer look at that thing."
The teenager's gaze, resting on a pedestal adjacent to the cylinder.
"That's weird... The indent in that hole looks just like the engraving on the Sorcerer's Ring."
A hand, wearing a ring, pressing on the pedestal.
}Sorcerer's Ring confirmed. Initializing boot sequence.
==ERROR: 0xD==
Lloyd Irving had never seen anything like it. And being raised by a dwarf, training oneself to fight with two swords, and living within spitting distance of a human ranch and the Chosen of Mana tends to show you some very strange things.
The large block in the middle of the room had cracked and split open, revealing that it was, in fact, a hollow glass tube. A tube that, at present, contained a green-haired girl that couldn't be any older than he was, dressed in some kind of robes vaguely similar to the ones the priests always wore, but...different somehow, and not just because of the complete lack of holy symbols. Even stranger, she was completely immersed in some kind of violet liquid, yet seemed to have no trouble breathing.
As Lloyd watched, the liquid drained out of the tube, causing the girl to crumple into an inelegant ball as gravity discovered it could once again affect her. At this point, Lloyd noticed yet another strange thing about the girl: She, and her clothes, were completely dry despite being immersed in liquid mere seconds ago.
Let it never be said that Lloyd is unobservant.
A short time later, the tube raised itself, disappearing into the ceiling. Lloyd stood where he was for a moment, unsure if anything else was going to happen, then, seeing nothing, decided to try to wake up the girl.
Before he could really move, though, she sat up and opened her eyes, then looked around somewhat quickly, taking in the entire room, devoid of any activity except for her, Lloyd, and the spinning light on the wall. She then said in a flat tone, "Valid user data confirmed. Terrain matches known hostile configurations. Initiating in-combat registration."
Lloyd, who was about to ask if she had been taken prisoner by the Desians as well, was completely nonplussed. "Huh?"
Let it never be said that Lloyd is eloquent.
The girl did not seem to react much at all to Lloyd's confusion, which to him was a blessing, as he got the feeling he was supposed to know what she was talking about, and in his experience that generally meant either Raine entering lecture mode or Colette's natural enthusiasm deflating, neither of which were very positive outcomes. Instead, she simply asked, "What is your name?"
"Uh...Lloyd Irving. What's yours?"
"Unable to comply."
"Er...nice to meet you, Annabelle."
Annabelle stared at him for a moment, then jerked her head toward one of the doors and said, "Multiple hostile signatures inbound. Tactical retreat recommended."
Lloyd blinked a few times, then, realizing he actually recognized a few of those words, started. "Wait...did you just say there are guards coming?"
"...Yes."
"Crap, we've gotta get out of here!" Lloyd ran toward one of the other doors out of the room and attempted to pry it open, with absolutely no success. "Dammit, the doors won't budge!"
Shortly after he said that, the door opened. "Hey, wait, I got it open someho-" Lloyd stopped abruptly as he realized that Annabelle was standing next to him, with her hand on a glowing panel that was very obviously connected to the door. "Oh...uh...thanks."
Annabelle just stared at him. Unsure of what to do, Lloyd just stared back. After a moment, he remembered why they were leaving the room. "C'mon, let's get out of here before those guys catch us."
"Understood."
An hour or so later, Lloyd was getting tired of all the dead ends he and Annabelle had been running into; they'd nearly been caught a few times. "Come on, already, where's the exit?"
"Processing."
Lloyd turned to look at Annabelle, who, after a moment, continued. "Complete. Nearest exit is a personal teleporter. Destination coordinates estimated to lead to Welgaia, with a twelve percent margin of error. Destination is within safety limits. Follow me please."
"...You knew where the exit was this whole time? Why didn't you say anything?"
"No previous request to locate exit had been made."
"Um...thanks?"
Annabelle just stared at him again, then walked over to another of the many, many doors that Lloyd had long since gotten tired of. Once he'd walked up to her, she opened it, and they entered.
The first thing Lloyd noticed about this room was that it was rather well-furnished, and had only one other exit. The second thing he noticed was that there was a blue-haired man sitting in a chair behind a desk with his back to the door, apparently holding a conversation with his hand. "...'t care if he's stealthier than the entire village of Mizuho, he cannot possibly have left the base. Keep searching." He then dropped his hand to the desk, then turned around and blinked. "Well, well. What have we here?"
The man stood up and walked around his desk, coming to stand in front of Lloyd. "Hmm...I see the resemblance. I must admit, I'm impressed that you managed to sneak around here this long without getting-" He started, as if he'd only just noticed Annabelle, then after a moment, chuckled. "I see...I'll have to have a few words with my security teams about the completeness of their reports later. I had no idea you were out. Well, it doesn't matter that much, I suppose. I'm afraid I can't allow you to leave this facility."
Lloyd drew his swords, replying, "Like you're going to stop us."
The blue-haired man smirked. "Well, you certainly have guts. But I'm afraid I don't see the need to lower myself to fighting a miserable little creature like you.
The door that Lloyd and Annabelle had not entered the room through opened, revealing a tall man with windswept hair, flanked by two rather generic-looking guards. "Sir! We've received reports that the Chosen's group has infiltrated the facility."
Lloyd gasped in shock. "You...you're the Desian that attacked Iselia!" Annabelle blinked.
The tall man laughed. "So you're Lloyd! Now this is amusing!"
The blue-haired man walked towards the door the tall man had entered through, saying as he did so, "Botta! I'm leaving for now. Our plans will be ruined if he sees me."
"What of the Chosen?" asked the tall man apparently named Botta.
"I'll leave that to you."
"Understood."
Before passing through the door, the blue-haired man turned his head to glare at Lloyd. "The next time we meet, Lloyd, you're mine. Just you wait."
As soon as the door closed, Botta and his two guards moved impressively fast, and before Lloyd could react at all he and Annabelle were surrounded. Before either of them could do anything, loud footsteps issued from behind the door they had entered in, which then opened.
{A/N 2011.03.05} Ooh, I've missed you, muse of inspiration! What fun we shall have together!
If you're here because you were one of the perhaps five people reading my Skies of Arcadia piece, I'd like to apologize for just completely ignoring it in favor of this thing. A combination of real life being real life, me realizing it'll probably take me another year before I'll get to the part of that story I really want to be writing, and this other story popping up in my head that just so happens to be the sort of story I can do interesting things with from the get-go, conspired against me.
Really I'm not likely to update this one in any sort of timely manner either, I just had the feeling that if I didn't start it now I'd forget about it eventually.
Oh by the way her name is not Annabelle if you're wondering. That's just a combination of Ll⑨yd being the strongest and "Unable" sounding vaguely like "Annabelle."