Before someone asks, yes, I do have three other stories I haven't finished. I don't know when I will to be honest. I've been feeling a lack of motivation and interest because of issues of the depressing variety. So, this may just wind up being a one off thing, or I may add more. Don't hold your breath though. My motivation and interest is changing all the time.
"Now I've got you!" A blonde haired girl in a pink dress said. Blanc looked a bit surprised by her sudden appearance through her doors. Before she could say anything she was blinded by a flash of light. A gentleman in a suit from down the hall took notice of there sudden entrance and watched quietly. The girl marched into the room with her camera crew in tow.
"Who are you?" Blanc asked. The little girl stood straight and smirked.
"My name is Abnes, and I fight for the children of the world!" She said. Blanc stood there for a moment.
"What?" Blanc asked.
"Don't act like you don't know me! I'm the star of the hit internet series the Abnes channel! Everyone knows me!" The girl said. She turned back toward her camera and light crew. "Okay, let's get this live broadcast going!" She said. Blanc blinked.
"Live broadcast?" She asked. The camera came on, and she just stood there, unsure of what to do. The little girl popped into frame.
"Hello Gameindustri! It's your best friend Abnes here! Idol of the world's children!" She said. She then stepped aside and gestured toward Blanc. "And today I'm confronting the little girl CPU of Lowee, say hello to Blanc!" She said. Blanc became agitated by her comment.
"What? Little girl? Listen you annoying-" Abnes turned completely around to face the CPU.
"Now Blanc, are the rumors we've been hearing true? Did you allow your own sisters to be kidnapped? Did ya, huh?" She said, shoving the mic in Blanc's face. Blanc looked surprised.
"How did you know about that?" She asked. Abnes turned back toward the camera.
"Sounds like a yes." She said, putting on a sad face. "Those poor little girls. So! How does it feel to be such an awful, neglectful big sister? Honestly now?" Blanc looked hurt. The gentleman down the hall strode up and cleared his throat. The camera panned to a man wearing a white suit jacket with black dress pants and dress shoes.
"Excuse me, can I help you?" He asked the little host. Blanc looked lost as to who this was.
"I'm Abnes, from the Abnes Channel! Who are you?" She asked.
"I'm Blanc's chief advisor on this issue." He said. He strode up toward the CPU, and while his back was too everyone, he pulled up and index card from his pocket. Not all the way, but just enough to read the message. She read the words Play along silently and nodded her head. He slid the index card back in his pocket and turned to face everyone. He stood beside Blanc with his back straight, basically towering above her, and placed a hand on her upper back. "I can assure you, Blanc lost her sisters through no fault of her own, and we have a plan to rescue them. Now if you'll excuse us." He said. He started guiding Blanc toward a hallway, but the little girl host was persistent.
"Wait, we still have questions that need answering! What is this plan?!" She asked, jogging beside the duo. The man continued to stare straight ahead, his face unchanging.
"The plan is classified, as giving away that information may give the hostage takers time to prepare. As for your questions, save them. If you really fight for the children you wont bother us anymore. Otherwise you are slowing down the process of saving those poor girls, which doesn't seem like something an idol to all children would do. Good yard." The man said. The little girl backed off, and the duo stopped walking so close to each other after they rounded a few corners and made sure they weren't followed.
"Thank you for that." Blanc said. The man smiled.
"Ah, don't mention it. I've always been told I'm a decent actor. My mom thinks I should've gone into politics." He said. He extended a hand to the CPU and nodded. "I'm Chris." He said. Blanc took his hand and shook it gingerly.
"But still, you did promise them that we were implementing a plan. I'd hate to be found out as a liar." Blanc said. Chris smiled.
"I think I have something that may do the trick." He said. He turned and gesture for Blanc to follow.
~~~oOo~~~
Outside of Blanc's CPU chambers sat a metal box that wasn't there before. It was seven feet tall, four feet wide, and was painted black. It had a small pad on it, which didn't immediately seem to have a purpose. Blanc looked at the box and the man curiously.
"When I came here earlier today I was told you were busy. I wanted to offer my help as a private guard for your sisters, and show you the equipment I intended to guard them with." Chris said. He placed his hand upon the pad, and the pad flashed light blue. The box beeped and a set of panels on the front of the box began to slide open. A flood of white light filled the inside of the box, revealing its contents. The thing that stood out, first and foremost, was the six foot tall humanoid figure inside the box. It clean looking, with it's primary color being white. It had a green tinted visor on the helmet, which allowed her to see the empty insides of the suit. The armor wasn't the sleekest of things, but it wasn't bulky either. It was the right amount of bulk to look tough, and nimble. Beside it sat several objects, two short metal rods, one long object that appeared to be a gun of some sort, and a few spherical objects.
"What is it?" Blanc asked. Chris smiled.
"That, is what I do with my spare time. It's an exosuit. My exosuit to be exact. Built it myself." He said. Blanc looked at him curiously.
"Why did you build this?" She asked.
"Well, I got bored, decided to apply myself for once, and made this because I thought it would be cool. It sat in that box for months before I could figure out what to do with it. So, I brought it here in the hopes it might help me become a guard or something." He said. Blanc nodded.
"Are those Kali sticks? Aren't those a bit dated to be used with an exosuit?" She asked. Chris chuckled.
"I can assure you, they are not Kali sticks." He said. He pulled his hands from his pockets, walked forward and grabbed one of them. He held it in his hand with his thumb over a button. "Watch this." He said. He pressed the button, and a pair of blades extended from two opposite sides of the rod. It looked like a battle axe, but the blades weren't metal. They were made from a green, transparent energy. Blanc looked a little surprised.
"Battle axes?" She said.
"Energy based battle axes." Chris corrected. He pressed the button again and the blades faded away. He placed the rod back in it's slot and grabbed the gun like device. "This is a plasma rifle. It's very effective thanks to the high temperature and energy of each shot. Just like the axes, the energy bolts are green. You're going to see an over arching theme there." He said. He put the rifle back and pointed to the small metal spheres.
"These are singularity grenades. They draw things in, tear them apart, and then explode outward with a fifteen foot radius. Highly dangerous, so I'm not going to bring those out yet." He said. Then, he stood back a gestured to the suit. "Then, the crown jewel of the operation. Kelvin, as I call it. It can lift three and a half tons, it has access to the internet, it has a built in heads up display, it can see through walls with thermal vision, and it also has small thrusters on the back to help the thing fly. It can't go too fast, but It can at least get up to 200 miles an hour. Directional maneuvering is provided by some built in RCS thrusters, which pump pressurized oxygen out through a small nozzle to help steer in flight. It can go a few days on a single charge, so its great for running round the clock ops." He said. Blanc blinked.
"Wow. That thing must be expensive." She said.
"Eh, it's what ever. You'd be surprised what reducing your budget to only the essentials can do." He said. He turned to Blanc and smiled. "So, what do you think? Is this one hell of a plan or what?" He asked. Blanc thought for a moment.
"I'd like to see how well it works first. Have you tested this thing before?" She asked. Chris nodded.
"Yep. I can even test it now, if you want." He said. He glanced at the suit and Blanc and sighed. "You'll need to close your eyes though." He said. She raised an eyebrow.
"Why?" She asked. He sighed.
"Loose clothing gets jammed easily in this thing. I'll need to strip down to the bare essentials." He said as he started to un button his coat.
"Bare essentials?" She questioned.
"My undergarments, to put it bluntly." Chris said. She blushed and nodded. She closed her eyes and waited. She heard the clunking of the metal in the suit as he put it on, but she didn't dare to open her eyes until instructed. "Alright, you can look." A robotic voice said. Blanc opened her eyes, and saw the suit moving. She looked up and looked at the visor. She could see from Chris's forehead to his nose, and the rest was blocked by the helmet. Chris rolled his shoulders.
"Alright, lets test the flight capability first." He said. The thrusters on his back whirred up and ignited. They lifted him a good six feet off the ground, and he hovered in the air stably. The thrusters burned a blue color, and produced basically no smoke. Blanc felt the gust of air from the thruster rushing passed her. She even had to hold her hat down to prevent it from flying off. He moved side to side, forward and back, and then finally descended back to the ground. When his feet made contact with the floor, the thrusters cut. Blanc looked astonished- or at least as astonished as one could look without breaking the stoic image she carried.
"I think I've seen enough." She said. Chris nodded. "So, how do you intend on getting my sisters back." She asked.
"Easy, I'll fly over the capital city and peer into each building with the thermal vision. When I spot them and their kidnappers, I'll eliminate the threats and bring the girls back here." He said. Blanc's face became serious.
"How do I know you aren't fooling around while your out there?" She asked. Chris nodded and walked back to the box. He gently tugged on the pad which had scanned his hand and it came off, revealing it was actually a tablet. Connected to the tablet was a head set. Chris walked back to Blanc and handed her the tablet.
"Boot that up for me. It's kinda hard with my fat metal fingers." He said. Blanc pressed the button on the side and the screen light up. "You should be able to see everything I can. Even the HUD should show up. Use the headset to talk to me." He said. Blanc put on the headset and adjusted the mic.
"Can you hear me?" She asked.
"Loud and clear." He said. He went back to his box and grabbed the two metal rods. Instead of placing them on his back by reaching over his shoulders, he slid them up from the lower back. Then, he grabbed his rifle and nodded. "Alright. I'll be back. Just keep watching that screen if you want to know what's going on." He said. He walked to a window and opened it. He jumped out the window, which was on the ground floor and walked a ways away from the building. Then his rocket pack kicked on and he took off into the air.
"Activate thermal vision." He said. Everything went dark. The buildings and grass were all various shades of grey or just black. Meanwhile all the guards and people, inside and outside the building, were highlighted in white. They weren't solid white either, this thing could provide crazy amounts of detail to what ever you were looking at. It even picked up facial features. He started off in one particular direction, opting to make sweeping passes over the city to find the girls.
~~~oOo~~~
Chris had been flying for over a few hours, and still had yet to find anything. He scanned around and inhaled.
"I'm not seeing anything yet, are you?" He asked.
"Nope." Blanc said. As Chris passed over a certain place, one that should be empty by this time of night, but it wasn't. He stopped and hovered over it.
"Woah, I got two small heat signatures and one big one here. I believe this is the theme park, correct?" He asked.
"That's right." Blanc confirmed. Chris descended a bit and took a hard look at the two smaller blips.
"That's gotta be them." He said. He scanned the large signature. "The big one appears to be some strange robot. Any clue who it might be?" He asked.
"That's CFW Trick. I'd recognize that tongue anywhere." Blanc said. Chris charged his rifle.
"Who ever he is, he's about to be dead." He said.
"How do you plan on getting them out?" Blanc asked. Chris clutched his rifle.
"Same way I'm going in." He said. With that he kicked on his thrusters and used them to descend rapidly. As he was blazing toward the ground, and the large heat signature, he raised his rifle and started firing. It spat bolts of plasma in quick succession, which knocked Trick off his feet. Just as he came close enough to the ground, Chris changed the attitude of his thrusters by turning his body upright, firing the thrusters retrograde to his current direction of travel. He hit the ground feet first and took a few leaping steps, his metal boots making clunking sounds for each step he took. Finally he dug his feet in and sliding to a halt. Chris took note of the girls trying to climb the chainlink fence. Chris then trained his rifle on Trick, and continued firing on him as he tried to get up. Sick of his antics, Trick whipped the rifle out of Chris's hands, leaving him standing there without a weapon. Trick rolled to his feet.
"Aw, who the hell are you?!" He asked it a strange voice.
"Their body guard." He said, pointing to the girls. They looked at one another curiously. "Now let them go, or this theme park will be your grave." Chris threatened. Trick laughed.
"I don't think so." He said. He swung his tongue at Chris, whom barely managed to dodge it with a roll. Chris reached behind him and drew his battle axes. He pressed the buttons and the axe blades came to life, glowing in the darkness. Trick swung his tongue again, but Chris - now armed with his axes - lobbed a big section of his tongue off with the axe. Trick screamed. "My tongue! You cut off my tongue!" He shouted. Chris threw one of his axes directly at Trick, and it dug itself into his forehead. Chris rushed Trick, and with the aid of his rocket pack and reached up and grabbed the handle of the axe. Using his body weight and his legs he pulled the axe downward, cutting Trick's head in half. With the head split in two, Chris used his legs to push off Trick's body. With a small back flip the axe came free and Chris landed on his feet. He took a few jogging steps back and let Trick's body fall to the ground. Chris clicked the button on his axes and the blades disappeared just as before.
He placed them on his back and walked over to grab his rifle. He scooped the weapon up off the ground and slung it over his back. He then turned and faced the two CPU candidates.
"You two alright?" He asked. He took a step toward them, and the backed up against the fence. Chris stopped and put a hand up to reassure them. "It's okay. I'm working with your sister." He said. They blinked and looked at Chris.
"You're working with Blanc?" Ram asked. Chris nodded.
"I'm putting her on speaker now." He said. He pressed a button on the side of his helmet and coughed. "Blanc, you are now on speaker." He said.
"Rom? Ram? Can you hear me?" Blanc said. The two girls smiled.
"Blanc!" They said in unison.
"Listen, you're going to be okay. Chris here is helping me get you two back safely." Blanc said. Chris nodded.
"Alright Blanc!" Ram said.
"We'll see you when we get back!" Rom said. Chris sighed.
"Alright, come here you two. Lets get you outa here." He said. He bent down and gestured for them to come in close. They ran up and wrapped their arms around him. He wrapped one arm around each of them and stood up. "Hold tight. I hope you two don't get air sick." He said. The thrusters kicked on and soon the trio ascended into the sky.
"Don't go so fast! You might scare them!" Blanc scolded. Chris chuckled.
"Don't worry. I'm cruising along at an easy sixty miles an hour." He said. He looked to his left and right and saw the girls giggling and laughing. "They seem to be enjoying the ride." He said. He flew over to the basilicom and decided to do a loop around to bleed some speed. After on successful lap around the building, he gently glided down and touched down softly. Chris put the pair down just in time for Blanc to rush out to greet them.
"Rom! Ram!" She said excitedly. She rushed over and hugged the pair. "I'm glad you're alright. I'm sorry for being such a bad big sister." She said.
"With all due respect, I think you're a damn good sister." Chris said. Rom and Ram looked up and smiled at Blanc.
"Uh-huh! Look, we even brought you gifts!" Ram said. The pair pulled out a pair of strange medallions each and presented them to their big sister. Blanc smiled and hugged her sisters again. She didn't let them go or open her eyes until the sound of metal footsteps walking passed her pulled her from her thoughts.
"Chris?" She said, looking back at the man over her shoulder. He stood and looked back at her as well.
"Yeah?" He said.
"Thank you for this." She said. He gave a single nod.
"It's what I do." He said. Then he walked back inside to find his armor box and clothes.
~~~oOo~~~
When Blanc and the two girls came back inside, they found Chris tucking in his shirt and retying his tie. He gave the group a nod and continued to dress himself. He patted down his shirt and threw his coat back on. He smiled and Blanc warmly.
"Thank you for this opportunity Blanc. It's been fun to finally put this thing to some use." He said. Blanc smiled back as he straightened and buttoned his jacket.
"I should be thanking you. You saved my sisters, after all." She said. He chuckled.
"I assure you, It was nothing." He said.
"I wouldn't say that was nothing. You saved me from that webshow host, and managed to keep your word to the host, even if you were lying at the time. You patrolled around for hours looking for them, not even stopping once. That took quiet a bit of dedication." She said. Chris smiled and blushed. He waved a hand at her.
"Oh, stop. I was happy to help." He said. With himself fully dressed, he sighed and looked at the large box. "Now I gotta get this thing outa here. It was a pain to get it here in the first place." He mumbled.
"That won't be necessary." Blanc said. Chris looked over at her. "I've decided to make you their body guard, and babysitter as well. You will be in charge of keeping them safe, and making sure they stay out of trouble." She declared. Chris smiled.
"Thank you kindly." He said. He looked down at the two sister and chuckled. "You two will be seeing a lot more of me around here."