Disclaimer: Adventure Quest is owned by Artix Entertainment. Maria, Serras, Natalya are owned by me, Rayne, Trip, Lizzie are owned by DarkAngel, and Shiro, Armor and Faust are owned by Flame. Felix and Faust are co-owned by DA and Flame. Riles and Yuki are owned by DA.
Author's Note: This is the long awaited and much neglected continuation to DA and my Shoujo-ai chain story. For all of those illiterate in Japanese, "Shoujo-Ai" roughly translates to "Girl Love." In short, Lesbian relationships. As DA would say: "If you don't like it, leave. Now."
Author's Second Note: Back when "New Recruits" came out, I fully intended to do a follow up of it, but alas, as the chain story worn on, and new relationships were created (And broken, then re-created), I lost that thought to the back of my head. But NOW! It has arisen once more, and I must not forget it! So here it his. New Recruits: v2.1
New Recruits v2.1
Maria surveyed the battle ground. So far, so good. She was in charge of Battleon's Annual War Games this year, and was keeping a sharp eye across the vast plain, trying to watch all thirty-some battles going on at once. Her sister and Serras were helping with that.
"So, who's winning?" Rayne asked, sneaking up behind the Despairs with a box of donuts and four cups of coffee (Don't ask me how she can balance all that. She just can. She's Uuber like that.) Maria inhaled, ready to give the rundown.
"Well, we've got three 'wars' going on. We've got the forced of Drakonnen over here... that's Drakonnen in the red armor..." She pointed to the west, where a group of Guardians were attacking a rather cut-and-paste group of Fire Monsters. One Guardian, who even at this distance could be recognized as Trip, was dressed head-to-toe in fire red Guardian Armor, customized to reflect Drakonnen. She was standing on a hill laughing, and occasionally falling over. The insuring 'itai...' echoed across the field. "We've got a very shabby undead army over there, provided by the resident Necro." She pointed north, to where a collection of cut-and-paste zombies, skeletons, and even a Drakolich were attacking a group of Guardians. Zorbak was laughing up a tree, sending more zombies and skeletons, reanimating any that fell. "And finally, we've got a hoard of Lesser DrakZombies graciously provided to us via the resided Technomancer, Vince." She motioned to the east, where a group of shabby, cut-and-paste (Yes, I like that term. Stuff it.) DrakZombies (Don't freakin' ask. Go read "Dark") were charging a third group of Guardians.
"So... all in all, everything's going as planned?"
"As or above. I know these things are underpowered, but they're chewing through them like a hot knife through butter." Maria looked at her watch. "Oh, lunch time. Even though we wouldn't stop like this, they need foods." She pushed a few buttons on the watch on her right wrist. "Trip."
"Yes?" Trip's voice came, distorted by the helmet. The distant image was looking at her own wrist.
"This is Maria. Pull back any creatures currently not engaging. Lunch time."
"Will do!" Trip responded. "Alright you worthless bags of embers! Fall back! This is a lost cause!" She was heard shouting, the figure motioning most of the monsters into a retreat.
"'Worthless bags of embers'?" Natalya quoted. Maria shrugged. "So bad... Sis. If I ever use such a crappy one liner... shoot me." Natalya punched some buttons on her wrist. "Zorbak."
"Mwehehe... Oh... Zorbak here." The moglin replied.
"Pull back all undead not currently attacking. Lunch time."
"WHAT?!" Zorbak shouted. "But I've almost trampled the pathetic defense force! I need more time!" He called.
"I will come over there and saw that friggin' limb off, don't think I won't!" Natalya barked back. Zorbak sighed, defeated.
"Alright, alright. Gimme a sec..." He turned his watch off. "Alright you worthless bags of bones! Fall back!" He shouted.
"What is with that catchphrase?" Serras asked, half to herself. Activating her watch, she got in touch with Vince. "Vince. Pull all idle DrakZombies back. Lunch time." Serras spoke. Vince nodded in the distance.
"Alright you worthless..."
"Finish that sentence, and you'll have two mechanical legs!" Serras droned.
"I was gonna say 'Worthless bags of meat...'" Vince muttered.
"Such a bad catchphrase..." Maria, Natalya and Serras muttered, rubbing their temples in unison.
-At that same time. Drakonnen Battlefield.-
Riles twirled in place, slicing a InfernoZard in half, the two pieces bursting in flames. She spun around, her sword at the ready. The blade met the edge of Yuki's sword. The two smiled and pivoted around, slicing two creatures in half.
They continued their dance of death for some time, before the forces began to thin. Several cheers could be heard from the back as the creatures retreated.
"How do you like that you Ashholes?!" One young Guardian hollered.
"That's right! Retreat, before I ice more of you!" Another rebuttled.
"What's wrong? Runnin'? Don't run, I'm just getting' warmed up!" A third smiled.
"That's right! Make like a river and run!" A fourth echoed. A small group looked at him.
"Rivers don't run, you idiot! They flow!" The first young Guardian struck him on the side of his head.
"I'll get you!" Trip, currently playing the part of Drakonnen, shouted. "I'll get you, Battleon! And your little TOWER too!" She finished, jumping off her rock and running away, the remainder of the fire creatures following her. Yuki and Riles stopped to catch their breath.
"You okay, Yuki?" Riles asked, her hand gripping Yuki's shoulder. The younger Yuki nodded and smiled, sheathing her sword at her side. They looked to the small rock formation that made up Commander Despair's lookout post. She was climbing down the side and approaching Riles and the others.
"Excellent work so far, everyone. You're really hammering them. It's now twelve oh five, so lunch is in order. So come on back inside, cool off and eat. We go back to training at one." Maria spoke, turning to leave. Even though Maria was somewhere in the vicinity of twenty six, she still looked eighteen.
"Safiria's so lucky..." Yuki muttered once Maria was out of earshot. Riles laughed and agreed, helping her partner pack up everything. They saw everyone walking off towards the Guardian Tower for lunch. After everyone had left, Riles grabbed Yuki by her shoulders and pushed her against a tree, kissing her passionatly.
"You just couldn't wait, could you?" Yuki asked after she pulled away. Riles grinned, her face partially distorted by her blond hair. She shook her head.
"Wait? For you? Phf. Never." She remarked, kissing her again.
Riles was younger then Yuki, by three years and twenty six days. Riles was getting up on twenty three, her birthday in two weeks. The pair have been dating for some six weeks on and off, and in secret. They never let anyone know about their relationship, in case they were ejected from the Guardians for it. Yuki still remembered what first attracted her to Maria. It was the same thing that attracted her to Riles. The pair of them shared a similar personality. That, and they both had beautiful eyes. Maybe, beautiful eyes was some subconscious turn-on for Yuki, or it was just a happy coincidence. Either option, the resemblance between the two personality wise was uncanny.
Riles had very dark blond hair. It had morphed from a sandy blond when she was younger to a much darker variant. But, underneath it all, it was still blond.
"Hey, I packed us some lunch. I was out scouting earlier, and I found this cave we could hide in. Have lunch... and maybe get some dessert too." Yuki smiled suggestively. The two have developed very well over the years. The once quite, shy and freckle-faced Yuki grew into a beautiful, six foot two, blue haired woman with a nice pair of double D's. Her once-short blue hair had grown to her shoulders and found a natural curl to it. Many times, Natalya mistook Yuki for a blue-haired Maria, as they shared scarily similar hairstyles.
Riles, in the meantime, has developed in quite a different way. The once out-spoken, girlish girl everyone knew some years ago, became a five foot eleven, tomboyish, dirty blond haired beauty with a predominate set of D Cups. She decided to grow her hair out much longer then Yuki did, allowing it to fall down to her lower back.
Riles interlocked her arm with Yuki and smiled. She nodded and motioned her to lead on. Leading, was about the only thing Yuki could do without screwing up somehow.
-Dining Hall-
Wolfblitzer was literally scarfing down his food at the table as he watched Maria look around, clearly ignoring the vittals before her.
"Somethin' wrong, Maria?" He asked, his mouth full. She shook her head, but continued to scan the room.
"No, nothing." She muttered.
"Then why are you looking around like a mother Hyena looking for her cubs?" He muttered a rebuttle. Another head shake from Maria.
"I'm not."
"Hey... is that Safiria I see over there?" He muttered, pointing over her shoulder.
"Could be..." Maria muttered, zoning into her own little world. Wolfblitzer sighed, stood from his table and walked off.
Returning some time later with Orta in tow, he sat her down in his seat.
"Hey! Watch it!" She barked.
"Fix her. She's not right." Wolfblitzer ordered. Orta looked about.
"'Fix her'? 'Fix her', Wolfblitzer? She's a person, not one of Vince's machines! I can't just 'fix' her on the spot! I don't even know the problem!"
"You want problem? Here's problem." Wolfblitzer cupped his hands around his mouth and stood, shouting loudly: "Clearance! Clearance on all Bootlegged videotapes of Maria and Safiria's honeymoon! Ninety gold while supplies last!" Everyone began looking around, but Maria didn't budge.
"No! No, sit down, Azel, I can't see over your fat head!" Maria muttered, motioning a distant woman to sit. She looked around her.
"Fixation." Orta muttered.
"What?"
"Fixation. She's looking for someone. It's obviously not Safiria, so who else?"
"Well, it ain't me, that's for sure!"
"Someone's missing, I know it..." Maria muttered. "But who?" She thought for several seconds before standing. "OH MY GOD WHERE'S YUKI AND RILES?!" She shouted, slamming her hands on the table.
-Nundu Cave. Outside Battleon-
"See? Isn't this a nice place to have lunch? No Maria to bother us... just you... me... and our food..." Yuki smiled as the pair sat down to a picnic lunch. Riles' grin widened as she scanned the food.
"Did you bring enough?" She asked jokingly.
"I think. Do try to leave me some, hum?" Yuki replied, grabbing a sandwich from the basket. Riles rolled her eyes playfully and grabbed a second sandwich.
The two began eating and sharing stories of their training. Soon, they lost track of time, the smell of the pies and food filling the cavern.
Unfortunetly, it also attracted some... unwanted visitors. From deep within Nundu Cave, something primal stirred, awoken from it's sleep by the aroma of fresh meat. The overwhelming stench of blueberry pie didn't help much either. It growled as it's back popped in protest.
"So. Are they treating you properly over there?" Yuki asked after she had swallowed a bit of an apple. Riles nodded and smiled.
"Oh yea. They take real good care of me. Of all the recruits. They're good to us." Her smile faded as a dismal, glaring cry echoed from within the cave.
"What on Lore was t-h-a-t?" Yuki asked, shaking in place. Riles reacted properly, drawing her sword and standing.
"I don't know, but if it gets within three feet of me, it's gonna die." She growled. The pair stood in silence within, footsteps echoing eerily from a distance.
"Riles... I'm scared. What if... whatever that thing is... likes people?" Yuki's voice was faltering. She was having problems keeping her words from breaking apart. Riles scanned the area, her back to Yuki. Satisfied nothing was around, she faced Yuki.
She froze in sheer terror.
"What? What's wrong?" Yuki asked.
"Y-Y-Yukidon'tturnaround!" The words flowed from Riles mouth like water out of a river. She couldn't keep them separated, and Yuki had trouble separating them.
"Don't what?" The creature behind Yuki snorted, her hair flaring around her. "Ah, shit. It's behind me isn't it?" In one great lunge, the beast opened it's mouth and swallowed Yuki whole, the creature's huge bestial jaws never even touching her. She barely had a chance to scream.
"YUKI!" Riles cried, grabbing her sword. The beast reared up onto it's hind legs and bellowed, several rock formations falling from the ceiling. "YOU SPIT HER OUT THIS INSTANT YOU BEHEMOTH, OR SO HELP ME I WILL DISMEMBER YOU IN A HEARTBEAT!" The agitated Pria Knight announced in a stern, commanding tone. The creature only smirked defiantly. "Spit. Her. OUT!" Riles re-declared, flourishing her weapon. Combative, the beast opened it's hands, producing six, fourteen inch claws per hand. Unphased, Riles simply smiled.
First Blood belonged to Riles, but just. You see, this monster she fought was used to fighting things at or around it's size, not half there of. So, it's first strike was a wide, hard right claw at chest hight, which missed Riles completely, sailing harmlessly over her head. The next attack, it realized that high strikes weren't going to work, so it dropped down and and attempted a ground-sweep across the floor, which Riles jumped. While in mid-air, she placed both feet on the hand guard of her sword and began bouncing around on it like a pogostick. With each ground-swipe of it's claw, Riles tried to impale it's hand. For a big thing, it was pretty fast.
Suddenly, completely out of the attack chain, the creature made a slightly higher swipe, which caught Riles right in the side. Grunting in pain, she was knocked aside, seperated from her sword. The blade clattered and rang off in some dark corner, it's location unknown. Riles stood, banishing the pain from her memory, as Rayne had taught her. This thing wasn't that much taller then her. Hand-to-Hand wasn't completely out of the question. Gathering all her courage, she drew her fists up and went right in.
To any spectator, it was a very amusing display. There they were. A Pria Knight, and a white creature, towering four meters over her, and this little girl was going to town on it. She was between it's legs, to it's side, and above it, just landing a fierce combo of punches and kicks. The beast tried it's best to keep Riles in it's sight, let alone it's attacking range. She was fast when angry, and angry was a bit of an understatement at the moment.
"SPIT HER OUT!" she kept demanding between chain attacks. The creature just kept trying to hit her. She finally managed to work her way onto the creature's back, and onto it's neck. "SPIT HER OUT YOU BEHEMOTH!" She demanded one more time, then grabbed the thing by it's bottom and top jaws and began pushing it's jaws apart. "SPIT HER OUT, OR I WILL PULL HER OUT!" She called, pushing harder. She heard it's mandables crack, and even get dislodged. The thing was still screaming, but more in pain now.
Everyone always told her the best way to disable your opponent is a shot to the head. And it worked.
It's mouth finally gave way, and she tore it's lower jaw off. Discarding it and wrapping her legs tighter around it's neck, she began pulling on it's upper jaw, blood covering her entire body. She could hear more bones breaking and finally, like the lower jaw, it's entire head finally gave, and she managed to separate the head from the neck. Jumping to safety, the creature fell over, dead.
"Sword... sword... where's my sword?!" Riles asked herself over and over again, stumbling around in the darkness, looking for her blade. A small glint of light caught her eye. She rushed over and grabbed at something. It wasn't her sword, but it was a sword, and it would do. She grabbed the handle and swung hard and the creature's belly-up body, splitting it's stomach from top-to-bottom with the point. It's intestines spilt out along with it's over-stuffed stomach. Sheating the new sword at her side, she grabbed the stomach wall with both hands and pulled apart.
"AIR!" She heard Yuki call as she rolled out of the creature's stomach, gasping for air. Riles didn't wait, she threw herself onto Yuki and hoisted her up in an embrace.
"Thank the Creator, you're still alive!" She called.
"Hey! Hey, don't do that, I'm all icky! You'll get all messy."
"I don't care! The only important thing right now, is that you're alive!" She pulled her tighter. Suddenly, the entire cavern filled with a warm, orange glow.
"Holy sweet Creator!" Maria's voice came. The two stared at the new arrivals, and smiled. "What did I miss?" She asked, smirking.
"Commander Despair!" Both Yuki and Riles echoed in unison, seperating themselves. Maria's jaw dropped as her eyes fell on the mutilated corpse of the creature.
"Okay... I'm gonna make a wild guess. Stop me if I'm wrong. The pair of you were having a nice picnic lunch in this cave, and the smell woke up the Zolom. Judging by the blood on Riles' clothes, and the digestive juices on Yuki's, I'm gonna guess... Yuki got eaten, and Riles opened a can of whoop-arse on the thing. Am I right?"
"What in the state of hell IS that thing?" A second voice asked. Wolfblitzer emerged from the door.
"That, my slow-witted ally, was the Battleon Zolom. A creature that's been terrorizing the town for years. In the last week alone, it's eaten fifty three people."
"And I would have been fifty four if Riles wasn't here."
"Damn, I haven't even been able to kill that thing. Nicely done, Riles." Maria smiled. "Now, the pair of you are in deep horse shit if you don't high-tail it back to the tower now! I have every right to kick both of your asses for leaving me hanging! I'm responsible for you two! I was worried-freakin'-sick about you! I had no friggin' clue where you ran off to! And just for that, the pair of you are going to bed with no dinner! And about training tomorrow, oh, you guys are going to have it so rough, you're mamma's are gonna feel the strain! Let's move! Come on! GO! GO! GO!" She shouted, rushing them out of the cave.
"Yes, ma'am!" Riles saluted and ran off. Yuki took her time and gave Maria a friendly hug.
"I'm glad you came for me." She muttered and then followed Riles.
"Damn kids..." Wolfblitzer echoed Maria's sentiments.
-The Next Day-
'Rough' didn't even begin to describe how tough the next-day's training was. Usually they only use monsters as target practice, but today, Maria had Riles and Yuki on the receiving end of a good, old-fashioned, tag team. They weren't the ones being trained. They were serving as targets for Maria's training course.
"Alright. Here are the rules. You guys are still in the shit for yesterday, so don't think you'll have it easy. Rayne, Lizzie, Trip and I are going to attack you two. Your objectives are to hold us off until we get tired. You yield, you fail. You surrender, you fail. You fall over from heat exhaustion, you fail. You die, you fail. You run away, you fail. You fail, and you get tonight to bubble over how hungry you are! You succeed, and you'll be eating with the best of us. How's that sound?"
"Question!" Riles asked. Maria nodded for her to continue. "How do we win?"
"Easy. You have to hold us all off as a group, until we all four decide, collectively, we're too tired to go on. But, I must warn you. I had a really great sleep last night. I'm ready to go."
"Yea, me too." Rayne agreed.
"Isn't beating up on the recruits wrong, Maria?" Lizzie asked.
"Only if Captain Kreiger finds out." She shot Riles and Yuki a death glare. "Which he won't, correct?"
"No he won't!" Riles smiled.
"Noppers!" Yuki echoed.
"Right. Ready?" Maria asked. The four drew their weapons. Riles looked at Yuki and kissed her.
"I can't loose with you by my side!" She smiled.
"GO!"