As the title implies, this is part of the fanfiction project called the Infinite Loops. Essentially, reality is broken and the only way to stabilize it is to have the various universes run on time loops. Now, there are rules that must be abided by and they are as follows
Loop mechanics (general):
1) One person in a Loop, often the main character, is an Anchor. They are the person who first starts time looping.
2) There is always at least one Anchor present in a given Time Loop snippet, though it may not be the local one.
3) The standard pattern for a loop is that the Anchor (and whoever else is Looping there) come to awareness in a loop at a particular point in the story. From there, events will play out as influenced by the Loopers present, acting with the benefit of their foreknowledge, until either a predetermined end point is reached or all the Loopers have copped it.
4)To be Awake is to be aware of the time loops (that is, to have gone back in time this time.)
5)The Anchor is the only character guaranteed to be Awake. Even after others have started looping, it is mostly random as to whether they will be Awake this particular loop.
6) Crossovers, fusions, and alternate pasts can also take place. It is perfectly possible, for example, to have the characters Awaken into a loop which conforms to a fanfic universe rather than reality.
7)Loops do not have to be in chronological order, but it is strongly preferred that they not require a mutually contradictory order (where A must be before B and B must be before A.)
8)Just about every Looper is very, very stir crazy.
That should do it for the intro. If you want to learn more, the Infinite Loops can be found in the Spacebattles forum.
1.1
Kira Yamato found himself very confused. Last thing he remembered was falling asleep next to his girlfriend Lacus Clyne after the end of the Second Bloody Valentine War. Now, he was back in the gazebo he had used for shade while dealing with the assignments given to him by his teacher, Professor Kato, before the first war reached the space colony he lived in, Heliopolis. Just like what he remembered, he was listening to the news of an attack by ZAFT on the Taiwan island of Kaohsiung where a Federation Mass Driver was located.
It's too real and natural to be a dream...and I don't have more fingers than normal, Kira determined, comparing it to his memories and counting fingers as part of a lucid dream reality check. Only moments after doing that check, he heard the very familiar sound of robotic wings beating in flight as the AI bird his long time friend had made for him landed on top of his open laptop.
"Birdie?" it said in a questioning tone as it tilted its head at Kira. Within nearly the same instant, he heard a voice he hadn't heard in a couple years and he was sure he'd never hear again.
"Kira!" It was Kira's best friend, Tolle. As he came into view, Kira's eyes went wide with shock. After all, the last memories he had of Tolle were him dying in battle to try and assist him in a fight. "So this is where you've been hanging out. Professor Kato's been trying to get a hold of you."
Upon actually getting a good look at his friend, Tolle frowned, "Uh, you okay, Kira? You look like you just saw a ghost."
Shaking his head as if to clear it, Kira responded, "It's nothing. Just remembering a nightmare I had recently. Must be all the news reports I listen to."
Miriallia more commonly called Miri and another of Kira's friends, who was standing beside Tolle, spoke up, "I don't blame you. Often times, we'll get news of the war several days after it's already happened. What about the news you're watching?"
"ZAFT forces taking Kaohsiung. Looks like it was from last week, which means that area may already be taken over by now." Kira said in reply, taking a line from how he remembered the original conversation going.
"Oh dear. Kaohsiung isn't all that far from us. Will the homeland be alright?!" Miri worried aloud.
Tolle tried to reassure both of his friends, "Hey, don't worry about it so much. ORB is a neutral nation. I don't see it turning into a warzone."
Despite the confident tone in his friend's voice, Kira knew that ORB will be attacked later in the war. He then shook those thoughts from his head.
If I've really gone back in time, then I'll do it better this time around. I'll protect the people I failed to before. He thought privately before diverting the current conversation. "So anyway, you guys were saying that Professor Kato wanted me for something?"
1.2
Kira's eyes went wide and his breath got faster and shorter as his teeth clenched in rage. It was him, he knew it! He could sense him! Rau Le Creuset, the madman responsible for escalating the war for the sole purpose of getting humanity to wipe itself off the face of the earth! The man who killed his lover, Flay Allster, just because he could. Except, that man wasn't in the superpowerful Mobile Suit that gave him such trouble during that final battle of the first Bloody Valentine War.
At this point in the loop, Kira had just equipped his Strike Gundam with its Launcher Striker pack for the first time. Said pack consisted of some decidedly powerful weapons: a 320mm Hyper Impulse beam cannon on the left side of the suit to be fired underarm plus a 120mm anti-ship vulcan gun and two 350mm rpg Gun launchers mounted on the right shoulder. Now, the first time around, he had stayed on the ground, aimed the massive cannon and fired upon confirmed lockon. However, this only took out Rau's assault rifle and the arm that held it before blowing a hole in the colony wall.
This time around, however, Kira didn't exactly think about how his friends would react to what he did. Putting the Strike's thrusters to full, he leaped towards the offending Mobile Suit and the maniac inside. Rau Le Creuset noticed his approach and aimed his CGUE's rifle. Kira ignored the resulting spray of bullets as he knew that it was worthless against his Strike's Phase Shift armor. This surprised Rau as the rounds in his Mobile Suit's rifle were advanced armor penetrating shots. Realizing that his rifle was useless against this threat, he stored it on the CGUE's waist rack before pulling out the ZAFT standard heavy sword for close range combat.
Not that it mattered much. Kira's experience from both Bloody Valentine wars and Rau's mostly surprised state meant he was wide open for what the Ultimate Coordinator had in mind. The Strike Gundam kicked the outside part of the arm holding the sword as it was thrust forward, knocking the pilot off balance while also lining up for Kira's shot with the Hyper Impulse Cannon. Rau only had a moment to stare at his impending death before the particle beam penetrated his cockpit like it wasn't even there. Then the reality of what he just did came back to slap him as the beam traveled well beyond his intended target and into the colony wall behind the CGUE...just like the first time around.
At least, this time, he's not around to take advantage of the new "escape route" I made. Kira thought as he maneuvered the Strike and flared its thrusters to slow his descent and land without much impact.
-scene change-
"Captain Ades! I can confirm, Rau Le Creuset's CGUE has lost signal. I repeat, Rau Le Creuset's CGUE has lost signal!" Everyone aboard the Nazca Class Vesalius who heard the announcement stood around in shock. Rau le Creuset was an unquestioned Ace with a Mobile Suit and he lost to the Earth Alliance's new model and a Natural pilot. As the shock wore off, vengeance swiftly took its place.
"Attention all hands, this is Captain Ades. We have just lost Commander Creuset's signal. The fact that it was apparently a Natural piloting the one Earth Alliance machine we failed to acquire that did the deed has us worried. However, he would not have wanted us to mourn him. No, instead, we shall avenge him. We will take no chances and assault the new Alliance ship and its mobile suit with the full might of the Vesalius! All hands, prepare for combat!"
-scene change-
Kira could only fault himself for this drastic change from what he remembered of the first time around. Not only were the D-Type anti-fortress GINNs there, but the fully active brothers of his Strike, the Buster, Blitz, Duel and Aegis Gundams. As much as he liked how his experience of the first time around was helping him, he didn't quite see how it could get out of this situation. After all, they were mostly busy with loading supplies onto the Archangel battleship when the ZAFT forces struck...and Kira wasn't near the Strike at the time.
1.3
Kira was standing just outside the door to a room he had dreaded entering in all the time he's looped. It took about a dozen loops to build up the courage to reach this point. For all he knew about his status as the Ultimate Coordinator from his confrontations with the nihilistic madman, Rau Le Creuset, he wasn't quite sure how he'd react to hearing the whole thing from the people who he used to think were his parents. Taking a deep breath, he slowly opened the door and entered.
His heart pained a bit to see them, the sadness on their faces as they looked at him and how their body movement suggested that they were almost hoping that he didn't try to dig up the past that they thought had been buried. In response to their stares, Kira gave an awkward little grin before walking over to the couch opposite his parents. As neither side wanted to make the first move, Kira let the silence drag on for a few moments as he tried pushing through the emotion he had been bottling up ever since the first time through his timeline.
"Mom...Dad...Why...Why was I made into a Coordinator?" He was partly expecting their reaction, but the sheer regret on their faces spoke volumes. After they took a moment to recompose themselves, his mom reached into her purse and pulled out a framed picture of a lovely woman and two babies resting in her arms, one blonde the other brunette.
"Kira, I'm sorry. We should have told you before, but we kept putting it off, thinking you weren't old enough." His dad said as Kira was given the picture to study. "I mean, the story involved deals with subject matter that would most likely shock and disturb anyone. If you really think you can handle the truth, then I can see no reason why you should be denied."
He sighed with a heavy heart before continuing, "There was a man named Ulen Hibiki. Because of imperfections in the Coordination process, many times parents who paid for the treatment wouldn't entirely receive the baby they wanted. So, doctor Hibiki set out to discover a way to perfect the process. The conclusion he came to was that the mother's womb had to be eliminated from the equation, there were too many variables involved for growing such a baby. So, he and his team set out to make an artificial womb for growing Coordinator babies."
At this point, his mother stepped up to continue the story, "That man wasn't satisfied with just making a process that would allow for more consistent application of the Coordinator process. He wanted to show what his invention was truly capable of. In the end, after several failed attempts, he finally succeeded by putting his own unborn son through the process involving his despicable machine. He successfully turned his son into the Ultimate Coordinator. That picture there is of your birth mother, shortly after you were born. It wasn't long after this picture was taken that Blue Cosmos attacked."
Kira picked up the picture and looked it over, back to front. Upon looking at the back, he saw what was written there. His name and, as he expected from the first time around, Cagalli's name. Cagalli, the blonde baby in the picture and his twin sister. When they noticed that he was staring at the names on the back, they looked ready for him to ask about that. However, Kira decided that he'd just play that off and make light of it.
"Cagalli, huh? She's my sister? Heh, no wonder we argue so much. We certainly act like siblings do. At least, assuming the people telling me about their experiences with their brothers and/or sisters is actually fact, rather than hyperbole." He started laughing at that. His parents giggled awkwardly at how well he was taking both parts of that secret. Seeing how his attempt wasn't really working, he changed tracks.
"It doesn't matter what my origin is. You raised me and for that, you will always be my Mom and Dad." With tears in her eyes, his mom embraced him, with his dad not far behind. He hugged them back and just let his own tears flow. As the small family hugged, Kira could only think, I should have done this earlier. It wasn't just me who needed to do this.
1.4
Well, this is new. Kira thought as he wasn't in any location he recognized from Earth or the colonies, PLANTs included. Also new, he had a tail, long brown monkey tail. That, and he was naked. He shivered a bit in the mostly dark and dank cave surrounding him. Looking behind him, he saw an incubation-type glass chamber. It was at that moment that memories that were technically his caught up with him.
He was an alien called a Saiyan, but not a naturally born one. Instead, Dr. Gero had stolen the DNA of all the Saiyans who had interacted with Goku and friends. From there, he set to work studying it so he could make an artificially enhanced one in his goal to kill Goku. Dr. Gero had been killed by the androids 17 and 18 shortly after making the final modifications to his development. Now, there was only to wait for the computer watching over him to decide he had been aged enough to let him loose on the world.
Kira actually found it rather easy to shrug off the programming Dr. Gero left in him to seek out and kill Goku. Other than that little change, the thing he found most notable was this feeling of overwhelming power in his veins. He compared it to liquid fire, but there was no pain, only power. As if on in instinct, Kira Yamato snapped around and unleashed a torrent of that energy into his former cradle, blowing it to atoms and leaving a hole in the mountainside. After that, all he could do was look at his hand and think, This is going to take some getting used to.
In a completely different timezone, Goku felt the surge of power that had been unleashed in the faraway mountain range. He immediately knew that this was a fused loop and that it was a looper he wasn't familiar with. His tail swished about, he had learned how to regrow it at will during one of his earlier loops, as he sent telepathic messages to everyone he knew was looping, telling them he'd deal with the fused looper. With his vastly increased power set, being able to use Instant Transmission without any concentration was as easy as breathing.
He arrived to find a naked brown haired young man with a Saiyan tail, facing a hole in the wall that led several meters into the outside. An instant later, the young man snapped around to gaze surprised at how he appeared out of thin air.
"Hi, you're the new guy, right?" Goku said with a wave hello.
Kira blinked at that while nervously scratching his cheek, "New guy? I don't know. Where am I?"
"I take it that this is your first fused loop?" Goku asked amiably.
"Fused...loop?" The Coordinator Saiyan repeated in a confused tone.
"Whoo boy, I don't want to do that whole song and dance." The much older looper said as he shook his head. Focusing his gaze on the younger saiyan, he reached a hand out and said, "Come on. I'll take you to a friend of mine. You'll get answers...and some clothes too."
As if to emphasize his point, Kira sneezed due to the continued exposure to the elements, made worse by the hole he had blown into the mountain. Not knowing what else to do, Kira took Goku's hand. An instant later, they both vanished.
After Kira received some clothes and his "Welcome to the Multiverse" introduction, he was sitting in Bulma's lab with said scientist, her old friend Goku, her husband Vegeta and her future son, Trunks. They listened to the story of his baseline, a world torn by two wars between ZAFT, a military consisting entirely of Coordinators-genetically enhanced humans like himself-, and the Earth Alliance, which the major part-the Atlantic Federation- was controlled by Blue Cosmos, an anti-Coordinator hate group. Kira told them how he was a war veteran more than a dozen times over, per war. Bulma was fascinated by his descriptions of the Mobile Suits used to fight with, while Vegeta scoffed that they had to fight with ridiculous machines.
"Well, that's it for my story. Now what?"
"Normally, in our baseline, there's this bio-android named Cell that would be appearing around this time, but he hasn't shown up yet. In fact, it's rather suspicious that you've turned up right now, especially as one of the great Saiyan race...what did you say your name was?" Both Goku and Bulma started teasing Vegeta about getting senile if he couldn't remember a name so soon after hearing it. The older Saiyan snapped at them to shut up.
"Kira Yamato," the young Saiyan replied, not really wanting to offend the older man by joining in.
"That's not a Saiyan name. A pure-blooded Saiyan requires a proper Saiyan name!" Kira could only look over in confusion at the other people in the room that weren't Vegeta. They just shook their heads at his antics.
"Tamato. Your name is now Tamato." The Saiyan Prince decided after about a minute of silence.
"Th-thank you," Was all the newly christened Saiyan could say as everyone else in the room faceplanted.
"And now, your training begins!" Vegeta stated with authority.
"Training?" Tamato could only blink in confusion. Then Vegeta grabbed his arm and started dragging him off.
"Trunks, come along. We have to break in the new guy."
"Yes, dad!" Said the other young saiyan in the room as he stood up ramrod straight before following after. Goku decided to make sure Vegeta didn't go overboard while Bulma just shrugged at her husband's decision.
"Hopefully, we won't need the Dragon Balls, like last time."
Kira, excuse me Tamato, was definitely getting the workout of his life. He was currently sparring with Vegeta at 100x Earth's gravity...as a warmup, the Prince said. Since most of his hand to hand combat training was either in low to normal gravity conditions, this was very taxing on the young Saiyan. Still, he was quite surprised by his new body's quick adaptability. They had only been training for about an hour and already, Tamato could feel himself adjust to the very heavy gravity. This allowed him to actually get a hit in on the Saiyan prince.
"Lucky shot, Tamato. I underestimated how quickly you would adapt to this level of gravity, since it took my half-blood son over there twice as long. We'll spar for a bit longer under this level before ramping it up." Vegeta charged his fellow looper with intent to harm only to find himself thrown to the ground as Tamato dodged his punch enough to grapple the stretched appendage.
"Before learning other hand to hand combat skills out of boredom, my knowledge of self defense mainly consisted of grapples and throws. I was rather pacifistic like that. Once I was swept up in the wars, I had to kill in desperate need to protect the people I cared about. However, after enough loops, boredom set in and I figured, 'When in Rome'."
"Do as the Romans do, huh? Well, since I see you're pretty good at defensive combat, show me what you can do on the offensive. Just be aware that I'll be punishing any opening I find in your style." Vegeta responded as he adjusted his own stance. Tamato took a boxing stance before lunging in for a straight punch. The Saiyan prince dodged it easily before bringing his own fist down on his sparring partner's back...which was countered as the younger Saiyan rolled in midair to block the blow with a kick before momentum pulled him out of normal attack range.
"I had gotten very good at reading my opponents back in my home loop, thanks to having an enhanced mind allowing me better memory and faster processing speed. My body would then react faster to that reading as my body was made to be better than an even another enhanced person like me."
"You really like to explain things, don't you? You've been without a looping partner for too long, I say. Alright then. Time for me to stop holding back so much. Let's see how well you can take blows that you can't avoid." Vegeta vanished from the visible light spectrum, causing Tamato's eyes to widen in surprise. However, despite his speed increase, the Saiyan Coordinator was able to avoid the punch that was thrown his way by bending backwards.
With that, the sparring escalated as the younger Saiyan sped up himself to keep pace with his instructor. However, as much as his new body was enhanced by Dr. Gero to defeat Goku, said enhancements didn't take into account the time loops. Thus, he could see that, for all he was able to match speed and strength with Vegeta now, each second he did so meant the Prince of all Saiyans just increased the pace. Eventually, Tamato wasn't able to get his guard in place fast enough and took a hard punch to the right shoulder. This sent him spinning for a moment before he recovered his balance.
It hurt, more than Tamato had expected, but then he was used to being fast enough to dodge attacks in his home loop. He hadn't put nearly as much emphasis on taking and shrugging off hits. After rolling his shoulder to make sure it wasn't injured, the looper started laughing. Vegeta paused to watch, wondering why he was so happy. The younger Saiyan answered that after a moment.
"I had been missing this in my loops. All alone with no one else my equal, I was getting bored and possibly losing some sanity as well. Now, however, I'm being challenged again and it feels great!"
"Of course. The great Saiyan race thrives on pushing their limits to ever increasing heights. The thrill of battle sings in our blood, Tamato. Listen to it, embrace it! Strike fear into the hearts of your enemies with your newfound power! HAHAHAHAHA!" Vegeta certainly seemed to be happy with this.
"Boy, Vegeta's really hamming it up. Did Bulma get him drunk before he came here?" Goku commented from the sidelines.
"I think he's just happy that there's finally been a looper who became a Saiyan for the fused loop." Trunks returned with a shrug.
After a few more minutes of that level of gravity, Vegeta increased it to 150x. This time, however, he didn't start easy on the lad to allow him time to adjust. Instead, he wanted to push Tamato to his limits. Even as the younger Saiyan's body got used to the new intensity, he kept finding himself too slow to counter the much more experienced fighter's blows. Heck, even as his speed kept improving as his body adjusted, Vegeta increased his own speed to remain ahead of Tamato's reaction time. That wasn't to say that the younger Saiyan was only on the defensive during this time. He tried to sneak in blows wherever he thought he saw an opening for them, even if it didn't amount to much against the superior speed and skill of his opponent.
It still occasionally caused Vegeta to break off whatever attack run he was on before renewing it from a different angle. After awhile of this, however, Goku stepped in and call for a break. Tamato said his thanks inbetween gasps from his spot of the floor after falling over in exhaustion. Trunks set the gravity machine to a far lower setting before pulling out some capsules which exploded into refrigerators with food inside them. While Tamato usually avoided eating too much in his home loop, with all the food in front of him, he couldn't seem to help himself as he matched pace with the other Saiyans beside him.
"So, are you enjoying the fused loop so far?" Trunks asked conversationally.
"It's great. I've never felt so alive." He definitely wasn't anything like this in his home loop. Perhaps he was really being affected by the Saiyan blood that currently flowed in his veins.
"That's good, because we'll take a break from mere physical combat so we can focus a bit on training up your Ki usage." Vegeta said as he slightly paused his own meal to speak. "As a Saiyan, you'll understand how to use that energy you feel inside your body instinctively. But even then, it becomes far more potent once you've trained yourself to use it on more than an instinctive level. There are many applications for using that energy inside you, for instance, you've been using it unconsciously to increase how much punishment your body could take during our sparring match earlier. It can used offensively as a weapon and it has some utility in making things like barriers or achieving flight."
That caused Tamato to go wide in the eyes, "Flight?! I'll be able to fly under my own power?! That is awesome!"
"Indeed. Learning to use that energy to fly is considered a rite of passage for any young Saiyan. It's an essential part of learning more advanced forms of Ki projection." Vegeta seemed to be in a "professor mode" as he lectured the young looper.
"Not really essential, Vegeta. I actually learned to use Ki for offensive attacks long before I had learned to fly under my own power." Goku offered in rebuttal as he brought up a slice of steak to his mouth and ate it. The Prince of all Saiyans blinked before looking down at his own food, and finding some steak missing.
"KAKAROT, THAT WAS MY STEAK! I WAS SAVING THAT FOR LATER!"
"Then you shouldn't have been so distracted on lecturing our young friend here." Goku retorted while sticking his tongue out at his rival. Said rival didn't take kindly to that as he reached over and snatched up a large rice ball from Goku's side. When it was devoured before he could act, the orange gi wearing Saiyan got angry.
"HEY! THAT WAS MY RICE BALL! VEGETA, I WILL CRUSH YOU IF YOU TOUCH MY FOOD AGAIN!" Trunks could only sigh at the antics of their rivalry got into motion. Both older Saiyans stood up and started flaring their power as they broke into an argument. Neither Trunks nor Tamato felt like interrupting, especially since they had their own meals to finish. The argument really started escalating as the two survivors of the Saiyan race turned Super Saiyan in their increasing tempers.
The newest Saiyan stared at such a development in fascination, since that part of being a Saiyan hadn't been mentioned yet. The more he learned about what a Saiyan was, the more he seemed to realize that he had a long way to go before he could even understand it. Even with his interest on them, Tamato kept eating, since he didn't want anyone to decide his food was fair game if he stopped eating for any length of time. Their argument lasted more than long enough that the two youngest Saiyans there finished their own food.
The food that started the argument seemed all but forgotten as Vegeta and Kakarot's argument went on and on.
1.5
"NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP! NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOWN! NEVER GONNA RUN AROUND AND DESERT YOU!"
"MAKE IT STOP!" "MAKE IT STOP!" "MAKE IT STOP!" "MAKE IT STOP!" Cried out four voices simultaneously.
"Note to self. Replacing G.U.N.D.A.M. OS with Rick Roll is highly effective."
1.6
"KIRA! WHY THE HELL DID YOU CHALLENGE ENSIGN NEUMMAN TO A DRINKING CONTEST, THEN TRIPLE DOG DARE HIM TO PILOT THE ARCHANGEL?!"
"Seemed like a good idea at the time."
1.7
"This is mankind's dream, mankind's desire, mankind's destiny!"
"Nyan, nyan, nyan, nyan, nyan!"
"What is that dreadful noise? Stop it. Stop it at once! NNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"Whoa, kid. That was pretty evil right there." Kira's mentor Mu La Flaga said as the omnicidal maniac that had manipulated both sides of the war fell catatonic from Nyancat.
"All's fair in love and war." The Ultimate Coordinator responded.
1.8a
The violet eyes of the Ultimate Coordinator fluttered open as the sensation of movement roused him from sleep. He found himself on a train, which definitely meant he wasn't back in his own world after his time spent as a Saiyan in the Dragon Ball loop. There hadn't been trains in his world for centuries. He also found himself wearing a simple black robe and holding a straight wooden rod in his hand. As he stared at the long stick in his hand, the memories of his loop self filtered in.
He was on the Hogwarts Express, having been chosen to attend the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The wand in his hand was thirteen inch blackthorn with a phoenix feather core. Going over his childhood, apparently he was the result of an attempt to apply enhancing spells on him while still in the womb. The end result, his wild magic phase was longer than normal and the effects of which were much more pronounced. As these memories passed, Kira compared the origin with the Dragon Ball loop and his own loop and sighed.
"Is this going to be a running gag in these loops? That I'm going to have some form of artificial enhancement that makes me not normal compared to everyone else? I never asked to be the Ultimate Coordinator." At that moment, the door to his cabin opened and in came Harry.
"Hello there. First time in a Hogwarts loop? I'm Harry Potter. What's your name?" The lightning bolt marked boy reached his hand down for a handshake. Kira grabbed the offered hand and shook.
"Kira Yamato. Goku and Bulma mentioned you."
"Oh, had a Dragon Ball fused loop before this? Well, at least that means I don't have to give you the introductions. I've had to give plenty of those in all my time looping."
"I'll bet. So, how about we swap stories? Might as well get to know each other, right?"
"And that's how I saved my mentor and love interest with Nyancat." Kira stated with a laugh and some pride.
"You'd be a devastating opponent, Kira. And that is what you did with your normal tech. Just imagine what you could do with other powers," said Harry approvingly. They had actually left the Hogwarts Express a bit ago and Kira ended up finishing his story in the thestral drawn carriage on the way up to the castle proper.
"Yeah, I already got a taste of that with Goku and friends. I mean, seriously, they have the power to blow up planets casually. Its a wonder they're able to keep from destroying Earth even in serious fights."
"it helps that they actively make their energy attacks non-penetrating so you'll have an explosion and some craters but that's it. While you can find some potent stuff in this world, it'll be nothing remotely close in terms of raw power."
Kira shrugged, "well, I always try to be very careful with any power I have. Two of my three main Mobile Suits are designed specifically for taking out enemies in droves. If I didn't avoid killing whenever possible, my body count would already be in the billions."
Harry nodded at that. It made sense, picking a generally pacifistic person for an Anchor. Means they have a higher likelyhood of making it through war situations with their sanity intact. They sat there in silence for a minute or so, Kira because he didn't have much more to say after that and Harry because he was thinking of something to say.
"So, how much of your school books have you read?" Might as well get back to that subject now. They were about to enter the school, after all.
"Memorized them," was the quick reply Kira gave.
"Read them that many times already?"
"Didn't need to do it too many times. I can process information far faster than a normal person and have increased memory capacity...Just saying that makes me wonder if I could live as a normal person."
"I see. And, you said that both this and the Dragon Ball fused loops have involved you still getting enhanced somehow. Not sure what to say about that." Harry said with a shrug. Genetically enhanced humans weren't his forte.
"Yamato, Kira." Here it was, the moment of truth for any Hogwarts student, the Sorting Ceremony. The looping war veteran slowly walked up to the stool and let the hat be dropped onto his head.
Well, well. What do we have here? A reluctant warrior you are. Intelliigent with a desire to protect others, even at great personal expense. A kind soul who can fight with great furiosity when pushed. Fit for any house, save Slytherin...You are a tough one.
If you don't mind, Mr. Sorting Hat. I would like to be in the same house as Harry Potter.
Very well, Mr. Kira Yamato. Then your house shall be..."GRYFFINDOR!"
With the hat removed from his head, the young wizard went down to sit by the other Anchor. Said Anchor was busy chatting up his other looping friends while waiting for the Sorting Ceremony finished, since they've been through this part so so so many times. After Kira was only Blaise Zabini, who went to Slytherin. With all the sorting done, Dumbledore stood and made his normal Year one announcements before allowing the meal to start.
Since it was a buffet style affair, Kira piled his plate with at least one of everything in his reach. When he started scarfing it all down like he hadn't eaten in days, the people in his vicinity stared at how much he was eating. Harry smirked at the sight, very familiar with Goku's eating habits.
"Feeling ravenous, Kira?" He asked teasingly.
"Yeah. It's like..." He toke a moment to choke down a pumpkin pasty, "my appetite from the last loop carried over."
"It most likely has, on top of the growing body you have now. It takes some getting used to." Harry wasn't particularly concerned with being overheard in this cacophony. He'd know if someone was attempting to listen in from afar, after all. Anyway, he had his own meal to get back to.
"*Burp*Oh man. I feel stuffed." The young man said as he flopped down onto his designated bed.
"Not surprising. You ate more than me, Ron and Hermione put together. You really did bring over that Saiyan appetite." Harry was rather thankful that no one else had entered the bedroom at the moment. It allowed them to talk in relative privacy.
"So, what's the agenda for this year?" Kira asked while staring up at the ceiling.
"It's a bit of a slow year, strictly following the baseline. I'll join the Quiddich team, help Hagrid with Norberta."
"Who's Norberta?" Kira interrupted in confusion.
"A dragon. Specifically a Norwegian Ridgeback. Hagrid has a habit of keeping creatures others would want to avoid for safety reasons." Harry was rather casual about that.
"And this is a slow year?" Kira asked in surprise.
"Well, it is only my first year. It gets even more hectic in later years, not assuming I do something about the problems before they're a problem."
"Yeah, I've done some preemptive problem solving when I felt like I didn't want to deal with the resulting headache down the road. It was mostly just finding ways to sabotage certain Mobile Suits before they could deploy."
"Well, I'm going to bed. Good night." Harry said as he slipped under the covers.
"Good night." Kira replid as he did the same.
1.8b
"Almost as good as Harry did the first time on a broom. Perhaps you should join the Quiddich team as well." Ron said as Kira was busy testing the movement of the class borrowed Shooting Star. Said wizard had picked the two newest school brooms of the lot, since they lost power as they aged. He could have pulled out his own brooms for flying, but they didn't want to attract unwanted attention. They were trying to do a baseline loop for Kira, which is why Harry wasn't there to talk to.
"I wasn't one for sports growing up. Coordinators doing anything to stand out would usually mean Blue Cosmos came knocking. It wasn't nearly so bad in the ORB homeland and its colonies, but that group lurked almost everywhere." Kira was thankful they were up high enough and moving fast enough that most of the other students weren't able to hear them. Heck, almost all of the other students hadn't gotten their brooms off the ground.
"Understandable, but how are you flying so well? You're compensating for the broom's own shortcomings like you were born on one." Ron complimented.
"Flying is something I do a lot of in my home loop. Heck, in the previous loop I had where I was with Goku and his friends, I learned to fly under my own power. I guess I'm just good at it." Kira said with a shrug.
Ron stared at him for a few silent moments before asking, "Are you sure it's not your Coordinator baseline that makes you such a quick learner?"
Kira gave him a sour look, apparently that kind of question came up a lot with him, "Coordinators aren't some kind of perfect supermen. All being a Coordinator means is you have a lot of potential that is easier to bring out than a Natural. We still have to train to get it."
"Whoa, sorry about that, mate. I didn't mean to bring up anything offensive." Ron took his hands off his broom to wave them like he was warding himself. It really showed his looping earned skill that he maintained that cruddy old broom with just his legs.
Taking a deep breath to shake off the annoyance he felt, Kira apologized himself, "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gotten terse with you."
"Hey, it's no big deal right? I mean, these loops can do stuff to people. I mean, there's Sakura Haruno, which lead to the diagnosis of Sakura Syndrome."
"Isn't she recovering from that, though?"
"Well, yes. But I was just using her as the most well known example. If there isn't someone who you can talk to about the loops, then it becomes very hard to maintain your sanity. Hopefully, you'll get a My Little Pony loop soon. That's a sanctuary loop and a great way to wipe the worries away."
"Ponies?" Kira was confused by that, but then shrugged it off. It's a wide multiverse out there, after all.
"Hey, Kira. You've been making use of your subspace pocket, right?" Harry asked conversationally as they were doing homework in the Library.
"I wish I had known about that before the fused loops. I would have been able to play around a bit more with my home loop. Man, thinking about it, I miss Birdy." Kira responded as he took a short break from the papers in front of him.
"Birdy? Who's that?"
"It's this robotic bird my friend Athrun Zala made for me when we were kids. That's what he loves to do, make machine companions for the people he cares about. Heck, when they were fiances, he made like half a dozen Haroes for the girl who eventually became mine, Lacus Clyne."
"Haroes? You mean those cute little ball robots? He makes them in your world?"
"Er, yeah. I take it that they aren't unique to my loop."
"Well, not entirely. Yours isn't the first looping world with Gundams in it, but it is the second one I've heard of that has Haroes."
"Huh. I'll be on the lookout for such a loop, then. Anyway, you were asking about my subspace pocket?"
"Oh yeah. I wanted to know what you've acquired so far."
"Not much, since I only discovered it and thus use it during the previous loop. Bulma and Goku gave me a complete set of Dragon Balls and pretty much a lifetime supply of capsules. Apparently I've got some room in there from how Bulma explained it." Kira said with a shrug.
"I'm sure. Still, you've got a long way to go before you could compare to me and the rest of the Original Seven. We're the first anchors in these loops and are pretty much gods by now, with our subspace being universes unto themselves. Only reason we haven't ascended to Adminhood is because we like our loops. After all, the anchor disappears or goes nutty and the loops they anchor go boom, pretty much for good."
"Oh, that's not good. I'll have to be careful."
"Sorry, sorry. Didn't mean to make you fret. Just pointing it out."
"It's alright. Still, I know exactly what I'll be putting into my subspace once I get back into my normal loop."
"How about from this loop? What have you been putting in from here?" Harry asked curiously.
"Mostly stuff that I thought I could feasibly take without people wondering where they went." Kira replied.
The older looper grinned mischievously, "Then we'll have to do something about that. When taking something from a loop to put into your subspace pocket, it's all about the timing. While we couldn't do something like, say, clean the Library of every book inside right now, near the end of this loop there'll be a big battle for Hogwarts and taking the books then would be fair game. Especially if it's made to look like it had taken a powerful explosive spell or two."
"That sounds rather...questionable."
"It probably is, but pretty much every looper who has come through here and many who live here have done it at least once. Well, not that we really need to since any looper has all the time they'd need to memorize every last book in here." Harry stated with a shrug.
"Something to keep open for consideration, I guess. I mean, it's mostly what can happen to a looper if they stop caring about life that's the problem, right?" He seemed undecided about thieving material away...then the thought of what he was planning for his home loop came up again and realized it wasn't that much different than some stuff he had already done at home.
"Well, until such time, what can I start taking now?"
Harry grinned again, "First things first, what you own and can buy."
1.8c
"That's checkmate, Ron." Kira said as his rook slid up next to Ron's king and into the protection of a nearby knight as a bishop blocked the King's escape route.
"You're getting better. That makes our tally 14-13-28 in your favor." The Chess King of Gryffindor conceded graciously.
"It's tough to admit, but you're pretty difficult to match at this. Even with these loops allowing you to get insanely skilled, you're a normal person."
"Don't let his averageness fool you, Kira. Ron here has surprising talent when he puts his mind to something." Harry said as he approached from his bedroom.
"Gee, thanks mate." Ron sarcastically replied, even though he knew it to be a compliment.
"Anyway, how's your wandwork been? Having any trouble with it, Kira?" Harry asked the young looper.
"It's been good enough to do my assignments with, but it feels like there's something untapped inside it and I don't know how to get it."
"It's nothing to be worried about. Your wand is blackthorn, which requires overcoming danger or hardship to truly bond with the wizard. At least, that's what my experience with wandlore tells me."
"Well that's just great. How am I supposed to fulfill that condition?" Kira asked, rather irritated.
"The troll," Ron spoke up. "During the Halloween feast, Professor Quirrell will release a mountain troll into the castle. The first time around, Harry and I were the ones who took it down, mostly by luck admittedly. Still, that seems like the closest thing to meet that requirement."
"So, in a couple of weeks then? I guess I can wait that long...Speaking of wands. Do you guys get new ones every now and then?" The younger looper asked.
"I think Ron and Harry had decided at some point to have a full collection of wands that accept them as their wizard." That voice was Hermione entering the dorm. "Ron's been having trouble getting veela hair wands to accept him, while Harry's missing only an obscure wood or two."
Harry shrugged, "I can make them, being a licensed wandmaker, but that doesn't mean they'll accept me as their wizard. Still, it's been fun, especially when I decide to go to a different wizarding school."
"That sounds fun for a later loop," commented Kira.
"Still, if you're going to take on a troll as a first year, we should make sure your wandwork is up to the task."
1.8d
Okay, this is tougher than I thought it would be. Kira thought as he repeatedly dodged the heavy swings of the mountain troll in the girl's loo. He had cringed when he saw where he had to fight. Thankfully, it was wide enough that the young looper had the space to maneuver around while Hermione watched in reserve. That wasn't the problem.
There seems to be a standard rule for magical creatures. The more dangerous they are, the more resistant they are to spells. Of course, or otherwise trolls couldn't be nearly the threat their rating suggested. Many of Kira's jinxes and charms merely bounce off its skin: the stunning charm, the tickling charm, the impediment jinx, the jelly-legs curse and the leg-locker curse to name a few.
"Kira, you have to go on the offensive here. Disabling may be your favored method, but that doesn't always work." Hermione said as she was getting tired of him dodging only to launch an ineffective spell during an opening.
"I know, I know. Just seemed mean to use anything else on a dumb creature like this. Incendio!" Kira's blackthorn wand blasted out a bright orange flame that struck the troll on the arm holding its club. This caused it to drop the weapon and back away in pain.
"Avis! Oppugno!" A flock of sparrows erupted out of Kira's wand with the bang and smoke of a gunshot. Then, they set upon the larger creature without hesitation, rapidly swooping in to peck at its exposed flesh.
"Lumos Solem!" The wand blasted forth an incredible cone of bright light, blinding the troll and causing it to fall back further.
"Confringo!" Another blast of fire, but instead of merely scorching the arm, it struck the troll head-on and exploded with intense heat. With a loud bellow, the troll fell backwards and passed out. Kira blinked at the incredible power that last spell produced. When he was practicing that spell with Harry, it exploded with only half as much strength.
The teachers arrived shortly thereafter, Hermione explaining an edited version of the event that just happened involving her getting caught by that thing on her way out of the loo and Kira rushing in to save her. Professor Mcgonagall checked the two over while the others checked on the troll, which was still breathing. Kira was actually rather surprised that it had survived being hit directly by that spell. After she decided that they weren't too badly hurt, the Head of Gryffindor House lead her charges back to the dormitory.
"I was quite surprised myself. The power increase was significant." Hermione reported to her fellow loopers. They were all in the dorm commons as everyone else was swarming the young looper and asking about the rumors of him taking the troll down single-handed.
"Then, we'll count the mission as a success. Another looper well on his way." Harry said with a proud smile. The crowd surrounding Kira started to thin as time drew towards bedtime. Said looper sagged where he was standing from both the fight and the energetic students wanting to know about what happened. When he made his way over to where Harry, Ron and Hermione were and flopped into an empty chair. "So, Kira. How's the wand feeling now?"
"It's definitely feeling more responsive. Like it was unsure of me before, but now it's like the wand is an extension of my own arm."
"That's exactly as it should be. Wand and wizard as one." Harry stated with satisfaction.
After taking a deep breath, Kira asked, "so, what's next on the loop timeline?"
1.8e
Kira's eyes widened in utter disbelief. Based on his loop memories, he shouldn't have such a huge pile of gifts. It was Christmas day and apparently, every looper currently awake had gotten him a ton of gifts. He wasn't quite sure how the looping students managed to go out and get them, but figured they had proxies do it. As for the actual gifts, Kira had received: a full set of all broomsticks up to the Nimbus 2000 from Ron, many books of spells that weren't taught at Hogwarts from Hermione, a remembrall and sneakoscope from Neville, an undetectable extension charmed satchel loaded with alchemy ingredients from Draco, the largest collection of sweets he had ever seen in his life from Dumbledore, a survival kit; including several different kinds of knives, hundreds of meters of cord, a large fishing pole, a longbow and arrows from Hagrid and more wizard fireworks than he knew what to do with from the Weasley twins.
"Strange, Harry didn't get me a gift?" Kira wondered confusedly.
"I did. I just had to wait to receive it." The older looper said as he handed a gift wrapped package to the younger looper.
"But this is one of yours," Kira replied as he spotted the tag to Harry.
"I already have dozen of what's in that package. So, for your first Hogwarts loop, you can have it." Now curious, the violet eyed young man ripped into the package. When the silvery cloth slid into his lap, he was very surprised.
"What is this?"
"It's an invisibility cloak. The best one in the world." Harry stated with pride. It was all Kira could do to hold the cloak up and inspect it. He was absolutely spellbound by the quality and implications of such a piece.
"Hey mate, you should put these away." Ron called from the pile of Kira's gifts to the distracted boy.
"Oh, sorry!" Kira said while jerking himself up to standing. A couple minutes later, the only sign of his gifts were the discarded wrappings.
Later that day, during the Christmas feast, Kira was having the time of his life. He loved the wizard crackers, as his growing collection of hats and prizes proved. Dozens of luminous balloon packs, half a dozen Wizard's Chess sets, even more sweets like chocolate frogs and sugar quills and a few grow-your-own-warts kits were among his pile of gifts. Among his hats were; three top hats, a bowler hat, a fedora, at least one each of the military caps and half a dozen pointed wizard hats. He couldn't put them away yet, since there were non-loopers present.
Even as he was acquiring his current hoard, Kira ate his fill of the feast. This time, however, he had competition in the Weasley twins, who bet some more of their Wizard Wheezes if he could at least match how much they ate combined. To their credit, they were able to keep pace pretty evenly with the younger looper for several minutes, however, it eventually became clear that Kira had more eating stamina as the twins' pace started slowing down while he still went on strong. Probably him using the Saiyan body he got last loop, which wasn't against the rules of the contest. Eventually, having been given position of referee, Ron called for an end to the contest in Kira's favor.
They paid up, though the scowls on their faces meant they suspected his trick. He only smiled in response as he claimed his prize.
He paid for eating like that as he moaned on his bed. Harry and Ron both shook their heads.
"That's what you get for making such a bet with my brothers. Perhaps you should have kept using that Saiyan metabolism after finishing dinner."
"For all I know, they may have slipped some of their pranking junk in with my food once they started falling behind." Kira stated as he lay there. "If they gave me U-no-poo, I'll find a way to get back at them. The body digesting that much food and not being able to release it in a timely manner, not how I want to go."
"Please mate, don't talk about such things after a meal. It never tastes as good coming up as it does going down." Ron winced queasily at the thought of a catastrophic toilet emergency.
Harry listened to his friends talk. They'd be back in classes soon enough, not like they were the same about their homework as the first time around. Looking over at Kira, he thought about how quickly the younger looper was learning everything the Wizarding World had to offer. The thought of genetically enhanced humans crossed his mind, a rather dark subject due to its implications. It was apparently a common practice where he comes from. A shiver ran down the Boy-Who-Lived's spine as he compared the Coordinator process to Sakura's antics while she was influenced by the syndrome named after her.
Having the ability to do so, does that make it right? Or is this a case of blue and orange morality, where the culture is so different that its sense of right and wrong are different regarding certain things? He didn't know, having no direct experience with that loop other than what he was told by Kira. This isn't even the first time he's contemplated about this. He was deeply familiar with all the other known loops currently going on, but there were very few that ever had genetic manipulation as a common thing that no one really thought much off. Just pay a fee and tell the doctor what you want and boom, custom child. Each time he thinks about it, the implications and comparisons to Sakura come up again and he shivers.
It seemed a very slippery slope, especially since Kira had told him that it wasn't just Coordinators that were made by this process. When Kira shivered at some recalled memories, Harry brought out a pensieve so he could see it first hand. He saw a man he considered more horrible than Voldemort. A nihilistic madman and omnicidal maniac who intentionally escalated the first war Kira fought in for the sole purpose of getting Humanity to wipe itself from existence in the resulting conflict. This man, Rau Le Creuset, was cunning and an incredible actor, being able to hide his insanity until he thought it no longer mattered, even acting like a compassionate leader to the men under his command. On top of all that, he was a clone.
A clone, because the man who wanted him made considered his own son inferior due to his mother's genes. Not even the only clone. From Kira's own experience over his loops, there were at least three clones of that man and several...Carbon humans. That term confused Harry when he first heard it. The younger looper then elaborated about them. They aren't clones as such, but instead created by implanting DNA and memories of other people into already living beings.
Not the first time Harry has thought about Kira's world and shivered at the darkness it bears.
1.9
It's almost kind of sad. Kira thought as he gleefully danced around his current foe. Yes, he was literally making his Mobile Suit dance around his opponent. Said opponent was too busy raging at how his antics were knocking him around while his friends could only stare and wonder if he had gone insane in the matter of minutes before he launched to fight. And that's not even including the music of choice...
"Hey, sexy ladies! Op, op, op...Oppa Gundam style!"
1.1) Basic opening here. Nothing all that special.
1.2) Kira is still a young looper here, so this falls under "Didn't Think This Through".
1.3) A little bit of closure can go a long way in healing.
1.4) Yes, I know tomatoes aren't really a vegetable...are you going to argue with Vegeta about it?
1.5) That's one way to disable both Mobile Suit and Pilot.
1.6) Because a heavily armed warship driven by a drunk is funny.
1.7) Omnicidal maniac made catatonic by a rainbow poptart space cat.
1.8) To be honest, I'm not sure what inspired this crossover.
1.9) Because confusion fu is the best kind of butt kicking.