AN: Please note, this may start like an original story, but it is a fanfiction. I've already had someone try to report me for this misunderstanding. The rest of the chapters are due to go up soon. We claim no ownership to Hellboy, Gundam Wing, Final Fantasies XII or VIII, House, Tales of Vesperia, Sharkboy & Lavagirl, Slayers, Twilight, Transformers, Heroes or Yu Yu Hakusho. Those honors belong to Mike Mignola, Yoshiyuki Tomino & Katsuyuki Sumiziwa (creators of the original 1979 anime, Mobile Suit Gundam, which Gundam Wing is loosely based off), Squaresoft/Square-Enix, David Shore, Namco, Robert Rodriguez (writer, producer and director of the Spy Kids movies), Hajime Kanzaka, Stephanie Meyer, Hasbro & Michael Bay, Tim Kring, and Yoshihiro Togashi.
Also, this is a form of self-insert writing. Don't read if you don't like it. If you do read, please leave a review. Flames will be gladly used to make s'mores. Also, PA is common abbreviation for physician's assistant.
1
The Big Apple
Clearly, then, the city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo
—The Human Zoo, Desmond Morris
New York wasn't the best place to live.
Sure, it was wonderful to visit – Chinatown, Broadway, Times Square and the Statue of Liberty; you practically had an infinite amount of choices of what to see and where to stay, especially with the Burroughs everywhere. New York was the city that never slept, nearly as old as the United States, with the history and culture to back the claim up more than a hundred times over.
Still, it was smoggy and polluted and you just about sold your soul for a decent apartment. The traffic was utter and complete murder, and the streets were laden with pigeons scurrying heedlessly underfoot day in and day out. On a good day, the streets teemed and burst with people, thanks to the Empire State's overpopulation of the city. But a living could be carved out, with gumption and will and a whole lot of creativity.
Oh, and just about no social life to afford board and food.
"Katie!" Radha kicked the door open, a beat-up riding satchel cutting into her shoulder, her arms holding seven pounds of overweight plastic bags of Balducci's groceries. The young med-student glanced around, then pitched her voice shriller. "Ka – tie!"
A dog in the distance howled.
"KATIE! AN – SW – ER ME!"
A loud crash sounded from the second bedroom. "Over here! And stop yelling!"
Radha kicked off her mud-and-snow caked boots, and crossed to the sage-green suede couch, her bag sliding into the mushy cushions. The groceries, purchased with both her and her housemate's cumulative salaries, thunked onto the countertop. She peeled off her bomber's jacket, and hanging it on the wall-mounted coat rack with her ushanka, trotted off to find her best friend.
"What are you doing in here Katie?" She queried, sticking her head in cautiously. The room had been divided into a sleeping area and an office; the office for Katie's work and the bed for a friend who would be visiting. "Kate?"
"One sec – tryin' to kill my writer's block," The paler, younger girl chewed on the cap of her ballpoint pen. "Just gotta a job to do a medicinal article…"
Radha's lips curved into a slight smile. A plastic chair was drawn up, and she straddled it, resting her arms atop the back of it and her chin on her hands. "Heh. Nice. I'd help you, but, I'm kinda busy.."
Katie glanced at her, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "Oh? With what exactly?"
"Working for my Master's for one th – "
The other girl rolled her eyes. "You're nearly done. You'll ace the final exam this month.."
"Shut up, I'm talking. Anyway, then there's me workin' as a PA,"
"How you landed the job, I'll never know," Katie remarked dryly. She quirked a slender brow at her friend. "You're a freaking midget."
"You're heaps of help. Really," Radha crossed her arms. She waited a beat. "Mind if I continue?"
"Yeah. But continue anyway – the radio's busted and you make great background noise,"
The med-student noted the mauled chunk of wiring and metal. It was the same shade of green as her favorite radio. "You owe me a new one. Anyway, you know that store I always buy half of my groceries from?"
Katie grimaced. "Oh, yeah. Health Food 'R' Us – believe me, I know. What about the world without Skittles and Peeps?"
"Hush. Well, they got these forms from Honda in there – fill one out, send it in, an' you might end up with a free, fully equipped Honda," She paused. "I've been sending, like, fifty forms a week since May – guess what?"
"All your efforts culminated to naught and you were left to lament your loss of a blessed vehicle?"
"No, you bloody pessimist.." Her lip's parted in a devious grin. Her eyes sparkled brightly. "We won."
"….Quit pullin' mah leg."
"I pull it not. We are now the proud owners of a '09 Honda Element,"
Katie blinked. They never won anything, unless they stole the prize from the winner. "Seriously?"
The other girl chuckled, shaking the set of keys in her hand; there was new addition. It was rare that Katie was the dumbfounded one. "Seriously. Outfitted to the nines."
Katie snatched the keys from her, and whooped. "…Frickin' kewl!"
"Can I drive it?"
"No. 'Sides, you're not allowed still. You ran that stoplight in Manhattan, remember?"
"…Radha? That was you,"
The PA scowled and twisted to face her best friend – or, rather, surrogate sister. "…Me? You were the one who got off Sharpies enough that she was practically, drunk – I was busy trying to wrestle the wheel away from you so we wouldn't crash!"
"Debatable. You gave me the Sharpies..."
Parked in front of their apartment, was a citrus-orange Element, fresh off the assembly line. Oversized chrome hubs, splash guards, trailer hitch, side steps – Probably for Radha and her short as hell ass, thought Katie bemusedly – it looked wonderful from the outside. Inside, all-season floor mats, cargo organizer and net, and an armrest of a storage box for the driver's side, plus a six-disc CD player built into the dash.
"Whaddaya say we take it for a spin?" Katie piped, grinning. "Y'know, head down to the harbor? Or the beach?"
"We could go to that one by Coney Island," Radha mused softly. She touched the cool metal door of the vehicle. She hummed a few bars of ragtime. "Manhattan Beach, that's the one,"
"I'll get the soda!"
"Yeah, yeah... – first, we pack the groceries. I'm not staying up past eleven filling the cupboards when I gotta cram for exams..."
Their door was already open. "..Hotdogs! I love me hotdogs! And pizza, and burgers, and steak fries – ooh! I can't wait!"
The other girl rolled her eyes. "The hell you can't. You took your pills today, right?"
"…Ben & Jerry's! We can't go without Ben & Jerry's – where's that Cherry Garcia?" Last week's frozen spring rolls landed on the stoop. The hot wings followed suit, along with the med-student's beloved four-pack of Lean Cuisine. "Radha! Where's the ice cream?"
"…Katie? You took your pills, right?"
The box of Chinese takeout was flung outside. It narrowly missed the Element, General Tso's Chicken splattered across the windshield of a '66 Corvette Sting Ray. Radha grimaced, and pulled the tarp back over the sparkling vehicle. Way too close.
There was a pregnant pause. For a moment, Radha fretted that her best friend, in a moment of hyperactivity, may have hurt herself.
This was, of course, unfounded.
"…Radha! Get your ass in here! I can't find the fuckin' fire extinguisher!" Katie yelled from inside. "Double time!"
….And to think, she's actually as sane as I am. Radha sighed, and running a hand through her hair, entered the apartment. "…Katie? Hey, has your cabin fever driven you nuttier than me on caffeine? The extinguisher's right next to you – dammit, aim at the fire! Not me!"
Forty-five minutes later, with Radha at the wheel, and a cooler of Philly cheese steaks, Pepsi, Vitamin Water and the elusive quart of Ben & Jerry's, they arrived at the shore. It was fairly crowded, so they drove a distance to the far end, by a tide pool, and tailgated there.
"Rad, where's my suit?"
The med-student glanced up from where she had dug a shallow pit, filled with kindling. She held a lit match in one hand. "Your duffel. You packed it there, in the front pocket so you'd remember. Which you didn't,"
"I fell asleep!" Katie protested. She popped the trunk and strung two sheets of soft canvas along the windows in the car, for privacy's sake, of course. "It's a long drive!"
"Uh-huh…" Radha tossed the match into the foil-lined pit, crumpling a kerosene-soaked kerchief and tossing it in. The flames roared up a moment, and she set a cheap iron-cast skillet to dangle above from the trunk's door. The cheese steaks went in and sizzled in the peanut oil. "Careful swimming Katie – Channel 5 says the sea's pretty choppy today,"
"They also say we shouldn't be able to afford a nice, three bedroom and two and half bath apartment," the journalist countered from inside the Element. Her silhouette rummaged through the cargo organizer. "You bring sunscreen? I don't wanna burn like toast..."
"Sunscreen, me? Nah," Radha flipped the cheese steaks. She popped two fries into her mouth, dusting off the excess salt. They'd stopped for Burger King during the drive. "I don't even own any sunscreen. Too brown for it..."
The other girl hopped out in a slimming midnight-blue one-piece. "Yeah, well, try and get some for the sake of my white ass, okay? Sunburn's not a pleasant thing, lemme tell ya,"
Radha smirked. "Gotcha. Expect a travel-size, so don't go slathering globs of that shit on yourself,"
"Duly noted." She glanced at her best friend, in a quarter-sleeved apple-red top over a gray shirt and a pair of indigo jeans. "..You're not gonna – ?"
The med-student's reply was clipped and dry. She took the Philly cheese steaks off the skillet and dropped them onto a Chinet. "I don't swim. I can but I won't. The only reason I learned was for that emergency class."
"Whaddaya scared of? I mean, it's just water,"
"Yeah, well… I'm a land lubber, okay?" Radha flipped open the Igloo and wrenched the cap off a Vitamin Water. She took a long draught. "Just go and take a dip, alright? Somebody's gotta manage the grub – maybe, when you're done, we can dig for some clams?"
"Or crabs. It'd be awesome to have some food we don't gotta pay for," Katie grinned, getting a running start and diving headfirst into the water. She remained below the water a moment, then surfaced a few seconds later. She began doing the backstroke, whistling.
Radha smiled slightly, and shaking her head, locked the cheese steaks in a Tupperware. She took one of the old mopping buckets and a garden shovel, and went toward the tide pool. It was pretty obvious that Katie was already caught up in her swimming, and it would probably stay that way.
Things settled into a lull. It was a cool, breezy Friday afternoon and the beach didn't thin all that much, but it didn't exactly thicken. By the time the sun had begun to dip below the horizon, the med-student was already done with her clams and crabs and was pouring two tiny plastic bowls of wasabi and oyster sauce. The soundtrack to Iron Man wafted out of the Element and striped towels were laid over a pair of discount beach chairs. It was the closest thing to peaceful Radha could remember and the only thing missing was –
"Katie! Where are ya?" She bellowed, cupping her hands around her mouth. She looked around worriedly, and ladled the just-finished the seafood and accompanying sauces into Tupperware. The containers were dropped in the cooler; all the Pepsis were still inside, untouched and bobbing in the chilly water. "Katie, c'mon! You're worryin' me here!"
Seagulls squawked and one tried to dive-bomb her. She whacked it with a rolled up copy of the New York Times. She frowned, her brow furrowing and collapsed the chairs, shoving them in the trunk next to the Igloo. She grabbed her satchel, minus the books, and quickly armed the Element's security system.
"Crazy bitch," She muttered, adjusting the strap of her bag as she switched her sandals for Nikes. "You better be alive and not floatin' like driftwood…"
She was prepared to walk the length of the beach, and maybe even Coney Island when said bitch bolted out of the water, screaming like a banshee, and grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her violently.
"Radhayagottahelpmethere'sthisfunkylookingcorpse'sallblueandshitandandandand – !"
"Katie, what the – ?" The med-student shook her head, pried herself free and praying that it would knock Katie back to some semblance of sane, whacked her best friend upside the head. "Stop talkin' a mile a minute! And calm down!"
"I am calm!"
"You're as calm as the Atlantic at storm!" Radha retorted. She grabbed Katie by the arm and disarmed the security, popping the trunk so that they could sit on its ledge and lean against the cushioned seatback. She plunged a hand into the chilly water and pushed a Pepsi into her housemate's hand. "So chill like that soda, and tell me what the hell happened!"
"I did!" Her friend protested. She opened the Pepsi, though, and sipped it in an attempt to try and calm herself. She inhaled deeply, and drew her knees to her chest, feeling a fluffy towel being draped around her shoulders. She flashed a grateful smile. "..Thanks Radha. Anyway, I was swimming – like, twenty minutes after you finished with the Phillies – and, I was pretty deep, when I saw this guy just floating there.."
Radha frowned, confused. "…Floating? What, like he was out cold or something? Or was he – y'know.."
"…I don't know," Katie admitted. She took another sip and shivered as the breeze ghosted over them. "But, it was the first that I thought of – he was this really funny color, sorta grayish.. I think he was stuck in the kelp, now that I think about it.."
Kelp? She went in that deep? For this long? The thought was pushed to the back of her mind; she could rag on Kate for it later. "So, if he was knocked out, what freaked you out?"
Katie squirmed uncertainly. When she spoke, her voice was eerily quiet. "Nothing in the water. I was just squintin' at 'im and trying to make sense of what I was seeing.. Then, before I know it, my mind's all scrambled and I feel like – like – "
Radha touched her forearm concernedly. Katie – her sister Katie – like this… It was worrying. "Hey.. If it's that upsetting.."
The other girl pushed her hand off, but smiled at her. "..Nah. I'll be okay.." She leaned against the seatback, running a hand through her damp hair. She pulled the towel around her tighter. "…It, just felt like I was being – well, extinguished – by just being in water a little too long.. So, I panicked and before I know it, I'm babbling like a retard and shaking you like a rag doll.."
"Forgiven, on the account of temporary insanity…" The med-student rose to her feet and glanced at the water. "…Wanna head in?"
Katie sat up straighter, and stared at her bug-eyed. "What?"
"I'm serious!" Radha jumped the back seat, and went through her backpack. She located her periwinkle two-piece, and pulling down the canvas curtains, began to change into it. "If someone's there, we gotta find 'em. And if we are, God forbid, too late – well, we can phone the cops and let 'em know what's gone down. Let the departed get some closure,"
Her housemate and best friend groaned, now wringing the water out of her hair with the towel. "You gotta be freakin' good Samaritan, don't ya?"
"Hell yes!" She grabbed a cast net and balled it up into a pouch, throwing it over her shoulder. "All that good karma cumulated into us getting one sweet ride, right?"
"I thought it was your nigh-obsessive love of health food," Katie remarked. "Y'know, the fifty forms since May deal?"
Radha rolled her eyes. "Shut up and get in the water. I'm not having this weigh on my conscience,"
Land lubber my ass, you lunatic Samaritan..
Katie was in the water for the second time that day, and she wasn't a happy camper. Not only was Radha insisting that they swim back down to rescue a complete stranger, but it was six in the evening – with a forty-five minute drive home to boot. She didn't know exactly where the kelp forest was or if whoever she thought she saw would be there still. Maybe they would be and were unconscious, but they could be in the Grim Reaper's clutches by now..
Ah, well. Radha wasn't about to even consider the possibility – probably because she was who she was. At least she picked the right field to enter..
Please don't be stuck there, please be alive, she thought desperately. She glanced behind her at Radha, and felt her stomach churn nervously. Her best friend was relying on her to lead her to a place she found on pure luck – and to maybe save someone's life.
Yeah. No fuckin' pressure.
Then she resumed her mantra of praying that whoever had been there, wasn't and was safe and alive.
Apparently, she wasn't praying hard enough.
Thanks to Radha's unexpected foresight, she could make out the figure tangled in the kelp much better. The strong beam of white light from the waterproof halogen lamp washed over a lean, almost delicate silhouette. They kicked harder and swam closer.
She was positive, that despite being under water, they both gasped the unreal – no, surreal – sight before them.
Bluish dolphin-gray flesh, streaked with blue or black patterns, looked soft enough to touch and she could see the gills on either side of his – His? This thing might not even have a gender! She thought, astonished – neck flutter. The beam shifted, passing over webbed feet and hands, then to the fins on his legs and back. He was entirely hairless, a humanoid fish essentially, and dressed in a pair of a black, skintight spandex shorts.
Aware of her rapidly decreasing oxygen, she held out her hand and felt Radha press her Swiss army knife into her palm. She flipped out the switchblade and swam into the thicket of kelp. She grabbed the slippery strands and sliced through them, seeing her best friend unwind the others binding a leg. After a moment, the med-student pointed upwards and kicked towards the surface.
She kept working, and her lungs began to burn.
The kelp on his left arm and leg were done; she was nearly through with the one on his right leg. Radha came back quickly – Goddamn you, Rad.. You didn't get nearly enough air, did you? – and ripped at the ones on his arm. The cast net was soon being unrolled and they pushed him into it, tying like a sack at the top.
We need to get outta here. She glanced at Radha, who kept tracing squiggles in front of herself. This is the single stupidest thing ever – I mean, jeez! We don't even know what this guy is!
Right there, Radha punched her in the arm. Then she mimed twirling a lasso, and then, driving.
Quit miming and go get air!
Radha scowled at her, and hurriedly repeated her pantomime. Katie stared, and after a beat, blinked and kicked towards the surface.
She hit the ground running, wheezing and knotting a length of rope from the trunk to the Element's trailer hitch. She threw the remaining twenty yards into the water, and after uncovering the key from the sand, gunned the engine and backed the Element to the water's edge.
"Thank you, my inner pack rat," She muttered, and prayed the rope was long enough.
C'mon Katie! This guy's heavy..
Radha was still underwater, gripping the top of the cast net and attempting to keep the odd fish-man from being swallowed any further by the ocean. She glanced down and felt increasingly grateful for the steep coastal shelf dipping into the sea. Her gaze shifted from the waters to the one in the net, and she took a moment to watch him curiously. He seemed…melancholy almost..
Wonder where you came from… she mused, smiling despite the burning in her lungs. She told herself to be patient, thankful that they were pack rat enough to keep twenty-eight yards of rope in their apartment. …I mean, were you always in the Atlantic? Or did you come from somewhere else?
There was no answer. She hadn't expected one.
Something brushed against the top of her head and she stared at the snake of thick rope drifting lazily above her. She grabbed it and tied it securely around the top of the cast net. She yanked as she could on it, and clutched it like the lifeline it was. She glanced down at the fish-man in the net, her curiosity piqued.
…I shouldn't ask what you are, though that's a pretty good question.
Her lungs were on fire. The rope began to move upwards, slowly then swiftly. She let herself float up a little with it.
Maybe, what I mean to ask is…
The rope was moving faster; she could the weak rasp of it against the sand, feel her body drift up toward the setting sun.
…Who are you?
Then, the gentlest caress against her mind. And a quiet, odd, dulcet voice with it.
+Believe me, you'll know in time.+
She blacked out.
