Disclaimer: The creative rights to Mai HiME have long belonged to the alien nation of Xzyrtic VII- otherwise known as Sunrise.

The great ship Ixqwan Tallon had a great mission. They all believed in the mission. They all believed in the ship (they had made all the modifications themselves). This turned out to be somewhat ironic…

Most doubts were actually centered around the personalities and methods of each crew member. They were united by the importance of the goal, not by any genuine fondness for each other. But the mission came first. They would find a world where their vast technological knowledge would amaze the natives so much that they would finally be able to get girlfriends.

Of course, being behind the cause didn't mean everyone was planning to play fair…

Vorwyk was not planning to play fair, especially not now that he had perfected his fantastic device. He'd started building the machine years before when he had been analyzing the same issue that had led to this voyage, albeit on a fully personal level. See, he had recognized the problem right off. Despite his parents' general ineptitude, he was blessed with great intelligence and natural charm (no matter what other people said). However he still looked like his unworthy parents and he was still named 'Vorwyk'. Sometimes he wondered if they'd wanted him to be miserable… Now that he was away from them, he was going to rename himself, something cool that would have chicks fighting over him, something like The Black Master… or something better, if he could think of it.

The name would solve one problem; the device would solve the other. It allowed him to convert himself into an energy-based entity. His intelligence, will, and charisma would be without his physical body to drag down the effect. In that form he could draw into a targeted body and take it over, then pull out of it again without repercussion. He'd tested it on Syeed (the perpetual drunk who was used to not being able to explain his actions). Data he had gathered from these tests implied that in his energy-based form, he could lapse into stasis which would allow him to live far beyond his natural lifespan. Actually, so long as everything went right, it would allow him to live forever.

Now all he needed was for them to find a world that wasn't tragically devoid of attractive women. It'd been so long since they'd passed a planet with any life though, that he was starting to think he might settle for just women. Any. Period.

Some of the others were excited about the planet they were currently heading for. It was situated so that it would support life. They actually had picked up readings which had some of the boys convinced that there had to be thriving cities. Those readings could also just mean that the planet was inhabited by huge beasts. It probably would be the latter, knowing their luck. How boring, he'd thought, then decided to kill time by playing with his machine. Maybe he'd leap from person to person and see if he could manipulate them into fighting with each other.

It was not, perhaps, his best idea. Oh, it had been loads of fun… at first, anyway. People had been yelling, waving their arms and fists, and generally carrying on. It had been glorious. But then he'd made that last shift. He was just propping his head up with his arm when he realized that his elbow was touching altogether the wrong button. Between the many waving arms, this was not a unique occurrence, and several of the wrong buttons and levers had been pushed and nudged. There was a moment of perfect silence as everyone realized that a crash landing was inevitable– a crash at very high speeds induced by a system that had been fun to make but hadn't been actually tested.

They were all brilliant, even if in Vorwyk's opinion they fell short of him. However, they had built-in safeguards and in the peace of shared doom they were working together magnificently. It made a difference too. When the ship crashed it was at far lower speed. None of them died even. The ship was trashed though.

Vorwyk had lashed out, hitting his fist against one of the control panels to vent his rage. In this way he inadvertently found the one part of the ship that still functioned. Their super-powered, over-clocked, uber-fancy, necessary-because-it's-so-cool main blaster was trapped between the land and twisted bits of the ship's outer hull in such a way that it pointed straight up and could not be moved from that position. It could, apparently, still fire though. The shot rocked the ship wreckage and disappeared beyond the sky.

That was when Vorwyk decided to join the others that were surveying the area outside. What he saw made him grimace. Massive signs of life. Massive life forms. Gigantic, stomping lizards that were about as sexy as a kick to the balls. Worse, it wasn't even one of the huge ones that had chased them back into what was left of their vessel. The thing was a fraction of the size of its larger cousins but that hadn't stopped it from eating Syeed (he'd been the slowest runner of them).

It was some days later– days mostly filled with cowering in their home, that a repaired scanner informed them about the meteor. Vorwyk had slipped off as the others discussed the suspicious burn pattern the rock sported. By the time they'd reasoned out that the shot he'd fired had knocked it off its course and now had it heading nearly directly toward them, he'd hidden and activated his machine. Well, they weren't going to get off this planet anyway, he'd mentally shrugged. Now, perhaps things would get interesting and he would be able to wait and see.

Much, much later, Vorwyk was coming out of stasis. He'd done this before and not seen anything worth staying awake for. This time was different. As far as he could tell, all of those horrible giant lizards were gone. Instead he found there were small groups of hairy bipeds who used simple tools and seemed to have simple speech. It wasn't much but this he could work with. With patience, things just might go his way after all.

Here, he thought, would begin the rise of The Black Master!

He frowned– he really did need to come up with a better name.

Notes: This was written for MU's The Carnival of MUses. It is very silly. Double beta reading love given by the renowned Crosswood and the inestimable Kyanobenthes. Any remaining errors are mine alone.