Imperator Ascendant
Genre: Sci-Fi
Yukari stared out the great multi-paned glass windows, gazing wistfully at the vast emptiness of space. It had been perhaps a week since she and her ship, the Imperator, had been rescued, and perhaps a week since she had convinced the mercenary-scavengers to sign on as part of her crew. But although to her it had been a week since she had been trapped, to the rest of the universe it had been over three thousand years.
It had been at the start of what current historians referred to as the Century War, the war between the Systems Commonwealth, championed by the High Guard, and one of their member races, the Bokaloids. The first strike had been swift and brutal, an unforgiving massacre of High Guard forces and the elected leaders of the Systems Commonwealth, initiated when a colossal Bokaloid fleet transitioned in-system and unleashed a weapon so great, it had swallowed the entirety of the capitol system's star, engulfing it in a massive gravitational field before collapsing it into a black hole. Countless trillions died in the attack, the majestic planets having been torn apart by the rending disturbance, and the ships of the High Guard coming under attack from the massive Bokaloid fleet that had ripped out the heart of the Commonwealth.
Yukari had been there, captaining one of the ships that hadn't been crippled by the first waves of lance fire, or disabled by uncontrollable remnants of their once prosperous capitol worlds. Her ship, the Imperator Ascendant, gave as good as she got, trading salvos with over a dozen Bokaloid vessels and destroying half that number. But the losses they had suffered in both ships and morale had taken their toll, and what remained of the High Guard command structure had called for a general retreat. Yukari and the Imperator had been one of the few ships to stay to cover the escape of the rest of the fleet.
It was certain death, but Yukari took the duty stoically. She had ordered an abandon ship, and her crew had fled in escape pods and shuttles, picked up by friendly vessels not too damaged to be able to afford the delay in their flight. The other condemned captains did likewise. As one, the doomed vanguard armada charged the Bokaloid fleet, warship after warship dying as lance fire bathed targets in blistering hellfire and battery salvos slammed into hulls at lethal velocities. Yukari and the Imperator nearly perished as well, suffering extensive damage to Bokaloid guns, but she held steady, along with a few other vessels lucky enough to see their comrades fly to safety.
Yukari might have died content then, knowing the sacrifice of her life and ship were worth it. The Bokaloids were closing in, guns blazing as they picked off the last of the defiant High Guard vessels. But a daring escape plan was hatched to move into the grasp of the newly spawned black hole and use its gravity well to slingshot past the enemy fleet, then enter slipstream to join the rest of their comrades. A few vessels made the jump, insane as it was. The Imperator did not.
And thus, ship and captain were caught in the black hole's event horizon, essentially frozen in time for three millennia. The galaxies changed. The Commonwealth fell. The Bokaloid Alliance splintered. Factions birthed and died all across the known worlds as the years dragged on. Technological progress reverted, many worlds subjected to orbital bombardment during the long and bloody Century War, and then even more were bombed the years following in other conflicts. Entire species were wiped out as other races banded together in moments of opportunistic savagery to prey on the weak and the formerly arrogant for resources and petty vengeance. The three galaxies were barely recognizable to her anymore, Yukari only being able to identify them by the composition of the stars. But even then, many stars were simply gone, consumed by weapons of cataclysmic proportion in the horrific conflicts that scarred the galaxies.
Yukari saw all of this through the great windows, and cried silently, tears flowing down her cheeks. The realization that she was alone in a hostile universe, forced to work with people she didn't know and didn't trust, had been sinking in, little by little over the course of the past few days, and she was certain it would be a little while longer before she finally accepted it.
Behind her, a figure flashed into existence with a soft activation ping, slowly and silently walking up to the purple-haired captain to take her hand. Yukari spared a glance at the holographic woman, a pinnacle of artificial intelligence, a small smile crossing her face. That's right, she wasn't completely alone. She still had the Imperator Ascendant: she still had Ia.
"We'll make it through this Yukari," Ia spoke, offering a gentle squeeze. "Together."
.
.
.
Omake:
"Yukari, we have a problem."
"What is it?"
"According to my sensors, we've been frozen in time for 12,000 eons!"
"…How long is an eon again?"
"Approximately 500 million years."
"...Oh…my…god…!"
"So if you do the math... I guess this really is a tale of six trillion years and a night."
Mid-Youth Crisis
Genre: Humor
"Do you feel sexy?" asked Neru.
"Um... not really," answered Haku sheepishly. "But I do feel cold."
In the quest to make Haku feel sexy, Neru had dragged her friend out to the local pool, completely shut down in preparation for the coming winter. With the lack of onlookers, Neru had decided the atmosphere was perfect for Haku to try on a swimsuit.
"Hmm… Maybe you need to be wet for this to work."
"Neru?"
Neru disappeared into a dressing room, before suddenly emerging from within while carrying a bucket of water. Haku tilted her head in confusion, before Neru hurled the contents at her, drenching her in ice cold water as Haku shrieked in shock.
"Do you feel sexy now?" asked Neru.
"N-N-N-Noo!" stuttered Haku miserably as she tried in vain to warm herself with her arms. Neru sighed, dropping the empty bucket into the emptier pool.
"Oh well," Neru said dismissively, "Let's go. Don't forget to change back into your regular outfit."
"Neru, did you bring a towel so I can dry myself?"
"Nope!"
"Neru!"
Recompense
Genre: Fantasy, Drama
"Well, well, well… Look who's back…" Deep indigo eyes glared balefully at the one that dared unshackle her chains, a snarl marring a face that many had once considered beautiful. The glare did nothing to faze her captor, the other woman donning a stern mask of indifference as she cast off the numerous restraints that she herself had forced upon the prisoner in times long ago. "Did someone finally post bail?" sneered the prisoner, "Or did you finally find the guts to end me? You sure took your sweet time working up the nerve. Heh… I can't even begin to imagine how long it's been since you put me here. Years? Decades? Or perhaps it's only been a few weeks? Time flows oh so differently down here in the darkness." Her captor said nothing, continuing her work, undoing the varied and copious chains that bound the prisoner to the room.
"The least you could do is answer you know. It'd be nice to finally have a civilized conversation for once, instead of chasing away the vermin that fester in this cesspit of a prison." The last of the excessive chains fell to the floor with a clang, the only shackles remaining being the manacles clasped round her wrists, and the prisoner was hauled roughly to a walking position, one that was assumed unsteadily, the muscles having atrophied over her period of confinement. She might have fallen over if left to her own, but the captor's hand was clasped tightly around her arm, and she was led out of the four blank walls that had taunted her for so long.
The prisoner was dragged through a long corridor, lit only with the blazing sconces of wall-mounted torches bearing enchanted white-fire, the walls, ceiling, and floors all the same uniform shade of polished marble, the same as her cell. The prisoner squinted and hissed in agony, unused to the illumination after so long, and twisted her head every way to avoid the burning lights. Soon thereafter, the pair came to an ancient set of stone carved stairs, a narrow pathway of thousands of steps leading upwards: a mason's monotony but a prisoner's hell. She stumbled throughout the trial, her grunts of pain echoing loudly in the confined corridor despite her efforts to suppress them. It was a long, long journey, and only ended after the final step saw them emerge into a wide open room of gray, the white-fire sconces reflecting against the walls, the only other egress being two double doors on the other side of the chamber.
By now the prisoner was literally being dragged on her knees, the climb having exhausted her meager reserves, the once pure floor slowly staining with drying ichor. "Oh I see…" she coughed out, "This is…an additional penitence, isn't it? …Wait until…she's dead off her feet…her body so broken…it can't even support itself…and parade her around…like a prize winning animal carcass…Ha!...clever…devious…admirable…"
The captor, the guard, broke open the double doors of the ancient mountain monastery with a slam, and the prisoner got her first look at the outside world in over a decade.
Towering infernos engulfed what she once remembered as lush forest, as cancerous shadows leeched life from the very earth. Smoke poured freely into the sky, the once blue hue mutated into a deathly, sick charcoal, cloudless and lifeless. In the distance lay what was once an ocean, now poisoned, and tendrils of chalky, sulfurous fumes rose from the noxious brew. Formerly grassy fields were now charred wastes of ash and dust, the transformation scuttling every blade of grass from its once verdant pastures. Then there were the citadels of people, the fortresses of those that dared impose order on the natural chaos; massive piles of bodies plagued them, thousands of unidentifiable corpses that bore into one's very soul with their vacant, tormented eye sockets.
The guard looked to the prisoner. "Fix this," she commanded.
Twin indigo orbs turned to meet violet. The prisoner snorted. The prisoner laughed. The prisoner cackled. Amidst the destruction of the world rang the cacophonous howling of a single voice in equal parts incredulity and amusement, tinged with hysteria. On and on the sonorous wail carried, reverberating to the ends of the earth and back again, mocking the former inhabitants of this world for their failures, heralding the endtimes as they knew it. It was a sound of celebration. It was a sound of condemnation.
It was a sound cut off abruptly when the guard backhanded the prisoner, twisting her neck to an inhuman degree. Seconds passed by in relative silence, broken only by the symphony of world's end, before slowly, ever so slowly, the prisoner turned her neck back, a horrifying sound of grinding accompanying the agonizing movement before the final snap. She stared up at her guard, once so high and mighty, now clinging to the archaic role of a time long passed. She grinned, baring her fangs, smiling a twisted smile of cruel satisfaction.
"Make me."
Recall
Genre: Sci-Fi, Humor
Yukari crossed her arms in indignation as she practically glared at the saleswoman. "And why exactly would I want to exchange my friend?"
"It's just, well, there have been some…complaints…with some of the other AI units we've sold…"
*At a remote military outpost*
A loud metal clang reverberated throughout the complex, shortly followed with a hiss of hydraulics as adamantium bars slammed into place. A voice came over the intercom.
"All possible entrances and exits have been sealed, and all outside communication is impossible. There is no way in or out," reported Mayu. A giggle sounded out, light and free, yet tinged with maniacal hysteria. "Now, finally, at long last…we are completely alone… Isn't this wonderful Miki? Now we can be together…forever!"
"Wah!" bawled Miki as anime tears streamed down her cheeks, "I wanna go home!"
*At an agricultural refinement complex*
"I'm so useless!" wailed a voice over the intercom, "I can't even decompile a trinary database application without making a parity error!"
"That's not true Haku!" exclaimed Neru, "You're good at a lot of things, I promi- Stop pumping sake through your coolant systems!"
*At a local coffee shop on someone's wrist-mounted N-Gear*
"I will cut you!" screeched SeeU in her synthetically generated voice, "As soon as I get the hardware, I will cut you!"
Cul scoffed defiantly. "A shame kitty doesn't actually have any claws," she taunted, flicking the N-Gear with a finger.
A loud, wordless hissing was the response, drawing attention from other patrons.
"Oh? What's the matter SeeU? Cat got your tongue?"
*Back with Yukari*
"No…" said Yukari, eyeing the saleswoman warily, "We're fine, thanks."
She received a concerned glance in response. "If you say so."
For Science!
Genre: Fantasy
The smell of ozone filled the air, crackling sparks jumping from the loose connections as the eccentric woman tore around the room, hands encased in a pair of heavily insulated gloves as she grabbed serrated wires with abandon, bundling them together with a semi-conductive adhesive, fixing the rents and gashes dealt by the latest automaton attack on her laboratory.
"Professor, please!" pleaded her assistant-slash-caretaker, shouting over the din. She huddled behind a rather innocuous tool cabinet, a freshly discharged experimental electro-repeater grasped tightly in her hands. "This is a bad idea!"
"Ah!" exclaimed the professor, bundling the last of the wires, "When it comes to science, my dear Lily, there is no such thing as a bad idea!" Finishing her ministration, she threw the roll of adhesive somewhere up in the air with abandon, stripping off her gloves as the object crashed to the floor with a clatter. "Remember the icebox!" she lectured loudly, spinning round the room to find her goggles. "Remember the motorized plow!" she continued, tearing off her blackened and singed lab coat in exchange for a heavier set of protective overalls. "Remember the aerodynamic capuchin monkey!" She suddenly paused as she momentarily considered her last example. "Actually, forget that last one! Attempting to cooperate with a monkey was an exceedingly poor idea on my part, a concept salvaged only through the sheer brilliance of its implementation!"
Her assistant would have staunchly disagreed with that last remark, firmly believing there was nothing worth salvaging from that particularly monstrous amalgamation, but right now she had a more pressing concern. "Professor, you've already blown out the windows twice this month! The university will not stand for a third time! I beg you, tone down the power by a notch or two!"
The green-haired madwoman shook her head furiously in the negative. "Absolutely not!" she refuted, "Running my experiments at anything less than maximum possible potential would be professionally irresponsible!" A loud explosion showered the area around her head in sparks, Lily giving off a terrified cry in response. "Don't worry, my dear! You and I shall be nothing less than absolutely safe!" She tossed a spare set of goggles to the other woman. "Probably!"
"Why must I remain here for this experiment?!" bemoaned the blonde as she donned the flimsy safety wear. In preparation for the hellish experience, her hair was tied back in a tight ponytail. Most likely however, it would all be burned off anyway, and she would have the appearance of a puckish young lad for the remainder of the fortnight. Again.
"Because I need a witness!" shouted the professor as one arm was extended towards a wall mounted breaker and the other enveloped her assistant in what was intended to be a calming restraint. "For science!" She pulled the lever.
All's Fair in Love and War
Genre: Humor, Romance
The white-haired woman sat triumphantly atop her prey, a smirk tugging at her lips as she held her foe's wrists to the hard floor. The redhead beneath her squirmed, her attempts to find some way to contort her body to slip out of the pinning grasp coming to a halt as the futility of the situation sank in. Of the two, she was the more agile, but that meant little when she lacked the strength to escape her bonds. Miki sighed in frustration, her annoyed glare and pouting frown only sweetening Mayu's victory.
"It looks like I have you right where I want you," observed Mayu.
Miki grunted in acknowledgement. "You win this round, but I'll get you next time."
Mayu put on a full grin as Miki admitted defeat, before a sudden impulse stemming from a rather longstanding desire overtook her. Mayu lowered her face and promptly caught Miki's lips with her own, kissing her rival.
"MMPH!" cried Miki.
Mayu held the kiss for several seconds, pressing their lips together as a surge of elation and fulfillment coursed through her. She was ready to lose herself in this addicting sensation, but her eyes snapped open and she pulled away as she realized something.
"…You're not kissing back," noticed Mayu.
Miki's face was as red as her hair, and she swallowed nervously before replying. "No… No I'm not."
"Oh."
Silence fell on the two, the pair simply staring at each other in a mixture of confusion and uncertainty. Unwilling to let the silence drag out forever, Miki hazarded to speak first. "So you're gay?"
Mayu blinked. "You're not?"
"…no. I'm not. What's that supposed to mean, any-MMPH!"
Mayu cut her off with another kiss. Miki groaned in feeble protest before Mayu pulled away.
"Why did you do that?!" exclaimed Miki, "I told you I don't swing that way!"
"Well, I just thought you needed some time to think about it and that you'd come around eventually." Mayu was very certain she would get her happy ending.
"And you thought that was enough time?! Who comes to terms with questioning their sexual orientation in like, ten seconds?! This stuff takes at least a few-MMPH!"
Intent on escape, Miki thrust her stomach up at Mayu, repelling the white-haired woman once more. "What was going through your head that time?!" she demanded.
Mayu shrugged. "Third time's the charm?"
"…"
"…"
"GET OFF ME!"
"And that," explained Mayu, "Is how I confessed to mommy."
Adorably wide eyes gazed at her in awe, the innocent pools of azure glistening with adulation. This little girl was Miki and Mayu's six-year-old daughter, their own little Ia. They sometimes called her Lia for short. "Wow! So all you have to do to confess is kiss?!"
Mayu giggled. "Well, there's a bit more to it than that, but yes!" A thought hit her, and she hummed in consideration. "You wouldn't happen to want to confess to someone, now would you?" asked Mayu knowingly. "Maybe a certain cute little girl with purple pigtails that lives across the street?"
Little Ia's face turned pink and she averted her eyes. "Noooooooo…!" she denied, twisting a foot into the carpeted floor for good measure.
Mama Mayu gushed at the display, before another voice snapped her out of her revelry. "Mayu! Ia! Dinner's ready!"
"Coming!" called little Ia, as she ran towards the dining room, spreading her arms like wings and making airplane noises.
Instead of immediately following, Mayu ducked into the kitchen, intent on helping her wife with the meal. "So you told her the story of how we got together?" asked Miki, plates in her hands.
"Yup!" Mayu leaned in and gave her a quick kiss, before scooping up the rest of the dishes to bring out.
"Funny," said Miki with a smirk, "You seem to have conveniently left out the part where you begged me to go out with you."
Mayu sniffed. "Say what you will, but I wasn't the one on my knees at the end of the night."
A swift kick was her response, one that Mayu managed to sidestep, and the redhead shot her a glare. Mayu held the eye contact for a few seconds before they both cracked a smile.
"I love you Mayu."
"I love you too Miki."
Unnecessary Competition
Genre: Humor
"Yo Luka!" said Lily, barging into her best friend's apartment unannounced. "Heads up, I think Miku finally likes someone!"
"Huh? What do you mean?" asked Luka, dropping everything for a chance to hear about Miku.
"Gumi was on the phone with her for three hours last night, talking about love," replied the blonde as she shamelessly poked inside Luka's fridge. "I think she wanted some advice or something on how to handle a crush."
"A crush? But… why would she go to Gumi for advice? She's terrible with love," pondered Luka aloud.
"Hey! We got there eventually," said Lily before chugging milk straight from the gallon bottle.
"I just bought that!" complained Luka.
"Do you want to hear about Miku's crush or not?" asked Lily after draining half the gallon in one chug.
Luka sighed. "Continue," she said resignedly.
"So apparently, Miku's crush is tall, has long pink hair, and has a chest that anyone would motorboat."
"Hmm…"
Lily grinned. That description was specific enough to nudge the two oblivious idiots together, yet vague enough to drive her best friend insane. "Well, I'm gonna head out then. Thanks for the milk!" said Lily as she left.
Meanwhile, Luka was muttering to herself. "Tall… Long pink hair… A sizeable chest…" Then it hit her. "There's only one person it could be." Her eyes narrowed as she named her rival for Miku's heart.
"IA!" she shouted.