THE CRYPTON CREW
By MargaritaDaemonelix
Interlude 2: Mother Knows Best
It didn't seem too odd to any of them that in the middle of dinner(some toasted brioche with butter and cream cheese) Teto came barrelling down the stairs, waving a handful of just-printed sheets and an empty picnic basket. "I'VE GOT IT!"
Before any of them knew what was happening, all of them were putting their shoes on, and Teto had ushered them all outside. Kaito was left holding the sheets of paper and the picnic basket, miraculously filled with (what else?) French bread of all sorts and a variety of spreads for the bread.
"Wha-?"
Meiko sighed and took the papers from him. "There's an address on this," she noticed. "They appear to be tickets for all of us to go to some event."
Len tossed the car keys to Gackpo, who caught them and twirled them around on one finger. "Get in the truck, ladies and snails," he said, "we're going… Wherever it is Teto is sending us."
Half the team faceplanted into the porch.
"SLOW DOWN YOU MADMAN YOU'RE GOING TO KILL US ALL!"
"NO MEI-CHAN DON'T KILL HIM WE NEED HIM ALIVE TO HACK DATABASES AND GPS SATELLITES AND EVERYTHING ELSE!"
"GIMME THE WHEEL!"
"AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Never mind, then. Please standby for technical difficulties while the author attempts to stop Kaito from driving, and get Meiko to stop trying to wrestle the wheel from him.
*BEEP*
TAKE 2
"Luka-chan, where do I turn?" Asked Meiko politely as she sat calmly in the driver's seat, both hands on the wheel as she stepped delicately on the gas pedal, making sure the speed stayed even at 65 kilometres per hour.
"Turn now, Mei-chan," chirped Luka, pointing out the window from her spot in shotgun as Meiko smoothly turned right into a large parking lot. Thankfully, they were able to find a parking spot easily, despite the overall crowded appearance of the area.
Miku, Rin and Gumi stepped out of the back of the truck, pulling down their imaginary sunglasses and looking at the building in front of them. "Cosmic Battler?" Said Gumi inquisitively. "Really, Teto, you sent us to a LaserQuest place?"
Luka slammed the shotgun door shut. "Mom said she used to love LaserQuest when she was younger," she provided. "C'mon, how hard can it be?"
"Um, hi? Can you at least release Kaito first? He looks like a dying worm."
The five girls turned to the trunk, where they'd relocated the boys to. Len was sitting, unamused, beside the writhing Kaito, while Gackpo had his hand raised up in the air from his previous question.
Gumi rolled her eyes. "Um, hi? I'm the firearms expert, you're the blades expert?" She offered. Gackpo made an oh of understanding and pulled a tiny stiletto out of his sleeve(where'd he get that from?!) and began to saw the duct tape off the blue haired man, despite his obvious distress. Len rolled his eyes and removed his gag.
Kaito took in a deep breath and let out a scream that could have instantly killed anyone that wasn't part of the Crypton Crew and hence, not accustomed to such noises.
Somewhere in Tokyo, a certain red-haired cross-dressing male clapped his hands over his ears. "WHAT THE HECK?!"
Back in Crypton, Kaito finally gulped for breath as his vocal cords and lungs gave way to the incredibly high screech. Meiko smacked him in the face. "You didn't have to do that!"
"Yes I did!" Argued the blue-haired man, sitting up and crossing his arms over his chest. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have gotten the message that I was pissed."
Rin suddenly found herself, along with Luka, smacking her forehead against the truck's glossy surface.
Len groaned and smacked his palm against his forehead. "Let's just go and be done with it!"
"Welcome to Cosmic Battler!" Said a young woman cheerfully as the team strode in, her rainbow-dyed auburn hair flying over her face. "I'm Galaco. How may I help you?"
Luka's eyes lit up. "Galaco!" She exclaimed, grabbing her hands and beginning to jump up and down excitedly.
"Oh my goodness, Luka," said Galaco, bouncing along with Luka. "Welcome, welcome, welcome! Did your mom get my email?"
Luka rolled her eyes. "C'mon. It's my mom. Of course she did."
Galaco giggled. "Well, I'll take your tickets. Follow me- here at my Cosmic Battler, I make sure each and every single one of you is ready to go. You'll have to be individually fitted with your gear, of course," she added.
Meiko smiled. "Thank you," she chirped, back to her less than normal flouncy self. "Say, do you have laser pistols?"
"Do we ever."
The entire group turned around to find a young woman with ash blonde hair that was dyed a variety of colours at the tips. Her golden eyes were just a little unsettling, and the hand axe(was that blood?!)she was flipping around and around wasn't helping things. "We carry more laser weaponry than any other LaserQuest in the world. Name's Mayu."
She extended a hand to the team. No one shook it.
Galaco chuckled. "Oh, loosen up, would you? Mayu's not that scary."
Still no one moved.
Mayu pouted. "Alrighty, then. Let's get going."
She led the team into a fitting room of some sort. It was mostly dark, but she hit a switch, causing panels of iridescent weapons to flip up out of the walls.
Gumi's jaw dropped. "WOAH," she breathed, "Is this what I think it is?"
She glanced at Mayu, who nodded. Dashing forwards, the green-haired girl picked up the closest gun. "Is this a remodeled Beretta 92?!"
Mayu smirked. "It seems I'm not the only weapons expert in town," she said, her golden eyes glimmering with excitement. "Well done. Take your pick."
The two firearm enthusiasts ran around, assisting everyone else with finding something to use. Meiko had some trouble picking a weapon after seeing everything-like Gackpo, she was more familiar with blades. In the end, Mayu managed to find her a remodeled Luger, and for the purple-haired man, a special katana built for LaserQuest-type things.
The team somehow reached the unanimous agreement that Mayu had made it herself.
Rin was also having a hard time choosing her weapon. Gumi peered over her shoulder as she examined the rows of rifles and pistols, silently enjoying the younger girl's distress as she scrutinized each weapon. "How about this."
The blonde girl turned around to see Gumi holding out a pair of smaller revolvers, small enough to pass off as a dollar-store water gun. "Where'd you get those?" She asked, taking them in her own hands. They couldn't have been mass-produced; these had the smoothness only a pair of artisan hands could achieve.
"I made them myself."
Rin turned to see Mayu walking up, the ghost of a smile glowing on her face. "I knew it wasn't factory made," murmured Gumi.
"I made those when I was in high school," recalled Mayu wistfully. "Or at least when I was supposed to be in high school. I took apart a handful of Colt revolvers and reassembled them for my younger hands. Those are my babies."
Turning them over in her hands, Rin felt her petite hands slip into the trigger comfortably. "I'll use one of these, then," she decided.
Mayu grinned. "Great!"
Within seconds, Rin found herself clothed in a vest all too familiar to her, splattered with glow-in-the-dark paint. She found a connector cord on the side of the vest and plugged them into Mayu's tiny revolver, watching as the black weapon lit up with golden LEDs implanted on each side.
"Ready?"
Len's voice floated over to her, followed by the click of some sort of a gun. "Are you?" She retorted, a smirk already lining her face.
"Loser pays for snacks after this?"
The smirk grew. "Deal."
This is war.
"Behind you, Rin-chan!" Yelled Gumi, sending another three shots at Miku from her Beretta, the teal-haired girl yelping as one laser streak hit her vest and temporarily disabled her ability to shoot as Rin took down Luka, who was trying to sneak up on them from another angle.
"Dammit, I need to be more careful," seethed the blonde girl as they hid behind a wall. "Len and I are at war. I really don't want to have to pay for his snacking." To prove her point, she turned the barrel around menacingly.
Gumi gazed into a mirror around the corner. "Well, if it helps, I'm on your side," she pointed out, "and I've probably handled more weapons than I have eaten carrots."
"Yeah, but Len's got Gackpo on his side, and you seem to forget that the baka you so obviously like was in military training, once upon a time," countered Rin. Gumi's face turned almost as green as her hair, but Rin's assuring smile told her that it was only a jest.
"Shh, Kaito, there's someone there."
"But Mei-chan~"
Gumi turned around to look Rin in the eye. "Alright, new plan," she said, eyes sparkling. "We're taking down Kai-kun and Mei-chan first. Use the mirror."
Careful to not make a single sound, the two girls shifted so the red and blue vests of Kaito and Meiko were clearly visible in the mirror. "Take aim…" Whispered Rin, "and go!"
Suddenly, she found herself unable to shoot as her gun's LEDs lit for a moment. "What?"
Thankfully, Gumi was already shooting away. "It's Mei-chan! She must have shot you when Kai-kun was rambling," she managed as Rin ducked up and down, trying to reactivate her revolver while avoiding the laser missiles that were still arriving in an endless barrage.
"I've been hit! Oh, may the maker bless my soul…"
"SHUT UP YOU BAKA! ARGH! RUN!"
"How do I run?! I'm dead!"
"NO YOU ARE NOT-"
Rin managed to peg Meiko in the back with a perfectly aimed shot just before she disappeared around the corner. "Great comeback, Rinny," said Gumi, examining the surrounding area. "We're not safe. This place echoes a lot."
As if on cue, the sound of laser gun echoed through the room, followed by Gackpo's almost feral growl. "There's someone here."
"What do we do?" Whispered Rin, pressing her back to the part of the wall that was deemed temporarily safe. Gumi put a finger over her lips before pointing upwards, towards the ceiling.
Confused, Rin's gaze followed her finger before realizing what it meant. The ceiling was covered in a layer of pipes that didn't look like they would hold. However, Mayu(Galaco didn't seem like the type to renovate like a madwoman) had added steel reinforcements, and had probably done so for the petite femmes.
Like Gumi and Rin, who were crawling in the space between the pipes and the ceiling, avoiding both Gackpo and Len deliberately, and not moving more than a few centimetres at a time. Crawling side by side, they managed to get to the opposite side of the room from where Gackpo and Len were. Mouthing the word "down" and pointing towards the ground, Gumi dropped out of the sky like a green-haired meteorite and began firing at Gackpo.
Rin simply waited. After all, the perfect moment hadn't come yet, and Gumi needed backup…
When Gackpo suddenly flinched and the lights on his Walther suddenly lit up, Len knew Rin had caught up to them. "Dammit, Rin!" He hissed under his breath, only to see Gumi there, her trademark magenta goggles wrapped tightly around her eyes.
"You're going down."
In response, Len raised the laser katana that he'd gotten from Gackpo. Sure, it wasn't anything more than the handle of a real katana, but Mayu had embedded a ranged laser pointer in the end so there was no need for a real blade. That would only cause complications.
Instead, he rolled out of the way and "stabbed" Gumi in the stomach, causing the lights on her Beretta to flicker. "Shoot," muttered the green-haired girl, rolling aside as Gackpo stood up, the moment of panic from his injury over, wielding the Walther that Len had traded him.
The two turned their attention to Gumi, who had pretty much been backed up against a wall. Gackpo attempted to shoot her, but found himself unable to shoot yet another time. The lights on the Walther turned yellow, a sign that a player wearing yellow had gotten the point.
Aside from me, who's wearing yellow? Pondered Len as he tightened his grip on the katana, preparing to strike Gumi when she rose again. The laser pointer installed in the end, however, did not focus on her vest. Len realized with a start that he'd been hit too.
Looking up, he saw a mirror, right above Gumi. And in that mirror, her revolver still pointed at him, was Rin, looking furious.
"Finally," he complained, turning the katana on her instead as the lights on his weapon flickered back to their original colour. "Dare to face me?"
Rin smirked, even as the trademark white clips fell out of her hair and dropped to cover her left eye. "Is that a challenge?"
She sent a laser shot at him, which he dodged easily and went in for a stab. Rolling, she avoided his advance and pushed the trigger yet again. While it did connect with his vest, Len took no notice of this, and jumped, landing on Rin, startling the both of them and sending them tumbling to the floor in a heap of blonde hair and laser weapons.
Imagine that. In essence, Len had pinned Rin to the ground, and was pretty much straddling her waist. It wasn't at all uncomfortable; in fact, the awkward position felt rather nostalgic to Len, like he and Rin were in the treehouse all over again, feeding each other salted watermelon on a too-hot summer afternoon, except for once, he was on top.
"So, Len," she teased, "are you going to stab me or not?"
He smirked. "Are you admitting defeat, Rin?"
Raising his weapon well above his head, he brought it down to strike what easily could have been the "final blow", had this been a real weapon.
"Game's over, guys…. Oh. Am I… Interrupting something?"
Both of them turned around to face Miku, who was standing in the doorway of the room, staring awkwardly at their strange position. "Game's over," she repeated, a silly smirk on her face as she put the events of their girls' night and the events unfolding before her eyes together.
"Oh hon hon hon~Is Rin-chan having cuddle time with Len-kun~?"
"MIKU!" Yelled both blonds, even as they scrambled to their feet and brushed themselves off. Not daring to even glance at each other, they followed Miku out of the maze and into the lobby area outside, where everyone else was waiting.
"Well?" Asked Rin as cheerfully as she didn't feel. "How'd we do?"
Galaco looked like she was fighting back a laugh. "Well, you and Len tied."
Rin didn't even get to glare at Len before Galaco delivered the world-shattering news.
"You tied for second last."
"WHAT?!" Shrieked the duo at the same time, their eyes bulging out as they stared in disbelief at Galaco, who merely chuckled.
"Kaito came in last place, only because he got hit more times than he fired."
"You two lovebirds landed a ton of good hit," explained Luka, grinning in an almost predatory way, "but because you kept aiming for each other, you got hit almost as many times. Gumi-chan came first because she only got hit once. Mei-chan came second, the purple idiot came third, Miku-chan and I came fourth, you two tied for fifth, and Kaito… Pretty much didn't rank."
The team turned as Kaito sobbed into the table he was sitting at, an ice cream sundae at his side while Meiko attempted to pat his back in consolation. "What the heck," she mouthed silently, pointing at his shaking figure.
Luka smacked her forehead. "I'm not dealing with him," she announced, walking away with one hand in the air. Miku followed after her after shrugging and flipping her twintails over her shoulder. Gumi followed her, probably to look at Mayu's weapon stash again.
They'd arrived with the guys in the back trunk, looking after a writhing Kaito, and they left with the guys in the back trunk, still looking after a writhing Kaito.
Meanwhile
Teto sighed as the truck reappeared on the driveway, her normally-vibrant eyes tired and dull. "I'm sorry, sweet, but I'll have to tell you next time," she whispered, holding a baguette-shaped pillow to her chest as she smiled sadly at the picture frame nestled in her closet. "Goodbye."
The brilliant eyes that mirrored her own in the image seemed to be just as sad as hers.
A/N: I think my new system of updating every Monday is serving well-I get plenty of time to write chapters, so I don't have to cram on Monday at 10:30. Again, I have a lot of author's notes, so please visit my Tumblr( .com) for the remainder.
Things are about to escalate in the next chapter. Prepare your souls.
