Bleeehhh finally updated this story. Had a really tough time writing this one; I'm still not completely satisfied with it, but I rewrote it from scratch once already and then completely overhauled it twice, and I didn't feel like spending more time on it. There's a good story in here somewhere, although it didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. I apologize in advance for using such an unpolished chapter after the break. Hopefully you'll enjoy it anyway.
Chapter 13: Not So Easy Rider
Never again. Never ever again. I will never, under any circumstance, accept Haruna's help if her artifact is involved. Chisame wanted to clamp her eyes shut, but that would have been a terrible idea. She still couldn't understand why she had accepted Haruna's offer. She had been under a lot of stress, and Chiu-chan's website was long overdue for a new photo shoot. Why did I choose a biker theme? And why did I let Haruna generate the bike? Why did I actually try to ride the damn thing?
She had half expected it to to blast forward at an insane speed the minute she turned the key, taking her straight into the Mahora lake. She hadn't expected the motorcycle to take to the skies. As it was, she was clinging to the bike with every ounce of strength she could collect, trying to figure out a way to steer the thing as it careened through the air.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Chisame twisted the handlebars in a vain attempt to steer.
"Just hold still!" Chisame looked over her shoulder to see Nodoka gliding alongside her on a flying manta ray, obviously one of Haruna's creations. "Haruna says that one of the buttons on the hub will cause the bike to start hovering!"
"Hover?" Chisame shouted back. "Which button?"
"I don't know!" Nodoka tried to moved closer, but the bike was moving too erratically. "Haruna didn't say! I'm going to go under you in case you fall off!" Nodoka dropped out of the sky.
Chisame looked downward for a brief moment to see Yue going below her on her broom, with Nodoka beside her on the flying manta. They're so tiny... The bike lurched beneath her, and Chisame brought her gaze up to stare straight ahead. Oh crap oh crap... She tried to hold the bike as steady as possible. If nothing moved, it went in a shaky kind of "forward"-ish direction.
She looked down at the array of buttons. Leave it to Haruna to make this more complicated than necessary... No point in being random about it. She tightened her grip and punched the leftmost button.
At first she didn't even notice what had happened. Then after a few seconds the sensation reached her brain and she released a small whimper. The seat was vibrating. Leave it to Haruna... Chisame could feel her fingers beginning to tingle. Her legs, which had been clamped tight around the bike, were beginning to tremble. I have to turn it off! If I don't, I'll...
She poked at the button again with a trembling finger. The vibrations intensified. Dammit, Haruna! Chisame bit her lip. Crap, hitting it again might just make it worse...not going to risk it. She prodded the next button.
Her heart skipped half-a-dozen odd beats as she felt the motorcycle disassemble beneath her.
"AHH! WAIT! NO!" She reached for the buttons again, only to find that they were rapidly drawing away from her. Her eyes clamped shut. Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap I'm going to die I'm going to die I'm going to... Chisame peeked out from under her eyelids. To her surprise, she wasn't falling. The pieces of the bike seems to be wrapping themselves around her, with countless miniscule hinges and joints coming into view. She could feel the warm metal pressing against her body.
Wait...that's ridiculous...Chisame couldn't believe it. This cannot be happening!
"ROBOT ARMOR?"
Haruna watched from the shore of the lake as Chisame veered madly in the air.
"Wow, she already figured out how to activate 'Armor Mode'."
"Haruna, what is going on?" Konoka emerged from the trees.
"Oh, hey." Haruna grinned. "Chisame's trying out my transforming motorbike."
"Did she know that it was going to do that?"
"Do what?" Haruna tried and failed to smile innocently at Konoka.
"Start flying and turn into a robot!"
"Well...I was going to tell her, but she took off before I could-"
"You were never going to tell her anything!" Konoka pouted. "Why would you do that? She could get hurt if she falls off of that thing!"
"She'll be fine! Look!" Haruna pointed at the erratic speck zipping through the sky. "She's already figuring out how to steer!"
"But what if she has trouble."
"Don't worry about it! Nodoka is an expert with that flying manta ray." Haruna threw a reassuring arm around Konoka. "I assure you she's perfectly safe..."
"Then what about that!" Konoka thrust her hand into the air. A large cluster of missiles were tracing their paths through the clear sky before bursting into a cloud of gray smoke.
"Awesome! The weapons systems are functional!" Haruna chortled as she rubbed her hands together.
"That isn't safe at all!" Konoka took hold of Haruna's shirt and began to shake her. "Weapons are by definition not safe!"
"Relax! They're just smoke bombs. Perfectly harmless. Unless she deliberately crashes into the bell tower or something, there's no way that sh-"
"BUDDY YOU'RE A BOY MAKE A BIG NOISE PLAYIN' IN THE STREET GONNA BE A BIG MAN SOMEDAY"
"WHAT IS THAT?" Konoka shouted as loud as she could, but she couldn't even hear her own voice.
"YOU GOT MUD ON YO' FACE, YOU BIG DISGRACE"
"WHAT?" Haruna mouthed back.
Konoka waved her arms, trying to gesture in the general direction that abominably loud music was emanating from. The direction being up in the sky. There was no doubt what the source was.
"KICKIN' YOUR CAN ALL OVER THE PLACE"
Haruna held up a finger in the typical "just a minute" gesture before turning to dig a notebook out of her backpack.
"SINGIN' WE WILL WE WILL ROCK YOU"
She held up the notebook, which had "It needed to have pump-up music!" scrawled across it.
"WE WILL WE WILL ROCK YOU"
Konoka was just beginning to push her fingers into her ears when the music cut off, leaving an odd silence in the air. Far off in the distance, she could faintly make out Chisame's shrieks.
"Haruna, are you trying to draw attention or something? How is my grandpa supposed to explain that?"
"Shooting a movie?"
Konoka put a hand to her forehead.
"What? It worked fine during Mahorafest..."
"Yes, but during Mahorafest, this kind of thing-" Konoka pointed at the robot armor, which was shooting dozens of lasers into the air. "-would have blended in!"
"Maybe we can blame it on the robotics club, claim that they're working on an Iron Man cosplay or something." She stroked her chin for moment. "Iron Man! Of course! I should add that to my list of pump up music."
"That thing doesn't even remotely resemble Iron Man!" The armor seemed to have spontaneously sprouted a pair of giant, metallic, butterfly wings.
"Oh, forgot about that..." Haruna flipped through her sketchbook. "Do you like the butterfly wings are okay, or would dragon wings look cooler?" She held up some sketches.
"Hmmm..." Konoka squinted at the drawings. "I do like the dragon wings, but they wouldn't really work with the blue and yellow color scheme that you used, maybe if you incorporated more red it would- Wait, no! You have to get her down somehow!"
"Konoka, stop worrying!" Haruna waved her hand dismissively. "Chisame's a smart girl, she'll figure out how to land it."
"Haruna, get her down or I'm going to stop getting my grandpa to let you off the hook!"
"You wouldn't."
Konoka just smiled pleasantly. Haruna shivered.
"Okay, fine! I'll get her down." She shuffled over to the water's edge and held up her artifact. "Come forth!" There was a glimmer of light, and a large, blocky, remote control materialized in Haruna's hands. She scratched her head as she examined the row of buttons across the top of unit.
"Crap."
"What is it?"
"I forget what button does what. Oh well, I know there's a 'hover' button on here somewhere..." Haruna shrugged and jammed the leftmost button with her thumb. Nothing happened. She pressed it again. And again. "Do something, dammit!" She repeatedly punched it as fast as she could. Until it turned red, at which point she froze. "Ohhhh...it's that button. Oh well, she'll probably enjoy it. How about this one?" There was a click as she compressed the button.
"BUDDY YOU'RE A YOUNG MAN HARD MAN SHOUTIN' IN THE STREET GONNA TAKE ON THE WORLD SOME DAY"
"Crap, that's not it either."
"YOU GOT BLOOD ON YO' FACE YOU BIG DISGRACE WAVIN' YOUR BANNER ALL OVER THE PLACE"
She began punching buttons at random.
"WE WILL WE WILL ROCK Y-"
"Okay, now that we got that turned off..." She looked up again to see that Chisame was now trailing a cape and several giant helium balloons. "Huh, I don't remember having a cape button...You know what? I'm just going to do this the easy way." She pressed her thumbs against the control sticks. Chisame twisted madly in the air.
"What exactly are you doing?" Konoka couldn't see exactly how Haruna was helping the situation; Chisame's flight pattern was even more random now.
"Well, I'm trying to bring her in for a landing, but it looks like she's still trying to steer it herself...Ah screw it." Haruna shoved both control sticks as far forward as they would go, and Chisame dropped out of the air, her screams becoming more and more audible as she neared the lake. "Okay, that should do it..." Chisame's dive slowed and she found herself upside down, flailing spasmodically a mere fifteen feet above the water.
"Perfect." A smile crept across Haruna's face. "Dismiss."
The shock was evident on Chisame's face as the armor melted away around her, fading into wisps of smoke. She hung in the air for a moment before gravity dragged her into the water. Nodoka rapidly descended after her, gently landing the manta ray on the surface of the water. From the shore, Haruna could hear Chisame angrily ranting as Nodoka helped her clamor out of the lake and onto the back of the manta ray.
"And with that, my work is done." Haruna slung her bag over her shoulder and began to walk swiftly towards the nearby woods.
"Where are you going?"
"Away from here. Chisame isn't going to be happy. And I'm not telling you where, because you'll tell her. Oh, and by the way..." Haruna pressed a small object into Konoka's hand. "Make sure Chisame gets this."
"What is it?" Konoka examined the object. It appeared to be a memory card of some sort.
"Chisame's motorcycle pictures. If they turn out well, maybe she won't try to kill me. Put in a good word to your grandpa for me." She flashed Konoka a thumbs up, patted her on the back, and disappeared into the trees.
Konoka turned back to the lake in time to see Nodoka and Chisame coming to shore.
"WHERE DID SHE GO?"
Konoka pointed meekly at the forest where Haruna had vanished. Nodoka and Konoka watched as Chisame stomped off, leaving a trail of dampness behind her. Her footsteps faded into the afternoon quiet. Konoka turned to see Nodoka dragging the manta ray out of the water.
"How on earth do you manage?"
"Huh?" Nodoka gave up on the manta and turned around.
"Haruna."
"Oh, you used to it after a while." She smiled pleasantly; her face showed no indication that she was the least bit bothered by what had just taken place. "Besides, there are some..advantages to having her around."
"Advantages? Like what?"
A pink tinge spread across Nodoka's cheeks.
"Oh..uh..." The bookworm giggled. "I'll explain later, okay?"
.
Of course if Haruna designed a motorcycle it would transform into a robot. I probably could have handled the idea better, but I liked the idea of Chisame going crazy in the air while Haruna stands by doing absolutely nothing. Not sure why I decided to have Konoka show up; I guess I just needed someone to interact with Haruna, and Yue and Nodoka were already accounted for.
I'm almost certain that I'm going to smack myself in the head the next time I look at this story because I did so little with the idea, but I was having serious writer's block and just wanted to get this story out of the way so that I could get on to writing other storylines. I have a few ideas of what I'm going to do next, although I don't know when I'm going to get around to writing it. Probably not for another 2 or 3 weeks.
Also, apparently this site doesn't like having exclamation points and question marks right next to each other, so if you see an exclamation point on the end of a sentence that's structured as a question, It's not my fault. There was probably a question mark there at some point.
Anyway, reviews are good, even if I think the chapter is subpar. If I decided to go back and take another crack at it I could use the advice.
Thanks for reading. :)