In which Alison learns to spar, reads some files, and hears another story
The next morning, the rain of the previous day had petered out, and I met Asami out at the training yard for our workout. Technically, our punishment for not revealing Barricade was over, but I found that - once my muscles got used to the burn - I actually enjoyed the extra physical activity, and Asami said she would be willing to work with me if I wanted to continue. Mikaela thought it was a little crazy of me to want to do it, but I pointed out I was mostly riding a desk, while she's been running up, down and all around medbay, training with Ratchet. She just shrugged and rolled over into the warm spot I left in the bed.
Asami was fresh-faced as usual when I got there, and even after our hour of exercise, when I was sweat soaked and still breathing a little hard, she looked like a model of a sportswear ad.
"How do you do that?" I asked her.
She took a drink of water. "Do what?"
"Look like you're about to give a voiceover talking about how much you love your Nikes." I took a drink. "Like, seriously, I look like Rocky training for the big match compared to you."
Asami smiled. "I've been doing this with my dad since I was five. Two decades experience and good genetics came together well in me."
"I'll say."
"Oh, I was just wondering, have you had a chance to start looking through those files I left you?"
"Not yet. I'm hoping to start going through them this afternoon if nothing comes up."
She nodded. "I'll stop by your office later on and help if you'd like. My dad's handwriting can take a bit to get used to."
I smiled. "That'd be great. Thanks." Others of the morning PT crowd were coming out at this point, and I waved to Mikaela and Miles as they made their way over to us.
"Hey guys," Miles said. "The usual for this morning?"
"Actually, Epps is going to cover your run today," Asami said, waving to him as he walked our way. "Afterwards, we have a bit of a surprise for you guys."
"This a nice surprise, or a 'we're gonna be sore as hell after this' surprise?" Mikaela asked, getting down to do her sit ups.
"A bit of both," Epps said as he reached us. "Come on, show me what you got, kids."
As they did that, Asami turned to me. "So, what do you know about fighting?"
The question caught me by surprise. "I had a little training in self-defense when I was younger, thanks to my uncle, but it wasn't much more than how to escape a loose chokehold or arm grab." Not to mention it was pre-Jump. "I do know you leave your thumb outside your fist when throwing a punch, or you'll break it."
"Well, it's a bit of a start, but obviously we need to build on it. Show me a fighting stance."
I slid into the classic pose, and she adjusted my stance to better distribute my weight. She then had me do jumping jacks for a couple minutes before retaking my stance, adjusting me again, then had me repeat it. I got it down by the third time, so she showed me how to throw a proper punch, and had me practice that over and over again, until doing so started to feel natural. By then, Mikaela, Miles and Epps had returned, and she and Epps repeated the same for them. After that, we moved to front kicks, and then alternating between the two at their calls. Like Epps had said, it was a nice surprise, but we were sore in all new places when we were done.
"How long are we going to just be doing stances?" Miles asked as we were wrapping up.
"As long as we need to," Epps said. "If you practice during the week, it'll go faster."
"But if you do keep at it, it'll only be a matter of time before you can do this." Asami shifted into a fighting stance, Epps matching her, and they both sprung into action near simultaneously. Epps's style was about his size and strength, while Asami's was more on speed and agility, but they were fairly evenly matched either way. Asami managed to get the upper hand, however, when Epps overextended and she caught his arm. She pulled him towards her, pushing her shoulder into his stomach, and flipping him over her back onto the ground. The three of us applauded the move as she helped Epps back up.
"So, just keep practicing," Asami said with a smile. "Dismissed."
The rest of the day was a usual Saturday, with breakfast, then work and lessons for me. In the afternoon, the tub of Asami's files was too tempting, and I started to go through them.
The topmost one was a personnel file on Asami's father. His name had been Leland Bishop Stark, and had been a member of Sector Seven from '75, transferring there from the army shortly after the end of the Vietnam War, where he did two tours straight out of high school. Considered one of their best operatives, he was skilled in both combat and diplomacy, as well as multiple languages, which was the reason he was assigned to the hunt for NBE 3. Had a wife, unnamed in the file, and one daughter, Asami, who was noted as being a junior agent at the time the file was written.
One thing the file didn't state was that Leland was thorough in his reports. The Five Mile Island Sighting was five pages long for what amounted to a ten minute encounter. It did provide the best description of the NBE - mid-sized, dark color scheme, had integrated weaponry, red optics and, most interestingly, cables hanging from their helm like dreadlocks. The only 'Cons I could think of with that description were the Dreads from Dark of the Moon, but what little I recalled of their characterization, there was no way they would be content to just lay low all this time. As well, the couple of blurry pictures included, while bad quality, showed the mecha was not as spiky as the Dreads were. I spent the next hour looking through reports, hoping something would help me narrow it down, but the eyewitness testimonies just weren't descriptive enough to point out more distinguishing features.
I set aside the last official file and then turned to the personal notes. I pulled the first stack out, but my shoulder suddenly spazzed and I almost dropped the whole thing. I managed to recover it, but something did fall out of the stack and flutter to the floor. As I picked it up, I realized it was a polaroid photo of a man and woman.
Despite the well tailored suit he was wearing, the man had all the appearance of a hardened soldier, with sharp green eyes and short cropped blond hair streaked with silver. His features were blocky and a bit harsh, with several old scars visible, the most prominent running up the left side of his jaw. It was softened by the loving smile he wore with his hand on the woman's shoulder, a bright gold band on his finger.
The woman herself was beautiful. Her black locks were braided back from her temples to join the rest cascading down her back, starkly contrasting the white dress and silver jewelry she was wearing. She looked to have been caught mid-laugh, chocolate brown eyes sparkling and lips pulled into a stunning smile.
At the bottom was two names and a date. Leland and Kasumi - Sept. '84
I almost started when I hear a knock on my door. "Come in!" I said.
Asami opened the door and stepped inside. "Hey. I see you already got started."
"Oh, yeah. I finished with the official reports and was about to start the personal notes." I looked down at the picture and held it out to her. "I think this is yours, though."
She stepped up and took the photo. The corners of her eyes crinkled and a soft, small smile crossed her face as she looked at it, though it looked a bit bittersweet. "Thank you. I hadn't realized this was in there."
I put my stack on the desk and sat in my chair. "Is that your mom?"
Asami nodded, sitting in the other chair. "Yeah. This would have been… right before they found out they were going to have me, I think."
"They look very happy."
"Dad always said they were."
Oh shit. "I'm sorry. I keep putting my foot in my mouth around you it seems."
"It's okay, it was a long time ago. I don't even remember her really. Mostly I have all the stories from Dad about her." She tucked the photo into her jacket pocket and then gave a small chuckle. "Ironically, his hunt for NBE 3 is what brought him to Japan in the first place and let them meet."
"Really? How did they end up meeting?"
"She hit him with her car."
I laughed. "You're kidding!"
"Nope. He was out late following up on some lead and he thought he saw something. He didn't pay attention as he bolted across some unlit street and didn't realize a car was coming. He only got clipped by the fender, but it knocked him over and he hit his head on the pavement. Once he stopped seeing spots, as he always put it, 'there was suddenly the most beautiful woman standing over me.' She was so worried about his head that she insisted on taking him to a nearby clinic to get checked out. By the time he was released, it was morning and he found she'd waited the whole time in the waiting room for him. They ended up getting breakfast together and a little over a year later, they were married."
"Wow. That's a 'Meet Cute' if I ever heard of one."
"Most of his stories of the two of them were almost sickeningly cute."
"He must have loved her a whole lot." I hesitated a moment before I asked, "What happened to her, if you don't mind my asking?"
"We don't know." At my slight confused expression, she continued. "She took me out grocery shopping one day when I was three, but at the store, she just disappeared. Someone heard me crying in the car after a while and had the store announce it, but she was nowhere to be found. The police searched for weeks but they turned up nothing. There were a lot of theories kicked around but no one ever knew for sure what happened to her. It was like she fell off the face of the earth."
"Wow. I can't imagine how that must have been."
"I think that's part of why Dad and I were so close. All we had was each other, so he did everything to make sure I was taken care of. The thing is, he never believed Mom was truly gone. He always thought she was alive out there, and would someday come back." She got another distant gaze with some emotion in the depths of her green eyes I couldn't exactly place. It disappeared as she sat up straighter in her seat and picked a folder off the desk. "Well, let's see what we can find out from the notes. Maybe we'll figure out something Dad missed."
"Okay," I said, shifting my chair closer as she flipped it open to the first page.
We ended up not learning anything new and at the end of the night, we still had no idea who NBE 3 could have been. But it was fun working with Asami, both for her insights and the little stories she would tell from what Leland had told her. By the time we finished, I felt a lot closer to her.
AN: Buzzfeed Unsolved: The Disappearance of Kasumi Stark
So what'd ya'll think of this chapter? Think it's good Alison's learning to fight? What about Asami's family history? Did anyone pick up the easter egg of who her dad is?
EDIT (10/18/19): Altered the NBE 3 description slightly.
Guest Review Replies
Gerard DuGalle (CH 18):NBE 3 was inspired by "Around the World in 80 Days", but was lost in time, and then in space. Langoliers don't exist, so Chekhov's gun will fire sooner or later. Proul agreed with the idea of the stock market, and kept silent about gambling, while Jazz didn't mind; I seem to have read too many IDW, and have lost touch with everything else. As soldiers say sometimes, no matter what the soldier does, the main thing is that he doesn't have the strength left for stupid thoughts and actions. Making money is better than a random mess or race, although Terror Twins may not agree with that. Little twins also need to be distracted from fights. Less useless Leo. Without Robowarrior's support, he will exit the game even faster. It seems that after this chapter, Miles will become interested in the bad cop company.
Not right about the "Around The World in 80 Days" part, but correct about Chekov's Gun. After all, why insert this random TF no one knows unless they are a gun. IDK about how the IDW Prowl and Jazz would react to such a thing, since I stopped reading Prowl's storyline at Dark Cybertron. And yup, Leo doesn't need to even be a pawn, let alone a player in the game of TFs. And by bad cop company do you mean... a crush? eyebrow waggle
Shade (CH 18): I love the lessons of story. So far the aparition ratio of bot landing is good, in a no overwellming form ( easy to remember ). Mmm, Wheljack: Jason Mamoa ( babass look ) or Cliff Curtis ( scientific look )
Yup, I have no intention of turning this fic into G1 in terms of cast size. As for Wheeljack, Cliff Curtis is actually pretty close to the look I want so I'm gonna go with him now. Thank you!
I'll see you all next week, same 'Bot Time, same 'Bot Channel!
