Well.
Can I just say that having your computer decide to off itself by frying its hard drive that has its OS on it is possibly the most annoying thing ever?
So many things lost. My old Fanfic chapters, meme pics, not meme pics, the ability to actually use my computer FU-
I'm good now. I've basically recovered as much is reasonable, and I still have the old SSD that was my computer's brain in case I want to try and salvage anything off it, so nothing too horrific lost.
Now that I got that off my chest, Review!
Subject ZeroOne: Yessir, that's the idea. It mirrors what I tend to try and do irl, and since this is basically me that's going into Teora (minus a few years of age because reasons), I figured that it would be good to do things like that. As for the weapon of choice? I have a few ideas, but nothing absolutely concrete yet. We'll figure it out.
Discord: discord. gg/wm38mnTqrj
DISCLAIMER: The following FanFiction is done purely for the entertainment of the writer at hand, and no obligations outside of such except that to the fans of this FanFiction. This is a non-profit, fan-based alternative to the stories provided by the original content, and should be treated as entirely non-canon additions to the universe. Please support the official release.
Chapter 3: An Interesting Encounter
Myself and Ami make haste to the MoonTech Headquarters, with myself asking Ami questions and getting fleeting answers at most.
"Must just not be very talkative a person." I ponder to myself, matching her pace as we rush through the city.
"Hey, Ami!" We hear as we hit the halfway mark through the city, and Ami pauses in recognition. A young lady with dark blue hair and a woven long sleeve shirt, also colored blue, and white pants approaches us, along with a male individual with hair that I can only describe as "fiery", who's wearing a black coat with fluff on the end and a fire print along the sleeves, along with black pants and shoes. They stroll up to us, and Ami wastes no time in describing the situation in as few words as possible.
"So, Geo's captured, eh?" The girl in blue asks, putting her hand up to her chin contemplatively. To put simply, I'm mildly baffled at the fact that this person is so nonchalant about this.
"Uh..." I start, and the two individuals look over to me. "You two seem awfully calm about this. What gives?" I ask.
"Oh, that's because Geo gets into trouble like this all the time." The blue one replies, waving her hand casually. Ami gets a rather miffed look at this, pouting and crossing her arms while looking away. The adorableness of the motion is not lost to me.
"Based on that reaction that Ami just had, I'm guessing that it's halfway because of her?" I ask with a smart grin, and Ami just glowers at me in betrayal. The two individuals get a light laugh out of this, before placing their attention to me fully.
"By the way, who are you? Never seen you around before." The fire-head asks me.
I just shrug.
"Just a guy who got lost in life. Gwain apparently decided that I'm gonna be helpful, whether I enjoy it or not. Now, Ami and I have to get a move on. Geo's caught by what's-her-face, Luna I think, and Gwain's none too pleased on the matter. Something about not letting her have free access to him for whatever reason." I state, remembering that Geo being Human isn't a well-known fact.
Ami herself only just seems to remember the fact that we need to be getting a move on, and starts running after waving her friends goodbye. I follow her closely, keeping at a steady 5% of my top speed, which is Ami's speed at a hard jog.
I don't notice the two kids look at each other and nod, before following after us.
We run into no other distractions on route to MoonTech HQ, and we are greeted by a heavy metal gate with a keypad on the right hand side. I walk up to it and look for a call button, before sweat dropping at the symbols on the pad.
"Uh, Ami?" I ask, turning to the young lady. She perks up and walks forward. "I'm looking for a "call" button. Is there any button titled that on here? I can't read your language." I state in mild frustration.
Ami looks at the pad, before nodding and pressing a button on it. A red light appears for a moment, and a scan line flies up and down a clearly startled Ami (judging by her gasp and leap back), before the gates open quietly and smoothly.
"That seems far too easy. Does this Luna character normally let you into places this easily?" I ask, highly suspicious.
Ami nods and steps through the threshold, with me following closely behind.
Not closely enough, however, as the gates slam shut as Ami crosses the line, and I nearly lose my face as the gate closes violently.
"Not so fast." I hear out of the pad that Ami interacted with before, and I turn to face it, annoyance written on every line of my face. "I'm only letting her in because I need to do something involving her, this time. No external involvement allowed."
"Oi. I'll have you know that Gwain has given me express permission to stay with her at all times." I state aloud, betting on this individual not knowing better.
"Now that's just not true. You're just blowing up your importance in this matter. Gwain is aware of what I do, and so long as no harm comes to her, she lets me do as I please." the voice replies, giving me some insight to who this is.
"Can it, Luna. I'm not interested in your experiment today. I'm here to get Geo out, keep Ami safe, and not let you have your way just this once." I growl.
"Tch. You don't get a say in this-" Luna starts, and I cut her off.
"Finish that sentence and I will quite literally punch my way through this fucking gate." I state strongly. There is a pause on the other end of the line for just a moment.
"Interesting. Go ahead and try. I'll consider your warning if you can actually do it." Luna states, and the line goes dead.
"Fucking overconfident, are we?" I ask, mostly to myself, before reeling back and throwing all my force into one good punch. The gate dents a good deal, but holds. I lay into it again, this time dead center of the gate, guessing where the lock is. No dice, just another massive dent.
I click my tongue in distaste, before running away from the gate a good city block. I take a deep breath before taking a runner's stance. I brace, and then take off running, pushing off the ground hard enough to make the concrete below my feet crack loudly. In three strides, I'm at what has to be roughly 50% of my top speed, and I hit the gate with a dive kick, going feet first. The gate gives with a shriek, and I plow through, landing on my ass on the flip side of the gate. I get all of a half second to recover from plowing through a heavy steel gate before I hear whirring. I look up and see what appears to be a turret of some kind, and I yelp in fear, shooting to my feet as quickly as I can.
This saves me from what may be certain doom, as the turret fires at where my head was, the ground sparking as white streaks slam into it. I get no time to marvel at my continued function of life, as the turret realigns quickly and begins firing again.
My only option is to haul ass to the door. I beat feet, running as hard as I can to the door, all the while hearing the rounds striking the ground behind me. Seems the turret can't quite adjust fast enough to keep me in the danger zone. Small miracles.
I make it to the door and literally dive through, performing a tuck and roll on the landing, ending on my knees, braced for impact with anything on this side. I instead see a woman cowering behind a service desk, clearly doing all in her power to not simply pass out at what she witnessed come careening through the (not that I'm aware of this) bulletproof and stormproof glass.
"Uh... Hi?" I state tentatively, and she shakily waves back. "Listen, I'm real sorry about what you just saw, and I have no intent on hurting you. Can you do me a solid and tell me where Princess Ami went? I'm supposed to be her bodyguard for the day." I ask quickly and gently, trying to get the words out before the lady in front of me passes out from fear.
The poor girl simply points to the elevator, trembling, and quietly says "F-Floor 32, M-Medical Testing," before starting to pitch over, eyes rolling back.
I yelp and sprint forward, managing to just barely catch her as she's about to hit the floor. I break her fall, stopping injury, before gently sitting her down in the chair behind the desk.
"I'm sure it's fine if you take a break. After all, it's not every day that someone comes literally plowing through the entryway of your workplace after being viciously shot at." I mutter, mildly amused at the situation, before heading to the elevator. I glance at the buttons and, seeing characters that look quite similar to my numeric system back home, breathe a heavy sigh in relief before pressing the one that looks to say "32".
The elevator groans, straining under my weight to move upward, before beginning its steady ascent. No music plays, which bothers me if I'm gonna be real, and I eventually hit Floor 32. I step out of the elevator into a hallway, lined on both sides with glass that allows one to see into the labs. I walk forward, looking into the labs to see if I could spot Ami. I find her on the right, just sitting down onto an examination chair, with a doctor-looking individual beside her, talking to her with a stoic and professional expression. Ami seems to be in no discomfort, just minor confusion. I stand outside and wait, looking to see what will happen first, since I see what looks to be no suspicious activity thus far, but ready to run in to the door that I see to my left at a moment's notice.
I see Ami listen to the woman, before pulling her headband off and drooping slightly into a slight hunch as the doctor takes the device and plugs it into a machine. I start to make my way over to the door, keeping close eye on the situation. Ami droops further the longer her headpiece stays off, and while difficult to tell from this distance, she seems to start slightly shaking. I swing the door open and start walking forward.
"Oi." I state, and the doctor halts for a moment before turning around. Ami looks over to me and slightly jumps, clearly not having expected me. "What's going on here?" I ask casually, ready to make a move at a moment's notice to protect Ami if need be.
"I'm updating her headband's software." the Doctor states, taking a small step away from me, toward a small table nearby. "Ami here has an illness that will kill her if it progresses to a certain point of draining her body's main energy production."
"Oh." I state, blinking, before turning to Ami. "Is that what she was doing?" I ask with a raised brow, and Ami nods quietly.
"She needs to have it done periodically." the Doctor states, looking through her notes on a clipboard that she picked up from the table. "Roughly once every few years, to be precise. Her illness mutates slightly as time progresses, so her headband needs to be updated to fight it off."
"Ah." I reply after seeing Ami nod again in confirmation. "And what did Luna tell you to do in exchange for this?" I ask Ami, crossing my arms and quirking an eyebrow.
"I stated that if Ami updated her headband and allowed me to perform one last test on Geo, I'd let them both go." the Doctor states, and I look to her once more, realizing that this is Luna. Her black hair reaches down to her hips, and her black eyes stare piercingly into me, a look of scientific curiosity overtaking her, before looking back to the screen that shows lines of text that I don't understand, likely referring to Ami's headband. "That said, I didn't expect you to get here so fast. Were you the one at the gate?" she asks.
"I was." I state shortly, crossing my arms. "And were you the one that authorized a gun to open fire at me?"
"I was." Luna states blandly, giving no emotional inflection. "I was seeing if you were all bark and no bite."
"Mm." I reply, sighing. "Look, I don't like this any more than the next guy, but Gwain really doesn't want you having Geo. Could you put a hold on that last test and just let him go?" I ask, trying to get her to let Geo go without much a fight.
"Gwain lets me do what I want because I hold Ami's life in my hands." Luna states dully, and I clench my fist behind my arm, positioned in a way that can't be seen by onlookers, since my arms are still crossed. "For example, there was a big unveiling ceremony for a statue in Gwain's image a few months back, and I basically orchestrated a whole attack on that day. Gwain did nothing to stop me." Luna states, finally looking at me once again. She cracks a grin this time, and hands Ami her headband back.
I watch closely as Ami puts her headband back on tentatively, and perks up immediately.
"... This is a fucking dynamic I really don't get." I state as I throw my hands in the air in frustration. "Why was Gwain so intent on me coming here and getting Geo out if there's nothing to actually be done about it? You literally hold Ami's life in your hands, so why the fuck would she try anything?!"
Luna shrugs, before putting her clipboard of notes down. "You could ask that question as well to why I actually help Geo along by giving him upgrades to his weapon, and why it is that whenever their little group of friends meddles in my business, I don't outright kill them. It's because it's all good fun." Luna replies, finally smirking. "I like to call it "preparing them for the future". Though, I had to nearly ruin the future of the Avocado Girl a few months back because she pushed too hard." Luna shrugs. and I sigh.
"Fine. If that's how it is, then we'll be on our way to casually break Geo out of his test chamber." I state, and Ami steps behind be, toward the door that I entered.
Luna never loses her smirk as she shakes her head. "Basement 3 is where you'll find him. Weapons Testing and Development. Have fun, there's a big test going on down there right now." She says, before leaving the lab and heading to the opposite end of the hall the elevator I came from was in. I watch as a doorway, hidden in the wall, smoothly opens and closes behind her.
I shake my head. "Come on, Ami. Let's go get Geo out of here."
Ami nods in affirmation, and we head to the elevator I entered from, and Ami presses the Basement 3 (I assume) button.
As the elevator descends, much faster due to my weight assisting it down rather than weighing it down, we hear a rumble pass through the shaft. The elevator door opens just in time for us to witness a bright flash of light and a violent explosion tear through the facility.
I stare at the young man lying face-first on the ground, absolutely covered from head to toe in black particulate. "That's certainly one way to meet a new person." I say, and the young man looks up at me and his eyes widen as he grunts in surprise.
"Geo, I assume?" I ask, and he nods in response. Ami tackle-glomps the poor man, and he blushes brightly as her assets press into him. Ami stays like that for all of a quarter second before she seems to realize what she's doing, and she leaps off of him as though she was burned, her face ablaze in a bright blush. "Well, if you two lovebirds are done, we should probably-" I start, before getting slammed into from the side by a large mechanical fist, originating from behind my person.
Geo and Ami both gawk as I careen into the wall, leaving a sizable indentation. Geo looks up and puts his arm out with a grimace, getting Ami behind him as a large robot, primarily black and looking similar to a Golem, advances several steps toward the two.
The robot raises its hand again, preparing for another punch toward Geo, before it gets smashed into, unprepared, courtesy of myself. I slam my fist into the robot's flank, causing a decent amount of damage to the area, before I use my placement to grab a hold of it around the abdominal region and pulling hard. The robot lifts easily enough, its fist flying haphazardly as it attempts to hit Geo before it moves out of range. This attempt fails, as I proceed to give the robot similar treatment to what it just did to me, and throw it hard into the wall, slamming it deeply into the panels making up the walls. It goes still, deactivating.
"Bitch." I grunt, before taking a glance around. "Anything else?" I growl, and Geo shakes his head. "I take it you've already disposed the rest of them?" I ask, and he nods. "Good. Let's make like nomads and move along." I state, before turning to the elevator.
Before I make it far, however, two items catch my eye. A visor, similar to the one Geo wears, and what appears to be mechanical gauntlets of some kind. As I further inspect the mount, noting what appears to be batteries and magazines alongside the items, I question Geo on them.
"Was she having you test those?" I ask, and at Geo's nod, I walk over and grab the visor and gauntlets. As I lift them off the stand they resided, the stand folds into a briefcase-style appearance, holding the batteries and magazines conveniently. "Okay, that's pretty cool. And... well, since she graciously gave them to you to test, I'm sure she won't mind if I just take them for myself, since she probably guessed they were gonna be broken by the time it was all said and done." I say, and slide the visor on, before putting the gauntlets on and grabbing the briefcase. "All right, let's go."
We go into the elevator and, after going to the lobby, we get the hell out of the facility in its entirety before Luna sics any other machines on us.
And as we head back to the castle as a group of three, the two kids follow behind us, curiosity written all over their faces.
After all, who wouldn't be curious about the guy who was able to punch through a meter-thick metal gateway with just a running start?
And that'll do it for this one! Frankly, I'm kind of proud of myself for being able to keep this one going. Writing people who aren't my character is hard. (TT-TT)
Well, that'll be it for this installment. Don't really have much else to say, outside of keep safe out there, people. While this virus may only be about as severe as the Flu, we still have plenty of people dying to it, so please be reasonable and don't spread it around. It'll only get worse before it gets better.
See ya when I see ya!
-Phaazed