A/N: 3 Months. Goddamn it, I need to stop being a procrastinating bitch whenever I do get time to myself and actually write some stuff for this story.

Too many things that I've been trying to deal with to no avail has been just holding me down, I guess.

Also, I've been noticing that a lot more people have been showing up and reading this fic. Has Gwain Saga been getting more traction recently? God, I hope so. This series is too good to not have that be happening.

Reviews:

FluffyFoxthatgoesKyu: Go ahead and laugh, my friend. This fic isn't really meant to be taken super seriously, though that may change if I start getting into some actual conflict before I completely stall out here. Hoping that won't happen, but... yeah.

Switch 4 Life: Nah, just similar, definitely not worse. The objective that I was, and still am, aiming for here in the beginning of this fic is to have someone still backing Chris up, which in this case, will be Gwain. Probably. Within reason. Sorta. And to be frank, I don't really think that Chris's personality (read, mine) will mesh that well with Gwain. Or maybe it will, who knows? I'm just making it up as I go.

All right, those are out of the way, now on with the tale!

Oh, and by the way, there's a bit of a fight scene in this one. Jet Set Run is the BGM that I personally choose for said fight, and kudos to anyone who knows the video game fight that I reference through the progression of the fight.

Disclaimer goes here, you know the drill

Chapter 6: Jet Set Run Goes With Any Fight

"Hm..."

The intonation of consideration escapes me without even realizing, as I find myself in a clothing store, attempting to find some pairs of pants that mesh well with the shirts that I already have in hand, headphones on and music softly playing. I'm wearing my visor to keep my eyes from being made out, and I've gotten some temporary hair dye to further disguise my non-Teoran heritage to those around me, going with a simple black. Thankfully, no heads have turned my way yet.

I continue browsing the selection, finding some simple jeans that will fit well, along with several more shirts with several designs that look to be straight from home, bringing out a small smile from me.

This smile vanishes as I remember a conversation that I had with Gwain a few days ago, however.

"The hell you mean, I can't get home?" I ask, aghast at such a statement. "There has to be some way back, right?"

Gwain merely stands silent, her face grim with disappointment, directed definitively toward the situation. She's clearly not happy about this either. Not because I want to leave, but instead because there's no way to actually help the one person that treated her as a person instead of a status.

"You've gotta be playing some sick joke on me." I continue, looking to the ground and starting to pace. "Yeah, that's it. We're friends now, a practical joke is normal. Yeah, that's gotta-"

"Chris."

I stop dead as Gwain says the single word. There's no joviality there. There's no hints of anything but seriousness.

She's serious.

I can't go home.

"... Why...?" I ask quietly, doing everything I can to hold myself together.

"The way that you entered our world was through a dimensional rift, which is not based in any studied magics that we have right now." Gwain starts, taking several steps toward me. "We have no way of detecting its presence. Along with that, even if we did, said rift is too small to be an accurate target from the ground with how high it is. On top of those two points, it's likely that the rift moves, since you weren't when you got pulled through. If it were underground when you went through..." she trails, letting myself fill that information in myself.

"I'd be spliced with the dirt around it and likely die instantly." I finish, my heart dropping into my stomach like a lead weight.

"The resources it would take to study said dimensional rift while staying that high in the air isn't worth it to anybody that doesn't already have that capability, and the one person who does wouldn't let you leave anyway." Gwain continues, stopping right in front of my person.

"I'm sorry."

It was the first time in years that I cried myself to sleep.

Hell, it's taking everything I have now to not break a little bit in public.

I quietly sniffle, before setting the definitely-not-Splatoon-and-Animal-Crossing themed shirts back on the display racks and moving on.

I miss home. I may have not been a big part of it, but it's only in human nature to miss those you care for.

I can't help but wonder what my mother, step father, and sister are doing now.

... I hope that they aren't too worried.

Maybe, if I head to the mountains I landed at, I can get service enough to send a text or a hundred to them.

Or maybe even get home with enough studying of the rift. Hell, maybe I can even get them to pay for the cell service so I can continue texting them on good days.

I shake my head and let out a quiet, rueful laugh. Then again, maybe not. I'll still try it though.

I head up to the front desk, the cashier a young woman with vibrant orange hair, and set my selection of clothing on it.

"Ah, did you find everything okay?" the woman asks.

"Sure did, ma'am." I reply, grabbing my wallet from my pocket.

"Good, then let's get you rung up!" she states as she quickly rings everything in.

A quick payment later (thank you, Gwain), and I'm on my way back to my light house with my new clothes in hand.

I manage to get to the front door before I'm assaulted by two very brightly colored individuals that have decided to hang out by my new home rather often. Two arguable nuisances named Agni and Deva.

"Chris! How's it going my guy?" Agni hollers, wearing swim trunks and a pair of sunglasses as he drapes a towel over his shoulder.

"Going good, dude." I reply as I hold up my fist, giving him a solid fist bump.

"Sweet. Got some new looks, eh?" he asks, looking at my bags full of clothes.

"Yeah, I've gone through all the clothes that I had up to this point, so I need new ones." I explain.

"As ya do, man." Agni replies, before Deva walks over with a critical eye on my bags.

"Oh, great. I guess the question now is if you have a decent sense of fashion or not." Deva verbally jabs playfully, and I smirk.

"Oh, I do. It's whether I give a damn or otherwise that makes a difference." I state back, quite nonchalant on the matter.

"Bah, you boys are all the same." Deva scoffs, though her lighthearted grin never fades.

"And you girls are just as bad on some fronts." I fire back, gaining a grin of my own.

Deva stops for a moment, before laughing. "I like you. Not afraid to fire back at all, are ya?" She gets out between laughs, genuinely amused.

"I mean, what's a little fun here and there? Life's too short to not have at least some fun, you know?"

"True, true." Agni jumps in, laughing lightly.

I make a little more small talk with them (thankful that neither of them decided to make a statement on my hair color, though color-changing hair isn't uncommon in this world), before I head into my light house home.

I sigh aloud as I take my clothes and get them all hung up in the closet of my living quarters, before I head back outside and give Agni and Deva a wave.

"All right, I'm heading over to the castle. Try not to stay too long, you two. You've got school stuff to handle!" I call, smirking at Deva's huff of indignation, before kicking off at speed toward Gwain's castle.

It may only be a few minutes to get there from the light house while walking, but hey, I've got a need for speed today. It'll only take me 30 seconds to reach the gate at this speed.

Oh hey, there they are.

I skid to a halt right at the gates, and wave at the guards. "Hey guys, you mind letting me in?" I ask politely but casually, and they roll their eyes with a smile as they open the gates.

The fact that I've been getting to know them and empathizing with them about their jobs, lives, and families certainly has nothing to do with that reaction, not at all.

I pause my stride for a moment, before smiling lightly and carrying onward toward the throne room. I've started to make a little place for myself here, haven't I?

My quiet pondering to myself as I walk ends as I enter Gwain's throne room, and I approach her with a neutral expression.

"Good afternoon, Gwain." I state, stopping at the foot of her big chair. "How're you doing today?"

Gwain looks up from her book, sighing as she stands and regards me. "I'm fine enough, I suppose. Being a Queen is quite boring sometimes, though." she responds, and I can't help but chuckle and shake my head.

"That's more so because you just choose to sit around, Gwain. You're the queen, you can literally do what you like. Go into town, see the sights of your own city once in a while. Might help you out with that. Oh, and thanks again for the money to get some new clothes. I appreciate that." I state, turning and taking a seat at the base of the throne.

"It's fine." Gwain replies to the last part of my statement, before taking a contemplative look. "Well, if a certain someone is willing to accompany me into the city, then I don't see the harm in going out for once."

I grin up at her conspiratorially. "Oh? And would that someone happen to be lil' ol' me?" I ask innocently, getting a quiet snort out of her as she smiles slightly.

"No, I think I'll ask Geo. Certainly he'd be willing to help and cut his time with Ami and Marlow short, yes?" She asks, her smile betraying her sarcasm.

"Hmm, you're right. I'm just too busy a guy, after all. Got so many things to do in a world that I don't actually officially exist in, right?" I ask, looking her dead in the eye.

All of two seconds pass before we both break out in laughter.

"Ah, man, that's too good." I say aloud, wiping a stray tear of laughter from my eye before I stand and hold my hand out to Gwain. "Shall we?"

Gwain holds her smile as she places her hand in mine as she steps off her throne, before releasing my hand and walking toward the door. "We shall. I'd like to see the monument of myself that the city erected without the shade of imminent destruction that I couldn't stop over my eyes." she replies.

"Of course. Lead the way." I state, and she leads us onward.

About an hour later, myself and Gwain find ourselves in the city center, chatting amicably on a bench nearby the statue of her.

That is, of course, until a loud slam, much like rocks hitting the ground, is heard nearby.

I don't even get the chance to look at the source of the noise as my face is suddenly grabbed with unbelievable force, and I'm slammed into the ground twice, face-first, before being tossed haphazardly away, directly into a building.

The screaming of the populace snaps me into awareness much faster through the daze of being manhandled, and I jump into the open to see what looks like another version of the large, bulky, golem-like machine with a single red eye that I wrecked the hell out of in Luna's testing facility facing down Gwain.

It's much to my shock that Gwain is backing off from the machine, but I see why as she fires two golden bolts at it and they do nothing.

'Magic immunity?' I think to myself, before I shake that thought off and launch myself at the robot, getting in attack range within the blink of an eye before slamming it in its flank with a spinning kick. The machine flies away, ramming into another building and nearly bringing it down, the residents within escaping quickly.

"Gwain, you good?" I ask, getting into a ready stance for anything thing thing throws at me.

"I'm fine. It's immune to magic though, so I'm not going to be very helpful here." Gwain states, standing tall next to me as I shrug lightly.

"I'm not worried about how effective you are, I'm worried about putting this thing down. Already coming up with some ideas, though. Just give me some time to flesh it out." I reply, watching the machine stand tall through the rubble of the building, its eye locking on to me as it seemingly determined me as the larger threat. "Just dodge its moves for now, I'll cover you as well as I can."

Gwain nods, and no more words are exchanged as the machine rushes us again. I dash forward and make a right-handed sucker punch, slamming it right where its cheek would be if it were human or Teoran. I decide then and there that I will call this machine "Golem" until proven otherwise.

Golem plants a foot, regaining its posture, before doing the same as me, and lunging forward with a straight right, hitting me in the face as I recover from overbalancing my punch, sending me reeling back.

I bring my head back to level and kick my right leg up, slamming my knee into Golem's side. Golem retaliates with a right-handed punch to my gut to knock my leg away, then a knee slam into my side with its left leg.

Before Golem can pull its leg back, I grab hold of it, trying for a grapple strategy, and use a good deal of force to whip the machine around in a 360 motion. I then adjust my grip mid-turn and do an overhead axe slam, whipping Golem over my head and slamming it back-first into the ground. I then go for a stomp where its face should be, but the machine rolls out of the way and onto its feet quickly.

Golem goes for a leg sweep, catching my right foot and ruining my balance, then tackles me, sending us both rolling along the ground.

I wait for a moment until my back is planted on the ground, and use my legs to launch Golem away, over my head. I then use my hands when continuing the roll to launch myself at the airborne target, and grab it by where a human's head would be and slam it back-down into the ground, and use the combined momentum to continue a spin to slam my legs down to launch us both in the air again. I then slam it down again into the ground, back-first.

Sparks erupt from Golem's arm and leg joints and its eye flickers with static, and I take the chance to rain several blows into it wherever a weak spot in its armor shows.

Golem recovers and delivers a right hook to my face while I'm mid-swing, knocking my balance off-kilter and allowing it to use a leg to further lift me off it. Mid-rise, it swings its right hand up again and catches me in the face, but this time it grabs hold and sends us both tumbling.

Golem lands on the top of the heap this time, and wastes no time in repeatedly slamming its fists into the sides of my head, dazing my horrifically as I lay on the ground.

It's at that moment that Gwain jumps in to the fight after seeing an opening, and delivers a solid rising kick to Golem, making it reel back. She then tries to use her arms to physically push it further back.

Golem, seeing an opening in Gwain's form, kicks her hard in the right flank, making her gasp in pain as she reels back, and then it delivers a right kick to the left side of her head, sending her staggering.

"Gwain!" I yell, before I snarl and angrily leap up to grab Golem's leg before it can retract using my left arm, and deliver a severe roundhouse punch to the eye of Golem, sending it skidding back several feet before it manages to recover. When it does, it launches forward again, going for a left hook.

I stand firm, and in a fit of anger, choose to headbutt its fist while planting my feet as hard as I can. I don't move at all, and several armor plates visibly crack due to the force having nowhere to go other than into them.

Gwain, who manages to recover her bearings and breath, kicks Golem hard enough to send it skidding backwards yet again, and this time, several circuits fail in the machine as it sparks violently and falls to its knees.

"I have had enough of your shit!" I shout as I deliver another right hook into Golem's eye yet again, splitting it into fragments within as it physically lifts off the ground and does a backflip before landing on its knee and elbow joints.

Gwain teleports onto Golem's left side and kicks upward as hard as she can, her leg ramming into the armor hard enough to leave an imprint of said leg in the thick armor as it reels up onto its feet, and takes several failing steps back, internal machinery failing violently as it tries to compensate for the damage.

I don't let it.

"Now get the fuck out of here, and because I know you're MoonTech, I know that Luna's listening! Try something like this again, and this will happen to YOU!" I bellow with all the force my lungs can muster as I deliver a final punch to the lens, delivering so much adrenaline-fueled muscle to it that my hand goes right through the lens itself and more than halfway through the bot. I grab as many wires as I can feel in a quick fist, and yank them out violently. The machine immediately dies on the spot, telling me I got one of its main power circuits in my hand.

I stare at the machine for a moment longer, before flopping onto my ass, sighing heavily. "And that's that." I get out, before looking to Gwain, who's legs are shaking. "You good, Gwain?" I ask gently.

Gwain, with her face contorted in obvious discomfort, sits down with me, planting her hand firmly against her right flank as she hisses a breath of air out of her teeth. "Yeah, I'll be okay after a rest. Just hurts." She grunts.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I let it get the better of me and you paid for it." I state apologetically.

"It's fine." Gwain grunts, before standing up with a noticeable slouch in her gait. "But you're getting combat training. Several of those moves were good, but you left yourself way too open many times. It's only your natural resistance that saved you." Gwain continues, before making a staggering walk toward the castle.

I shake my head with a light smile before I get up and step up to right behind Gwain and pick her up bridal style, making her squeak and her face light up in a blush. I make sure to keep her left side pressed against me, so as to not irritate her likely bruising muscles and ribs of her right flank further.

"W-What are you doing?!" Gwain asks, her voice three pitches higher than usual.

"You're hurt, whether you want to admit it or not. I'm taking you back to the castle, because I'm still fine. It's the least I can do for you getting hurt for me."

Gwain just grumbles, refusing to make eye contact with me and looking anywhere but at my person. It's just too cute.

I laugh all the way back to the castle, not noticing or caring about the fact that Luna got her hands on the data drive from the Golem and stared after the two retreating forms that defeated it with a raised brow.

After all, it's not every day that the Queen raises a finger to help someone, let alone puts effort into it and gets hurt in the process.

How very, very interesting.

A/N: All right, that's the first fight scene I've ever written! I hope that I put enough effort into it to make it seem like it follows enough of a track to make sense.

And just remember: There is always some fool who wants to rule the world. Luna could count as this, but she's a smart fool if that's the case.

And she notices things.

But hey, that's all I got for now. Feedback is appreciated, and again, I have a Discord! Just remember that url's hate working on FanFiction-dot-net, so remove the extra bits as necessary: discord-dot-gg/ wm38mnTqrj

Talk to y'all later, see ya when I see ya!

-Sonix